Life of a Dive, Lo Cash Live
It hangs out on a block best known for the grizzly working-class pub Steny’s, smushed-up next to Fat Daddy’s. Making use of the sign design made famous by Southern used car lots, coin-sized dots spell “Lo Cash”, shimmering flecks of silvery sunlight off the side of the building.
The interior decor although not brand-spanking new has yet accumulated the drinking hours to adequately absorb the savory juices that amply flow from the kitchen, a dive in the making. A neon sign couldn’t even bring it attention. Lo Cash Live keeps the low-key atmosphere of the 5th Ward strip, still adding flavor to recipe. Lo Cash Live is a Barbecue Joint, South by Mid-West.
The Fare
I sit down at a table near the wall with my dinner mate. Swinging into the tall seat I nod at Al Jarreau, who poses behind the glass of the frame that holds an old promo portrait. Other crooning singers from various eras and genres nudge corners with him. I’m hard on BBQ so I’m ready for disappointment. Nothing beats the backyard and down-home secrets that make it atop the briquette heated grill.
Lo Cash’s menu makes the right first impression, short, easy to read and to-the-point. Each main dish of either BBQ pork, chicken or brisket and comes with a side, picking from sweet corn, slaw, baked beans or macaroni and cheese (with is technically a vegetable south of the Mason-Dixon). Sandwiches of the same fill also for your fancy. The house adds variety with a fried shrimp po’ boy and a Wisconsin inspired option called Three Little Piggies: a brat patty with pulled pork and bacon, ‘tween a bun. Not one of the meals or sandwiches cost more than ten bucks.
Packing it In
I hone in the brisket meal, it’s even tough to cook-up outdoors. In fifteen minutes a sawed-off tin water pale comes out lined with red and white checked wax paper, table cloth inspired. On top of it, steaming slices of tender beef brisket lay naked, with a perfect amount of edge fat, and covered in vinegary BBQ sauce. The fork goes in, the brisket disappears, mighty delicious on a cool spring evening.
One added note, this 5th Ward diner will soon have the distinction of filling the void left by the closing of Sil’s Mini-Donuts on North Avenue. An appetizer called Corn Fritters comes out looking like a basket of traditional hushpuppies, however, sugared and thoroughly fried, the cornmeal balls come with a tub of molten butter sauce for dip. Goodness!
For Your Listening Pleasure
The food should draw you in and Lo Cash keeps the good times going with cover free live music. I got a fortunate treat hearing a solo set from Annie B who rocks lead for group Annie B and Vagabond Company. They actually just jammed the pre-game show with Icarus Down for the Bucks game Monday night.
Of hard Americana cast and heart made, sometimes mellow vocals belt from Annie B’s lips in front of her acoustic guitar on her two recorded albums Fancies of a Random Heart and a solo project The Kiwi Cafe, sounds well suited for live performance.
Lo Cash Live is located on 2nd and National and open serving great food and music daily.
Post-Hip, The Cure vs. The Smiths, Mad Planet
Dark and eclectic, Mad Planet did its usual service providing temporary abode to wayward fun-seekers, freak flags waving. Everything from sport coats to jeggings were barely visible between the dim-dive ambiance and the shocking zips of colored light emitting from the dance floor laser effects. Personally partial to The Cure‘s earlier sounds, dance-synth and saxophone infused tunes of The Smiths interrupted the heavy crunch and symbols The Cure kept around even post-punk.
Surprisingly, The Cure’s tribute to Albert Camus, Killing an Arab, made it into the set and was complimented with subtler emotional hits that The Cure well know for off of albums like Faith. Love that album and Mad Planet for making Riverwest Milwaukee’s Hell’s Kitchen/Theater District and being the burn-out/play hard club for a night; the kind of venue where you can make-out shamelessly with your girlfriend in a corner like the dead-beat lovers that you are.
Mad Planet sticks with the regularly scheduled Retro-Dance Party this Friday night and the Saturday Night Get Down returns April 14.
A Foggy Mist, Westown, Riverwalk
As if the this season wasn’t strange enough weather-wise, our extra winter leap day was clad in fog. The dense vapor gave the Riverwalk at Mason Street an awe inspiring haze, as the bridge engineers do their duty tiny compared to the raised platform.
On the way down Wells, towards that great triangle shaped area between Plankington and 2nd Streets the new tapas restaurant España creates a weird Euro Zone time warp, its sign footnoting the regal Germania Building.
Last Reel, Times Cinema
A buzz always hits the entertainment world around this time of year, the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Science rolls out the Red Carpet for the A-listers to shimmer, pop culture mavens to swoon, and buffs to admire from afar. This year a solemn hum vibrates the Milwaukee art news, as the Times Cinema, an independent cinema that made a tradition out of bringing a piece of Oscar magic to the area, prepares to transition into a new phase of its movie house life span.
The Times, and its sister cinema the Rosebud, continue their tradition of screening Academy nominated films in the weeks leading up to Oscar night. Tonight, as in years past, you can also watch the Academy Awards on the big screen at the Rosebud Cinema, possibly for the last time ever.
The Times will screen the Oscar nominated Animated Short Films at 4:30p today as well. Local Trolley checked them out yesterday and they were surprisingly gripping and thoughtful with short features that deviated from the Pixar-style films, and some that were equally entertaining done in the modern vein.
The Short of It
Wild Life in particular stands-out among the nominees, produced by Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby. For some reason Canadians have an amazing knack for adult oriented cartoons. The short story is told by a simplistic almost Impressionist form of animated illustration that strings together several accounts from towns people of an well to do Englishman settling in Canada for a chic cowboy adventure, set in contrast to the narration provided through the Englishman’s letters home. The Englishman’s life is subtly mirrored by a parable of the mysterious celestial Comet, and by the end of the short, likewise demystified.
The other Animated Short nominees the Times will show in about thirty minutes from now are Dimanche/Sunday, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, La Luna, and A Morning Stroll.
