Coco's Seafood and Steakhouse held that corner of St. Paul Street for years, the kind of fixture people in downtown Oconomowoc stopped noticing because it was simply always there. When Coco's closed, a concept called 72 Waverly announced plans to take over the space and then never opened at all. The address sat vacant for about a year after those plans did not reach opening day.
In February 2026, Newport 1875 opened in that same room. White tablecloths, a raw bar in the works, a menu built around France, Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal. The person behind it, Michael Bertrand, wasn't new to Oconomowoc. He already owned Lago Su Bella on Lac La Belle, an Italian restaurant with enough of a following to land a feature on America's Best Restaurants. The building and the address stayed the same, and a new operator with a second restaurant to his name took the keys.
The Same Address, a Different Bet
It's tempting to read a vacant storefront as a verdict on a neighborhood. Downtown Oconomowoc's 151 St. Paul St. address says the opposite. One operator announced plans for the space and did not open. A second operator, already running Lago Su Bella at 126 Wisconsin Ave., took the same space and began planning a permanent outdoor bar structure and an oyster and raw bar where Coco's original bar used to sit.
The room itself stayed the same throughout, and the downtown around it stayed the same too. GMToday's Oconomowoc Enterprise reported the liquor license application projecting seating for about 30 outside and 150 across the combined dining room and lounge, a scale that only makes sense if the operator already has reason to believe people will show up.
The Brewery With the Bigger Name
Not every downtown business gets a second act in the same building. SteelTank Brewing Co. opened at 1225 Robruck Drive back in 2013, veteran-owned, with Disturbed drummer Mike Wengren among its co-owners. For the city's 150th birthday in 2025, the brewery crafted a pilsner called the Ol Ole.
SteelTank closed in August for what it called a rebrand, and by February 2026 the taproom was permanently shut, with the building listed for sale. BizTimes reported the asking price at $2.4 million. RallyPoint, the concert venue operating out of the same building, kept booking shows through the spring season before concluding operations on May 1, 2026. OnMilwaukee covered the closure and noted the brand said it would shift toward contract brewing rather than reopen the taproom under its own name.
SteelTank had a decade of history, a hometown pilsner for the city's birthday, and a music venue under the same roof. The taproom's closing leaves a large building on Robruck Drive waiting for its next chapter, and RallyPoint's shows are a gap on the local music calendar this fall.
Filling Gaps Instead of Repeating Them
The old Oconomowoc Enterprise building tells a third version of the same pattern, and it's the one worth watching if you walk downtown often. The building sat empty for years after the newspaper's offices moved into the Freeman's building in Waukesha, and its parking lot became a rotating home for food trucks in the meantime. Mike, Kim and Ken Herro are turning it into a public market, and their stated plan is deliberately different from what a restaurant operator would do. GMToday reported that Mike Herro wants to fill the space with a bakery, a florist and a deli, businesses he specifically described as not already operating downtown. The plan also includes indoor seating and restrooms so the existing food trucks parked outside have somewhere for customers to sit once the temperature drops, something no single food truck can offer on its own.
That's a different strategy than reopening another restaurant in a building that already failed to hold one. It's an attempt to notice what downtown doesn't have instead of competing for what it already does. The same logic shows up next door, where a former automotive repair shop most recently used as a gym is set to become a Mexican grocery store from Fernando Varga and Nancy Hernandez. It joins Doblado Mexican Grocery, which has already opened at 202 E. Wisconsin Ave. selling authentic Mexican ingredients and food. Downtown has plenty of places to eat Tex-Mex. Until Doblado opened, it didn't have anywhere to buy the ingredients yourself.
What's Actually Open This Fall
None of this is retrospective trivia. It changes what a walk downtown looks like right now. St. Paul Street has a fine dining option where there wasn't one a year ago. Wisconsin Avenue has a grocery stop that didn't exist before this year. The Enterprise building is still mid-transformation, its interior work following asbestos abatement before the Herros can finalize a floor plan, so it's not open yet, but the storefronts around it are already filling in.
The calendar gives you a reason to see it in person before the weather turns. Dockhounds Stadium hosts Inflatables in the Outfield on October 10. Wisconsin Avenue turns over to Witches Night Out on October 15. Fowler Park hosts the Pumpkin Run on October 25, an out-and-back along Fowler Lake and Lac La Belle that passes within a few blocks of everything mentioned here. AllEvents has the current fall lineup if you want exact times.
Downtown Oconomowoc's storefronts changed a great deal this year. A raw bar is in the works on St. Paul Street, a grocery stocked with Mexican ingredients is open on Wisconsin Avenue, and a public market is taking shape in the old Enterprise building.
We keep half an eye on downtown Oconomowoc the same way we keep half an eye on every corner of Lake Country, because the small stuff, a new grocery, a storefront with a new tenant, tells you more about a place than any headline does. If you want to trade notes on what's changing next, The Siewert Group is easy to Connect with.
