Dining Month is brought to you through a partnership with Educators Credit Union, Potawatomi Hotel Casino and Saint Kate Arts Hotel.
The new Ray’s Wine & Spirits Mequon location opened Friday morning at 9 a.m. in a 13,500-square-foot building that includes the same expansive selection of wine, spirits and beer as the original Tosa location, but with a twist.
The shop, at 7555 W. Mequon Rd., also includes a deli with sandwiches and an array of plates, with cheese, charcuterie, olives, caviar, tinned fish and more.
"While brainstorming names for the new Mequon deli, nothing quite clicked – until we uncovered a 1953 newspaper clipping about the original Ray’s Delicatessen on North Avenue," reads a recently emailed newsletter from the store.
"Run by Ray and his family, it embodied everything we still stand for: Good taste, community, and connection. So the decision was easy – nearly 75 years later, Ray’s Delicatessen lives on in Mequon, with the menu curated by James Beard Award nominee Karen Bell of Milwaukee’s acclaimed Bavette La Boucherie, serving sandwiches, artisanal meats, cheeses, and shareable bites alongside wine, beer and spirits by the glass."
The new location was announced by Ray’s owner Orey Laev at an event at the Wauwatosa location last December.
Like the original location ay 8930 W. North Ave., the Mequon Ray’s also has a classroom and event space for classes and rentals that can seat about 32 people.
The new shop is open daily from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m., except Sundays, when it’s open 9-5.
The deli, however, has different hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Closed Sunday and Monday.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press. A fifth collects Urban Spelunking articles about breweries and maltsters.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has been heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
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