McBob’s Transitions to New Ownership

On a recent weekday evening, Katy Klinnert surveyed the dining room at McBob’s Pub and Grill and felt her heart swell with pride.

“I looked around and I thought, ‘this is Milwaukee,'” she said. “If you’ve ever wanted a glimpse into the reality of what this city is like: it is diverse, it is beautiful, it is ‘Midwest nice.'”

Klinnert, along with her business partner and longtime friend, Sara McConville, are poised to take ownership of the bar and restaurant, 4919 W. North Ave., which has operated for more than three decades in the Washington Heights neighborhood. The pair expect to officially close on the sale Tuesday, Feb. 6. From there, they’ll continue working closely with the current owners, Steve and Christine McRoberts, to facilitate a smooth transition.

After 36 years at the helm of the restaurant, Christine said she felt “it was just the right time” to move on. She was further vindicated when Klinnert and McConville showed an interest in taking over after a previous sale to Giovanni Kais fell through.

“I was beyond happy,” she said. ‘They were really the best package we could have imagined.”

In their new role, Klinnert and McConville said they hope to preserve the welcoming, neighborhood feel at McBob’s — something they’ve always admired about the restaurant.

“Milwaukee is such a beautiful melting pot; however, you don’t see examples of that in many places in the city,” McConville said. “McBob’s is one place that you really do, and we don’t want that to change. We want it to be the most inclusive restaurant in the city.”

Despite a successful background in cooking and baking, Klinnert never saw herself becoming a restaurant owner. In fact, some would say she was actively opposed to the notion. “I think even if you’d asked us three months ago, we would’ve said ‘no, we’ll never own a restaurant.'”

Over the past several years, however, it seems every road has led to McBob’s.

Klinnert launched her personal chef business, Katy’s Cooking Tonight, in 2015. The venture made for frequent visits to the grocery store, which is how she came to know McConville, who worked in the grocery industry at the time. In 2020, when the pandemic made it impossible for Klinnert to continue cooking in people’s homes, she pivoted to home baking, and recruited McConville to help.

The baking business was an immediate success. So much so that the pair quickly outgrew their limited space. By the end of the year, they relocated to to a commercial kitchen space at Common Cookhouse in Oak Creek, where they remained until the now-infamous fire that devastated the building in June 2022.

“We lost everything,” Klinnert said. “Absolutely everything.”

From there, the business bounced around to a few temporary kitchen spaces before finding a new home at Whiskey Haze — coincidentally owned by the McRoberts. The bar and restaurant has since closed, but the chance connection laid the foundation for all that has followed.

“We have realized that without the fire, we wouldn’t have landed where we are right now, and there’s no way we’d be buying a restaurant,” said McConville, though she noted that her own connection with McBob’s goes back even further.

“I’ve been dining there with my family for at least 15 years,” she said. “It’s just been one of those places … we always end up at McBob’s.”

McConville said she remembers the moment when the reality of the opportunity hit her. “There was sort of an epiphany point for me,” she said. “The ability to purchase McBob’s Pub and Grill is falling into our laps, and I can say that I’m not meant to walk away from this.”

“This is literally the only place that I would ever consider and I’m just beyond excited.”

As a longtime fan of the restaurant, McConville said she understands why diners might worry about its future, and wants to reassure them: nothing will change at McBobb’s. “We want it to be the same.”

And for anyone who’s still nervous, the new owners have solemnly sworn not to change the corned beef. In fact, the crowd-pleasing meat will make its way into even more dishes, including Irish nachos.

McConville and Klinnert said they’ll continue to add to, not subtract from the business. “We’re just expanding some things,” Klinnert said. “We’re not  taking anything away.

As for Christine, she’ll continue to guide the new owners until they feel confident running the restaurant on their own. After that, she plans to spend time working with her husband at his commercial painting business. She’ll also put more time into Gingersnap, a natural dog treat business she co-owns with her son.

Outside of those pursuits, the possibilities are endless, she said. “I feel like a young girl — a teenager again — who’s trying to figure out what she wants to do in life.”

Even as she embarks on new adventures, Christine said she’ll always remember the community she built at McBob’s. “One of the most rewarding parts has been all the different people that have come through our door,” she said. “Some of them have passed and some of them, I don’t know where they are in life. But I think that has been truly the best part about owning [McBob’s]. Making people happy, hearing their life stories, sitting down and talking to them.”

“I just want to thank Milwaukee. I couldn’t have done it without all the people that came.”