Sabrosa Café & Gallery, located at 3216 S. Howell Ave. in Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood, will continue operating after an unexpected decline in business last year led the restaurant to recently file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows a company to continue operating, as opposed to Chapter 7, which is an immediate liquidation. It is often referred to as a “reorganization” bankruptcy.
Sabrosa Café, founded by co-owners
Ruben Piirainen and
Francisco Sanchez, specializes in breakfast and lunch with a focus on meals made from scratch. The restaurant has been in business for nearly eight years.
The company has estimated assets in the range of $0 to $50,000 and estimated liabilities in the range of $1 million to $10 million, according to the bankruptcy filing.
“We were by no means ready to throw in the towel,” said Sanchez, who also serves as Sabrosa’s chef. “We were met with some unsurmountable setbacks this past year.”
Sabrosa Café was hit with a sizable decline in sales in 2023, only pulling in about half the normal number of customers, according to Sanchez. The restaurant, like most others, was also still dealing with staffing issues and fluctuating product prices in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Declining business caused Piirainen and Sanchez to close their second concept, a Finnish and Nordic-inspired restaurant called Sisu Café, last February. Sisu Café was also located in Bay View, at 2121 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.
Despite a rough 12 months, Sabrosa Café has seen an uptick in business since the end of last year, and the restaurant has begun booking parties again.
“I had to revamp everything in terms of streamlining our overhead and on the flipside, I think we’re coming out on the other side much stronger and more focused and more stable. It feels good. This was a tough decision,” said Sanchez.
It was important to both Sanchez and Piirainen to maintain the same number of Sabrosa Café employees they had before last year’s slowdown. To do this, Sanchez said they had to take a cut to the restaurant’s bottom line.
“I didn’t want to lose anybody. Everyone was trained and I know how difficult it is to find people,” he said.
While leaning into group reservations to help boost sales, Sabrosa also recently unveiled a more extensive menu aimed at attracting consumers with different tastes.
The expanded menu features a selection of budget-conscious options, like samplers and simple breakfast plates, and pricier options, including a carne asada breakfast burrito.
“We’re going to hold our heads high and we’re going to take care of our bills,” said Sanchez. “That’s what this process is there for and we need it.”
