George Webb on East Side Closed
Building owner seeks national food and beverage brand to fill the space.
2935 N. Oakland Ave. Photo taken Feb. 25, 2025 by Sophie Bolich.
The East Side’s George Webb permanently closed last week, leaving its storefront at 2935 N. Oakland Ave. available for a new tenant. Building owner Ryan Pattee is now seeking a national food and beverage brand to fill the space—ideally a modern, up-and-coming concept.
Mike Testa, senior brokerage associate at Ogden & Company, Inc., and Richard Reinders, commercial brokerage associate at Ogden, are listing the 1,950-square-foot building, promoted as a “prime restaurant space.”
Testa said Pattee is strongly invested in both the property and its location, seeing the space as an opportunity “to provide a service for the neighborhood.”
“Specifically, he would prefer a national brand—one of the newer, fresher concepts, something cool and unique, but still with that national credit and backing,” Testa said.
The restaurant space hit the market last week, but plans became uncertain when George Webb Restaurants, the corporate parent of the chain, offered to buy out franchisee Thomas Aldridge. Ultimately, the corporation decided not to move forward, and the property was listed again on Monday.
Aldridge, a longtime franchisee, operates additional George Webb locations at 6181 S. Howell Ave. and 812 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., in Milwaukee, according to city license records.
The eastside restaurant had been open for over 15 years, serving the chain’s signature breakfast items, burgers, chili and more, from early morning to late night. The restaurant followed a unique schedule, opening for 23 hours and 59 minutes each day, seven days a week.
The unusual hours were a workaround to a city ordinance (no longer in effect) that prohibited establishments from operating 24 hours. In response, founder George Webb hung two clocks set one minute apart. When the first clock hit the hour, the second clock showed it was a minute earlier, allowing the restaurant to “close” briefly for a minute each day while staying open around the clock.
In recent months, however, those hours were shortened as the location struggled with staffing, according to Aldridge’s online comments.
The first George Webb opened in 1948 in Milwaukee. The brand currently has 22 locations throughout Wisconsin.
For leasing inquiries, see the online listing.
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