The Times Cinema is located on 59th and Vliet, and the Rosebud Theatre is located on 68th and North Avenue.
Brown Street Academy, Alice’s Garden, Caroline Watkins
Before the storytelling began, a few light snacks helped calm a dozen students of Brown Street Academy. I asked one of the small group of mostly fourth graders, preparing to enjoy an after-school program speaker, if he was proud of his school. He nodded a confident ‘yes’. I would soon find out why.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding public education in Wisconsin, strong and undaunted educators across the State hunker-down and find ways to keep knowledge flowing to young minds. The work of Alice’s Garden’s Fieldhands and Foodways Project, now more than ever, proves that collaboration between community-based organizations and institutions like Milwaukee Public Schools play a crucial role in rounding k-12 curricular education.
Venice Williams, Program Director of Alice’s Garden, pulled together with Johnson Park neighbor Brown Street Academy, to host an evening exploring the antebellum history of this near north side neighborhood, and the influence of its most famous settler Deacon Samuel Brown. The Underground Railroad Comes Alive! brought Kimberly Simmons to narrate the story of the first African-American to make safe passage from enslavement to Milwaukee, the story of her great, great, great-grandmother Caroline Quarlls Watkins.
Bound and Determined
Virginian and slave-owner Robert Pryor Quarlls moved to St. Louis in 1826 and bequeathed to his son a woman servant, named Maria, who bore Caroline Quarlls into enslavement. Although she had a fair complexion an blue-eyes, Caroline faced a fate of servitude. Unwilling to accept her lot, Caroline secretly sold lace goods that she learned to sew, from her grandmother. Caroline eventually saved enough money to purchase the keys to her plan for freedom, a “nice dress” and fare on a riverboat ferry north.
On July 4, 1846 at the age of sixteen Caroline, passing as a white woman, wearing the Sunday dress she bought with her savings, boarded a Mississippi River ferry heading to Illinois. After docking in Illinois, a black porter on the ferry, noticed her traveling alone and uncertain. Suspecting Caroline may have been searching for freedom, the porter advised her that in Illinois she would face greater chances of being turned in for ransom and instructed her on how to make it to Wisconsin.
Freedom Farm
Taking the advice of the porter, Caroline made it to Milwaukee undetected. Again noticed, a black caddy named by Robert Tibald suggested that she seek room at the House Hotel on Wisconsin Avenue and Water Street if she wanted to remain safe. Owned by Samuel Brown, the House Hotel kept Caroline sheltered. However when Charles Hall, the surviving heir of Quarlls estate in St. Louis, realized Caroline’s “escape”, she soon faced pursuit by Hall’s attorney and authorities.
Hall’s attorney and the authorities began scouring Milwaukee boarding houses for Caroline, eventually coming upon Tibald who agreed to tell her whereabouts in exchange for a $100 reward. Milwaukee attorney Asol Finch caught wind of Tibald’s treacherous act and of the Southerners looking for Caroline, and Finch hid Caroline in a sugar barrel at the House Hotel for 12 hours.
Finch soon hurried her away to Samuel Brown’s farm on what is now roughly 20th and Fon du Lac Avenue, a portion of which to this day houses Milwaukee’s oldest elementary school Brown Street Academy. A staunch abolitionist like Sam Brown, Asol Finch established the law firm of Finch & Lynde in 1842, which later would become present day Foley & Lardner.
After a brief stop in Prairieville (present day Waukesha), Caroline joined a group of the first individuals to travel the Old Sauk Trail (present day Interstate 94) to join with Alan Pinkerton (who would later become one of Abraham Lincoln’s secret servicemen), to follow east-marching Union Soldiers from Dundee, Illinois to Detroit. So is told the birth of one of the Northern lines of the Underground Railroad. Not quite a decade later, Joshua Glover would take a similar route from St. Louis to Milwaukee in search of freedom.
Today’s Seeds
Alice’s Garden cultivates land as a part of Milwaukee Urban Gardens, a community land trust providing land for urban agriculture projects. Generations to come will gain an understanding of basic food production as a result of this initiative.
Caroline Quarlls Watkins wrote letters of her journey to freedom, rare first person documentation of the struggles of women and African-Americans to gain equality in 19th century America. Caroline’s stories are now part of the Walk of Fire exhibit at the Kenosha Civil War Museum.
Gallery Night Fall 2011, Studio Lounge
Exposed brick, some wood and some nails, the art tied it all together. Three years ago BYO Studio had the essentials: space, location and passionate people. Today the Studio Lounge fills any expectation an interesting person may have for an interesting place to go.
With vintage furnishings, custom made fixtures and highly flexible interior design in place, dusky lighting cloaks the Studio Lounge in enough mystery to wield a cutting-edge. Cool yet approachable, finding an item that you can trace back to this or that retail big box or catalog probably won’t happen while visiting the venue. No need for overstocked housewares, Studio Lounge’s rawness balances its refinement giving a rare vibe of both down-to-earth yet jet-set, rendering you comfortable but not enough to slouch.
Visual arts get their share of attention, and not privileging any particular creative form, Studio Lounge allows ingenious minds to nudge themselves in whatever direction they dare go. Made available, whenever possible, to ideas pitched with the intention of bringing fashionably artsy people together, the gallery space opens up for house sponsored events like Salsa Sundays and Taste! Thursdays with WMSE‘s Madkid DJ Bizzon. Well organized and thoughtful projects such as private gatherings and workshops can also apply.
For the Fall edition of Gallery Night, Studio Lounge featured the work of a two very talented artists, Jenie Gao and Jason Anthony LeRoy with support of noteworthy works of Steven Bowlin Davies, Melena Magnolia, and Douglas Matchnik, and renown artist David Schaefer. The current installation can be enjoyed until November 6th.
