“I learned on the job. I learned people.” The story of Skyline Catering and Bucyrus Club founder Ernie Wunsch began at some of the most elegant restaurants in Milwaukee, and it continued at country clubs and major hotels across the country. Ernie has lived the restaurant business since he was a teenager, and he founded Skyline Catering in 1997. Today he and his wife, Kathy, bring that passion – the spirit of an entrepreneur combined with the knowledge that only comes from lived experience – to each customer. And they are sharing that knowledge and experience with their daughter, Elyse, the next generation of Skyline and Bucyrus Club leadership.
The historic and beautifully appointed $5 million Bucyrus Club & Event Center is located in downtown South Milwaukee, minutes from downtown Milwaukee. Opened in 2021, the 27,000 square-foot facility can host events from 30 to more than 300 in its two ballrooms, Founder’s Room lounges, and other unique spaces. It is also home to the Founder’s Room restaurant, open weekdays for breakfast and lunch. The shovels that dug the Panama Canal were built here. Later, as the Employee Club, it hosted the extended Bucyrus family for generations of employee lunches, special events and community gatherings. The building reopened in 2021, completely renovated with an authentic story that comes through at every turn, from the original Cream City brick and woodworking to its local historical displays and the Bucyrus Museum upstairs — a great place for a cocktail and appetizer party.
It starts with our team. The Bucyrus Club team is family, and it shows in their commitment to first-class, making an all-out effort to get to know each client’s individual needs and delivering what they expect when they expect it. It is a personal passion shaped by decades of experience by the best people in Milwaukee hospitality, from our event planners to our culinary school-trained chefs to our professional servers and licensed bartenders.
We have never forgotten where we came from. Good times and bad, successes and failures. From Ernie’s first “our caterer canceled last minute, can you do lunch for 50 investment bankers?” lunch in downtown Milwaukee, to cooking out of the back of a Bay View bar, to offsite catering for some of Southeastern Wisconsin’s largest employers, to welcoming guests to the beautiful Bucyrus Club – with a recession and pandemic in between – we are proud of our authentic story, and stronger for it. Today, we are proudly located in beautiful downtown South Milwaukee, supporting local business, schools, and organizations in ways big and small.
