When family hear Milwaukee , odds are their mind paint some Candyland - shaft of beer and high mallow ; a Wonka wonderland of fromage and zymosis . Either that , or they do n’t know anything at all about Milwaukee .
I ’m here to tell you that Milwaukee is beer , cheese , andmore . It ’s a vibrant , humble city with a great food picture , an incredible bequest of fete , and a bar refinement better than anywhere else in the macrocosm . But even if it was just beer and tall mallow , would n’t that be enough ? Beer and cheese are two of the ripe things on earth .
I live in New York now , and I can usually say how cool multitude are based on their response to memorize that I ’m from Milwaukee . They lessen into four level , which I will pertain to as Uecker ’s Inferno .
Courtesy of Visit Milwaukee
The first level is a cool somebody ; someone who responds with , “ I ’ve been to Milwaukee – really cool city , ” or “ I ’ve never been but I ’ve hear good thing ” ( by the end of this clause you ’ll all be on this level ) .
The second level is someone who says , “ Ah , Mil - ee - wau - kay , Algonquin for ‘ The Good Land . ’ ” Sure , it ’s a movie reference ( Wayne ’s Worldfor the less cultured among us ) , but at least it ’s a good movie source .
The third level is anyone who link Milwaukee withThat 70 ’s Show , as ill-famed vaunter andBar Rescuehost Jon Taffer did when he attempted to “ save ” a local , albeit miss , East Side tavern call up the Y - Not III by turning it into the gaudy gong show that isNick ’s House , some vague reference to a 70 ’s basement . The move certainly did n’t pay off : the cityrejectedthis ill - advised change like an unvetted heart transplant .
Courtesy of VISIT Milwaukee
The fourth story is anyone that issue forth back with some estimation of a Fargo idiom . These are the same kinds of citizenry who think any city that is n’t a swaddling ground for lily-white shoe collar criminals must exist in a “ flyover state , ” or that any state that does n’t touch the sea is one formless mass in the middle of America , or Mars , or whatever .
But whatever point of reference they ascribe to Milwaukee , it always amount back to beer and cheese .
Milwaukee Is More Than Cheese
I grew up in New Berlin , Wisc . , a suburb roughly 15 instant west of Milwaukee . Every Clarence Shepard Day Jr. I ’m grateful that I had parents who were adventuresome eaters . Whether it was jaunts into the urban center for dinners at African Hut ( RIP ) , down to Walker ’s Point for Mexican , or to the East Side for Beans & Barley when my parents want something respectable . There were myriad spot put up excellent intellectual nourishment across a wide spectrum of taste .
When I go back to Milwaukee now , I ’m baffled by how many great new eatery seem to open every month . There have always been self-colored ethnic enclaves : the aforementioned Mexican , the astral Vietnamese pick – the result of Southeast Asiatic immigrant , Hmong specifically , who settled in Wisconsin in the aftermath of the Vietnam War – and down - home European ( German and Polish peculiarly ) restaurants , to name a few .
But the fresh class of spots in Milwaukee embrace the neighbourhood more than I would ’ve ever imagined . Wisconsin is an ecologically various commonwealth ; there is no dearth of access to grow , caryopsis , dairy , inwardness , and fish . And there ’s a fullness and heartiness to Midwestern culinary art , a legacy of the German , Polish , and Scandinavian immigrants who settled there . When you contrive these element into a liquidizer with creative chef , you get really exciting eating place that offer high - quality nutrient , usually with great fate and at fair prices .
Courtesy of Wolf Peach
“ It bugs me that after all this time Milwaukee is still only make love for Laverne & Shirley , beer and tall mallow , etc . , ” say Ann Christenson , the dining critic at Milwaukee Magazine for most 20 years . “ The reform-minded , all right dining setting , it ’s all grow . People like Ardent ’s Justin Carlisle ( a finalist for this year ’s James Beard Awards in the category of Best Midwest Chef ) are conduct the direction . There ’s a collective of chef – from Odd Duck , Goodkind , c.1880 , Vanguard , Morel , Sanford , and Wolf Peach –that support each other and want to make this city know for far more than a beer - and - cheese town , ” she says .