Contents
Pt 1 Piqued Canvas, Jenie Gao
Pt 2 Abstract Severe, Jason Anthony LeRoy
The Old Board Room, Central Library
Engraved details in wood accented the crown molding framing the room from the ceiling down. Chairs held together by the original wood fibers surround a larger rectangular table warmed one time by a oversized fire place. Ferry & Clas designed the Central Library from the outside in, including the furniture.
Formal enough for public meetings in the old library wing during the early years and intriguing enough to serve as J. Edgar Hoover’s office in the 1973 movie Dillinger, the Old Board Room even has its own private bathroom restored to early industrial period decor and functioning overhead water tank.
Pt 1 A Gem, Doors Open, The Central Library,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-LY
Pt 2 The Old Board Room
Pt 3 The Rotunda Within,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-Mr
Pt 4 The Green Roof,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-Mu
Pt 5 The Old Museum Director’s Office,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-Mx
The Rotunda Within, Central Library
Little do most people know that the Rotunda seen from the exterior of the Central Library, only protects the Rotunda seen from inside the Central Library main foyer (remember the building’s original blueprints were destroyed). Not entirely enthusiastic about changing the inner rotunda light bulbs during the winter months, in the 1920′s a few employees punched a hole in the 3rd floor ceiling to find out if they could access the inner rotunda from the inside of the building.
Discovering a clear path to the inner rotunda after probing, the library workers fashioned a makeshift opening to the inner rotunda by bashing a wingspans’ width crater in the ceiling and sealing it with a crude plaster held together by cattle hair. A steep winding iron staircase allows for entry to the hidden level, for easier access to the inner rotunda.
Pt 1 A Gem, Doors Open, The Central Library,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-LY
Pt 2 The Old Board Room,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-Mo
Pt 3 The Rotunda Within
Pt 4 The Green Roof,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-Mu
Pt 5 The Old Museum Director’s Office,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-Mx
The Green Roof, Central Library
In 1957 the library expanded the original Library building to span the entire block between Wisconsin and Wells Streets. By 1986, the roof on the Library Expansion needed a replacement. When time came due for maintenance again 2009, the Library received $1 million of support from the City and an additional half million dollars of incentives for sustainable construction practices, to convert the 30 thousand square foot rooftop into a arid ecosystem that supports solar panels.
One of the first of it’s kind in the Country, the Central Library’s Green Roof will last 20 years longer than the conventional roof and reduce rain water intake in downtown’s storm water mains.
Pt 1 A Gem, Doors Open, The Central Library,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-LY
Pt 2 The Old Board Room,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-Mo
Pt 3 The Rotunda Within,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-Mr
Pt 4 The Green Roof
Pt 5 The Old Museum Director’s Office,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-Mx
The Museum Director’s Office, Central Library
Since the Central Library once held the Public Museum, deep in the upper floors of the 4th floor had a mysterious Director who’s office shared a hall way with the Taxidermy room. Not all the specimens felt the hands of anthropologists preserving their final action pose.
The Director’s Office adopted Simba the “lion” cub as their in house pet. Simba kept the Director’s Office companion until he grew too big and was released to the County Zoo. Simba eventually died and returned to the Museum’s Taxidermy department where he prepared to join the African Savanna exhibit. Simba had a burn on his nose by which people always recognized him.
Today the abandoned Museum Director’s Office serves as storage for a variety of museum nick-knacks.
Pt 1 A Gem, Doors Open, The Central Library,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-LY
Pt 2 The Old Board Room,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-Mo
Pt 3 The Rotunda Within,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-Mr
Pt 4 The Green Roof,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-Mu
Pt 5 The Old Museum Director’s Office
A Gem, Doors Open, The Central Library
Hidden within the astute renaissance facade of the Central Library, the people that walked those halls, past and present, exude as much character as the marble railings and bound books they house. Doors Open Milwaukee let us peer into the the windows of the past of kept open by the Central Library structure’s detailed building-craft and stacks filled with archives of knowledge.
Central Library docents guided tour-faring guest through several of the most celebrated portions of the building during Doors Open. Built by Ferry & Clas and opened in 1898, The Central Library once housed the Milwaukee Public Museum, and Discovery World’s in years prior to its current location on the Lake Front. The U-shaped building footprint allowed the library to reside on the Eastern wing and the Museum on the Western wing, joined by the grand rotunda.
A Becoming Building
Typical of the high time of architecture, when construction of the Central Library took place, a design competition determined the builder of the Library. Frank Lloyd Wright dueled Ferry & Clas for the gig, however unable to stir imaginations with his submission and with whispers questioning its tenability, Wright withdrew his design ceding to Ferry & Clas’s French and Italianate neo-renaissance design. Ferry & Clas had also recently constructed the Pabst Mansion and the Goll and Frank Building in the Third Ward. The Library to this day shocks visual senses with its exterior elegance and stately interior.
A small chink in the mystique of the Central Library arose when a architectural design flaw surfaced in the Pabst Mansion. Upon learning of the fact George Ferry, the firm’s principal, destroyed the Central Library’s blueprints fearing the possibility of another blemish to his reputation if a similar discovery occurred within the Library.
Stories of Learning
The Central Library today houses many intellectual and artistic attractions including the Frank Zeilder Humanities Room, the Richard E. and Lucile Krug Rare Books Room and gallery of art on sabbatical from the Milwaukee Art Museum Collection, Betty Brin Children’s Room, first floor discard books sale room and R Cafe.
Pictures of Milwaukee’s historical figures and structures nestle against walls and in display cases, anchoring the Milwaukee to its past. A rare example of tessera mosaic floor tile lights the way, through the Library’s halls back in time.
–Contents–
Pt 1 A Gem, Doors Open, The Central Library
Pt 2 The Old Board Room.
