Dream turns into reality with Wrap It Up

Former Chicago couple open downtown eatery

By: Charlie Mathews, Herald Times Reporter, with Contributions by Carolyn Dunn, EDCMC

MANITOWOC — Shannon Bell met her husband, Myke Hollahan, while they were both working at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, assisting passengers taking flights around the globe.

One wall of their new downtown Wrap It Up restaurant, 830 S. Eighth St., depicts the U.S. and other countries on a 9-by-13-foot map of the earth.

"We want to serve something for everyone with a world theme," Bell said, pointing to their makeshift menu board featuring Huli Huli Hawaii chicken, Italian meatballs and tacos.

Coming soon will be a Greek salad, teriyaki chicken and won ton soup for additional European and Asian fare served at lunchtime in the restaurant open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. It opened on Oct. 12.

"It's all in the name of helping people be healthy," Hollahan said of their menu items, many featuring organic ingredients, and his evenings working as an exercise instructor at Holy Family Memorial's Wellness Center.
Wrap It Up has been a business dream of Bell's even before she moved to the Lakeshore area from the Windy City.

A customer service agent at United Airlines for nearly nine years, she said Monday, "I thought to myself 'I can't work for a corporation the rest of my life. I'm going to work for myself.'"

Last October, she took the 10-week E-seed entrepreneurship training series sponsored by the Economic Development Corporation of Manitowoc County.

"How much are things going to cost me? How much do I need to make to turn a profit, make money doing this?" Bell said that were some of the questions eventually answered to the couple's satisfaction, justifying their $50,000 new venture investment.

"Oooh, that is good," said customer Dan Heilman Monday morning, getting a caffeine jolt with a vanilla latte with double shot of espresso.

In addition to the wraps like chicken Caesar and "B.L.A.T.," with bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato, Bell and Hollahan serve a variety of smoothies, chai teas, Alterra coffees, and "we just put a spicy chili on the menu today," Bell said of the offering, $3.75 for a cup.

Today Manitowoc, someday the world

"We will have lots of plans for the future, and will be an ever-expanding business," said Bell, looking at the oversized map. "Someday, there'll be a Wrap It Up Amsterdam."

The Manitowoc restaurant has all of the couple's attention for now, although it did have a delayed opening.
"We wanted to open July 4 but my pregnancy slowed things down," Bell said of their son, Aiden, who arrived on July 27. The couple also are raising another boy, Justice, 9.

Bell said the Madison third-grader already has asked whether he can work at Wrap It Up.

Not yet, though Bell said their dream is off to a strong start, necessitating the hiring of two part-timers, Sarah Stelzer-Grosshuesch, and Justice's grandmother, Jean Beigun.

Bell said it would have helped her and other downtown businesses if Newey's Restaurant hadn't closed.
"We need more businesses, more stuff going on downtown," said the entrepreneur whose business is located between Shaggy Sheep, a yarn and knitting supplies store, and TWH Collectibles, set to open next month with crane models and other items.

On Monday morning she was touting to customers a breakfast burrito with organic potatoes, two eggs, sharp cheddar cheese, onions, organic sour cream and Screaming Mimi's salsa.

"It's really good," Bell said of the $4.50 concoction, with optional add-ons of Nueske's bacon or Johnsonville breakfast sausage.

Bell said she hopes the business will eventually be open several evenings a week as well as Saturday mornings.

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