SHOP TALK

After failed effort with Karl Ratzsch's, noted chef Thomas Hauck files bankruptcy

Rick Romell
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Karl Ratzsch's restaurant.

 

Noted Milwaukee chef and restaurateur Thomas Hauck has filed for bankruptcy, the result of debts amassed in his ill-fated purchase of longtime German restaurant Karl Ratzsch’s.

In a Chapter 7 petition filed this week, Hauck listed $410,000 in assets against $3.4 million in liabilities. Some $2.7 million of the debt is unsecured, with the great majority of that related to Ratzsch’s lease with its landlord, Colby Abbot Building LLP.

Hauck bought Ratzsch’s, 320 E. Mason St., in January 2016. He renovated the interior and put his own stamp on the menu, while honoring the tradition of a 111-year-old Milwaukee institution. But despite positive reviews, the restaurant struggled. Hauck closed the doors in early April.

“We put everything we could into it but unfortunately we couldn’t make it work,” Hauck said Friday. “And obviously I gambled, and I gambled big, and I lost.”

Hauck continues to operate c.1880, a fine-dining restaurant at 1100 S. 1st St., in the Walker’s Point neighborhood.