“The Bartolotta Restaurants is a nationally recognized restaurant and catering organization co-founded by the late restaurateur Joe Bartolotta and his brother, two-time James Beard Award-winning Chef Paul Bartolotta. Since the opening of its flagship restaurant, Ristorante Bartolotta dal 1993, The Bartolotta Restaurants has grown to become the premier culinary brand in the Greater Milwaukee region, offering first-class service and cuisine across a portfolio of 17 one-of-a-kind restaurants and catering facilities, including fine dining, upscale casual, upscale food hall, pizzeria, and quick-casual concepts. Additionally, its presence as a forward-thinking, respected, and community-minded company has produced a charitable arm, Care-a-lotta, which supports numerous nonprofit organizations throughout Milwaukee.”
“Joe and Paul Bartolotta grew up in a traditional Italian family in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Along with siblings, Maria and Felicia, they enjoyed large gatherings centered around the “Bartolotta Table” with good food and plenty of love. In March of 1993, Joe and Paul collaborated to realize their dream of creating signature restaurants together in Milwaukee by opening Ristorante Bartolotta in the Village of Wauwatosa. The restaurant elevated the dining scene in Milwaukee by offering authentic and traditional Italian dishes using the freshest ingredients available. Drawing upon Paul’s extensive culinary training in Italy as a basis for the menu, Ristorante Bartolotta dal 1993 became an immediate sensation in Milwaukee, garnering four stars and consistent recognition as the city’s best Italian restaurant.”
“Assuming the role as sole owner after Joe’s passing, Paul successfully navigated the company through the COVID pandemic and began to explore new opportunities to grow and make an impact on the Milwaukee community and beyond. The Commodore – A Bartolotta Restaurant, was conceived and developed within a historic waterfront property on Nagawicka Lake. Dedicated to the legacy of Lake Country, this new destination serves as a multi-purpose venue, with a fine dining restaurant, bars, and multiple spaces for large and small group events, coupled with the award-winning cuisine and first-class service guests have come to know and love from The Bartolotta Restaurants. At the same time, Paul played an integral role in the effort to bring the globally recognized Top Chef competition to Milwaukee. His efforts were successful, leading to the city being chosen as the location for the show’s 21st season, bringing worldwide attention to the restaurants and personalities that make Wisconsin a world-class dining destination”
Chef and Restaurateur Paul Bartolotta is our guest.
This is Tristan Beaman of the Wine Exchange in Santa Ana. You're listening to a first growth in food news, the SoCal restaurant show. Cheers. And welcome back. It is the SoCal restaurant show, and we're here with you every Saturday morning from 10 a.m. until 12 noon right here on AM830 KLAA, the home of Angels Baseball 2024, and can also catch us on the AM830 KLAA app. I'm Andy Harris, the executive producer and co-host of the show, and we're enthusiastically presented each and every week by Melissa's World Variety Produce and West Coast Prime Meats. If you're at all familiar with chefs and restaurateurs in the Midwest, and specifically talking about Wisconsin, the name of chef and restaurateur Paul Bartolota is definitely known to you. I've had the good fortune of knowing chef Paul for more years than I would like to admit, but he is a force of nature, always enthusiastic, always energetic, always accommodating. And I've had the good fortune to dine with him during his time in Las Vegas, before he headed back to Milwaukee, where he has his current restaurant empire. I was very fortunate that for the Bocuse Americas competition in New Orleans, I had a chance to bump into chef Paul and kind of renew the acquaintance. And when I heard all the things that he had going on in the greater Milwaukee area, I knew it was high time to get Paul back on the show. And with Adam's background, it is a pleasure to welcome two-time James Beard Foundation award winner, chef Paul Bartolota of the Bartolota restaurants back to the show. Chef Paul, good morning and welcome. It's been far too long. - Hey Andy, how are you? Thank you so much for the invitation to come back. - Well, Paul again, it was just, it was a nice fortuitous event to cross paths with you in New Orleans for the Americas competition. And you are part of the mentor, chef's advisory council, supporting team USA 2025. And really on your own time, you came to New Orleans strictly to support team USA 2025. Tell us about that a little bit and the hospitality that we all experienced in New Orleans. - Well, there was the hospitality in New Orleans, obviously singular, it was fantastic. And Emerald is obviously playing at the home court advantage. Obviously gave us some great recommendations of the places to go and dine, which we did. It was fantastic, we had a great time. But most importantly, we're all there, Thomas and Danielle and everybody was there to truly so Gavin, all the members of the culinary council, you know, Matt Peters, previous book store winner of the book store 2019. So everybody was there, the executive director young, was there, the whole team. And it was just really exciting to watch America do so well. We won the America's Cup or the America's Challenge. So we move on to the book store, which is essentially the culinary Olympics that's held in Lyon, France every two years. Obviously it got a little wonky with COVID, but now we're back on our normal regular cycles. And Stephanie De Palma is our chef contestant this year with a young chef waddle as the Comey. And we're exceedingly excited to see her compete. It's a moment of pride for our nation. To showcase where we are and how far we've come. Culinarily it was, I was at the Great Portion, was a very young chef to apprentice with Mr. Paul Paul Bocuse and at Oberes in Colau Jumondor outside of Lyon, when I was a young chef. As part of my apprenticeship in France, one of the restaurants I worked at in France. So I knew Mr. Paul and he had reached out to Danielle Thomas and said, how is it that America has not represented at Bocuse store? And so it took us a number of years to get a real organization set up, which is called BKB. Bocuse for Jerome Keller, for Thomas Keller, and B for the Blue, or BKB or Mentor. And our name Mentor came out of the idea that everything that chefs do, it's about passing it forward. So like I had so many great mentors in my life, like Mr. Paul Bocuse or Tom Bomenico, you know, [INAUDIBLE] I've seen all these chefs or people [INAUDIBLE] sent me to Italy in the first place. I've had all these incredible people who have opened the doors for me. So our job now is to make sure