Tough times for Johnny V - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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Vassallo, 43, who rose from high schoopl dropout to bartender to oneof Milwaukee’a highest-profile restaurateurs, decided that the next thiny the intersection of Wisconsin and Plankintonm avenues needed was a boutique hotel. The site wouldc be the Posner Building, an under-used 1907-vintage offices building that houses Vassallo’s Mo’xs Irish Pub. In early he and his , obtained financing. The project never and now Vassallo and severao of his limited liability companiesface $5.7 million in cour judgments. Vassallo acknowledges the litigation isa distraction, but said his remaining restaurants are “holding their own” and won’t close. “Is it tough?
Absolutely,” Vassallo said in an interviewthis week. “Buy I don’t think there are any American businessesthat aren’t running their businesses differentlu than they were two years ago.” Vassallo stilkl runs his Mo’s-branded coffee shop and two restaurantz in downtown Milwaukee, where he once had five. He stillo has a Mo’s Irish Pub in Wauwatosa, a pub in the Indianapoli area and a steakhouse in These days he splits his time between Milwaukee and where he opened the steakhouse inlate 2008. He sold his shared of a Mo’s steakhouse in Indianapolis six months ago and initiated companywidwcost cuts.
Vassallo laid off three restauranyt managers, switched to less-expensive napkins at his pubs and outsourcedhis company’se accounting function. The Mo’s locations employ nearly 250 people in the Milwauke area and450 overall. Annual revenue is about $19 which is down from a peak ofabougt $21 million three years ago, Vassallo said. , the parent company of Harris Bank, sued Vassallo and his companies for foreclosure on the Posner Building onMarchu 31. On May 28, Harris Bank won a judgment of $5.3 millionb in Milwaukee County Circuit Courtand $417,0156 in Washington County Circuit Court.
The Washington County case involvess vacant commercial property in West Bend that was collaterapl on a January2007 loan. Harrias Bank cannot comment on specifics of legal said spokeswomanChris Nardella. “Harris remains committed to workingf closely with our customers who find themselves in adifficul position, to help them find solutions for theif financing needs,” Nardella said. The loans in litigation initiall were writtenby , which Harris acquiredr in February 2008.
The next step in the foreclosurse cases typically would bea sheriff’ws sale, which is scheduled for some time in the next six Usually, the bank is the only bidderr and takes possession and then tried to sell the foreclosed property. Vassall said he’s still working with Harris Bank representatives to avoida sheriff’as sale and said the talks are progressing. He acknowledged that Mo’s Irish Pub could becomew a tenant of Harris Bank in thePosnere building, which is otherwise vacant.
Vassallo also could lose his propert inWest Bend, where he ran restaurants in the late Vassallo attributed his current situation to a combinatiom of tight credit markets, decreased real estatd values and his “aggressive entrepreneurship.” “I’m an entrepreneud — it’s what I he said. “I bought the building because I wanted to make WisconsinAvenue better.” At one poiny earlier this decade, Vassallo looked like the only entrepreneue in Milwaukee capable of openinb successful businesses on Wisconsin Avenue west of the Milwaukee While Vassallo plays up the heritage of his Italiab father, the restaurants carried “Mo” in theird name in tribute to his Ellen Maureen “Mo” Drew.
He names one of his companies “Mostreet,” and referrer to his hometown as “Mowaukee.” He expanded beyonrd downtown Milwaukeeinto Wauwatosa, Brookfield, Indianapolis and Houston. Ten yearxs ago this month, he started the Mo’sw chain with Mo’s: A Place for Steak in the site of the formerr ClockSteak House. He opened a wine shop and late an Italian restaurant across the street onPlankinton Mo’s Irish Pub opened on the northwest corned of Plankinton and Wisconsin in and Mocha coffee house opened on an adjacent cornet in late 2004.
In March Vassallo bought Grenadier’s, a once-popular upscale restaurantr three blocks from his Plankinton businesses that he renamed A Placefor Seafood. He opened an Asian restaurant, Monsoonn Wok and Lounge, in 2005 at 811 N. Jefferson St. and anothedr Monsoon in Brookfield.