R.C. Schmidt, Who Built Milwaukee Hospitality Empire, Dies At 76
The entrepreneur started with a neighborhood bar and went on to build a business that spanned the region.
Water Street Brewery. Photo taken on September 22, 2020 by Mariiana Tzotcheva.
Robert C. “R.C.” Schmidt Jr., the Milwaukee hospitality entrepreneur who turned a neighborhood East Side bar into the foundation of one of the city’s largest homegrown restaurant and tavern empires, has died.
Schmidt died Sept. 1 at age 76, his family announced Thursday.
During a career spanning more than five decades, Schmidt created, acquired or operated a lengthy list of Milwaukee-area bars and restaurants, including R.C.’s, Water Street Brewery, Trinity Three Irish Pubs, The Harp Irish Pub, Louise’s, Vagabond, Rudy’s Mexican Restaurant, Brew City Barbecue, Black Rose Irish Pub and several others.
He also made an early bet on downtown Milwaukee and helped transform Water Street into an entertainment district.
His empire began much more modestly.
At just 24 years old, Schmidt opened RC’s Beer Garden in 1974. The no-frills bar, 1530 E. North Ave., would become an East Side institution, ultimately surviving for 44 years. It also gave Schmidt a platform from which to build a very different kind of hospitality business.
After a stint operating several Chuck E. Cheese franchises in the early 1980s, Schmidt pivoted back to what would become his legacy.
In 1987, he opened Water Street Brewery, a full-service restaurant and brewery.
Schmidt launched the business well before brewpubs became commonplace and at a time when the surrounding stretch of Downtown was far less developed as an entertainment destination.
Water Street Brewery eventually expanded beyond downtown to Delafield, Grafton and Oak Creek.
Schmidt also kept expanding.
Over the years, his holdings included Trinity Three Irish Pubs, The Harp, Louise’s Trattoria, Andrew’s Bar & Restaurant, the Historic Turner Restaurant, River House, Oakland Trattoria, SoLo Pizza, Monster Pizza, Rudy’s and Vagabond. His company also operated food and beverage businesses at Summerfest and the Wisconsin State Fair.
By 2015, Urban Milwaukee described the collection simply as an “empire.”
The businesses could be substantially different from one another.
R.C.’s remained a deliberately bare-bones East Side bar built around inexpensive drinks, pizza and a high-volume college-age crowd. Schmidt’s larger downtown establishments, meanwhile, were often elaborate operations filled with brick, stone, tile and extensive collections of historic beer memorabilia.
“R.C. understood that a restaurant or pub could become part of a city’s identity,” said his son, Matt Schmidt, CEO and COO of 4th Street Management, in a statement. “He believed in Milwaukee, he believed in taking care of people, and he was never above doing any job himself.”
Matt Schmidt said his father’s greatest measure of success was “not the number of businesses he opened, but the employees, guests and families whose lives became connected through them.”
Milwaukee Downtown recognized Schmidt as a “downtown visionary” in 2008, honoring both his growing hospitality business and his longstanding investment in the center of the city.
The company has evolved in recent years.
R.C.’s closed in 2018. The original Water Street Brewery was renovated and reopened in 2022 as The Brewery, maintaining a connection to the historic brewpub while introducing a new concept.
And the Schmidt family’s holdings are now entering another period of transition.
In July, the company announced that two prominent downtown properties, home to Trinity Three Irish Pubs and Vagabond, would be put up for sale.
Vagabond, which Schmidt’s company opened in late 2014 in the former Rudy’s Mexican Restaurant space, closed in July after nearly 12 years. Trinity has continued operating while its building is marketed for sale.
The property listings came as the business, now led operationally by Matt Schmidt, adjusts a portfolio assembled over decades by his father.
The remaining group includes Trinity, The Harp, The Brewery and Water Street Brewery locations in Delafield, Grafton and Oak Creek.
For R.C. Schmidt, the portfolio ultimately grew far beyond the bar that carried his initials.
His influence can be seen in Milwaukee’s now-established brewpub culture, the development of Water Street as a nightlife destination and a collection of restaurants and taverns that became familiar landmarks for generations of customers.
His family said it intends to continue the business and the hospitality philosophy he established more than 50 years ago.
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