tell me about milwaukee

Anyway, Kirsten OTM, she has it covered.

I've been out in Milwaukee on a Saturday night, and it STILL looks like that. Not a soul to be seen. Unless the Brewers are playing or they're in college, seems everyone just sits home with a 6-pack. No thanks.

:'(

I bet it's okay, really.

(x-post, agreed)

I liked Madison. The parks and view of the buildings and water are beautiful on the drive in. The shops are cute, though a bit artsy in an 80s sort of way.

4 Words: Frozen Custard at Kopp's.

OTM. That stuff is addictive.

Kiersten has covered it well. Milwaukee's a great city. I love the lakefront. Of course it's quieter than Chicago, it's a much much smaller city. I like that about it, actually.

Also, when the wind is blowing in the right direction, everything smells like brewery.

I think on my week off I should do things that I never actually did while living in Milwaukee, like take a brewery tour and go to the art museum.

I don't get out a ton, but there are a lot of parks with mountain bike trails in southeastern Wisconsin. Maybe the Kettle Moraine region would be the best for that? Or just go out for a drive and maybe go up a hiking trail to a lookout tower like the one by Sheboygan. Also muskie fishing or whatever on any of the lakes in the area. It's the one month of the year that Lake Michigan isn't too cold to swim in, so you could do that or go parasailing or rent a jetski at Veteran's Park. You can also rent rollerblades at Veteran's Park and go up and down all the parks by the beach on Lincoln Memorial Drive. Bradford Beach in Milwaukee has a ton of nets set up for beach volleyball that are open free to the public. Also there are a ton of good public golf courses in the area.

Well, I'm a regular visitor here, but Milwaukee has certainly had its share of visitors. The French missionaries and explorers began visiting here in the late 16th century.

Hey, isn't "Milwaukee" an Indian name?

Yes, it is. In fact , it's pronounced "mill-e-wah-que" which is Algonquin for "the good land."

I was not aware of that.

This is a touristy thing but I thought the Pabst mansion was actually pretty impressive.

Also there's a massive used book store downtown. I don't remember what it's called but it shouldn't be that hard to find. MASSIVE.

If it's the book store I'm thinking of, it's godawful. The owner's a prick; the used vinyl is sealed with tape which ruins the jacket (they honestly think someone's going to make off with a $2 Sa-Fire record with no jacket???); and, worst of all, there's nothing to buy. It's full of disogranized junk, more a graveyard than a store (although the wiki above suggests that it's improved).

Atomic Records - Most of the record stores I loved are prolly gone but I'm sure this one is still going.

Ugh I should have done my research. Atomic closed six months before I wrote that! :( RIP. Here's a Popmatters requiem all about it.

thanks so much, folks, for all the recommendations!

i like going to Roots for brunch. love lisa's pizza too.

oh, and nessun dorma is my favorite bar in town. great food (inexpensive too), amazing beer/liquor list, and by far the nicest atmosphere in riverwest.

I still haven't been to the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_Art_Museum, I keep thinking of the Calatrava thing as new. Seems like it would be great to try your camera out on.

Is Ren Books the same store that has an offshoot in the airport??? Because I love that place and wish I could fly through there EVERY SINGLE TIME I FLY AT ALL.

Also the Milwaukee airport has a bar with a smoking fishbowl/area right next to it, so you can take your beer in and smoke INSIDE the damn airport.

I attended a summer college program there in 1993, when I was 15. I made friends with these crazy punk dudes & we snuck out of the dorms one night & saw a triple bill of Ed Hall, Flipper & The Dwarves. It was one of the best shows ever!

These are my favorite things about Milwaukee, unless I'm confusing it with Minneapolis, which I may be.

iirc it is a good city for skateboarding.

Is Ren Books the same store that has an offshoot in the airport??? Because I love that place and wish I could fly through there EVERY SINGLE TIME I FLY AT ALL.

yup, it's the best airport bookstore in the country (maybe the only used bookstore in an airport?). i have fond childhood memories of getting sci-fi books there before family trips.

Also there's a massive used book store downtown.

I guess you were talking about Renaissance Books, but speaking of massive used bookstores in downtown Milwaukee, there's also Downtown Books, which is on Wisconsin Avenue east of Water Street and has a much better used comic book selection than Ren Books does.

Also, the UWM Union Theatre just mailed out their fall 2010 film calendar. Hopefully they'll update their website pretty soon. Lourdes, Trash Humpers, the films of Bruce Conner-- any of this sound interesting? Also, mini Kurosawa fest at the end of September.

