Haven't Met Laverne and Shirley Yet But Otherwise I'm Enjoying Milwaukee

It occurred to me this morning, after having been in Milwaukee for about a day and a half, that what I like about this city is its complete lack of pretension, the sense that it is completely comfortable with itself.  "I'm Milwaukee," the city proclaims, "I'm an old industrial town with factory buildings and a City Hall that were built when people cared about how factory buildings and a City Hall looked, and I celebrate that history.  I'm full of people - both new residents and long-timers - with names that are hard to spell and harder to pronounce, and we make stuff that people want, like motorcycles and beer.  You may think that's hard to do nowadays but it's been hard for a hundred years so we're used to it.  And we like to play hard, too.  We're not Chicago and that doesn't bother us at all.  We're Milwaukee.  Welcome."

So between that attitude, relatively few nasty drivers, and the fact that I've been able to generally figure out how to find my way around, I really like Milwaukee.  A lot.

Of course, first impressions are the longest-lasting and it didn't hurt Milwaukee's cause at all that the night I arrived I had dinner at Three Brothers Restaurant, courtesy of a recommendation from Aunt Connie and Uncle Bill's Roadfood book.  This was an old Schlitz company bar, apparently, and there's a Schlitz globe sign on the outside of the building.  I was told by some guys I met the next day that two of the brothers have passed on, but I can assure you that the remaining brother does a great job.  This is a Serbian restaurant - who knew there was such a thing as Serbian food?  There is, and it seems to be a cross between Greek and German.  Here's the bar and some of the tables.  It's a one-room restaurant.  You can see Hannah, the incredibly friendly and helpful waitress, zipping by no doubt bringing me the wonderful rye bread that goes along with the wonderful Serbian salad (chopped tomatoes, onions and green peppers) and the wonderful Serbian wine.  It's a very retro-looking place, but without any hint of being self-conscious and certainly no desire to be kitschy.

I don't blog a lot about food, partly because I don't want to reinforce how much time I spend thinking about food, but this meal was definitely blogworthy.  It was lamb in a green pepper, rice, carrots and cabbage that was very close to sauerkraut. 

Delicious doesn't even begin to describe the meal.

It's been unseasonably cold here - not quite as bad as Minneapolis, but let's just say that my walking around downtown was brisk and focused.  They have a beautiful Riverwalk with a lot of cafes.  One can imagine how much fun they are during the warmer months.  Not so much in a colder-than-normal March.

They have a lot of museums here, and I've been to a few.  The first was the Grohmann Museum at the Milwaukee School of Engineering.  It's a large collection of paintings and bronze sculptures with the common theme of people working.  There are people working in industry, agriculture, construction, medicine, the law....you name it, they've got a painting of it.  The museum was created by Dr. Eckhart Grohmann, a Milwaukee businessman and MSOE trustee, as a place to publicly display his collection.  The museum's materials refer to him as an "avid art collector."  You can say that again.  I didn't count but the paintings take up most of a three story building.  There's a rooftop sculpture garden (like the Riverwalk, nicer in the less inclement months) and some beautiful stained glass. 

When you walk in, there's a tile mosaic which is currently half-covered to protect it from snow and salt.  This shot is taken from the second floor.

There's a mural on the ceiling in the entranceway, also featuring men and women working.

A really nice MSOE senior named Sam gave me a book about the museum and told me not to miss their special exhibit, a collection of bridge photographs by David Plowden.  These are lovely black and white pictures, many of them taken thirty or forty years ago.  Their subjects are all sorts of bridges from across North America.  I was thrilled to see a photograph of the old Nebraska City Bridge that crossed the Missouri River, built in 1888 and torn down in 1984.  I've become quite enamored of bridges during the Driveabout, and it was fun to see this exhibit. 

The great thing is, since this is a School of Engineering, the photographs and paintings are often accompanied by some sort of engineering or scientific information about their activity.  For instance, I now know more about what a cable-stayed bridge is, like the ones I saw in Louisiana and South Carolina.

The Milwaukee City Hall is gorgeous but hard to photograph because it's so big.  It's stone on the outside (being renovated) and marble on the inside.  This doesn't really do a good job of showing you.  It's no Allen County Courthouse, but it's impressive.

Then I went looking for the Bronze Fonz, which I knew I'd hear about if I didn't give you a report.  This was probably the only disappointment I've had on the Driveabout.  It was so disappointing (and so cold) that I didn't even take a picture.  Look, I've never seen Henry Winkler in person but the man has to be taller than 5'4" which is how tall I am.  The statue looked to be about 2/3 scale - shorter than me.  I don't really get the point of putting up a mini-me of Da Fonz - I mean, either do it or don't do it, but if you do it, let's do it right.  Plus the face is creepy.  I am going to forgive Milwaukee for this because, well, one forgives one's friends for occasionally doing ridiculous things.

