Camino to Make Short Move in Walker’s Point
Bar and restaurant will take over former fire station.
Engine Company No. 3, 217 W. National Ave. Photo taken Dec. 12, 2023 by Sophie Bolich.
Camino is moving, but it isn’t going far.
The popular Walker’s Point bar and restaurant will leave its longtime home at 434 S. 2nd St. and relocate about three-tenths of a mile away to the former Engine Company No. 3 space at 217 W. National Ave.
“Please remain calm,” Camino announced Monday on social media.
“After 11 years, countless $5 Burger Mondays, Friday fish, cold beers, questionable decisions and the distinct privilege of being Zad’s neighbor, we’re packing up Camino Walker’s Point,” the business wrote. “And moving 0.3 miles down the street.”
The new location will give Camino more room and a substantially larger patio while keeping the business in the neighborhood where it opened in 2015.
“Same neighborhood. Same $5 Burger Mondays. Same weirdos. More room. A big patio,” the announcement says.
A lot more room. The current restaurant is about 1,500 square feet. The new home is listed as 5,596 square feet in city assessment records.
The new Camino would be located in a former Milwaukee Fire Department station that Peter and Sonia Sandroni converted into Engine Company No. 3 in 2014.
Engine Company No. 3 operated for nearly a decade as a brunch restaurant, serving a globally influenced, farm-to-table menu in the Cream City brick building. The Sandronis ended regular restaurant service at the end of 2023, and converted the building into a private events venue.
The couple also owns nearby La Merenda, 125 E. National Ave., a tapas restaurant that opened in 2007.
Camino nodded to its new building’s history in its announcement, promising “a few inherited ghosts from our friends at La Merenda.”
The move marks a significant expansion for Camino, but not the first time owner Casey Rataczak has considered relocating the Walker’s Point business.
In 2021, Rataczak was exploring moving Camino to 625-631 W. National Ave. after purchasing the building. That plan ultimately did not move forward, and the property was sold in 2023.
Camino instead remained at its comparatively compact 2nd Street home, a building with a history stretching well beyond its time as a bar.
The property served over the decades as a leather shop, upholstery business, machine shop, cleaning plant, printing company and woodworking shop before becoming the Filter Inn and later The Social.
Camino opened there in 2015.
In 2017, Michael Horne noted that the building’s transformation mirrored that of the surrounding neighborhood. What was once an industrial stretch filled with machine shops, warehouses and other small manufacturers has become a destination for restaurants, taverns and nightlife.
Camino helped fuel that transformation with its craft beer-heavy bar program, food menu and intimate side patio, which includes hop vines climbing a wooden fence and a tucked-away outdoor space behind the building.
The business has since expanded beyond Walker’s Point.
Rataczak opened a second Camino in West Allis in 2020. He followed that with Caulfield’s Wine Bar, which opened at 7413 W. Greenfield Ave. in late 2024.
But Camino isn’t leaving its original home without one last party.
An anniversary celebration is planned for Oct. 21.
“Consider it a birthday party, a thank-you and maybe a very premature wake for a building that isn’t dead — we’re just leaving it,” Camino said in a separate social media post.
After that, the business plans to begin the move before winter arrives.
The proposal is subject to Milwaukee Common Council approval.
2017 Photos
Existing members must be signed in to see the interactive map. Sign in.
If you think stories like this are important, become a member of Urban Milwaukee and help support real, independent journalism. Plus you get some cool added benefits.
