'Top Chef' finalist's DanDan restaurant worries about losing business during RNC

With less than a month until the RNC kicks off in Milwaukee, some bars and restaurants have not seen the private bookings they expected would come flooding in — including a popular restaurant whose chef was a finalist on the latest season of "Top Chef."

"We've gotten not a single inquiry," said chef Dan Jacobs, co-owner of DanDan in the Third Ward and a James Beard Award nominee. "(For) the DNC, we were getting nine, 10, 12 months out, we were getting inquiries, (potential) bookings. ... Now, there isn't a lot of action."

He worries that business will be dead during the convention.

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"What's scary is that it's the busiest month of our year, and my gut tells me that the vast majority of our regulars and people that live in the area are going to probably get out of town," he said. "(And) I just don't see our regular customers coming from the suburbs into the city to have dinner."

DanDan plans to stay open a few hours later than normal during the convention, in case convention-goers do come, but Jacobs said he doesn't know what to expect.

"I think we were all expecting this boon of having the RNC here. I don't think I'm a unicorn in this situation. I feel like there's a lot of small business owners who have event spaces and restaurants and bars are feeling the same thing that I am," he said.

Jacobs has no idea what to expect, in terms of business, for the four days of the convention.

"Restaurants, bars are already a fickle business and throwing another curveball in there — it just makes it tough," he said. "It's hard to guesstimate what we're going to need staffing-wise or ordering-wise, food-wise. It's making things a little bit more complicated."

His message to locals is that DanDan will be open during the convention.

"We're outside of the (security) zone. Feel free to come and have dinner, park in the parking lot. You don't have to worry about being on the street," he said.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: DanDan's chef Dan Jacobs worries RNC won't bring business