Red Star, Uncle Buck’s to open near Deer District
Restaurants will replace Ugly’s pub in September
An owner of several Milwaukee bars and his entrepreneur business partner will open two bar-restaurants, Uncle Buck’s and Red Star, in what is Ugly’s pub on Old World Third Street, next to Fiserv Forum’s entertainment block.
Michael Vitucci, whose bars include the Belmont Tavern, Izzy Hops, Caffrey’s, Murphy’s Irish Pub and the late Whiskey Bar, and Nathan Harris,
who founded freelanceplatform Ease Inc. and was a partner in Ugly’s, plan to open the new bars in September.
Ugly’s is to close July 13, Vitucci said, and remodeling will begin soon afterward.
The building, at 1125 N. Old World Third St., is beside the beer garden in Fiserv Forum’s entertainment block, which has a 28-foot TV screen and draws hundreds of viewers when sporting events are aired.
The new business will take advantage of that view by enlarging windows facing the beer garden to three times their current size and replacing them with garage doors that will roll open. Customers will be able to reserve rooms beside the garage doors to view the jumbo TV and to people-watch.
The windows will not disturb the beer garden mural.
The remodeling is expected to increase the number of seats and improve traffic flow by removing an elevated
“It’s going to glow at night.”
Michael Vitucci Uncle Buck’s owner, on first floor lighting at the new restaurant
deck on the first floor. The first floor also will have a private dining room and a video game room for children, Vitucci said.
The first floor, like the second floor, will have a DJ, becoming more of a nightlife spot after 10 p.m., Vitucci said.
Besides seats on the rooftop, outdoor seating will be in front of the building and on a 75-foot stretch alongside it, on the walkway around the beer garden.
The first floor of the building will house Uncle Buck’s, a bar with a Northwoods theme that includes mounted buck trophies and LEDs that provide ambient lighting as well as accent lighting.
“It’s going to glow at night,” Vitucci said of the building.
Uncle Buck’s will have 25 beers on draft and a menu of made-fromscratch pub food.
Red Star, a lounge and dance club with craft cocktails, will occupy the second and third floors.
Dancing will be on the second floor. On the third floor, the all-season rooftop patio will have a gasfired bar top around which 25 customers can sit. The rooftop will have a menu of shareable plates.
The menus for both bars will be by chef Ben Crevensten. Uncle Buck’s will have “our own play of what bar food is around the city,” he said. Cheese curds will be fried in a changing batter made with craft beers from the Milwaukee area; wings will be brined overnight before being fried to order.
Elements like the Green Goddess dressing for a salad and the patty for a vegan burger will be made at the restaurant; the restaurant also will have some entrees, such as mac and cheese in aged-cheddar sauce and a Friday fish fry.
The first-floor bar also will have a children’s menu.
“That will be just as handcrafted as the main menu,” Crevensten said.
On the rooftop, Red Star would branch out in its plates to share.
“That’ll let us dabble in the more adventurous side of food,” the chef said.
Those plates might include shrimp and grits, and young rainbow carrots roasted with curry powder and served over Greek yogurt and honey.
Uncle Buck’s and Red Star will be open starting at 3 p.m. Tuesdays to Sundays, and on Mondays when events take place at Fiserv Forum. Brunch is to be added later.