After not making money for two years, the original Roman Candle Pizza on Williamson Street is closing, said owner Brewer Stouffer.
Its last day will be May 27, he said.
Stouffer closed his Roman Candle locations on Monroe Street and in Fitchburg in late 2019, but said his Middleton restaurant is doing well and will remain open.
“We were in our 18th year — I had to call it quits,” he said about his Williamson Street shop. “Just like so many places, we just never quite recovered from COVID,” Stouffer said, noting that he also had a hard time finding staff.
Stouffer said he couldn’t raise prices enough to compensate for food costs that he said are higher than ever. Labor costs are also at an all-time high, he said. “It’s just a really untenable situation.”
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At the Williamson Street restaurant, sales were down 30% to 40% compared to 2019, he said, “and we just haven’t been able to climb back out. But the Middleton location has recovered and is doing great,” he said.
Stouffer opened the original specialty pizzeria on Williamson Street with partner Thomas Cranley in 2005. Roman Candle’s Middleton location opened in 2007. Stouffer bought out most of Cranley’s share in 2011, the same year he put a Roman Candle outlet in the Madison Children’s Museum.
The museum closed in March 2020 for more than a year, and the restaurant didn’t reopen its kiosk there. It is still handling museum events through June 30, however.
Stouffer opened the Fitchburg restaurant in 2010, and Monroe Street’s in 2016. He also had a restaurant in the Milwaukee suburb of Whitefish Bay for five years that he closed in 2018.
In 2010, he bought the building that houses the Williamson Street location. He is selling it. Stouffer said he’s negotiating with people who want to put another restaurant in the space.
Troy Massman prepares pizza dough before adding the toppings at Roman Candle Pizza on Williamson Street in 2014.
“It’s been a privilege to occupy that corner for going on two decades,” he said. “It was so fun to be part of the revitalization of that neighborhood.”
Stouffer said when he opened the restaurant there was a lot of energy surrounding it, adding that it was one of the first restaurants in the city outside of State Street to have sidewalk dining.
He called the neighborhood a victim of its own success. “There’s so many more places to go eat at and dine at within a couple miles of our location,” he said.
It had become harder for Roman Candle to differentiate itself, he said. “But I’m confident that a new business owner with a new concept, coming in fresh, will be able to get people to come back, get people to come out. And that’s what Willy Street’s going to need.”
Time of change
Stouffer pointed to the closure of two “legacy” businesses on the street: the 22-year-old Ground Zero Coffee in late 2020 and Lao Laan-Xang in March, after 25 years, calling it “the natural ebb and flow.”
“I think Willy Street’s ready for some new concepts, some new life, some new energy,” he said.
Stouffer said he has a great manager in Middleton who has been there for six years. Sales there are up or about even from where they were in 2019, he said.
Willy Street never got back to turning a profit, he said, adding that he didn’t get Restaurant Revitalization Fund money like a lot of his competitors did. He was able to get some aid from Dane Buy Local, the county, the state, and through the Paycheck Protection Program, which he said allowed him to pay his expenses through much of the pandemic.
Brewer Stouffer, founder and owner of Roman Candle Pizza, is closing his original restaurant at 1054 Williamson St.
Stouffer stressed how important it is for people to go out to support their favorite restaurants, because while getting takeout and delivery helps, restaurants make money when customers come in and order beverages and dessert.
Hope for region
As treasurer of Destination Madison, formerly the Greater Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau, Stouffer said he’s devoted time and energy toward making Madison a prime destination.
He said he’s been working with the organization for almost a decade, “to keep Madison thriving and make it the kind of place that’s really a wonderful place to live. We just have to support all these small businesses right now.”
On May 12, Stouffer was one of three hospitality winners of a Silver Lining Award created by the Friends of the Madison Arts Commission to recognize 20 people and organizations in the local arts, community and hospitality sectors who have innovated and gone above and beyond during the pandemic.
“It was a real honor to win it,” said Stouffer, who gave away about 5,000 meals to first responders during the pandemic.
“Even though we found ways to be generous and give during COVID, you just can’t make up for a complete disruption to all to your business,” Stouffer said.