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-Mo
Pt 3 The Rotunda Within,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-Mr
Pt 4 The Green Roof,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-Mu
Pt 5 The Old Museum Director’s Office,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-Mx
Mind Scale, Doors Open, Grohmann Museum
Advancing greatly in the 21st Century, Milwaukee School of Engineering has the monuments to prove it. Prominent businessman and regent Dr. Eckhart Grohmann, once headed Milwaukee based Aluminum Casting and Engineering Company and Central Control Arm before selling them. An ode to industry, Dr. Grohmann readily shares his passion for the machinery of civil progress through his collection of art gathered from the around the world.
The Gallery
Many of the works displayed throughout the four levels and rooftop sculpture garden capture early German and East European folk traditions dating back as far as the late 17th century. Many of the works depict “man” crudely developing expertise in an number of fields such as engineering, manufacturing, and medicine.
The Garden
The Grohmann Museum’s rooftop sculpture garden transforms six-inch high figurines into colossal bronze statues exerting perpetual effort on fundamental tasks of early industry. Dr. Grohmann’s office sits in a turret atop the Grohmann Museum overlooking the sculpture garden. Peering in Dr. Grohmann’s office at the right angle, one can see the original works that inspired the sculpted forms and also very intense stain glass window panes with murals of early civilizations toiling.
Several stops on Doors Open Milwaukee highlighted the growing MSOE campus. The institution’s latest academic development brings a Master’s Degree Civil Engineering program to the timetable.
A Falcon’s View, Doors Open, US Bank
Doors Open Milwaukee brought back one of Milwaukee’s prized attractions, the observation deck on floor 41 of the US Bank building. Not open to the public since 1992, US Bank hosted a winding line of people waiting for their chance to see what the famed peregrine falcon’s sees when they perch in their nests.
Shaping Influence, ExFabula, Barbershop
Contents
Pt. 1 Shaping Influence, ExFabula, Barbershop
Pt. 2 ExFabula, John Gurda on Capital Court History
Pt. 3 ExFabula, The Sherrill’s, A Black Business Legacy
Pt. 4 ExFabula, Sunshine and Rain<
Pt. 5 ExFabula, Tom Crawford, a Thankful Trim
Pt. 6 ExFabula, Monumental Integrity and Murals
Related Post
Drink the Well, ExFabula, Terminal Milwaukee,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-Bn
Intersections, Sherman Perk, ExFabula,
http://wp.me/p1hPwN-U3
Art Opulence, The Brumder Mansion
It still had that old musk that old mansions have. The rich wood finish absorbs aged air then initiates respiration of elegant atmosphere. Avenues West’s Brumder Mansion recently played host to an art soiree, lining-up contemporary artworks with steeped traditional pieces of the historic home’s permanent art collection. The artists exhibiting their techniques make up a short list of some of Milwaukee’s young and most talented visual artists.
The Brumder Mansion, a storied residential structure once symbolic of the Brumder families’ status as one Milwaukee’s great legacies, today is home to a Bed and Breakfast still baring it’s builder’s name. In addition to hosting its patrons’ get-aways in supreme Victorian style, occasionally The Brumder Mansion shyly invites guests to special events like the upcoming series of dinner play performances in mid-September entitled Speak Easy of Murder.
On this warm late August night local artists presenting in the Milwaukee Artist Showcase at the Brumder Mansion, organized by Brittany Farina and Sara Risley, upstaged the regularly scheduled programming.
Pt. 1, Scene Enhanced, Shari Solheim
Pt. 2, Petals Reach, Mike Magestro
Pt. 3, A Commentary Brightly, Amanda Iglinski
Pt. 4, Character Driven, Brittany Farina
Pt. 5, Digital Foreground, Sara Risley
Suspended Hanging, MARN: Things on a String
Milwaukee Artist Resource Network (MARN) challenged its emerging artists to work vertically, in Friday night’s exhibition Things on a String. Roughly 35 designers worked with lengths of string that varied greatly in size, some dangling from the ceiling to the floor, others at a length reasonable for guests to reach the objects attached to the ends.
Confined to a surface area allowing minimal application of medium, affixing items of personal import brought meaning to fibers that normally need weaving, braiding or some type of hook and needle action to give them form.
Pieces that hung varied in theme. Beverage bottle caps and pull tabs, discarded bike parts, fabric and trinket fetishes covered string to make collages from miscellaneous materials. Other presentations were more playful, with objects inviting patrons to touch.
Strings Attached
Art Without Boarders quotes exhibit curator Becky Tesch as wanting to do Things on a String to give artists a chance to re-center themselves with a light-hearted exercise. However, fearlessly string also tied up spiritual beliefs, unexpected emotions and personal struggles. Here are snippets of what gallery goers saw.
Hanging Out
Adam Horwitz craftily arranged oblong spheroid shaped eggs from very thing filament thread, so from afar they appeared to hover off of the ground. We all know were eggs belong, but upon closer examination, the shell plays host to the bird bedding.
In a shredded tire, two stuffed toys propped as if on a yard swing sit perilously. In place of a chain, a seat belt hoists Albin Erhart’s representation off of ground level. Let’s hope everyone was okay.
A face of Buddha in bronze, surrounded by black threads and weighted by a deep red tassel pulls a black string taught, it’s pinned to the ceiling. Angela Smith channels her meditative energy through a low impact movement process called Nia. Calling for balance Angela Smith offers a Buddhist talisman.
Curator, Becky Tesch featured 12 works in Things on a String, some of which focused primarily on rendering bike parts indistinguishable from their designed purpose by force and, in the case of a multiple bike chains, by illusion.
David Tesch’s “things” were on strings but didn’t last long, as warm air heated the colored ice molds, recessed from their cups that caught the drips of melt, as gravity returned them to their vessels as liquid.
Finding the key to anything happens partly by chance but also by persistence. An interesting game, invented by Jessica Poor and Rob Hoffman, pushed the patience of its avian role players. Key seekers strenuously tried to find the key that unlocked each of two birdhouses containing a hidden messages inside.
