Executive Chief Dean Schmitz is leaving the kitchen of the Black Trumpet Restaurant and room prices are dropping dramatically at the Clarke Hotel, owner Drew Vallozzi said.

With Schmitz departure, the last influence of  Andy Ruggeri, Vallozzi’s former partner, on the restaurant/hotel operation in downtown Waukesha is  gone.

Vallozzi said he has an entirely different vision for his boutique hotel. Its once high-priced restaurant will feature affordable pasta dishes, thin-crust pizza and an expanded kids menu. For $9.95, it will offer a bottomless pasta bowl. An all-you-can-eat Friday fish fry is $13.99.

Single-bedroom suites for non-commercial accounts have dropped in price from as much as $300 a night to $139.

The new menu will launch Saturday night.

A rain barrel water conservation program is underway, a cooperative effort between the county and the Waukesha Business Improvement District.

The barrels allows users to collect rain water that can then be recycled and used to water flowers in planters in Waukesha’s downtown.