RESTAURANT NEWS | WISCONSIN
Paul Bartolotta Raises the Stakes in Milwaukee
High Stakes by Bartolotta pairs wagyu, caviar, and langoustines with a cocktail lounge inspired by London’s private clubs.
HIGH STAKES | MAP | INSTAGRAM
By Jamie Dutton
5:35 a.m. CT, Aug. 26, 2026
AUTHOR BIO: Jamie Dutton's job has her in airports regularly, as does a family spread out across the Midwest. She’s partial to BPTs and Bell’s.
Paul Bartolotta has spent more than 30 years building one of Milwaukee’s defining restaurant groups. For his next act, he is putting his name on the door—and several varieties of wagyu on the menu.
High Stakes by Bartolotta will open next month in downtown Milwaukee as a European-inspired steakhouse with an adjoining cocktail bar, Peacock Lounge. The project also marks Bartolotta’s return to the kitchen, where the two-time James Beard Award winner collaborated on the opening menu with culinary director Aaron Bickham and chef de cuisine Ian Jones.
New York strip
The steak program, titled “High Steaks,” includes the filets, strips, and ribeyes you’d expect, but then moves well beyond the standard steakhouse progression. A tasting places American, Australian, and Japanese wagyu side by side, while individual cuts include Australian Stone Axe wagyu, a 45-day dry-aged bone-in ribeye, and A5 Ozaki beef from Miyazaki Prefecture. A center-cut filet sourced from Upper Midwest ranches keeps one boot planted closer to home.
Bartolotta’s signature filet mignon gets a porcini mushroom-bone marrow crust, Barolo sauce, potato mousseline, and wilted spinach. Seafood receives equally serious billing. Mediterranean blue lobster arrives wrapped in puff pastry for two, while the raw-bar offerings include Bering Sea red king crab and langoustines sourced from a friend of Bartolotta’s at a location the restaurant is keeping secret. Even shellfish apparently requires a little intrigue.
Seafood tower
A caviar program created with French producer Kaviari includes warm, butter-poached fingerling potato coins topped with oscietra caviar and chive blossoms. For dessert, there’s a peach pavlova that looks like an actual peach and a seasonal mille-feuille combines raspberries, vanilla mascarpone, basil, and basil gelato.
Lobster en croute
Jay Franke took cues from London and Vegas
Designer Jay Franke looked to London lounges, private social clubs, Las Vegas, and Bartolotta’s years in Europe for the interiors. That influence continues next door at Peacock Lounge, an Art Deco-inspired bar dressed in deep blue, polished brass, antique mirrors, and fringe.
Peach pavlova
The lounge has its own menu, including gougères filled with Alpine cheese fondue and topped with Australian wagyu, crab and shrimp toasts, Balik-style smoked salmon, and a wagyu burger on a pain feuilleté roll. Cocktails range from a Blackjack Manhattan and Lady Luck to the Regal Bird and Bet on Red.
Reservations for High Stakes by Bartolotta are now available. After more than 30 years of putting his stamp on Milwaukee dining, Bartolotta is back in the kitchen—and putting his name on the biggest bet yet.