A dream catcher hovered above for those who took Judy Debrosky’s instructions to lay on the floor and rest my head on a pillow and gaze up.
Several older generation recording devices unwound provided enough length for Laura Gorzek to symbolically part with memories held in place by cassette tape magnetized film.
Knotted into macrame cords, bobby pins peeked out of Maggie Sasso’s string set, creating pincers for holding.
MARN’s Things on a String is kid friendly and on display until August 13.
A Knock-Out, Champion Chicken
It’s Wednesday and nothing else will do but fish for dinner. Where to? Thinking through my mental map quest, Colossus Gyros on 84th and Lisbon comes to mind. Riding the back roads, I get to the triangle corner of the Colossus storefront and across the street the Po Po got some dude pulled over who is doing a little too much explaining. I look over to Colossus. Closed! I thought that place was a local staple! I mush on, turning the corner to head West on Lisbon.
An over-sized back-lit sign proclaiming Champion Chicken employs the help of a cartoon chicken wearing a boxing glove, a beacon shining to diner food and custard lovers on 88th and Lisbon. They have a few different menus with plenty of options, chicken, ribs, fish, shrimp, pizza, and burgers, and sides comprise most of the food. Custard in scoops and sundaes get piled as well. The fresh catch menu surprise is Blue Gill, fried crispy and not too salty. Don’t get your hopes up you won’t find catfish. Champion Chicken is open pretty late, Friday and Saturday until midnight. They also cater.
Skip Culver’s or JJ’s Chicken (originating in that place to the South they say is windy), if you’re in the neighborhood, Champion Chicken has been cooking up the goodness since 1959. Champion Chicken’s location is on 8718 W. Lisbon Avenue.
South East Asian in Silver City, Thai BBQ
Circling back to National Avenue from 34th and Scott, I nestle my wheels against the curb under a shade tree. I like spicy food, my hands don’t like hot steering wheels. The city bustles on 35th and National like the pulse of a hyper-tensed vein. People activity registers high in Silver City, as gnarled wills eek out gritty and working-class livelihoods.
Too hot to stay indoors, the neighbors gather on door steps outside of the Asian International Market and speak in an Asian dialect I do not understand, most likely Hmong. Walking up the block to Thai BBQ, passing windows full of American immigrant authenticity, I make a snap unwarranted judgment that I am going to love this Thai dining experience. Reaching the eatery, I ascend the stairs inside to see adorned, with spices, tables creating islands of various sizes for diner’s to escape McWorld.
A tremendous number of religious themes, possibly more so than Cafe Corazon, emblazon Thai BBQ’s interior. Gold painted molding breaks up the deep red trim glazing the walls. Figures of Ganesha and Vishnu accompanied by ornate lanterns and fixtures keep the eyes looking around for more. Departure from the sacred happens in blank wall space, filled with pictures of staged menu items on plates advertising the most popular and rare entrée. Like all good Thai restaurants, you will not lack choices, 101 dishes fill the menu. Amazingly each meal is a little different.
After being seated a middle age gentleman approaches the table, our server. He utters English in a thick accent and perfect grammar of his native language. He has a wry smile that is not completely showing, and issues banter implicitly asking if we would like more time with the menu. Feeling at home as a Thai food veteran, I truly can’t decide what to select. The menu consists of the standard fare: fried rice, rice noodles, fried rice noodles, papaya salads and curries of all varieties. Shrimp, tilapia and duck appear alongside chicken, et al, as the meat choice for each.
My dining buddy selects the Ginger Curry, and I am plain addicted to fat rice noodle with basil, commonly know as Drunken Noodle. Then the inevitable question arises, “How spicy for you?” I want 4 out of 5, and the server looks at me imagining the face of the last 11 Americans to say that. No testament to the quality or flavor of the meal, I would eventually put the self-serve table chili sauces to use.
A tepid but savory soy milk drink and rice wrap spring rolls fried to perfection satiate my wait. A flat screen television beams recorded Thai pop music videos that have already made the dining experience well worth it. The server moves to the background near the fruit smoothy station, in front of kitchen entrance, pins a cordless phone between his shoulder and ear to chat while counting receipts on a Saturday afternoon. Suddenly a scene flashes in my head that I am on location for a Jean Claude Van Damme action sequence for a straight to DVD flick.
The food arrives and I quickly snap back to reality. Steaming hot spices, singe the combination of meats, vegetables and noodles placed before me, copiously filling quaint china ware accompanied by customary communal sticky rice. It’s 90 degrees outside and the air conditioning maintains a relatively cool climate in the mid-70′s. These conditions only encourage my appetite for chilies.
As expected Drunken Noodle takes my mouth to a familiar place, that of wanting seconds. Having asked for a sample of my friend’s Ginger Curry, my sentiments quickly erased all memory of Drunken Noodle and embraced fully that Thai BBQ’s curry recipe easily could take the title of the best I have ever tasted. Keeping custom with all great Thai restaurants, the unfinished portions whisked away return stuffed inside durable Asian style paper take-out boxes.
Not for everyone, Local Trolley recommends Thai BBQ only to the most experienced and hardcore Thai food lovers. I’m from the camp that expects certain things from Thai food restaurants and it’s not plastic trays that look like they came from the Froedtert medical complex, with dainty helpings of pasta and red curry powder from Sysco sprinkled on it, and no rice!. I suspect the Silver City neighborhood alone will keep unappreciative diners away. A superb value Thai BBQ courses range from $8-$12.
Art for the Birds, Lynden Sculpture Gardens
Giant forms of steel and other various materials, some jagged, some smooth, some anthropomorphic, recline on the sprawling lawn of the Lynden Sculpture Garden. A great scene for artists, couples, families and outdoorsy people, or all of the above, the Lynden Sculpture Garden has tours both guided and unguided. However, this coming Sunday at 12:30p another cause can bring you to the Lynden confines.
