The co-owner of The Weary Traveler Freehouse and two others involved in the Williamson Street restaurant/bar have taken over Rotunda Cafe with plans to turn the East Side establishment into a night spot.
Kyle Martin bought the Rotunda Cafe business last month with Chip Cruz and Melissa Cruz. Chip is Weary's general manager and Melissa is its chief financial officer. The three grew up together in Watertown.
The Cruzes were running Martin's Los Angeles business, Sweet Chick, and moved back to help him take over The Weary Traveler.
Martin bought The Weary Traveler in July 2022 with Jeff Schmidt, a longtime Weary bartender and bar manager who isn't involved with Rotunda Cafe. Martin graduated from UW-Madison in 2004 and lived in New York City for 18 years before moving back to Madison to run The Weary.
Kyle Martin bought the Rotunda Cafe business last month with Chip Cruz and Melissa Cruz.
He was the chief operating officer and a partner in Sweet Chick restaurants in New York City and Los Angeles, and co-founder of Ludlow Coffee Supply in New York City. He sold his shares in the coffee shop, but is still a stockholder in Sweet Chick, he said.
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Melissa and Chip were also managers at his coffee shop. "So, coffee's sort of always been a part of our story and something all three of us are really passionate about, especially Chip and Melissa," Martin said. "The Rotunda opportunity arose... We figured it was a good little deal for everyone."
Paul and Kim Schwoerer opened Rotunda Cafe in September 2021 in Monona Bank, now Lake Ridge Bank, 1965 Atwood Ave. The Schwoerers own Oasis Cafe in Fitchburg and Paul's Pel'meni on Gilman Street. Paul is also a co-owner of Red Rooster.
At the end of 2022, the Schwoerers sold Rotunda Cafe to Anthony Rineer, co-owner of Teddywedgers, who owned it briefly. Martin said the bank owns the name, and he and the Cruzes have been running it for the bank since Oct. 3.
Paul Schwoerer said he and his wife didn't sell it because of a lack of business; they had trouble finding anybody to work or manage it while keeping their other businesses staffed.
"We could never even keep it open on the weekends because we were so short staffed," he said. "It was like you could find 1 million people that could work one or two days a week and that’s it, and, of course, none of them could ever work Saturday and Sunday."
Schwoerer said they have two young children and for the first six months they were working six or seven days a week, which was unsustainable.
Rineer, who took over the Rotunda Cafe with his mother on Jan. 1, said he knew Schwoerer because they worked at EVP Coffee together. He said he got out of Rotunda because of his responsibilities at the reopened Cardinal Bar, where he and his partner have majority ownership.
He said he trusts Martin and the Cruzes "to take care of the space as they are major community builders. ... It was more fitting for them to have it."
Co-owner Chip Cruz said they changed most of the furniture in Rotunda Cafe. "We really just wanted to do justice to the space."
Rotunda Cafe is just focusing on coffee for now, Martin said. It's open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, but the partners plan to eventually extend their hours into the evening and serve food, wine and beer. "We are figuring out our next steps," Martin said.
He said they intend to do some pop-ups and had about 300 people show up for gallery night recently and also saw a big crowd for Halloween.
Martin said occasionally Melissa will make cupcakes in her free time, but that's the extent of their food offerings now. The cafe will no longer serve Paul's pel'meni, he said.
Chip Cruz said his first decision was to use Madison-based Just Coffee, which he discovered while living in Los Angeles, through a personal connection to comedian Marc Maron. "It was a little taste away from home before I moved back home."
Cruz said they changed most of the furniture, too. "We really just wanted to do justice to the space." He said they've carried on some of the bank's design aesthetic, while adding Weary Traveler-like touches.
They plan to eventually host live music and other entertainment events. "It just seems like the perfect space to do that," Cruz said.
He said they got a taste of that with the big crowd for gallery night. "It was just beautiful to see. ... We got to bring the community together. It was so much fun, and the reception was so humbling."
The feeling was, "we need to do something like this all the time," Cruz said.
Rotunda Cafe is in Lake Ridge Bank on Atwood Avenue.
Read more restaurant news at: go.madison.com/restaurants
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November 21, 2023 at 11:08PM
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Weary Traveler team take over Rotunda Cafe on Atwood Avenue - Madison.com
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