My Office was once a beloved Downtown dive of the classic Milwaukee style, with a suitably charming name. The bar, which opened in 1975, closed in 2020, due to COVID and a fire, before shuttering completely. And now it’s back – sort of. A new ownership trio is opening a new bar in the space, christened Your Office, which aims to carry on the dive-y tradition of the old spot.
After extensive renovation that’s left the place looking a lot slicker, along with a drink and food menu refresh, Your Office (763 N. Milwaukee St.) is set to soft open to the public on Wednesday, Oct. 22 before a grand opening weekend Nov. 14-16.
I had the chance to attend a media preview, sample some food and drink, and talk to the owners. Here are a few things I learned about Your Office:
1. Your Office Is An “Elevated Dive Bar”
Your Office bills itself as an “elevated dive bar.” What that seeming oxymoron means, according to Starr, is a few things. The “dive” part means you won’t find $20 cocktails on the menu: cheap beer, not-as-cheap but not-super-expensive cocktails. “You can come in here with $10 and make it go a long way,” says Nick Starr, one of the co-owners. “Dive” also means Your Office is going for a lack of pretension and a connection to its past, from the original My Office green awning, to the same My Office bar, it’s aiming to be the kind of place where you stop after work for a High Life ($4) or a PBR ($3.75). And if you’re wondering, the most expensive cocktail on the menu is a $12 Manhattan.
That “elevated” part means cleanliness: no mysterious stains, lingering odors, obscenely sticky tabletops, etc. It also means an all-day food menu and wine on offer.
“You haven’t seen something like this Downtown,” Starr says. “You’ve got either very dive-y or very high end. There’s not a lot in the middle.”
2. My Office Used to Serve Breakfast – And Now Your Office Does Again
Whether you were a My Office regular yourself, or you just heard tales of the joint, you probably don’t associate the place with food. But, Starr says, when it first opened in 1975, My Office distinguished itself by serving a breakfast menu. That didn’t last, as the calories consumed at My Office became largely beer-based, but now eggs and bacon are back on the menu. Your Office will serve breakfast until 11 a.m., with workplace-themed dishes like “HR Violation,” a brat topped with scrambled eggs, American cheese, sauteed onions and boss sauce on a New England roll; and the “Morning Commuter” egg sandwich.
3. Lunch and Dinner Are Also on the Menu
After breakfast ends at 11 a.m., Your Office will still serve food until close. Right now, that means five suitably straightforward dishes: a burger, a meatless burger, fried bologna on white bread, a BLT and a brat. I sampled the burger, and it was solidly enjoyable – I imagine it would be killer after a couple four-five Miller Lites.
4. Cream City Brick Remains the Best
One result of the fire at My Office – the old wood-paneled walls are now gone, revealing the Cream City brick behind them. Man, our Milwaukee forebears had some solid aesthetics – that brick is always a winner.
5. The Ownership Trio Brings Experience From Multiple Industries
Your Office is run by Starr, former president of The Starr Group insurance agency, along with Lisa Proeber, owner of The Middle Six, a Milwaukee-based sales and marketing firm, and Michael Sorge, owner of Black Sheep wine bar in Walker’s Point. Starr and Proeber knew each other through membership at the Milwaukee Athletic Club, and Sorge was a former client of Starr’s.
Starr had the idea for a bar in the closed down My Office percolating for a couple years. Then about a year ago, Proeber asked him “when we’re going to work on a project together.” He brought up his idea, and Your Office grew from there, including enlisting service industry experience from Sorge, who was also a general manager at Hospitality Democracy, now Benson’s Restaurant Group, before opening Black Sheep. (When my friends and I “work on a project together,” that usually just means another round of Mario Kart – man, I gotta start thinking bigger.)
