Joe Bartolotta, the co-founder of the prolific Bartolotta Restaurants group, died in his sleep at home, the group announced Tuesday morning. He was 60, the group said.

The statement issued Tuesday morning said he "passed away peacefully in his sleep with a smile on his face last night." The family asked for privacy.

The cause of death was not disclosed.

Bartolotta made public in April 2013 that he had undergone a kidney transplant a couple of months earlier. He had been diabetic since he was 22, which was affecting his kidneys.

His brother-in-law was a match and donated the kidney. Bartolotta said in 2013 that he expected to live another 20 years instead of the five he expected with the disease's progression.

In a 2015 interview, Bartolotta was frank about his struggles with his weight, the diet plan he was on and heart trouble due to diabetes.

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TIMELINE:The Bartolotta restaurant empire in Milwaukee

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele said in a written statement: “Joe Bartolotta changed Milwaukee’s restaurant scene forever, and played a leading role in elevating us to the culinary destination we are today. He will be remembered for his heart and hospitality, abiding commitment to the Milwaukee area and generous philanthropy."

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett on Tuesday described Bartolotta as having reshaped Milwaukee.

“Many, many restaurants he took that were challenges, and he turned them around and made them wonderful, wonderful destinations,” Barrett said.

Bartolotta, a graduate of Wauwatosa East High School, worked in restaurants in New York but returned to the Milwaukee area to open his own.

Bartolotta and his brother, Paul, opened their first restaurant in Wauwatosa, their hometown, in 1993. The company marked the 25th anniversary last year of its flagship Ristorante Bartolotta, 7616 W. State St., by remodeling the restaurant.

In a 2012 interview, Bartolotta reflected on Ristorante's impact in Milwaukee. "When we opened our first restaurant, we did what I'm going to call cutting-edge Italian, but it really isn't. It's real Italian.



"What people were eating in Milwaukee from an Italian standpoint was Sicilian. It was heavy red sauces and spaghetti and meatballs and lasagna. That's what people thought Italian was. I love the northern Italian cooking, which is great pastas using great meats and seafood. Great cheeses. So we brought a different type of Italian cooking to Milwaukee. We were, like, one of the first ones to do bruschetta. Now it shows up in every bar or pub menu you can find," Bartolotta said.

The group has grown to an empire of 10 restaurants, and caters at venues such as the ornate Grain Exchange downtown. In summer, when restaurants are operating at their peak, the group employs 1,000 workers.

The Bartolotta brothers have been semifinalists for a James Beard Award for outstanding restaurateur every year since 2017.

Bartolotta was candid in his conversations, and he was candid with City of Wauwatosa officials in 2015 when he rejected a $9,500 grant to offset the cost of a liquor license at a then-Bartolotta-run restaurant at the Mayfair Collection.

"My CFO would be killing me right now to hear me say this, but, honestly, I don't need this kind of help," Bartolotta told a city committee. "This would go better to some young kid needing the help like I did 20 years ago."

Early this month, Bartolotta was still taking on new projects. He enthusiastically discussed his company's plans with the Journal Sentinel for taking over the concessions at the McKinley Marina roundhouse at the lakefront, and said the group's fine-dining Bacchus restaurant, at 925 E. Wells St., would be remodeled in summer.

Bartolotta Restaurants is known especially for its fine-dining restaurants and the restaurants' high standards: Lake Park Bistro (a once-dilapidated county park structure whose executive chef won a James Beard Award for his work there), Harbor House (in partnership with philanthropist Michael Cudahy), Mr. B's Steakhouse, Bacchus, Ristorante.

When the equivalent of restaurant royalty visited Milwaukee, such as legendary French chef Paul Bocuse in 1997, they usually could be found at Bartolotta restaurants.

The group over the years branched out to more casual restaurants, such as Pizzeria Piccola in Wauwatosa and the Rumpus Room gastropub downtown. Its concepts, such as Northpoint Custard, have been licensed at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, and it operates the kitchen at the Italian Community Center and Downtown Kitchen in the U.S. Bank tower, as well as the cafeteria for employees at the Kohl's headquarters in Menomonee Falls.

Joe Bartolotta, speaking at the Kohler Food & Wine Experience in 2009, said he scrutinizes potential hires for what he called a "hospitality heart." How to wait tables can be taught, he said, but hospitality can't, and workers need it to make it in a business where the hours are long and they're at work when everyone else is at play.

Besides operating restaurants, Bartolotta was heavily involved in a broad range of charitable work, benefiting organizations such as the Humane Society of Wisconsin.

At St. Marcus Ministries, a Lutheran church that operates a choice school at 2215 N. Palmer St., Bartolotta and his wife, Jennifer, and staff helped throw the annual gala fundraiser for the past nine years.

Christine Safranek, St. Marcus' director of mission advancement, recalled seeing Joe Bartolotta the night before the gala in November, setting up alongside volunteer and paid workers. "He was digging his hands into the crates of the wine glasses, holding them up to light" to inspect them before setting them on the tables, Safranek recalled.

Part of the draw for gala guests was the Bartolotta-caliber meal, Safranek said, and the gala has become a successful fundraising event for St. Marcus.

"They were helping set the table, literally and figuratively" for St. Marcus, Safranek said of the Bartolottas.

"We're just breathless with his departure," she added. "His absence will be strongly felt."

Bartolotta Restaurants was instrumental in getting ProStart off the ground at Milwaukee Public Schools; ProStart is a hands-on learning lab in which students learn skills that would help them gain jobs in restaurants after graduation.

In a written statement, Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Keith Posley said: "Milwaukee Public Schools is heartbroken to hear of the loss of Joe Bartolotta. Joe and his wife, Jennifer, have been energetic, enthusiastic partners in helping to develop the MPS culinary arts program into a high-quality educational experience. Joe’s warmth, compassion and drive to teach the next generation touched many of our students and will continue to impact young culinary artists far into the future."

RELATED:Bartolotta group drops Northpoint Custard for the McKinley Marina roundhouse

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Alison Dirr and Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

Contact Carol Deptolla at carol.deptolla@jrn.com or (414) 224-2841, or contact her through the Journal Sentinel Food & Home page on Facebook. Follow her on Twitter at @mkediner or Instagram at @mke_diner.