MILWAUKEE — Last month, Dave and Melanie Sobelman decided to downsize their over 20-year-old restaurant business, Sobelman’s Pub & Grill.
The husband and wife business partners were hit hard by COVID, struggled to find workers, and Melanie’s health was in jeopardy.
In May, they sold the building in Mequon that once housed their restaurant, which closed last April. The Sobelmans also closed the location they rented from Marquette University.
“Most important is getting my wife healthy, and secondly, having to deal with less stress for the two of us and then finding time to spend time together,” said Dave Sobelman, the co-owner of Sobelman’s Pub & Grill.
The couple decided to keep their original restaurant open. It is located on St. Paul Avenue in downtown Milwaukee.
“We still both want to work full time. We love our business, we love being in the city of Milwaukee, but I think it may allow us to take some time to worry about different things like our health, maybe living a little bit of life, maybe doing things outside of working,” said Melanie Sobelman.
Melanie Sobelman said for years, she’s struggled with high blood pressure and diabetes. Her health got worse last year when she was diagnosed with Lupus.
“You’re extremely tired all of the time. I started having issues with my eyes, my kidneys. Right now, I’m having a problem with my liver, so yeah, kind of everything hit at once. And I realized I really have to put myself first right now,” she said.
Dave Sobelman said now that they’re just running the one restaurant, his priority is getting his wife’s health back on track.
He said he’d also like to take some time to enjoy life outside of work, which he said was not possible until they downsized their business.
He said despite the new free time, his love for the restaurant business hasn’t changed, especially the love he has for his customers.
“When a customer stands up… and says ‘it’s still the best burgers’ or ‘it’s still the best Bloody Mary,’ or ‘that was excellent, oh my God,’ any comment, those are the best feelings about the business by far,” he said.