What's fun to do in Milwaukee?

[funsizeracing]

I'll be in MIlwaukee for work Feb 3rd-8th.  Hopefully some of you familiar with the area can give me some ideas for something to do in the evenings.    I'm staying near the City Center?  and works to cheap for a rental car  so I've got to take cabs around . 

[Garywc]

you can skip down the street like Livern and Shirley  and go to a brewery

[mwsportsimaging]

Good luck in the winter time.  I lived there for a year, and the summer festivals are great.  The winter however, everyone just went to the corner bars and got smashed every night.

[barb_arah]

Is the Safe House still around?  That's an interesting place (bar).  Anyone else been there?

[truckstop]

Hey now, we don't get smashed *every* night, more like just once a week. :P
Good luck with the cabs, downtown you should be ok, but for the most part, public transportation in Milwaukee blows, and cabs can sometimes take a while but they'll get you around.

Hopefully it warms up a bit. If you want, I'll check with X if you're not busy that Tuesday, we could meet up in Bay View at Bar Lulu for the local Two Wheel Tuesday hangout. There's usually racing vids on a big screen (wall) and lots of local racing/riding peeps. If the weather is exceptional, some people might even ride.

The Calatrava/Milwaukee Art Museum is neat, and actually has a decent collection if you like arty junk. The Pavilion part has a really nice view of the lake on a sunny day, but they leave the Burke Brise Soleil (the wings) down on crappy days.

There's a lot of decent restaurants downtown. There's a lot of new bars and restaurants all over. Some of them are "Milwaukee Pretentious" and some of them have been overwhelmed by all the rich overpriced river condo owners that moved up from Chicago.

I would avoid the northern end of Water St. on a weekend night unless you like partying with frat boys, but during the day the restaurants are alright. Water Street Brewery and Bar Louie would be at the top of my list. There's also a good lunch place, upscale deli there too. There's a bunch of restaurants on Milwaukee St., Sake Tumi, for sushi and Cubanitas for, well, Cuban are both alright.  If your hotel is on the other side of the river, there's a bunch of stuff on 3rd Street that's pretty alright. The Safe House is good for the novelty (it's a spy bar where they make you do something dumb to get in - it's fun, but during the day and early evenings it's overrun with kids.)

The Third Ward which is just south of downtown is a nice area, Alterra coffee is a great coffee shop and have excellent soups and some pastries. (They have a few locations around the city) There's a bunch of goofy little shops (gardening, salons, paper store, snowboard/skate shop, bunch of art galleries) and also the Public Market that is full of all sorts of specialty foods. A friend of mine co-owns Lela Boutique which is a womens clothing and accessories shop located on Broadway. Both owners are really nice and you can wander and browse all you want.

Of course no visit to Milwaukee is complete without a visit to Alexa's shop! A+1!   :)

[Rich]

Drink Miller Lite

[barb_arah]

Hey, right now, the Milwaukee Public Museum is having a show on the human body.  These include real live dead people.

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

...real live dead people.

Ummmmmm? 

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

Hey Becka, Mike Jordan lives not too far from Milwaukee, make him take you out on the town!!!! 

[spyderchick]

If you can catch a ride, they're having an open house the Corse Superbikes on the 5th.

truckstop covered a bunch of cool things. Shopping in the 3rd Ward is fun. They have Galleries, shops and restaurants.

Downtown, there's good food to be had at County Claire, (Irish, obviously), The Knick and Water Street Brewery/Pub. The east side (Brady Street), has some good night life, interesting shopping and restaurants, (try Hi Hat)

Lulu is a must if you can get a ride to Bay View, the up and coming renaissance area. They have the best food at the best prices. I suggest the Mooney Tuna, get half and half on the chips and asian slaw. ;)

[Burt Munro]

Alexa,

Thanks for the tip on County Clare!  My wife grew up in Clare, Iowa (population 317!)
and her mother was a Fitzgerald.  Obviously Irish folks settled the town. 

Now she wants to take a trip to Milwaukee to check out the restaurant and search for lost relatives!!  I wish I could have read this info a couple of weeks ago when we were there for the banquet.  But then again, no one asked till now!!   

Thanks for asking Becka!

[Burt Munro]

Hey, right now, the Milwaukee Public Museum is having a show on the human body.  These include real live dead people.

Maybe 'real dead live people ' explains it better!   

Here's a video from the St. Louis Science Center which has the Body Worlds 3 exhibit right now.  Milwaukee has the Body Worlds 1 exhibit - not sure what the difference is between the exhibits.

http://www.slsc.org/uploadedvids/bw.asx