Adding a British flavor to his recipe for success

Michael Ridgeway owns two restaurants that share European roots and delicious food but otherwise are worlds apart.

The Steerage Dining Saloon, which serves classic fare from Eastern and Western Europe, is in the windowless basement of a building on Franklin Street in downtown Port Washington.

Fenwick’s Pub and Patio, which opened in the Mequon Public Market in June, is a bright and airy space modeled as a classic English pub with British foods, including fish and chips served with mushy peas, bangers and mash (aka sausages and mashed potatoes) and Welch rarebit. 

“My feeling is there’s a plethora of places to get micro beers and locally brewed beer. There’s no place to get a European pint,” Ridgeway said.

Fenwick’s has a wide variety of European beers, he said, although it sells a lot of Guinness. There are a couple ciders available along with bottled beers, but there’s also a focus on scotch, Irish whiskey and gins. 

“A lot of places had bourbons. We run the opposite direction,” he said.

The ambiance is classic Britain as well. The images of Winston Churchill and the late Queen Elizabeth ire on the wall. There are quirky lamps on the tables, images of the Union Jack throughout and a door fashioned to look like a classic red English phone booth.

Scarves from various Premier League soccer teams and memorabilia hearkening back to the Beetles are on the walls.

And serving as a beautiful backdrop is a dark wood back bar that once graced the Bohemian Club in Milwaukee and later the Centennial Restaurant — most recently Sobelman’s — in Mequon.

Ridgeway, who lives in Mequon, said when Dave Sobelman put his Mequon restaurant building up for sale, he feared the bar, would be bulldozed with the building so he bought the back bar 2-1/2 years ago and put it in storage.

It’s a special memory for Mequon residents, and was a key piece of the puzzle as he created Fenwick’s, Ridgeway said.

But the creation of the restaurant has as much to do with Ridgeway’s past as his present. 

Ridgeway has been in the business his entire career, most recently as  the food and beverage director of operations for Marcus Corp., but that ended when the pandemic hit.

“I found myself with a lot of downtime,” Ridgeway said. He had purchased the building at 218 Franklin St. in downtown Port about nine years ago as an investment, drawn by the potential he saw in the city, and in his downtime he pondered what to do with the vacant restaurant space in the basement.

The Steerage opened in December 2020 but during the pandemic he found it difficult to hire staff.

After the first four years, he said, he had “cobbled together a team of people to make that place not only go but grow.”

With a good group of culinary and front of house people on staff, Ridgeway said he faced a different problem — a plethora of talented people.

“It was hard to turn people away after being starved for help for four years,” Ridgeway said, adding he had already opened Big Baby Subs in the back of the Steerage building. “The choice was to turn people away or grow.”

Having hired Crystal Thomas as a chef, he chose growth. Thomas, he said, had spent seven years in Wales and sold him on the delights of English cuisine.

“There’s this connotation English food is not high on the pecking order,” he said. “She opened my eyes to what really great things there are in terms of English dishes and beyond.” 

Then last September Ridgeway traveled to Ireland and said he “came back with a greater appreciation for Irish pubs. I love the communal nature of them. I was so taken by the environment.”

That, combined with the fact Mequon Public Market owner Cindy Shaffer was looking for a tenant for the patio space, drew him in and helped bring the Fenwick’s concept together, he said.

Being in an open space like the Public Market has advantages and disadvantages, Ridgeway said. It brings in a significant amount of foot traffic, but since it’s a largely open space people don’t always realize what it is. 

Fenwick’s is named for Ridgeway’s mother — it’s her maiden name — and it came together quickly. It opened in June with the patio, then the bar opened. Lunches were added, and later dinners.

Fenwick’s holds a weekly trivia night and you can find Premier League soccer, as well as Packers and Bucks games, on the televisions there.

It’s drawn a loyal following in the short time it’s been open, Ridgeway said, and the reviews have been good.

“I’ve had a fair share of English expats who have come in and given me a thumbs up on my fish and chips,” he said.

“My philosophy is I wanted to create an English pub. This is what I know. For me, it is an opportunity to create something that the community can take enjoyment out of and from a business standpoint to create a work culture that allows people to grow.