Couple bring dream of wine shop to East Tosa with Pipsqueak Wine
Pip, in the world of wine-making, is another name for the seed of a grape. It also was the nickname given to Heather Mitchell by her grandmother when she was a little girl, a loving shorthand for small.
Mitchell and her husband, Jon Blechman, with a 3-year-old son of their own, are professionally versed in the world of wine and now are dreaming big, with plans to open a new wine shop and bar in East Tosa. Its name, Pipsqueak Wine, reflects an embrace of the small, as Mitchell and Blechman are converting an 850-square-foot former salon at 6410 W. North Ave. into an intimate gathering place for wine aficionados.
They’ve wanted to open a business like Pipsqueak Wine since 2017, when they moved to Chicago from New York. After relocating to Milwaukee’s Washington Heights neighborhood in 2021, they soon set their sights on the bustling North Avenue business strip in East Tosa.
“We knew that this was the neighborhood that we really wanted to focus in on,” Mitchell said in an interview at the nearby Café Blue. “People seem to respect locally driven businesses.”
Pipsqueak Wine received the backing of Wauwatosa’s Plan Commission on Feb. 12, and the Common Council gave final approval to its conditional use permit on Feb. 20. The building is owned by Galbraith Carnahan Architects, which occupies the adjacent “log cabin” building, and the design firm is working with Pipsqueak Wine to reconfigure the space for use as a wine shop.
A design rendering for the interior of the planned Pipsqueak Wine.
Mitchell and Blechman plan to display an extensive selection of wines for sale in the front of the retail space, and a more intimate 10-seat bar area will be located toward the back. The bar mostly will serve wine by the glass as well as some beer, and while the business will not include a full kitchen, it will offer cheeses, charcuterie plates and other light snacks.
The couple will draw on years of experience in the hospitality industry, with an emphasis on wine. Blechman now serves as manager of Thief Wine, a shop in Milwaukee’s Public Market. Mitchell is wine director of the Walkers Point restaurant and bar Black Sheep. Before moving to the Midwest, both worked in the New York wine industry, where Blechman’s experience included six years managing Lelabar, a 40-seat wine bar.
At Pipsqueak, they intend to focus much of their stock on what are known as natural or authentic wines – those made from grapes that have been grown sustainability with low-intervention principles of cultivation.
“Natural wine itself is kind of this hip movement, but there are so many old-school producers that have been making wine in this way for generations,” Mitchell said.
Pipsqueak Wine is remodeling an 850-square-foot building at 6410 W. North Ave.
They also want to make the space as family-friendly as possible, given the neighborhood’s demographics.
“We recognize that East Tosa is a lot of young families,” Mitchell said. “I think we’re just kind of inspired by European wine bars and wine shops, where the whole family comes together.”
Mitchell and Blechman are hopeful that the remodeling will be done by late April or early May so they can move in and plan for Pipsqueak Wine to open by late May.
— David Paulsen is an East Tosa-based journalist and can be reached by email here.