19 Madison-area restaurants, bars, brew pubs and coffee shops that said goodbye in 2021
Estrellón
Estrellón, Chef Tory Miller's 7-year-old upscale Spanish-influenced restaurant on West Johnson Street, off State Street, closed for good after first offering takeout then going on hiatus during the pandemic. In announcing its closing, Miller said his focus now is on his other restaurants, Graze and L'Etoile, both at 1 S. Pinckney St., on Capitol Square. Miller owns the restaurants with his Deja Food Restaurant Group partner, Dianne Christensen. Deja Food also had Estrellón.
In a text message, his explanation of Estrellón's closure was: "Pandemic. Staffing. Mental and physical fatigue. No RRF (Restaurant Revitalization Fund). Protect L'Etoile. Keep my family and team safe and employed. All that."
Miller Family Meat & Three
Miller Family Meat & Three, a Southern comfort-food carryout restaurant, which operated for about four months on the bar side of Tory Miller's upscale, Spanish-influenced restaurant Estrellón, also closed. Its closure came at the same time as Estrellón's.
Fresco
Fresco, the fine-dining Food Fight restaurant on the top floor of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, ended its run in October. Caitlin Suemnicht, Food Fight restaurant group's CEO, said Fresco's lease was ending and the company had several reasons not to renew it. "Fresco's a 15-year-old restaurant and we were starting to look like a 15-year-old restaurant," she said, adding that lease negotiations with the museum took longer than expected, and by the time the company was ready to start construction, the restaurant needed to reopen from its COVID-19 hiatus.
Benvenuto's North Side
Benvenuto's Italian Grill, which opened across from Warner Park in early 2003, closed in October. "The lease for that location is up," owner Brian Dominick said then. "All of the other locations are owned or are on long-term leases and will continue to be ready to serve our guests as we have for over 25 years." Dominick said the closing was not COVID-19-related, adding that some of Benvenuto's six other locations have "flourished" during the pandemic with carryout and delivery business. Dominick said the North Side restaurant needed remodeling, which didn't make sense to do in a building he doesn't own. Benvenuto's has two other Madison-area locations, in Middleton and Fitchburg.
Lorraine's Cafe
Lorraine's Cafe on Monroe Street closed in July with no fanfare, not even so much as a heads up to Ken Kopp IV's loyal customers, some of whom had been eating there since Kopp ran New Orleans Take-Out in the same location until December 2019. Kopp owned Lorraine's with his wife, Sajia Kopp, and the couple moved to Taos, New Mexico, where Sajia's mother lives. The decision to close wasn't tied solely to the pandemic, but Kopp said early 2020 wasn't an ideal time to open a new restaurant. The pandemic "sure didn't help, but even without it, if everything was normal, we've talked about moving down there," he said. "It's definitely sad, but I was definitely ready for something different."
Barriques on Atwood
The Barriques coffee shop on Atwood Avenue closed in October after a six-year run. Matt Weygandt, who owned the shop and has six other area Barriques Coffee Roasters and Cafes with partner Finn Berge, said that location didn't bounce back from the pandemic "for whatever set of reasons."
He said he and Berge needed to sign a renewal on the lease, and "it’s a location that has nowhere near come back and recovered the way the rest of our places have," he said.
"We just didn’t feel comfortable signing up for a long-term obligation when we were uncertain how much of our pre-pandemic business we were going to be able to get back," Weygandt said then.
Mr. Seafood
Around Thanksgiving, Ting Cai Zhou closed Mr. Seafood, formerly Pho King Good, at 600 Williamson St. in the Gateway Mall, and opened Delicacies of Asia, at 506 State St., where Lotsa Stone Fired Pizza used to be.
Cool Beans Coffee Cafe
The Cool Beans Coffee Cafe near East Towne Mall closed in September after 20 years and reopened in December as a café called Mercies Coffee. New owner Mallory Orr, who briefly worked at Cool Beans, said the name comes from a Bible verse. "It talks about God's mercy being new every morning," she said.
People's Bakery
After 18 years, and ongoing health problems, the owners of People's Bakery at 2810 E. Washington Ave., closed the business in February. Nabil Elghadban and Mari Nikoyan said the bakery at was successful, particularly when they sold their Mediterranean specialties at summer festivals.
