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A two-story office building turned restaurant-entertainment complex is set to open in West Allis.
Reunion Restaurant, 6610 W. Greenfield Ave., is holding invite-only events in the coming days and will open to the public Monday, Nov. 1.
The business, housed in what was originally an Allis Chalmers office building, features a restaurant, large bar and 130-foot-long outdoor patio on the first floor, with an arcade and party room in nearly 5,000 square feet on the second floor.
Outside are two sand volleyball courts, a bag toss area, foot pool — a mashup of billiards and soccer — fire pit, entertainment stage and seating for spectators.
The business was the brainchild of Chris and Abby Paul, who own the Italian restaurant Capri di Nuovo in West Allis.
Coming up with the idea
Abby said she and Chris came up with the concept several years ago, when their children were 3 and 7, and they just couldn’t find many places to go to eat as a family.
“It was really hard for us to find something in the area,” she said. “To be able to go out to dinner, enjoy ourselves, be able to have a good dinner, good meal, and then have something that the kids would be entertained by, more than just a pack of crayons and a sheet of paper.”
The concept of Reunion is to be a place where different sets of people can gather, she said.
“You’re going to be able to have a girls’ night out or a family afternoon, or you’re going to have your leagues, you’re going to have your after-work guys,” she said. “The whole idea behind Reunion was a place to gather, and not just one set of people to gather, but everyone to gather.”
Not a quick process
The project ended up being about a three-year process.
Abby said they first walked the property in 2018. The proposal came before the West Allis Plan Commission the following year. The transformation and renovation took about 18 months.
“Now it’s amazing. Now it all looks like it did in my head three years ago,” Chris said. “For the last two years, it looked like just a mess.”
Chris said they had to jump over “hurdle after hurdle after hurdle,” including securing financing and discovering unexpected things underground during construction.
“We ripped up railroad tracks, we ripped up old roads leading to the Allis Chalmers plant back in the day that nobody knew about,” he said. “We’re finally to the point where it looks like something.”
Nods to the building’s history
Elements of the building from its Allis Chalmers days are incorporated into the new space.
The liquor shelves at the bar are made from part of the old building’s rotunda, Chris said. The wine rack was fashioned out of the old boiler system. The bar’s foot rail? It’s made of conduit from the previous space.
More examples are outside, where some of the unearthed railroad ties were used to make the outside bar, and bricks from the second-story wall were repurposed into the fire pit.
There are “113” references, too, including the “113 Burger” on the menu. That’s a nod to when the structure was known as “Building 113,” Chris said.
West Allis Mayor Dan Devine: Good fit for the location
West Allis Mayor Dan Devine said Reunion, which is just north of The West and Six Points apartments, is a good fit for that location.
“It will fit perfectly into the area,” he said. “There is a lot happening there.”
Devine said the Pauls have done a nice job with Capri and is excited the couple is opening another establishment in West Allis.
“They are the kind of business owners you love having in your community, very community minded,” he said.
Now the doors will be swinging open to customers.
They’ll be greeted with a space with exposed brick and ductwork that’s designed to have a broad appeal, Abby said.
“We brought in a very specific vision for the interior that has an appeal to a big audience,” she said. “There’s not one specific person it was made for. It has that industrial feel, but it has these really feminine touches.”
Reunion will feature a full menu, including appetizers, salads, burgers, pizza, sides and entrees, as well as a Friday fish fry, weekend specials, desserts and a kids menu.
Hours will be daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., but Chris said there will be some flexibility depending on the season.
“During the winter months, the weekdays we might be closing at 9, and then 10 on the weekends, and then a little bit later in the summer,” he said.
Contact Bob Dohr at 262-361-9140 or bob.dohr@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BobDohr1.
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