Given that its headquarters is located in Menomonee Falls, Wis., about 20 miles outside Milwaukee, there aren’t a ton of dining options for Kohl’s 7,000 corporate employees. With an eye on recruitment and retention, Kohl’s CEO Kevin Mansell reached out to Joe Bartolotta, co-owner of the Bartolotta Restaurants group in Milwaukee, to completely overhaul the company’s dining program. “[Kohl’s] gave us complete culinary and creative freedom to do whatever we wanted,” Bartolotta says.
Bartolotta hired a designer from a local Milwaukee firm, and held weekly consultation meetings with a group of Kohl’s employees to make sure the new space met their expectations. The result: The Kitch, a 16-concept, 32,000-square-foot dining center, which opened in mid-October.