C.C.'s Elbow Room in Brookfield will close Sunday so owner can support her daughter

Cee Cee Ceman knows dreams can come true. Her own dream of opening C.C.'s Elbow Room, a bar and restaurant in the heart of Brookfield, has flourished over the last two years and become a neighborhood staple for many.

"And it happened all in the blink of an eye," the bar owner told the Journal Sentinel. "I just feel fortunate that I can also set it aside to take care of my family."

Ceman announced last week that C.C.’s Elbow Room, 2850 N. Brookfield Road, will close after its final day of service on Sunday, Dec. 10, OnMilwaukee first reported. She is closing her business's doors to support her daughter Joanie, who recently learned her cancer has returned after years of remission.

"I didn't give it a second thought," Ceman said. "It was the natural choice to choose my family when they needed me."

Ceman opened the bar and restaurant in February of 2022 in the space that was formerly Sabella's Pub. She told the Journal Sentinel in 2021 that she decided to start the bar in her home of Brookfield about a year and a half after her husband died.

Since sharing the news about the closing, Ceman has felt an outpouring of support from customers coming in for their last visit at the Elbow Room. Some patrons even insisted she put together a fundraiser so they could support her daughter.

A GoFundMe fundraiser is now raising money to help Joanie, who is pregnant, and Joanie's husband pay for a night nurse to care for Joanie's child when she is born so Joanie can rest from her chemotherapy treatment.

Ceman said she just feels grateful: both for the support people are showing for her personal family, and for the family she and her team at the Elbow Room have become over the past two years.

"I've always said to my employees that I want this to be a special place where people can just wash away the outside of their day and come inside, be reenergized, feel community and just have a great time and forget their worries outside," Ceman said. "And that's what it has been."

C.C.'s Elbow Room will open Thursday and Friday at 3:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at noon. The bar will close whenever the last patron leaves the bar before 2:30 a.m., Ceman said, adding that she didn't want to put a close time on the final nights.

On Sunday, "we're just going to keep it going until bar time, we'll see if we're here till 3 a.m., 2:30 a.m.," she said.

The bar on North Brookfield Road is available for purchase, according to Rick Schmidt, Ceman's business consultant. Serious inquiries can be directed to Rick Schmidt at 414-559-6437.

Bridget Fogarty can be reached at bfogarty@gannett.com