These days you ’ll find countless trendpieces claiming that any podunk town is “ A Great Food City ” ( “ Is Tulsa the Next Great Food City ? ” PROBABLY NOT ) . Milwaukee may not be there yet , but the procession that ’s been made in the past few twelvemonth is exciting , and its flight is bolstered by extremity of a fuddled - crumple community that give a shit .
“ It ’s evolve – maybe not as fast as other city , but it ’s find , ” Christenson says .
Courtesy of VISIT Milwaukee
A Summer Town
I go to New York six old age ago , and when I get out Milwaukee I had to hold off until the dip to do so . I had to wait because , just put , Milwaukee is about as good as a city can get in the summer . Its propinquity to Lake Michigan keeps the apropos hot weather normalize by a cool lake breeze ( “ Cooler by the lake ” is a rough-cut Milwaukee grammatical construction / ethos ) .
This optimum climate is amply embrace by the city . In every neighborhood you ’ll ascertain bars and eating place with well - maintained patios for outdoor dining and drinking . natural spring and fall in Wisconsin are okay , but dreadfully inconsistent ( that ’s to say nothing of our Hoth - similar winters ) . Summer is the three calendar month a year when we Midwesterners can issue from our cave and in reality treasure the city – and appreciate it we do , in full force .
summertime in Milwaukee are fix by fete . If you do n’t trust me , google “ City of Festivals ” – all Milwaukee results . Between June and September there aremore than 40 festivalsand outdoor events in the metropolis . There are so many festival that there ’s a consecrate 75 - acre festival ground in a picturesque part of business district , right on the lake , Henry W. Maier Festival Park , named for the urban center ’s mayor from 1960 - 1988 who basically birthed the idea of Milwaukee as a fete town after a sojourn to Oktoberfest in Munich .
Courtesy of VISIT Milwaukee
Playing off the urban center ’s lofty custom of ethnical heritage appreciation , many of the festivals celebrate a unique ethnic grouping . Everybody has their favorite , but for me , highlights of the time of year admit German Fest , Polish Fest , Festa Italiana , and Bastille Days . While ethnic celebrations survive for as long as immigrants began arriving in the Midwest , many of these festival have been annual city - spacious celebrations for more than 30 geezerhood , and they ’re as much a part of the cloth of the city as the notorious beer and cheese we ca n’t seem to escape .
In increase to cultural festival there are also neck of the woods festivals throughout the summertime . Locust Street Festival in Riverwest , Brady Street Fest on the East Side , and the Bay View Bash ( to name a few ) all lionise the people and businesses within a community with multiple stagecoach of live , local euphony and amusement , and intellectual nourishment and drink vender .
The gem in the crown of Milwaukee ’s festival season , though , is Summerfest . Over 11 days , the fete draw nearly 900,000 attendees , all geared up to see the more than 800 acts spanning the entire spectrum of medicine and execution . I ’m a disgusting Brooklyn hippie and there ’s stuff I can sign off on without the slightest flake of irony . This year alone features Nelly , Taylor Dayne , Styx , and literally C more . It ’s The World ’s Largest Music Festival , registered trademark earned , and it ’s in Milwaukee .
Courtesy of VISIT Milwaukee
Milwaukee Is Beer and More
Of of course , Milwaukee has a proud tradition of brewing . It ’s a tradition we espouse fondly , and celebrate every time our beloved Brewers take the field . It ’s a tradition you too can embrace fondly if you come to Ithiel Town and take one of the eye-/mouth - opening tour these brewery host .
But it ’s not just the beer that makes the city special – beyond that , it ’s our bar and measure culture , the position those beer are served and the people who serve and eat them .
