Editors Note: Peggy Magister passed away on Saturday, according to the GoFundMe page set up for her.
Two years ago, chef Peggy Magister ended a decades-long career of running restaurants, most notably Crazy Water in Walker’s Point. After closing that establishment in 2020 and launching a new concept in its place – La Dama Mexican Kitchen & Bar – she got out of the business, though not completely.
For the last two years, she has worked as a server at The Union House in Genesee Depot. It came as a shock to those around her that she is now battling a devastating health diagnosis.
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According to her family, Magister was recently diagnosed with sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma, a rare cancer that starts in the nasal cavity and/or paranasal sinuses.
“It was just crazy how quick this all happened,” says The Union House’s Dan Harrell, who co-organized a GoFundMe to help with Magister’s medical expenses.
The fundraiser reads, in part, “We are raising funds for one of our dear staff, friend and family member, Peggy Magister, who we have had to pleasure to call our own for the last two years. Peggy is an icon in the Milwaukee restaurant scene and needs all of us at this very moment to show support in any way that we as individuals can.”
Crazy Water – which was one of the rare woman chef-owned dining establishments in Milwaukee – operated for 18 years in the former home of the German bar Gasthaus Zur Krone. Magister also co-owned a restaurant in Cedarburg called The Fork.
The GoFundMe concludes, “Please share this page with everyone in your circle and outside, so that we can merely attempt to give back to Peggy, what she has given to the city of Milwaukee for decades.”