I love that there IS a used bookstore in the airport, but I find their prices weirdly high and never actually buy anything there.

The Milwaukee Art Museum is great -- as you'd expect from Milwaukee, some good German Expressionism in the permanent collection, and as you might not expect, some good, weird folk art too.

I have always heard good things about Serbian food there, esp. Three Brothers, but have never been. I like the Polish restaurant in the Public Market.

Endorsing the art museum, with its flapping wings and fun and manageable yet extensive collection. The public market had a great lobster dinner (I know, not exactly local fare) for $12. Waterpark in the Hilton Hotel was great for kids and isn't just for hotel guests.

some good German Expressionism in the permanent collection

The Expressionist print room is my favorite part of the art museum by far. They have a gazillion of them in the collection and rotate them out on a regular basis.

Pretty sure my bf applied for a job there but it was a long shot and no answer (yet?). But hey, I could end up back on this thread, wait and see!

And by "there", I mean, Milwaukee. Not the art museum in particular.

http://www.cmftool.com/Milwaukee_logo.gif

Someone had to do it.

OK, I guess I was lying upthread-- the lake was cold as fuck this morning. I don't know why I thought it ever gets any better.

Anyone who lives there know if the weather is generally that much better than it is in the Green Bay area? Is there really a difference?

Heading downtown there this evening. Will try to visit the Safe House.

Okay, Safe House would be much more fun as a group and visibly intoxicated.

Okay, Safe House Milwaukee would be much more fun as a group and visibly intoxicated.

any ethnic recommends that folks could recommend? maybe something in the central/east europe category? or whatever.

i've had some really good tacos from trucks in milwaukee, but have never been to a proper restaurant

proper mexican restaurant, i should say

yes, i've heard people rave about Three Brothers, i think it's Serbian.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/01/us/murder-rates-rising-sharply-in-many-us-cities.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

76% rise in murders so far this year in milwaukee : (

this is not what i want to hear when visiting brew city

i'm visiting in August. were's a good place to go for beer??

Sugar Maple

Anybody on this borad gone to the Mothership bar? It looks pretty good.

I have tentative plans to be in this fine city somewhere around July 9-10. My daughter and I are going to the cherry festival in Traverse City, then ferrying across Lake Michigan, a couple of days in MKE then back home.

Traverse City is lovely, I'm sure the ferry is fun, and Milwaukee has a ton of stuff to do/eat/drink.

i’ve been there for all of a day and a half, but the harley davidson museum was surprisingly engaging for a topic i don’t care about

spent a day in traverse city too, we were hungover but nice little town!

LOVE Milwaukee

I live about a half hour south of Milwaukee and have really been enjoying getting to know more about it after years basically ignoring it while living in Chicago and Minneapolis. The art museum is very good and compact enough to pretty much see it all with little stress. There's a lot of food and drink to be had in the Historic 3rd Ward and Bay View neighborhoods, as well as record shops and small venues and such. The close-in burbs have some good stuff as well in my experience.

Some of our faves:
Seven Swans for crepes
Comet Cafe for pie
Café Benelux for Belgian beer
Strange Town for wine
Odd Duck for dinner
Bryant's for cocktails
Koz's mini bowl for mini bowling (obv)

I'm an hour north and always love spending time there. so many amazing bar/restaurants in the downtown area, full of people who are easy to talk to, love all their music venues as well. and it's not absolutely impossible to park!

Kopp's Frozen Custard for burgers/custard: https://kopps.com/
Pabst Museum: https://www.pabstmansion.com/
Bronze Fonz statue
Take a tour of Lakefront Brewery (often given by standup comics): https://lakefrontbrewery.com/brewery-tours/our-famous-tour

And yeah, ample, cheap parking! And great neighborhoods! Pick a place for beer, brats and cheese curds! Or a Friday night fish fry.

the art museum really is great

I was taken to Leon's for custard by a friend, which means I have to rep for it now: https://leonsfrozencustardmke.com/

Make sure to at the very least watch the art museum set sail (as it were).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGQJPkQL0fU

(It's like the end of "Nope," lol)

I went to Milwaukee for the first time to visit a dying relative and was favorably impressed. Previously it never had been a place I was desirous of visiting.

There are so many great woodworkers, blacksmiths, that kind of thing, that every coffee shop (Colectivo, Anodyne, others) are just amazing spaces. As is The Iron Horse Hotel: worth seeing the lobby there, and the bar's friendly.