Ask Now: What will happen to the Edwardo's site?

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What will happen to the Edwardo's site?

Issue: Our reader asked the following hopeful question: "Is there a chance Edwardo's will reopen in a few months?"

Status: It looks like Edwardo's, 10845 W. Bluemound Rd., will not reopen after 27 years. Company and property officials are mum on the subject, but a recent visit to the site provided a few details.

Laura Brauer, a long-time employee of neighboring Suburpia, said a manager of Edwardo's informed area businesses they would close on March 16. She said the manager was transferred to a Lake Geneva establishment owned by Edwardo's parent company, Bravo Restaurants Inc., and some restaurant employees were hired at other company sites.

The vacated restaurant currently is a training site for Peet's Coffee and Tea, a new-to-Milwaukee retailer soon to open in the former Caribou Coffee at the northeast corner of Bluemound and Mayfair Roads.

A Peet's trainer, who identified himself as Tom, said the company will be using the Edwardo's site for a few months.

Ald. Jeffrey Roznowski, former chair of the Community Development Committee, served in that position at the time of Edwardo's closing. He said he did not know all the reasons but assumed the vacancy to be partly caused by local road construction.

"It was very difficult for the businesses, but everything is almost back to normal," Roznowski said. "Now that the construction is about complete, we are seeing more retail back there."

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