Other Bubbler News

Milwaukee families merge their restaurant brands
Joe and Angie Sorge and Marcus Investments LLC announced plans to merge their respective restaurant brands into one Milwaukee company.
The Sorges own and operate AJ Bombers, Water Buffalo and Swig restaurants in Milwaukee. Marcus Investments owns and franchises the Zaffiro’s brand.
Joe and Angie Sorge will continue to operate their three restaurant concepts, as well as any new Zaffiro’s locations. Marcus Investments will provide infrastructure support, including strategy and development, accounting, legal, communications and capital resources to the newly formed entity.
“Joe and I will continue to do what we’ve always done – focus on our customers and do our best to deliver an outstanding experience. We like to be on site at our restaurants, working with our staff, talking with customers and we expect to continue in that tradition. We’re especially excited about working with Zaffiro’s, which without question, is one of Milwaukee’s most well-known and award winning pizza brands.” said Angie Sorge.
“This is an exciting merger of two well-known Milwaukee restaurant organizations. Joe and Angie are experienced owner-operators who have developed three unique restaurant concepts. Combining their brands and experience with our Zaffiro’s brand and the expertise of Marcus Investments will create a strong company that is positioned for growth,” said David Marcus, chief executive officer of Marcus Investments.
“We’re going to name the new company in the same way we built AJ Bombers – by asking our customers for their input. They’ll be able to submit those ideas by going to www.hospitalitydemocracy.com. We’re eagerly looking forward to their responses, as there’s sure to be some clever and thought-provoking options. As usual, we’ll keep our friends and customers up-to-date on our progress through Twitter and Facebook,” said Joe Sorge. “Our next restaurant in Milwaukee has already been announced. Smoke Shack, a new barbecue restaurant on Milwaukee Street in the Third Ward, is currently under development with design partners Flux Design. It’s going to be a totally unique experience with interesting food, a fun atmosphere, of of course, plenty of customer input. We expect to open in spring 2011.”
The Zaffiro’s brand owned by Marcus Investments does not include the original Zaffiro’s
restaurant on Farwell Avenue in Milwaukee, which is independently owned and managed by the Zaffiro family.
The Zaffiro’s restaurant at the North Shore Cinema in Mequon will continue
to be managed by Marcus Theatres, a Zaffiro’s franchisee.

Marketing firms offer pro-bono work for nonprofits
Clear Verve Marketing in Elm Grove and Milwaukee firms Catral Doyle Creative and Welke Group are accepting nominations for the second annual Tri-Adathon.
Tri-Adathon is a 24-hour creative marathon which provides pro-bono marketing communication services to Southeastern Wisconsin nonprofit organizations.
“The reaction from last year’s event was overwhelmingly positive and it felt really good for us to be able to do something for these organizations that we wanted to give other organizations the opportunity,” said Christina Steder, president of Clear Verve Marketing. “Last year we were able to help a lot of organization’s accomplish creative work they weren’t able to do themselves, we were very excited about doing it again.”
Nonprofit organizations can submit an application on the Tri-Adathon website, www.triadathon.com. According to Steder, the three companies will select around 20 nonprofit organizations to receive pro-bono creative work during the Tri-Adathon in February.
“We will select organizations based on what we think we can accomplish in the 24-hour period and what the strengths of the three companies are,” Steder said.
Any southeastern Wisconsin 501(c)3 nonprofit organization is eligible for selection as long as they weren’t part of the Tri-Adathon program last year, she said.
“We want to give everyone a chance to receive some of the pro-bono work,” Steder said. “It also gives us an opportunity to work with many more organizations.”
Last year, the three companies helped 22 area nonprofit organizations with their marketing and public relations challenges.
According to Steder, Tri-Adathon is capable of offering support with marketing strategies, graphic design, radio scripting, annual report design, event invitation, television strategy, web design strategy, press kits or other work.
“Among the three companies we really have a broad range of capabilities that we can offer these organizations,” Steder said. “We’re excited to get the selection process underway.”
Organizations can submit applications for Tri-Adathon until Friday, Jan. 7,  2011. Organizations that are selected will be notified and will meet with Tri-Adathon team members before the one day event later in February, Steder said.

Pewaukee yoga center offers free Barre classes
The Movement Center Pewaukee, formerly Pilates on the Lake, will begin offering Barre classes for clients in January. No other fitness center in the area offers the Barre workout, said center owner, Ronda Arndorfer.
“I wanted to offer my members more than just pilates and yoga,” said Arndorfer. “Barre is really popular on the east coast and I feel like it’s a good balance between pilates and yoga that can really fill the void in their well-rounded workout.”
Barre, according to Arndorfer, is an athletic workout that uses a ballet bar and up-tempo music to strengthen and lengthen the body.
The Movement Center will offer complimentary Barre classes at 9 a.m. 10 a.m. and 6 p.m the January 10 through January 13.  Registration is required for those classes and space is limited, Arndorfer said.
“We’ll host our grand opening on January 13 and our scheduled classes will begin on January 15,” said Arndorfer.
The Movement Center Pewaukee is located on Pewaukee Lake at 161 W. Wisconsin Ave., for package pricing or to register for the free classes visit the Movement center website.
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