Art for the Birds came about as an attempt to decrease the number of birds that go careening into window panes during the summer and fall months. The Lynden Sculpture Gardens will host an afternoon of crafty-ness as they create a collage for the Lynden Gallery building designed to alert birds to presence of windows. Between 12:30 and 2:30p on July 10th, you can add aesthetically pleasing and bird deterring digital images for the collage. Bring you digital cameras and cool photo ideas along.
The Lynden Sculpture Gardens, which actually more resembles mid-sized park, features over 50 exquisite monumental industrial and traditional sculptures in the garden. Currently, on exhibit at the Lynden Gallery is artwork by Amy Cropper and Stuart Morris entitled Inside/Outside. The Lynden Sculpture Garden also hosts other periodic events such as Yoga in the Garden, which happens Sunday’s at 1:00p.
Even if you can’t make Art for the Birds or Yoga in the Garden, the Lynden Sculpture Garden is open Friday through Wednesday for the Summer months, a great setting to spend a relaxing afternoon whenever you might have a chance.
The 4th, Summerfest, with or without you…
Half way through the year, our Leviathan, our Body Politic, our Country celebrates its independence from the Great Britain. Here in Milwaukee, we commemorate with the best of them other cities in our Union. The Big Bang already teamed up with Summerfest to open the World Biggest Music Festival with an impressive fireworks display.
We didn’t have a man running on wind currents 100 feet in the air over the Marcus Amphitheater, but the good folks organizing the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony would have been proud. Of course WISN Channel 12 can help you re-live the finale to the tune of that one famous opera.
Fireworks were invented in China, and now they are sold on State highway frontage roads.
Wait, is Summerfest going on? This is Brew City…
The Fondy Farmer’s Market (looky here)
It’s the largest in the area and it opened last week Saturday. Field greens, green onions and chinese broccoli are available however, this time of year The Fondy Market stands out for its prepared foods. Fresh from the grill burgers, brats, corn on the cob and even smoked turkey legs, make great outdoor meals. Spring rolls and other Asian dishes mix up the market menu. Walnut Way Conservation Corp also sells fresh honey from bees that had access to peach tree blossoms.
On Milwaukee did an nice article on The Fondy Market on the eve of the market’s opening day last Saturday. Located on 22nd and Fond du Lac Ave. just north of North Avenue, The Fondy Market has off street parking on the Meineke Street side for your convenience.
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The Vliet Street Green Market (looky here)
The Washington Park Partners sponsor the Vliet Street Green Market, a Sunday farmer’s market in the midst of Washington Park, on 4420 W. Vliet Street. It features food, live music and crafts in a community that is a hot bed of Fair Trade awareness and neighborhood building.
Great business like Amaranth Bakery, Birdie’s Cafe and the fair trade shop Four Corners of the World , a central organization in founding Fair Trade Day observance in Milwaukee, make their home in the Washington Park area. Milwaukee Artist Resource Network (MARN) just circulated an e-mail call for crafts persons, artists and musicians interested in participating in the Green Market to contact Bess Earl at beumcs@sbcglobal.net.
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US Ping Pong Championships (looky here)
Everybody’s talking about it, and its going on until July 4th. WUWM even did a radio news story about it. Can it take the place of a cook out? We can thank Forrest Gump for introducing us to Table Tennis, not to be confused with Ping Pong played by locals in the Third Ward’s Spin. Right now and for the rest of the summer, and when open, On Milwaukee’s Jeff Sherman reported that you can play ping-pong free at the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Chase Bank Plaza and at Mitchell airport, and these places too for free on Killerspin tables… But in the meanwhile you can get inspired to appropriately wear resale gym shorts and a head band at the Frontier Airlines Center.
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PBR Fest (looky here)
The A.V. Club reported that on Sunday July 3rd PBR Fest can cure your Summerfest blues (they mention some other random stuff too). I can attest to PBR Fest being extra cool. It’s just too bad it’s not on the same day as New Belgian Brewery’s Tour de Fat like last year, a rare orbit crossing of fests. PBR Fest keeps only PBR flowing, on the block between Burnhearts and Hi-Fi, has a main stage underplayed by sidewalk stages, and usually both entertain. If I’m not mistaken, if you really want to go to Summerfest you can stumble up the block to The Highbury and catch the shuttle, if I’m wrong you can just get more drinks at The Highbury (actually not as bad as the first photo slide show photo looks).
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The Band Shell at Washington Park (looky here)
Among other great things you can do in the Milwaukee County Park System you can see music performed in a band shell. July 6 opens the Band Shell Concert Series with a Leahys Luck performance. They may look a little smarmy, but have you every heard an Irish Folk band that didn’t force a jig out of you?
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Wiz Khalifa at Summerfest July 5 (looky here)
Phrophetic and Pizzle’s Green and Yellow gave Wisco a busting Super Bowl theme song this past winter, adapted from Pittsburgh repping Wiz Khalifa’s single Black and Yellow (86 million views on one post, woa). Wiz’s track brutally pays homage to the Steeler’s football franchise. Snoop Dogg did a remix for the Steelers that Lil Wayne crushed on behalf of the Pack. If you don’t know what happened, and why this will make one of Summerfest’s top shows (hopefully without incident), well you probably were hating on Kanye (Christina Daglas’s point and JC Poppe’s counter-point) like those JS Online commenters the A.V. Club heckled (scroll down the page of the link), and you mind as well…
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The Lakefront Segway Tour
…take the Lakefront Segway Tour from Veteran’s Park…
History is History
Last thing, in light of inevitable mass teacher layoffs in MPS (a story that made CNN), let’s recognize Third Coast Digest for exercising journalistic freedom by printing a impeccable selection of prose, in a piece excerpting the original underground media star Frederick Douglas (makes you wonder how long public education has been under attack). Happy 4th MKE!!
Little Swiss There, New Glarus Brewing Co.