The Avenue Club
The Avenue Club and the Bubble Up Bar, 1128 E. Washington Ave., a one-time Madison institution, closed to make way for a $25 million, 40,000-square-foot music center for Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras. Food Fight's CEO Caitlin Suemnicht said the company closed the restaurant in October 2020 after much deliberation because of COVID-19 restrictions. From April 2020 to August 2021, Food Fight worked with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and Porchlight at three of its restaurants, including The Avenue, to provide meals for people staying in shelters.
Next Door Brewing
The former Next Door Brewing at 2439 Atwood Ave., closed in August after eight years. New owners Thomas McVary, Peter Schroder, Tom Gosse and Michael Chronister, who had been regular Next Door customers, plan to reopen as Starkweather Brewing as soon as January.
Zoup!
Zoup!, a soup, salad and sandwich restaurant in Middleton, closed in February due to COVID-19, a spokesman for the company said. "Tried everything, tried everything: carryout, curbside, third-party delivery. There just were no customers," said Richard Zimmer, who works in franchising for the chain.
Pine Cone in DeForest
The Pine Cone in DeForest closed in September with owner John McKay creating controversy by leaving a note on the door blaming the state and federal government for its demise. "Due to the decisions of your state government (Evers) and your federal government (Biden), The Pine Cone has been forced to close its doors after 40 years. Thanks for all your support," the sign said. He later said the real reason he closed the truck stop restaurant at 6162 Highway 51, was because his lease was up. "That was just a little frustration. That was a bad decision," he said about hanging up the handwritten sign. A separately owned Pine Cone restaurant in Johnson Creek is still operating.
Star Bar
The closure of Star Bar, a cocktail and craft beer bar on East Washington Avenue near Livingston Street, wasn't the result of the pandemic, said its owner Hawk Sullivan. He said it was tough to make it in an event-based area, with The Sylvee music venue across the street. The bar would be busy for about 90 minutes before a show, and it was hard to have two bartenders come in just for a short time, he said. Star Bar was closed, like other bar-only businesses, for most of 2020. Sullivan said he opened in September 2020, with outdoor seating, for less than a month. Patrick DePula of Salvatore's Tomato Pies next door took over the space for Dark Horse Artbar, an art gallery, bar, and performance art and music venue.
J-Petal
Yushen Chen partnered with Kira Wang to open a J-Petal franchise at 511 State St in the summer of 2020. Then, to save rent money during the pandemic, in March he moved the Japanese hand-held crêpe business in with Kung Fu Tea, another franchise he owns a half-block up. J-Petal crêpes stopped being offered in the tea shop about four months ago, an employee said.
Ground Zero Coffee
Ground Zero Coffee "is now in the past. It will never come back," said Lindsey Lee, who owned the shop at 744 Williamson St., for 22 years, and closed it in 2020, saying he'd reassess in early 2021 whether it would be reopening. Lee said his two Cargo Coffee locations, 1309 S. Park St., and 750 E. Washington Ave., were doing better than Ground Zero -- especially the Park Street one -- because they have drive-thrus. Lee said he made the final decision to close in March of 2021. "It was predicated on not being able to come to terms on a new lease and the need to focus on the other two shops." He said his old space is being remodeled for an office.
The Icon
The Icon, 206 State St., ran from 2007 to 2020. It wasn't reported on the State Journal's 2020 list because it wasn't clear then it wouldn't reopen. On Nov. 8, Valbon Beqiri, the owner of two restaurants in Fort Atkinson, opened The Botanist Social in its place.
Cranberry Creek
Cranberry Creek Cafe operated at the corner of Bridge Road and Broadway until mid March 2020, when it had to shut down because of COVID-19. Jim Norton, who has owned Cranberry Creek for 17 years, said it has transitioned into a catering business and he uses its restaurant space as a banquet room for private parties. Norton said he doesn't plan to reopen as a restaurant. "Nobody really wants to work anymore," he said.
Union Corners Brewery
It's unclear exactly when Union Corners Brewery, 2438 Winnebago St., closed. A call and text message to the brewery's owner, Eric Peterson, to find out went unreturned in July. It opened in June 2019 with an ambitious food menu.
Read more restaurant news at: go.madison.com/restaurants
Samara Kalk Derby | Wisconsin State Journal
Wisconsin State Journal feature writer Samara Kalk Derby writes about the arts and brings you the latest news on the Madison area's eclectic restaurant scene. She can be reached at skalk@madison.com or 608-252-6439.
