In 1999, a crowd from Marquette’s now-defunct wrestling team spent part of one random Thursday at Sobelman’s, a local bar and restaurant. The visit sparked a decades-long connection between the university and the restaurant, which included appetizers, burgers, a network television appearance and a new location that brought Sobelman’s directly to campus.
From 2011-2023, a small building on the southwest corner of 16th Street and Wells Street housed the Sobelman’s at Marquette establishment, which bonded the university and its community over meals and drinks. However, the brick building that was once full of life has sat vacant since June 2023, while memories of its livelihood begin to collect dust.
Now, two years since its on-campus closing, Sobelman’s on St. Paul continues to serve Milwaukeeans at its original location. The restaurant, built in 1999, sits nestled in the Menomonee Valley, just beyond the southern edge of Marquette’s campus.
Before the restaurant considered the university home, Sobelman’s itself was an abode to Marquette students from its inception. The original nexus between the eatery and university was the wrestling team, which included the first flock of Golden Eagles to patron Sobelman’s.
Shortly after the opening of the restaurant on St. Paul Avenue, Dave Sobelman, who co-owns the restaurant with his wife Melanie, ran outside to meet members of the team that were jogging past and greeted them with business cards that were good for a free beer on tap.
“A couple days later, on a Thursday night, maybe 12 guys came in,” Sobelman said. “And that was the beginning of my popularity with Marquette students.”
It was the beginning of a relationship that only grew over time, evident in a 2010 episode of Travel Channel’s “Food Wars,” in which Sobelman’s featured its Big SOB Burger. At the time of filming, the restaurant was filled with Marquette students donning the university’s blue and gold.
While Sobelman’s was busy building relationships with students on campus, Marquette was in the middle of buying properties. Until late 2010, there was only one property that the university did not own on the south side of Wells Street from 11th Street to 17th Street: 1601 W Wells Street.
The property formerly housed Angelo’s Pizza, which served slices to the Marquette community from 1956-2010. Once Marquette owned the building, Dave Sobelman was paid a visit by then-assistant to the vice president of Marquette, Mike Whittow, who asked him about opening up a new location.
Eight months later, Whittow took another trip to Sobelman’s for the papers to be signed, and before the ink dried, Channel 4 was already outside the building with a tripod.
As part of the signing, the university gave Sobelman $140,000 to update the building, which was built into the original ten-year lease.
“It was outdated. The whole kitchen and most of the basement had to be gutted,” Sobelman said. “It took us several months. I worked all summer long. It was really difficult.”
Originally, Sobelman was told that the location had to be open by move-in day for the new school year, which was a Thursday. But after a long summer of work, he surprised everyone by opening the doors early.
“On the Sunday prior, I looked around [and] I realized everything was good. And I said, ‘Let’s open up tomorrow,'” Sobelman said. “We surprised everybody. We surprised the campus. All the news crews showed up and we were packed all day.”
The surprise opening was just the first chapter in a long story that was Sobelman’s at Marquette, as the restaurant became a hotspot for students, faculty and staff for twelve years.
“People couldn’t wait to get out of their last class, they go home, they drop off their books and they all want to meet at Sobelman’s,” Sobelman said. “And the kids just had a blast. You walk in there, and the place is packed at 5, 5:30, 6:30, 7. Happy faces; everybody’s having a good time.”
Luke Dudley, a senior in the College of Communication, cited the tradition behind the restaurant when reflecting on it. Having a large family that graduated from Marquette, it was the first place he was taken to following the new student convocation in 2021 to begin his journey as a Golden Eagle.
“Having so much family that has gone to Marquette, before I decided to come here, I definitely had heard about [Sobelman’s],” Dudley said. “It was a household name.”
However, the restaurant struggled at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as several older workers left, students were not on campus and the general public was going out to eat less.
Even following a slow return to normalcy, Sobelman’s struggled with staffing at its Marquette location, and finally made the decision to close in October 2022. Seven months in advance, Sobelman told the university that its final operating day would be May 21, 2023— graduation day.
“People showed up and said goodbye and cried,” Sobelman said. “And that was it— it was over. Just like that, we’re not a part of this Marquette community anymore.”
Sobelman described feeling an initial disconnect with the opening of the Commons dining hall in 2018 and the lack of student patronage during the pandemic but said that even after closing the location, growing apart from Marquette felt sudden.
“I was such a part of the community,” Sobelman said. “My daughter did her first year of college there and played soccer for Marquette. The vice president invited me out and we went to the Marquette game together. We went and ate dinner together, me and my wife, him and his wife. It goes on and on. I knew everybody— teachers and big shots there, they’d come in. We were such a part of the Marquette community, and now it’s so weird that it’s just over.”
Despite the closing, Sobelman’s has still found success selling its signature burgers and Bloody Marys while maintaining a 4.6-star Google Reviews rating in service of Milwaukeeans. However, the cracked connection with Marquette remains a strong point of consideration.
“I knew the president, the vice president, the staff members, Marquette police… and just like that, it’s over,” Sobelman said.
In an effort to rebuild its relationship with Marquette, Sobelman’s on St. Paul holds Tuesday promotions to encourage students to pay a visit, offering burgers and wraps for 50% off. It also maintains a social media presence, where it has nearly 70,000 followers combined between Facebook and Instagram.
As for the building that introduced over a decade of memories for the Marquette community, it still lies vacant, cast into darkness by the shadows of the buildings that surround it.
“At the time [Sobelman’s closed], I didn’t think a ton of it,” Dudley said. “But after a while, I was like, looking at that empty brick building is a little weird. [I] definitely would have appreciated it more.”
According to Lora Strigens, vice president for Planning and Facilities Management, there was initial interest among prospective tenants after Sobelman’s closed, but none of the opportunities came to fruition. For some, the barrier was the investment needed for space in need of improvement, regarding maintenance and aesthetic fixes. For other potential suitors, the seasonal shifts of foot traffic involved with owning a business on a college campus posed a problem.
For the future, Marquette’s effort towards planning projects has cast a light upon the space where the building sits. Though there are no imminent plans to do so, there is potential for the lot to be redeveloped to make better use of the property than the building with a foundation currently set there.
“Our hope is to ultimately redevelop that site as part of a more comprehensive master plan for that area of campus,” Strigens said in an email.
Much like the relationship between Sobelman’s and Marquette that existed under its roof, the building stands alone while the world grows around it. While the building lies in wait for its future, the uprooted connection between the restaurant and university also hopes for a happy resolution.
While there is no longer a Marquette wrestling team to spark decades of attachment, Sobelman’s remains perched alongside a hill on St. Paul Avenue, awaiting the next wave of Marquette students to pass by and walk through its doors.
This story was written by Lance Schulteis. He can be reached at lance.schulteis@marquette.edu.