Sitting at the bar of your choice enjoying a cold beverage, another couple of merry drinkers belly-up while the bar tender asks “What’ll have?” An “Uh…” follows a pause, then with confidence you hear “I’ll have a Spotted Cow,” and “Same here.” If you’re in a Wisconsin drinking establishment, New Glarus Brewery’s signature flavor most likely flows as certainly as water from kitchen taps.
Labor of Love
Achieving this level of ubiquitousness, reaching par with Miller’s “Lite” craze of the 1970′s and 80′s, no doubt explains New Glarus Brewery’s expansion. On a hill just outside of the half-mile drag through downtown stands the new brewing facility, a grand Swiss-style chalet with gift shop, outdoor beer garden, and layout geared toward self-guided tour. A fitting tribute to founder Deb Carey and her husband, brew meister Dan Carey, the two together lead a fearless craft brew juggernaut. Deb Carey also holds the distinction of first American woman to found a brewery, now grown into Wisconsin largest craft brewer.
A leader in the Wisconsin Brewers Guild, Deb Carey openly voices her support of fellow craft brewers in opposition to Scott Walker’s latest idea to “help” business. Essentially, Walker wants to prevent craft breweries from selling directly to retailers. Wisconsin’s craft brewers fermenting more than 50,000 barrels per year (possibly amended up to 300,000 barrels/yr) would by default face a requirement to distribute the beer through licensed whole sellers.
The Taste of Joy
In the gift shop, availability of vast amounts of New Glarus swag and other products distract only momentarily from the check-out counter with 5 taps for dispensing New Glarus’s latest brews. For $7, beer-tasters can have a pint of their choice and keep the glass, or for $3.50 have three sample drafts and keep the taster. In addition to beer, mugs, pints, growlers, sweatshirts, games, maps, inflatable cows, local cheese curds and countless other chotchkies wait for purchase. The most unlikely item, New Glarus Brewery’s line of personal hygiene products, reveals the lesser known fact that hops have antiseptic qualities crafty people can harness for beer soaps.
Pretty straight forward, the tour allows visitors to walk through a small hallway displaying master brewer and other awards before entering the brewery proper. With early stage beer inside, four large brassy lauter tuns hold watch like British Royal Guards in the main foyer. Pipes and vessels wind down the hall leading the way to the relatively small but highly efficient bottling area. Bottles of the brew de jour filled, capped and labeled with speed that dizzies the mind, receive care from a few guys holding watch for flubs like bottles tipping over on the rollers in the holding area.
Can’t forget the Swiss
As local folklore has it, New Glarus even charmed John Dilliger. A quaint town with tons of personality, New Glarus keeps its heritage foremost with small touches like the town’s chiropractor displaying its sign in large swiss letters spelled “Chiroprakter”. Countless other buildings in town maintain traditional Swiss architectural aesthetic. The Brewery offers a lunch coupon booklet to encourage tour goers to explore town. The participating restaurants have a New Glarus brew deal, most pour a free pint with lunch.
Puempel’s Olde Tavern holds the coveted first page of the coupon book. Their lunch fare is simple enough, bar tender/cooks whip up pizza, brats, hot dogs, cold cuts or salad sandwiches on rye bread. However, for those seeking an authentic experience, Local Trolley suggests Puemple’s liverwurst and Green County Limburger cheese sandwich on rye with horseradish. Luckily you eat with your mouth and not with you nose, this sandwich has the stinky lines wafting that Loony Tunes used to joke about, but it is awfully good.
The Next New Glarus Gerenation
New Glarus’s current brews for tasting while you tour include Two Women (a classic country lager, a can’t lose choice), Cabin Fever (Honey Bock, aka Blatz-on-tap but way better), and Local Trolley’s favorite Moon Man (“No Coast” Pale Ale). Among other qualities that make New Glarus Brewery Tour great, if you like one of the beers you taste you can ask for a New Glarus Brew request card (not to be confused with Quest Card) scribble your favorite brew and pass it on to your favorite drinking establishment. This practice is a great courtesy available to New Glarus fans only possible under the current beer distribution system.
Many who have taken the New Glarus tour before June 2009 probably remember the old brewery on the front edge of town. Still operational, the original Riverside facility offers in-depth guided “hard-hat” tours Fridays at 1:00pm. Here smaller special batches of unplugged, thumbprint, seasonal and oak barrel brews ferment.
Beer Enthusiasts may shop or tour the new brewing facility Monday through Sunday 10:00am to 4:00pm. The New Glarus Brewery location is approximately 2 hours from Milwaukee just west of Madison off of HWY 39. A trip to New Glarus may sound a little strenuous, so if a pilgrimage is not in the cards you can use the New Glarus beer finder to start a beer treasure hunt.
(If you have interest in supporting Wisconsin’s Craft Brewers do your home work, then find and contact your State representative here)
Mostly Mammals and Minds, J.M. Kohler Art Center
An hour jaunt up I-43 will land you in Sheboygan, WI, a stylish lakeside neighbor with maritime charm. John Michael Kohler (Gilded Age Wisconsin industrialist and famed namesake of fine toilet and faucet fixtures) felt Sheboygan, at population of 15,000, had too many people a decade into the 20th century to have room for his factory. Cuddled by a patch of forest a few miles away, Kohler, WI became the cradle of iron castings, guiding water through America’s homes and beyond.
The Kohler estate stayed active in Sheboygan and opened the John Michael Kohler Art Center 1967. Completely remodeled during the early 2000′s, the JMKAC greets visitors with a reclaimed historic facade of the town’s library, now serving as a gateway into JMKAC’s modest concrete sculpture garden.
Beasts of Burden
In the JMKAC gallery space, Animal Magnetism shows its last artwork selection in the exhibition entitled Animal Instinct: Allegory, Allusion and Anthropomorpism. Animal Instinct suspends tremendous visual interpretations of animals interacting in their natural habitat, with humans and the human imagination. Multiple artistic techniques and styles represented challenge the viewer’s reality often.
