Bars of Milwaukee

[barsofmilwaukee]

Y-Not II Tavern

The second of one now that III is gone. Feels like it was built from the leftovers of about 10 other kinds of bars. Perfect dive bar.

✓ Weird ✓ Cheap ✓ Dark

[barsofmilwaukee]

Lucille's Piano Bar

Dueling piano bar named after an old Kenny Rogers song that's a call and response staple at these kind of of bars. Kind of a bachelorette party magnet. 

These places are like rental tuxes where it's not actually that good for day to day use, but it's flashy enough for the event that maybe it doesn't matter.

[barsofmilwaukee]

Quarters Rock & Roll Palace (sic)

Live music dive bar. Small space. Metal, punk, glam and other eclectic shows. Exactly the kind of place you expect to see those kind of bands. If you've ever used the word "interesting" in anything other than a positive tone, it's probably not the place for you.

-!- A few years ago there was a late night shooting outside here that closed the bar for a while. -!-

[barsofmilwaukee]

Von Trier

You know it's Milwaukee when the nicer bar near the college is so incredibly German themed there isn't the briefest wink of irony.

If you're from Milwaukee, you really have to stop and think for a minute to get that it's unusual, and the feeling passes quickly.

[barsofmilwaukee]

Rookies

Big local sports bar. Unlike a big corporate sports bar, it's not going to be the same every time you go, or be as crowded as possible. The people who run it care about the same sports teams you do. The cooks actually make the food instead of microwaving something in a bag from a distribution center.

[barsofmilwaukee]

Fluid

Little neighborhood gay bar. 

[barsofmilwaukee]

Cloud Bar

South side neighborhood bar that likes to party. They're right next to a much larger sports bar so you have a very natural filter on the crowd. Only people who don't want to be at a sports bar are here.

[barsofmilwaukee]

Wolski’s

Milwaukee’s flawless example of a neighborhood dive bar. Every one is a regular here. Famous for the audacity of offering a reward for drinking until they’re legally required to kick you out.

[barsofmilwaukee]

Milwaukee Ale House

Pretty decent brew pub for things like office parties, tourists, and big groups. It used to be one of the main spots in Milwaukee. Since then a lot of other places have been stepping up to the plate and knocking it out of the park.

[barsofmilwaukee]

Paddy's Pub

Every time you think you've seen the whole bar here, you run across some other corner or back room you missed. The best part is up those stairs it seems like you're not allowed to walk up.

[barsofmilwaukee]

Monkey Bar

Nice seedy bar with live music. This kind of bar is always somewhere you don't really have another reason to go there, they don't have much else about the bar you want to go there for, but they end up with a band you want to see. You end up drinking more than usual and decide to have a way looser and more fun time than usual. It's almost like you do it to make up for the fact that the only thing you would ever go here for is the music and other people enjoying the music.

[barsofmilwaukee]

Points East Pub

Corner bar in the lower east side. Seems way more popular for wings than anything primarily bar or drinking related. They serve a beer though and it feels alright inside. 

[barsofmilwaukee]

Woody’s

A gay Milwaukee sports bar named Woody’s.

[barsofmilwaukee]

Two Bucks

Proof that you can theme a bar as cheap, but not shitty. Located right where UWM goes out to drink. Presumably the plan is to make it up in volume.

[barsofmilwaukee]

My Office

There's a lot of things that make this place work. 

It's an actual regular low key bar in an area that otherwise acts kind of high maintenance

They have a bay window on the inside that opens into the entrance to an office building so that, if you were so inclined, you could rub it in people's faces that you were day drinking while they were going to work

The put their name on a tee-ball stand and hand you a bat for whatever corny joke you want to make

Numbers 2 & 3 might get you in the door, but #1 makes you come back.

[barsofmilwaukee]

Paloma's Place

Neighborhood bar that's apparently for sale. It's a hard game to be in. Even just for dive bars, it seems like some have the kind of atmosphere you'll drive half way across the city to go to while others you'll drive the extra mile to go somewhere else. The difference is so slight.

[barsofmilwaukee]

JJ Stripes

South side corner bar with sports on TV, pool, and cheap drinks. Put like that, it seems interchangeable with a hundred other places.

The thing is that it's not just one of a thousand chain bars. There's a family that has run this and only this bar it for years, and there's a different kind of family that has come to this bar for years. The collection of stuff on the walls has meaning that all of the chain places fail to copy with their bric-a-brac.

It's not a corner bar, it's this corner's bar. You would be hard pressed to find another type of business so devoted to the community of such a small group of people.