To realize why Milwaukee stripe civilisation is so great , it ’s important to know that Milwaukee is a ingathering of neighborhoods , each with its own history , identity , and superbia . And , as a play - social class townspeople and a town founded by tight - knit community of interests of immigrants , within these neighborhoods there was a need for place where neighbors could unwind and socialize . These meeting place were churches and tavern . Unlike other city , however , the groundwork set in the 19th and 20th 100 was never bulldozed to make way for incongruent development . Call it slow up progress or a genuine interest in historical saving , but a disproportionate amount of the building that housed tap house , and the taverns themselves , remain to this Clarence Day .
Elvis Kennedy/Flickr
The fact that so many of these saloon still exist earned MilwaukeeSAVEURmagazine ’s 2015 runner - up for “ Destination - Worthy Old - School Bar Scene ” in theirGood Taste Awards . The winning city ? Dublin , Ireland .
One of the interesting tradition of Milwaukee bars was something known as “ tie house , ” named after the fact that they were tied to the brewery in townsfolk . In the late 19th one C , brewery would buy bars or mold sole contracts with taproom owners and garishly furnish them with brewery fixtures and array in exchange for that ginmill only betray that brewery ’s beer . Despite tie household being crock up down upon in the wake of forbiddance , many of these structures subsist to this day .
Beyond computer architecture and chronicle , Milwaukee ’s bars are defined by character : the character of the biotic community they ’re in , of the bartenders and bar owner , and of the patrons that visit them . And while a list of theBest Bars In Milwaukeewould be informative , a better illustration would be to touch on anecdotes that certify that character .
One local caption is Wolski ’s , a neighborhood ginmill off of Brady Street that hands out “ I Closed Wolski ’s ” bumper stickers to anyone willing to wedge around until 2 am and somehow manages for it to not feel like a dumb thingummy . The city ’s bar aspect is full of quirks like this .
My personal favorite is bring back to Milwaukee over the holiday every twelvemonth and visiting Cactus Club ( a Bay View measure and concert venue ) on Packer Sundays . Every time someone walks into the bar everyone applaud them in . When you ’re here , you ’re welcome , and if you ’re booze , you ’re family .
Drinking is a full-grown part of Wisconsin finish . Going back to the Dublin connexion , Wisconsinites have been compare to the Irish . Comedian Lewis Black oncenoted , “ I had this feeling that the citizenry of Wisconsin actually were the people who root Ireland . ”
Milwaukeeans are a principled people . Whether we be given Conservative or Liberal , we lean to stand firmly on ideologic issue ( we were a Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders primary state ) . This zeal has made Milwaukee abode to both Sewer Socialism and Joseph McCarthy . But no matter what you believe , there ’s always the tavern , and the notion that everyone is the same with a beer in their hand . I have multitudinous friends who I only interact with through social media and at the legal community ; and the bar is boundlessly more civil .
A Gathering Pride
When I was growing up it was gentle to line up t - shirts saying“I’m From Milwaukee and That ’s Not suspicious ” , or“Wisconsin : Home of Cannibal Killers and Happy Days ” . I always make out Milwaukee ’s standing as an underdog Ithiel Town . We grew up in the shadow of Chicago ; the Second City ’s Second City . There was a humbleness and sense of humor about where we came from . Call us Cheeseheads ? That ’s ok , we ’ll don cheese on our heads as our self - deprecating manner of say that we ’re in on the joke and owning it . It was a pride engendered out of necessity – workings - class people making the ripe of their situation .
But these days the shirt read“Milwaukee Home ” . Millennials and others resettling in cities is pretend every corner of the country , but because of Milwaukee ’s tradition of region , a revivification in civic pridefulness is hitting the metropolis harder than other places . There ’s even an effort tochange the city ’s flagto defend a newfangled vision of Milwaukee .
Being a New York transplant force play one to consider the conception of Home as an idea versus home as a place . For me , Milwaukee encapsulates both , but for outsiders Milwaukee is undeniably the latter – its resident eager to share the city they hump with anyone willing to give it the fourth dimension . Visiting Milwaukee is an invitation into that home . So pull up a derriere at the legal profession , grab a beer , maybe run through some cheese , and try it from topical anesthetic why it ’s so much more than that .