I popped into the Milwaukee Historical Society.  They are in between exhibits, but their building is amazing enough.  It's a 100-year-old bank building that is probably the most beautiful bank building I've ever seen.  Particularly when the sun is shining in as it was when I was there, the room gleams.

There are several vaults, as one might expect.  One contains some pictures and information about a lady named Maryann Kwapiszewski.  A seamstress and single mother in the 1920's and 1930's, she supported her family by making moonshine during Prohibition.  She also ran a gambling operation, offering free meals to patrons who then stayed for cockfights, generally followed by more drinks.  This combination of gambling and alcohol worked out pretty well for her, although presumably less so for her patrons and still less well for the roosters.  She put her three sons through medical school and was apparently never caught by law enforcement.  After Prohibition ended she made her own moonshine and ran for public office.

In another vault, they have a likeness of the Milwaukee City Hall built out of 10,000 red legos.  Seriously.  We are in Wisconsin, Land of the Odd, after all.

Then began my Afternoon of Beer.  I should just go ahead and say that this was followed by a Late Afternoon Nap, which is the real reason I typically don't drink early in the day.

For lunch I had local cheese and local sausage and a glass of Schlitz.  All were tasty.  Trip Advisor said that the Lakefront Brewery tour was the best brewery tour in Milwaukee and that seemed too good to pass up.  I've never been on any other brewery tour, so I can't really compare, but this one was awfully good.  Our tour guide Brewery Navigation Specialist, Josh, was a very funny 20-something guy who not only told us all about the history and science of beer and the history of Lakefront Brewery, but led us all in a rousing rendition of the theme song to Laverne and Shirley.  And their beer is very good, too.

Here is Josh, demonstrating the bottling process.

While waiting for the tour to start, I met Richie, Mike and Paul, who were hanging out having a beer.  We started talking about traveling and Richie said that he and his wife were hitchhiking back from California once and ended up having to get a ride in Council Bluffs, Iowa, from I-80 into town so they could put on more clothes because it was that cold.  Paul talked about riding freight trains (underneath the cars) at 80 m.p.h. in the cold.  Neither Mike nor I had a story that could compete with that one.  Made me appreciate the Trusty Vue and Sleep Inns even more.

Brewery Navigation Specialist Josh said that he was going to be in a comedy show that evening.  Having no other plans after my nap, I went.  This was a very new group, operating in the basement of a downtown mall, and although I wasn't the oldest person there, I think I was the oldest person there who wasn't a parent of one of the performers.  As an example, one of the comedians kept talking about how his dad loves the Eagles, because everybody's dad loves the Eagles, and I mostly just sat there and thought about seeing the Hotel California tour in ninth grade.  Without my dad.  During intermission I started talking with a young woman - turns out she is part of a four woman comedy troupe but I won't be in town to see them perform - and mentioned the "age thing."  She quickly attempted to identify with me by saying, "Yeah, that's really younger than me, too - my dad is into CCR."  I appreciated her thoughtfulness, and the fact that it missed the mark by over a decade really just made me smile.

I've been trying to be good, at least for the past couple of days, about using the hotel fitness center, so this morning I did that and then went to the Harley-Davidson Museum.

Where to begin?  How about at the beginning.  This is the motorcycle they call Serial Number One, which was the first bike built by Harley and Davidson in a 10' by 14' shed in Davidson's backyard in 1903.

You will not be surprised to learn that the museum has an incredible collection of motorcycles.  Here is the first one, from 1925, where they were able to redesign the bike to have a lower seat (compare the seat position to Serial Number One.)

When the Depression hit, the company had tough times.  They weren't able to invest in new technology so they focused on aesthetics instead.  This is one of the earliest models (1936) where they used cool colors to enhance the appearance.

As a company-owned facility, I thought they did a reasonable job of describing the "dark days" of the 1970's when they were owned by AMF before being bought by management in a highly leveraged 1981 acquisition.  They narrowly avoided bankruptcy in 1985 and went public in 1986.  To me this discussion, along with how the company started 110 years ago, was the most interesting part of the museum but most people probably just like to see (and hear) the bikes.  Either way, it's a good time.

My Minnesota friend, Barb, told me that a friend of hers said I shouldn't miss the Public Market - another good call from Barb.  It's not huge but it's big enough, with bakers, wine sellers, gourmet foods of all types - and a really nice atmosphere.  Again, I'm soft on Milwaukee.

Tonight I am off to a play that is part of a Young Playwright program.  I neglected to ask the lady at the theater whether "young" meant "new" or "juvenile."  I guess I'll find out.

Oh, I saw a sign for a bar called La Perla that I had to include for you, just to continue the "Weird Wisconsin" theme.  I don't think that any comment is needed.  Like the rest of Milwaukee, it is what it is.