00001 1 2 CITY OF MILWAUKEE 3 LICENSES COMMITTEE 4 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 5 In the Matter of the application for 6 application fo "Club Bari". 7 "Cesar's Wold Enterprises, LLC" ROBERT CESARZ 8 "Club Bari" 628 North Water Street 9 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 10 COMMITTEE MEMBERS 11 ALD. JAMES BOHL - Chair ALD. MILELE COGGS - Vice Chair 12 ALD. T. ANTHONY ZIELINSKI ALD. ASHANTI HAMILTON 13 ALD. NIK KOVAC 14 LICENSING DIVISION by RICHARD PFAFF POLICE DEPARTMENT by P.O. PAUL MACGILLIS 15 OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY by ATTORNEY BRUCE SCHRIMPF 16 17 Proceedings had and testimony given in 18 the above-entitled matter, before the LICENSES 19 COMMITTEE OF THE CITY OF MILWAUKEE, on 20 the 29th day of March, 2010. 21 22 * * * * * 00002 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 CHAIRMAN BOHL: Is for Robert Cesarz, 3 Agent for "Caesar's World Enterprises, LLC," 4 Class B Tavern and Tavern Dance application for 5 "Club Bari" at 628 North Water Street. Good 6 morning, to you, sir. 7 THE APPLICANT: Good morning to you, 8 too. 9 CHAIRMAN BOHL: And good morning, 10 Alderman Bauman. We'll swear you both in if we 11 could have you raise your right hands, please. 12 (Whereupon the Applicant and Alderman 13 Bauman were sworn.) 14 CHAIRMAN BOHL: And for our Agent, I'll 15 need a name and a mailing address for the record, 16 please. 17 THE APPLICANT: Robert Cesarz. 4958 18 South 20th Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53211. 19 CHAIRMAN BOHL: Thank you. And this is 20 a new application. Mr. Pfaff, any holds? 21 MR. PFAFF: Hold for completion of 22 existing orders. 23 CHAIRMAN BOHL: Sir, any understanding 24 - - or any lack of understanding about what that 25 means here? 00003 1 THE APPLICANT: Pardon, I hold for 2 existing order? 3 CHAIRMAN BOHL: There would be some 4 type of order, perhaps from the Department of 5 Neighborhood Services for an improvement. There 6 is a hold on - - If this committee were to 7 recommend a license and it goes before the entire 8 Council two weeks from today, that would have to 9 be rectified before a license would be issued to 10 you. 11 THE APPLICANT: Oh, okay. Yeah, I 12 wasn't aware of - - 13 CHAIRMAN BOHL: That's what - - That's 14 what a hold means, that there is something that's 15 still outstanding, that the department has to get 16 in and clear off. 17 THE APPLICANT: Okay. Well, I - - That 18 I wasn't aware of. 19 CHAIRMAN BOHL: Now you are. And there 20 should be a number on that form for you to call. 21 THE APPLICANT: Okay. 22 CHAIRMAN BOHL: Mr. Cesarz, do you want 23 to just take a moment and let the committee know 24 what your intentions are at this location? How 25 you intend to operate the location, if you have 00004 1 any relevant experience in the business, anything 2 else you think is important for the committee to 3 know? 4 THE APPLICANT: I was a building 5 contractor, and I basically have a partner that 6 runs another establishment, and we're trying to 7 make this into a sports bar and grill to service, 8 during the day, stockbrokers and bankers across 9 the street, with just like lunches and just 10 basically a - - a sports bar and grill. And like 11 I said, during the day we're going to have stock 12 market reports going on inside, that's - - And we 13 are going to have just maybe some Italian music 14 and just adult contemporary, and that's it. 15 CHAIRMAN BOHL: Okay. You have applied 16 for a tavern dance license. What is your 17 intentions in terms of operating as a dance club, 18 if you will? 19 THE APPLICANT: It's not really going 20 to be a dance club. It's more like years ago 21 there used to be a place in Milwaukee on the 22 north side, called Wine and Roses, that dealt 23 contemporary, more for couples and not for - - 24 more like 30 and above crowd. It's just service 25 the businessmen downtown, and then, like I said, 00005 1 we are going to have TVs in there for basically 2 NFL package, NBA, just a sports bar. So if 3 someone wants to dance, we didn't put a dance 4 floor or anything like that, and they want to 5 have music, they can - - It's a ceramic tile 6 floor. We made sure that there is no kind of 7 egress issues or anything, you know, or anyone's 8 going to trip on that. So if someone wants to 9 dance, they can dance. But it's going to just 10 be, you know, adult contemporary music, 11 basically. 12 CHAIRMAN BOHL: What's your 13 classification of adult contemporary music? 14 THE APPLICANT: Like love songs, stuff 15 like that, more - - maybe some - - 16 CHAIRMAN BOHL: Techno music. 