(Kenosha)---The Stella partially opened for business last week.
A few years ago, the century-old former Elk’s Club building in downtown Kenosha seemed destined for demolition. But a grassroots-effort to save the structure caught the attention of Gorman Development, a company that has a track record for preserving and finding new uses for old buildings.
$25 million dollars later, the building is now an 80-room state-of-the-art hotel with a ballroom, conference rooms, a bar and restaurant and café. It also has an in-season bar on the roof.
Bob Haggarty, our noon-time market minute guy and part-time restaurant critic, recently toured the building and was impressed. "They went out of their way to keep a Kenosha landmark and to make it new and vital yet keep touches of the old," Haggarty said. "If you're a Kenoshan...you'll go in there and say 'I remember that.'"
Haggarty, who is a native Kenoshan, remembers the 'look' of the old Elk's Club to be rather dark. But the new owners, he says, have lightened everything up.
The restored ballroom with adjacent bar features the original chandeliers that were pulled from storage.
The restaurant, dubbed “1888”, features a supper-club styled menu with intimate 'booth' seating that's ideal for celebrating a birthday or anniversary, Haggarty says.
The restaurant has an April 15th soft open planned.
The café is already open, and the hotel has lodged its first guests.
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