Sofia Reino
Perspectives of a Foreigner in Sussex In this blog I will be posting all information I can find about what is going on not only in Sussex but around the vicinity, reviews of local restaurants, my likings and dislikes of the area and how as a community we can help it better itself. Enjoy the ride!
By Sofia Reino Feb. 25, 2010
Has anyone ever gone to this tiny spot right on Main Street? Well last year after going to the Komen Race for the Cure downtown Milwaukee, we were all starving and as we were getting closer to home I realized I had nothing semi-ready to prepare a nice meal. So we decided to stop at M&M, right here in Sussex, WI
As we walked in, my first impression was a good one as just about everyone looked at the door to see who was walking in and all were smiling. Now that is a very nice way to feel welcomed. A lady came straight to us and helped us with a table and a high chair for our little one. The establishment itself is very plain, simple but you right away notice it is one for locals to enjoy a nice breakfast or brunch while reading a paper, chatting with family or with whomever is sitting right next to them.
I cannot recall everything we ordered. I do remember I asked for eggs benedict. The sauce was not a hollandaise one, but a cheese based yet very good. The lady was very truthful about it as we ordered. I enjoyed every bite and so did both my daughters!
A fun place to check out and meet the locals!
Ste 1, N64W23316 Main St
Sussex, WI 53089-5307
(262) 246-6300
Retrospect: M&M proprietor Steve Babits dies at 87
by Fred H. Keller Published 10:08 a.m. CT May 15, 2017 Northwest NOW
Steve Babits
One of the community’s beloved “characters,” Steve Babits, the proprietor of M&M breakfast-lunch restaurant on Main Street in Sussex, died April 6.
Babits was born in Budapest, Hungary, on July 17, 1929. He came to Sussex in 1979 to take over at the existing M&M Restaurant, never changing its historic name.
As he explained to me years ago “M&M” means “more for your money.”
His food business always included his family as the years went by. Today, his son Didier has taken over with occasional help from his mother Nicole.
Steve was 10 years old when World War II started and Hungary was involved. He was 16 years old when it was over in 1945.
As he grew up, he became an outstanding professional soccer player. Disenchanted with the horrible aftermath of WWII with the Communist Party taking over Hungary, he was determined to leave his homeland in the early 1950s, just as Russia was tightening its grip on the occupied country.
Russia’s occupation eventually led to an all-out revolution in October 1956, but Babits had already left.
He first went to occupied Austria and then to Germany, and caught on as a professional soccer player for the Stuttgart German professional team.
Then, in time, he progressed to a French professional team, and played games in Paris and northern France. This led to meeting a French woman, Nicole Souillot, and they were married.
Babits was learning the French bistro business as he was outliving his professional soccer years.
He eventually followed his lifelong wish to come to the U.S., arriving with his family in November 1963.
He worked a job at Milwaukee’s Falk heavy equipment company for five years, and then got into the food business, eventually becoming the manager of the Schwabenhof on Silver Spring Drive.
However, he always wanted to have his own restaurant, and that came in Sussex in 1979.
Babits also purchased the Davidson home, a historic pioneer Sussex family’s stone home just a half block west of the M&M, just west of Schroeder Implement on Main Street. He bought it from Kurt Kneiske, former head of the Mammoth Spring Canning Company. The home’s historic value has been preserved to this day.
Babits’ M&M Restaurant has become a landmark in Sussex with its homey coffee cup discussions of community politics, life in general and extended community banter.
While Babits was beyond professional soccer when he came to the U. S., he played several years with the Milwaukee Hungarian Tigers. To this day, there is a soccer atmospheric undertone in his popular Sussex shop, which was going on 38 years under his reign.
Babits was survived by his wife, three children, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Under Babits, the M&M has lasted for 38 years.
I, personally, hope it lasts for another generation.