6. Your Office Has a “Secret” Back Entrance
The alley behind Your Office is now home to a “speakeasy” entrance. (Well … if Prohibition-era speakeasies were labeled with big bright murals.) The folks at Banter Design painted this mural above the alleyway door, which opens to a long hallway with a ceiling so low that even I almost had to hunch (5’8’’ and totally not even slightly self-conscious about it at all, FYI).
When Your Office opens, it plans to give out a keycode to that back door to particularly loyal patrons who rack up a certain number of rewards points. And that long, low-ceiling hallway, Starr says, will eventually be decorated with a mural.
7. The Children Know Not of Floppy Disks
I have a strong memory of a teacher in grade school showing me how to save files on a floppy disk and saying, “You’re going to need to know how to use one of these.” And then I never used one again for the rest of my life. Now floppy disks are bar décor. Along with other cute office-themed items, like its manila folder menu, Your Office will be handing out checks clipped to a floppy disk. Look up at the walls to find retro workplace award plaques alongside vintage beer signs.
8. It’s Not Going to Be Painfully Loud
One way I know I’m getting older: whenever I walk in a place and the music is super loud, I’m immediately ready to leave. (The other way is knee pain.) Starr agrees. “We don’t want to create a space where people are talking over each other,” he says. “One of the things with a neighborhood bar that means a lot to me is that it’s a place where I can come with my friends and actually enjoy being with my friends, versus shouting at each other and fighting for attention with the bartenders.”
9. You Can Gamble at Your Office
At my office, like many, gambling is not allowed – except when people bet how far over word count I’m going to go. But at Your Office, there’s a heck of a lot of gambling. A new back room, where the kitchen once was, now houses five electronic gambling machines, offering casino games and sports betting. When I was there, I checked out a live blackjack table where a woman (in real time) was manning the dealer’s spot. No one was playing at the moment, so she was just kind of staring into space. Like Waiting for Godot except with intoxicated blackjack players.
10. They Have Pull Tabs, Of Course
Obviously if this place didn’t have pull tabs, the whole “Wisconsin dive” thing would be kinda laughable. Thankfully, it does indeed have them.
11. Your Office Can Confuse Your Work Calendar
If you’re scheduling a work meeting on Outlook or another calendar service, and you enter “Your Office” in the meeting location info, make sure it doesn’t automatically update to this place, or you may have some confused coworkers wandering into a bar at 11 a.m. on a Monday. Speaking of…
12. You Gotta Love an Old Fashioned at 11 a.m. on a Monday Morning
Sometimes I’m overwhelmed with gratitude at my job. One of those times was when I sat at the Your Office bar on Monday morning and tried their old fashioned for work.
Anyway, Your Office serves two old fashioneds, which Proeber describes as “elevated” and “dive-y,” a thematically suitable yin-yang. The Benton’s Old Fashioned is the elevated one – $11 bucks with bacon-infused Four Roses bourbon, maple syrup, Angostura and orange bitters. I tried it, and it went back dangerously smooth for, as I mentioned, 11 a.m. on a Monday. The Sconnie Old Fashioned is the dive option – only $8.50 with Berens brandy, Angostura bitters, simple syrup, orange and cherries.
13. The Water Cooler Scares Me
Vodka and Mountain Berry Powerade – this Water Cooler cocktail is a dangerous combo. It definitely caught my eye on the menu, as did the Your Office Bloody (a must-have for the whole Wisconsin thing), and the Spaghett. If you’re unaware of what a Spaghett is, we’re talking a High Life with a shot of aperol, very common among the denizens of Wisconsin dives.
14. You Can Very Much Get Your Nicotine Fix at Your Office
If you were craving a dart at My Office, you could grab one from the old bar’s cigarette vending machine. Well, Your Office is keeping that alive with cigarettes for sale for 15 bucks – along with a nod to the modern nicotine consumer in the form of a tin of Zyn for $8.
15. Celeb Bartenders May Be Making an Appearance
Proeber says she’s already been approached by local bartenders interested in working a night at Your Office. So if you swing by, you might just spot your favorite bartender from around town.
