New Walker’s Point Bar Opens This Weekend

Site of Red Maple, 100 W. Maple St. Photo taken Feb. 15, 2023 by Sophie Bolich.

Over the course of the past year, Robin Koutecky has completely overhauled the building at 100 W. Maple St. Formerly the site of Ollie’s tavern, the space has been transformed into an artistic and whimsical celebration of Japanese culture.

It is the location for Koutecky’s newest tavern, Red Maple, which is set to open this weekend on Sunday, Feb. 19.

For Koutecky, a veteran bartender who also owns Clementines in Bay View, the endeavor has been all-consuming and a lifetime in the making. It was also, she said, “sort of an accident.”

“I kind of accidentally bought this bar,” she said. “I had just opened my other bar, Clementines. But in the end, it kind of all comes around full circle.”

When Koutecky was a young teen growing up in Milwaukee, her mom opened Cafe Voltaire, a punk-rock bar in Bay View located just a stone’s throw from where Red Maple will soon open. Koutecky, age 13 at the time, began working alongside her mom at the bar. And so began a lifetime of bartending and tavern ownership.

After Cafe Voltaire, which was later known as Odd Rock Cafe, Koutecky gained further experience working at her mom’s pizza restaurant in Muskego. In the early 1990s, she took a job at Mad Planet, where she would continue — with a few breaks — for the next three decades.

During that era, Koutecky divided her time between Mad Planet and “like a million other bars” including a strip club, where she succeeded in making Mondays the second busiest day of the week — until management demanded she wear a tuxedo shirt. “I was like ‘dude, I’m a punk rocker.’ So I quit.”

She also worked at Mayfield’s jazz club for three years, but never accepted a paycheck. Instead, she told the owners to reinvest the money. It eventually went towards buying the bar’s first ice machine.

At the turn of the century, Koutecky took another brief break from the industry for the birth of her daughter, Ella, who will be the manager at Red Maple when it opens.

Even so, Koutecky was soon back in the game at Mad Planet. In her 50-odd years of life, she estimates that she has spent more time behind a bar than anywhere else. In addition to a lifetime of experience, Koutecky said her years of working in the industry have gifted her with a group of “really talented and smart” friends, whose combined talents went into making Red Maple such a unique and beautiful spot.

Red Maple’s centerpiece is a dragon-shaped bar, which was designed by Andre Saint Louis of House of RAD. The men’s restroom features a colorful, street art-style painting of a peacock by Drew York, while the walls in the women’s restroom are decorated with panels hand-painted by Koutecky and her daughter — with a guest appearance from the family cats.

“There’s little kitty footprints on them, because our cats would walk around while we were painting, and we left all those because they’re really cute,” Koutecky said.

Throughout the process, ideas, talent, input and inspiration continually flowed from old friends who are now scattered across the world in Oakland, Maui and beyond. The finished bar, which took a year to complete, also features a dragon and bonsai mural, as well as vibrant strands of flowers suspended from the ceiling.

“I’m a very I’m a very fortunate person to have a lot of really talented smart people in my orbit,” Koutecky said. “And all these people I actually met at Cafe Voltaire when I was a teenager, right? So it all goes right back to that.”

Red Maple blends Wisconsin tavern culture with Japanese influences. And though Koutecky has plenty of experience with the former, she has not yet visited Japan. Despite that, she has always had immense respect for and interest in the culture, having studied Japanese in high school and spent many years learning Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement.

The menu at Red Maple focus on sake and Japanese spirits such as lightly sweet and smoky Japanese whisky. The bar will also feature craft cocktails such as a Japanese bloody mary and cherry blossom old fashioneds.

Later on, Koutecky plans to open a restaurant, The Lucky Cat Curry House, in partnership with Janet Boettner, who is half-Japanese, and Boettcher’s husband.

The 12-seat bar is too small for a kitchen, so the restaurant is planned for the adjacent garage, which was included in her purchase of the building last year. Before opening the restaurant, Koutecky says she will need to get Board of Zoning Appeals approval for a zoning variance, which may take some time.

Once it opens, the restaurant is expected to serve a menu of Japanese comfort food including Japanese golden curry, sandos on milk bread, gyoza, loco moco, fried rice and more.

Red Maple will be open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to midnight and Friday through Saturday from 11 a.m. until 2:30 a.m.

Photos