In restaurant news of the week, Rare Steakhouse Milwaukee (833 E. Michigan St.) announced it had closed, a few months shy of its 10th birthday. A message posted on restaurant’s website and Facebook page (no longer active) on March 17 reads: “Our Milwaukee location is closed as we evaluate the future of the space. We’re grateful for your support and appreciate your understanding during this transition.”
When it opened, the steakhouse became known not just for its menu of high-end cuts of beef, but for touches like serving warm popovers and preparing Caesar salads table-side for guests.
Its location in the 18-floor 833 building connected to the US Bank Center would have brought them within a skywalk of businesses like Baird and Foley & Lardner. But things have changed a lot in nine years, and expense accounts aren’t what they were. The three-year construction of The Couture, just to the east, also created disruptions in traffic flow, if not challenges to the restaurant’s accessibility.
I couldn’t reach anyone at the Milwaukee location to talk to about the closure. Rare also has a Madison location, where the manager said in a phone call that “we have no comment on that.” Rare Milwaukee’s chef John Darling also declined to comment.
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In a story published the day of the closing announcement, the BizTimes reported that both Rare Steakhouse and its owner Mark D. Burish are being sued by an affiliate of the building’s owner, Irgens Partners, for violating the terms of its lease agreement, which runs through May 31, 2030. According to the story, the lawsuit’s complaint accuses Burish of breach of contract for trying to “start the process to close Rare” four years before the lease is up. The complaint also alleges, per the BizTimes story, that the restaurant “had made multiple requests for rent reductions and additional accommodations,” which the building’s owner says it mostly agreed to. According to the complaint, Burish owes Irgens Partners $300,000.
Burish also owns the Rare Steakhouse locations in Madison and Washington, D.C.