17 THE APPLICANT: No, not at all. 18 CHAIRMAN BOHL: That's on your 19 application. You checked it off. 20 THE APPLICANT: Oh, well, it's more 21 adult contemporary. Sorry about that. But just 22 like Top 40 stuff, you know, anything that's on - 23 - It's not like rap or hip-hop, anything like 24 that. It could be some - - We're - - We're just 25 really trying to decide, because we've been 00006 1 approached by some people that want to teach like 2 maybe one night, a country western dance or 3 lessons or maybe like Salsa music dance. We're 4 not even sure on that agenda. We're just trying 5 to get the lunch crowd at the bank and that, and 6 then we'll see what, really what our clientele 7 come in really ask for. We're not doing anything 8 for - - for the younger crowd at all. 9 CHAIRMAN BOHL: Mr. Cesarz, I - - I 10 have no reason to doubt you, but what I will tell 11 you is there have been many a tale told to this 12 committee, to the Council, that we intend to 13 operate it as a dessert bar, as Alderman Bauman 14 will - - will so avidly point out with - - with 15 the fact that later on, oh, we want to play just 16 a little music, and that dessert bar became a 17 full-fledged night club and was anything but a 18 dessert bar, and had quite a bit of troubles with 19 the neighbors. And so, you know, when we have an 20 individual come forward and they say, look, we're 21 here to operate as a sports bar and, you know, we 22 want to have - - have Dow Jones ticker going 23 across the top and, you know, just maybe have a 24 little adult contemporary music, and then all of 25 a sudden you look and - - and there's eight or 00007 1 ten - - ten different categories of - - of music 2 that - - that is checked. I just want to get you 3 on the record and - - and try to at least put a 4 little grilling to you to find out what the real 5 intentions are, if there is something more than 6 that. So - - 7 THE APPLICANT: Oh, no. That - - 8 That's our real intention. And for myself being 9 - - I - - I've been out of high school a long 10 time. I went to Milwaukee Hamilton, got out in 11 '71. So I'm more into - - Like years ago there 12 was a place on the corner of Water Street. There 13 was the Madhatter, called it - - Just, you know, 14 it was like disco, nothing wild, just adult 15 contemporary, like when you go into a prom dance 16 or something, where you have couples dancing and 17 stuff like that. 18 CHAIRMAN BOHL: I don't know. A prom 19 dance when - - when you and I were in prom versus 20 a prom dance now may have a little bit of 21 variance here. 22 THE APPLICANT: Right. But like I 23 said, I'm very, if you take the word literally, 24 old school, coming back from, you know, high 25 school stuff. 00008 1 CHAIRMAN BOHL: I under - - I will tell 2 you that my kids listen to slightly different 3 music than - - than my music taste. So there's a 4 little bit of meshing, but basically - - 5 THE APPLICANT: Right. I under - - 6 CHAIRMAN BOHL: - - their taste are a 7 little different than mine sometimes here. 8 THE APPLICANT: Right. I have two 9 daughters, too, in college. They listen to 10 something totally different. I mean, mine is 11 more like - - They say it's more like elevator 12 music. They don't like it, but that's different 13 generational thing, so that's the way I'm trying 14 to go. If you walk in there at night, there 15 might be some Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, 16 something like that, too. Because it's Italian 17 grill, so. 18 CHAIRMAN BOHL: Questions by committee? 19 Alderman Zielinski? 20 ALDERMAN ZIELINSKI: Do you have a 21 brother named Paul? 22 THE APPLICANT: That's a cousin. Yes. 23 I guess he's - - 24 CHAIRMAN BOHL: In elected politics 25 here, huh? 00009 1 THE APPLICANT: Pardon? 2 CHAIRMAN BOHL: In elected politics? 3 THE APPLICANT: Yes, he's - - Let's 4 see, supervisor of Milwaukee County. It's a 5 first cousin of mine. 6 ALDERMAN ZIELINSKI: Thank you. 7 THE APPLICANT: But I haven't run into 8 him in years, so. 9 CHAIRMAN BOHL: Are there questions by 10 committee? Alderman Bauman? 11 ALDERMAN BAUMAN: No objection. 12 CHAIRMAN BOHL: The motion by Alderman 13 Zielinski then would be to recommend approval, 14 and hearing no objections, so ordered. 15 THE APPLICANT: Thank you very much. I 16 hope you have a nice day and come down, because 17 we want to be part of this community, because 18 Milwaukee is a very nice place to live in. We 19 want to invite all veterans, military police, 20 anyone that made this City great. We hope to 21 carry on that tradition with our restaurant. 22 CHAIRMAN BOHL: Good luck to you here, 23 Mr. Cesarz. 24 THE APPLICANT: Thank you. 25 * * * * 00010 1 2 3 STATE OF WISCONSIN ) 4 ) 5 MILWAUKEE COUNTY ) 6 7 I, JEAN M. BARINA, of Milwaukee Reporters 8 Associated, Inc., 5124 West Blue Mound Road, 9 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53208, certify that the 10 foregoing proceedings is a full and complete 11 transcript of CLUB BARI taken before Licenses 12 Committee. 13 14 15 16 17 18 JEAN M. BARINA 19 Court Reporter 20 21 22 Dated this day of August, 2011. 23