It's easy. I'm flying to Milwaukee this afternoon. Me and 3 coworkers. Need some grub for dinner. We all like beer and meat.
We're staying downtown, around Rt 18 and the Milwaukee River. Some place walking distance to there would be great.
We fly out tomorrow afternoon. So we get one dinner in Milwaukee. Make it a good one (but one that won't throw up too many flags on the expense report!)
Go.
Any advice from locals on a "must-go-to"?
Water Street Brewery and Milwaukee Ale House are both pretty good local burgers/sandwiches and craft beers. If you have time for a brewery tour Lake Front Brewery and MKE Brewery are both a good time. I'd say if you've never had cheese curds in Wisconsin before that's a must try. Any of the breweries are going to have pretty good fried cheese curds.
Milwaukee is an awesome city.
Belair cantina for tacos.
Buckley's bar for an excellent "dude" (Lebowski) night cap.
Collectivo coffee in the morning. ( Or any time of day).
Lakefront brewery gives a great tour.
All the beer will be good, same with the cheese, and it will probably be cheaper than you expect. There are traditional German restaurant places, but they are kinda expensive and touristy. If you want to bring something yummy home check out the Milwaukee public market.
Never been to swinging door. Aj bombers is another place that is worth a visit (burgers lunch or dinner). They "bomb" the tables with peanuts via carriers on tracks hanging from the ceiling.
I don't live in mke now but I did live downtown for a couple years.
But seriously I don't think you can lose. Mke is WAY underrated for food and drink.
Odd Duck has awesome small plates, so if you're a foodie, that's a win.
If you want a cool, low-key, counter service beer & sausage, The Vanguard is awesome.
Any way you might be able to hang out with Alice Cooper?
Thanks for the rec's. Mke seems like a great town- this will be all of ours' first trip to wisconsin. I've had cheese curds before and have been singing their praises to everyone.
Will report back here with what we decide. The German place (Maders) up the road looked good, but I appreciate anything local and unique.
Maders is great, local, and unique. After that, I’d go to Milwaukee Ale House for solid local beers.
I truly miss living there. Yes, even in winter!
The Safe House! https://www.safe-house.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjw04vpBRB3EiwA0IieauEawYLcEcJ3kJlOUeZs7uVmwOHMfhYCajwbw2Ez7cLYFrAnTjx80BoC5BUQAvD_BwE
And no, I am not telling you the password to get in.
We went looking for it drunk after a Brewers game, and went into a different bar asking for directions. The bar tender told us to buy a drink. Afterwards he sat us in a booth in the back which was weird since the bar was empty.
Then the table spun around and we were on the dance floor of the Safe House!
Being you like meat and beer it’s too bad you missed Crusher Fest last month.
Damn. I would've loved to have met you for a drink or five, but I didn't see this until now, and I was busy packing for a trip. 
Brat Stop
Kenosha
Funny, so before dinner we ended up at the Milwaukee Brat House up on 3rd street. Chatting with some locals, and one of them mentioned the Safe House. Shrouded in mystery, the allure was tempting; had I been here solo, or at least with more adventuresome souls, we might have sought it out.
Instead, we soldiered on down to the Swingin' Door, took a seat outside, and had a pretty decent meal. The ribs were excellent, and I had the vermouth carrots as a side- Very good, and unique. A co-worker had the grilled beets as a side which were sampled by all and deemed good, too. All in all a very solid meal.
Afterwards we went back to the hotel, but the restaurant downstairs was a little BBQ joint so we had another beer down there and 2 of the guys shared a platter of rib tips (I guess they were still hungry?)
Wish we had more time here, and I could take any of the local GRM constituency out for a beer. Definitely want to come back. MKE seems like a hidden jewel.
Swinging Door is pretty good, basically everyone is right, there are tons of options in MKE, we are pretty saturated with restaurants.
Bel Air is super duper, had a lot of tacos and those are still top of the heap.
Odd Duck? Vanguard? Trim your mustache you damn hipster!
Actually Odd Duck is pretty cool, Vanguard is ho-hum but if you want to see the "trying too hard" group it never disappoints. But if you are headed in to Bay View there are better options. Like not heading in to Bay View.
One town's very like another
When your head's down over your pieces, brother
Missed this thread the first time around.
I would have seconded the Safe House recommendation. Bugsy's Back Alley Speakeasy is another fun bar as well. Lastly--Wolski's...the epitome of a neighborhood dive bar.
The winters are harsh--but it is otherwise a great place to call "home".
I think this was a Milwaukee thing....the area after TSA checkpoint where you fumble with your belt, shove your laptop back into your backpack, and hastily tie your shoelaces back together.
The flight home was delayed, but the weather was perfect. Super smooth flight, it barely rippled the cheap scotch mixed with the flat soda water in my little plastic cup. I love sunsets from the air.
There's a rumor that someone in mke who lived near the airport didn't like a change the airport was making (like maybe they started flying out earlier in the am or something), so therefore decided to make it personal.
Since the house was very near the airport and the roof very visible to many arriving passengers, it was painted with large letters saying "Welcome to Cleveland".
If that's actually true it's awesome.
I closed Wolski's
but it was almost 25 years ago. IDK if that's still a thing.
AngryCorvair said:I closed Wolski's
but it was almost 25 years ago. IDK if that's still a thing.
Pretty sure it's still a thing. But you need a serious mustache and a pbr tall boy to wear the T-shirt now, it would seem.
In reply to Robbie :
In reply to AngryCorvair :
It's still a E36 M3ty dive bar that hands out bumper stickers.
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