that we continue to open doors for other people and Mentor and develop and cultivate future generations of chefs. So Mentor is about three things. It's about really competing in the Bocuse store. But it's also about a grant program and a chef's in Komi program, where we are taking young chefs and sending them around the world and sponsoring them with our grant program, as well as also getting the young chef in Komi competition, which is basically our farm team for future teams that would eventually compete in the Bocuse store. So we have a three-legged stool, you know, the team that competes, then we have the other part, which is about mentorship and development through our grant program. And then, of course, we have the young chef in Komi, which is our farm team. And we're super excited. And my role in the culinary council is essentially to be an active participant in helping raise funds by doing events and something like this. Speaking about it, to create awareness for what we're doing, raise money to support it, because we're air self-funded, we're a nonprofit, and so we're self-funded. And so these are the events. And I'm honored to have been asked, but I'm also honored to be on with chefs like Matt Peters or William Bradley who just got three mission stars in San Diego, amazing chef, amazing. And Josiah Stithron from NLA, boy. So so many great Michelin stars, two mission stars chef. So there are all these great chefs that are part of it. So many kind. These are all chefs that are part of it. And we want to promote American gastronomy and be part of that mentorship, ideal. - I love it. Paul, one little footnote to what you just said about William Bradley. We should mention that Team USA head chef Stephanie De Palma came out of William Bradley's organization. So that speaks to itself. - It does. I mean, William just got his third Michelin star this year. It was deserved years ago, in my opinion. I've done the number of fundraiser dinners at Addison. Here's restaurant in the Delmar hotel, Fairmont Delmar. And his restaurant is called Addison. And the, I mean, the guy can really cook. And Stephanie is a force of nature. She started in his kitchen, grew up through the ranks, became the chef de cuisine, basically active cooking chef every day, running the day they operate in the kitchen with William. And I mean, you know, it's obviously William's show, but I know that Stephanie played a significant role in getting wherewith. And you could just see the emotion. William was down there when she won this next level, going to the book store. And he was emotional and visibly, you know, emotional about that experience. It was pretty cool. - Paul, you talk about mentorship being important. And just as an aside, you know, you have mentored your share of folks that have gone on specifically in your area to do other restaurants in the Greater Milwaukee area. And I know that's something you're very proud of. And Paul, also, you've had a very busy couple of weeks because not only did a little something called the Republican National Convention pass through Milwaukee, but just this week, you opened a new restaurant. So let's back up and what are your observations about the Republican National Convention? How good was that for the Bartoloda restaurants, but also the dining scene in Greater Milwaukee in general? - Sure, so I sit on the board, a number of boards, I sit on the board of Dizmoaki, which is our destination with Peggy Williams, that was, again, amazing woman. I mean, this woman is indefatigable. She just goes in a million miles an hour. She has been a catalyst for like a reinventing the brand of Milwaukee and getting it out there on a national level. So I worked very closely with her and she approached me as she did my brother years before when we were lobbying at the Democratic National Convention that didn't really evolve in 2022 to COVID, but we also lobbied hard to get the RNC here. And it's interesting, you know, I am in the business of hospitality and showcasing my city. So in an emotionally charged moment, there are politics that are important. So two years ago, we were lobbying very hard for them to choose Milwaukee because we wanted to showcase and be a city that could earn two national conventions to come here and do what one didn't happen, but this one did. And it was a fantastic week for Milwaukee. The world was paying attention to the politics of Milwaukee, but it was a great way to showcase our city and create the awareness. Additionally, the season just recently finished of Top Chef and I also worked extensively on that to get that here. And so these are the elements that create momentum for our city. So the season of Top Chef just finished and I think they got three Emmy nominations for the season that they filmed in Wisconsin, Milwaukee. And then on the heels of that finishing, now we had the RNC come here and it was great. We had, you know, many of the big boys came through my catering venues. We don't discuss specifics, obviously, of our clients due to privacy, but many of the important events were held in our various catering venues. Our restaurants were very busy. I think we did all in all 13 or 14 specific events, dinners, reception, breakfast, luncheons, like a little bit late night parties. It was a lot, but it was great. And it just so happens that it coincided, you know, when you build restaurants, you never can time it perfectly. So we had hoped to have the Commodore open sooner, our newest venue, and it just sort of ran right into the same week. So you're right. It has been a whirlwind. It's been sleepless nights for the last couple of weeks, both launching and getting the Commodore team up and trained and ready, but also in the midst of, and this enormous convention that was so important to our community and to showcase, you know, Wisconsin and Milwaukee Hospitality. And then on top of that, just to make it small, there was the New York Western Mutual brought in their annual convention. So a massive event that we did for their forum group on cater to events. So there's just been a lot. Yeah, it's been a crazy few weeks. - Paul, I'm gonna hold it there. We need to take a break and we're gonna come back and pick up the conversation on the other side, 'cause we definitely wanna talk about the Commodore. I know that's a project that is very important to you and was kind of in the incubator for a couple of years. You are listening to the SoCal restaurant show. We are talking with chef restaurateur Paul Bartolota, a multiple James Beard Foundation award winner, and he is the key person for the Bartolota restaurants, which are in the greater Milwaukee area. Only 17 outlets. It's kind of a lot to manage. We are proudly presented by Melissa's World Variety Proters and West Coast Prime Meats. Give us a minute, we'll be back. 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