Several large John James Audubon encyclopedic depictions of North American wildlife, from the Milwaukee Art Museum collection, highlight the Animal Instinct installation. Although Audubon sat as a foremost anthropologist of his time, his work through today’s lens appears to project human anxiety on his subject matter. With this tendency, Audubon readily cohabits with the mostly impressionist and surrealist presentations currently found at JMKAC.
Animal Instinct also contains selection of excellent contemporary art pieces. Possessing similar affect to Audubon’s, George Boonrujy inks extraordinary illustrated portraits of animals. Rendering them absent of their habitat, Boonrujy, with or without intent, subtly personifies his impressions of animals surviving life. An artist with Wisconsin ties, Gina Litherland overtly weaves animal life into her graphic story telling. Through her chosen medium, improbable interactions with human beings take place that Litherland makes seem mundane.
Heaping Thoughts
In the adjacent gallery, Animal Magnetism transitions into the next JMKAC exhibit Hiding Places: Memory in the Arts. In addition to professional artists, Hiding Places notably calls attention to work of self-taught artists considered by medical standards psychologically impaired (or gifted). Capturing the ruminations of artist savants, Hiding Places allows entry into forbidden mental spaces of several contemporary artists.
New York artist William Powhida shares small pencil sketched faces of Everyone [Powihida has] Ever Met from Memory (that [Powhida] Can Remember). You might not care to know the guy that his female roommate brought around that he wanted to beat up, but surely some of the characters sketches that accompany his sketches will provide mild amusement. For ponder, Gregory Blackmon visually gives a Complete Musical Review of the Augmented Triad Chords, along with other illustrated lists of boats, planes, six-legged pests, and pit-bulls.
Several other mental feats, among others, positioned for view are the works of Mark Fox who kept lists of popular cereals and t.v. lineups and attempted to draw, cut and 3-D collage everything that he ever owned. Wisconsin native George Widener devised and meticulously illustrated a method of picking out dates falling on Friday, on which interesting things will happen. A host of additional mind-boggling Widener works address infamous dates in history, all oriented around numbers and thoughts chronicled in tiny penmanship covering every corner of the paper.
The John Michael Kohler Art Center (608 New York Avenue, Sheboygan) is not to be confused with the Kohler Design Center (the toilet museum). However, the Kohler folks made sure the bathrooms at JMKAC were pretty impressive too.
Significant, road construction prevents access to the JMKAC from 6th Street. Gain access to New York Ave from the downtown side, on 7th, where you can park complementary for 2 hours, and 25 cents an hour thereafter.
Animal Magnetism closes June 5th, 2011. Hiding Places: Memory in the Arts officially opens June 26th, 2011.
Fair and Fun, Fair Trade Day 2011
Around town last Saturday, a well-knit community of small proprietors endeavored to share their passion for global economic justice. To commemorate Fair Trade Day, Milwaukee’s shops that uphold fair trade ethics opened their doors to promote awareness of wares and edibles produced around the world. Fair Trade Day celebrates growth of consciousness that as Americans we buy a lot of goods from developing countries at deep discounts, at the expense of workers the with few labor rights, or miss out on goods from producers lacking capital and access to infrastructure to sell them Stateside. In 2007, Milwaukee became the third Fair Trade city in the United States.
Wake Up World
Efforts to break last year’s record of a 65,000 person Fair Trade Coffee Break, put the delectable coffee bean center stage. Although Fair Trade Day heightens awareness of fair trade practices in general, coffee-growing symbolizes the struggle for economic fairness worldwide. Ubiquitous in American culture, coffee drinkers can play a role in ensuring economic justice with little effort and at a marginal expense. In addition to coffee, The Milwaukee Fair Trade Coalition encouraged a variety of options to experience fair trade ranging from jewelry, clothing and artwork to household cleaning products. Outpost Foods supported Fair Trade Day by offering a free prize for making stops at six participating fair trade locations. Here’s where Local Trolley stopped.
Grace Place Coffee Lounge
250 E. Juneau, Milwaukee
Stop one, Grace Place Coffee Lounge in Juneau Village, may seem unlikely but not so. In a quaint expansion to the main church building of Grace Lutheran Church, Grace Place Coffee serves fair trade coffee in line with the Church’s mission of promoting better livelihoods in less developed countries. Its quiet and modern, a great place to study or work on a project. Grace Place Coffee sits right in the midst of Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) providing a convenient alternative to an otherwise coffee deprived area. During Fair Trade Day, Grace Place Coffee House featured Fair Trade Organic Coffee courtesy of Coffee with a Conscience.
Brewing Grounds for Change
2008 N. Farwell Ave, Milwaukee
Expecting a major fair trade coffee bash at Brewing Grounds for Change? As a focal point of community action and global awareness on the Lower Eastside, at Brewing Grounds for Change Fair Trade Day equates to business as usual. A great place representing a noble cause, Brewing Grounds nestles hidden gems such as alternative news sources from around the country and many announcements of local educational, creative and social causes. As one of the few later evening coffee shops, the opportunity to gather, read and converse carries on past 9pm. The non-profit status of Brewing Grounds allows much more room for social justice and human interest priorities, anchoring the ethics of non-commercialism still at home on the Lower Eastside. The volunteer staff shares their time so that more of the fair trade proceeds make it back to the coffee growers of less developed countries. WUWM 89.7 did a nice piece on Fair Trade Day that featured Brewing Grounds for Change among others. During Fair Trade Day, Brewing Grounds offered a $1 cup of Guatemalan blend coffee.
Third World Handcrafts Shoppe
5229 N. Capitol Drive, Milwaukee
As one of the oldest fair trade vendors in Milwaukee, Capitol Heights’ Third World Handcrafts Shoppe spent the last 22 years offering a quality and unique mix of jewelry, artifacts, religious icons, and clothing from around the world, including the West Bank, Kenya and India. Founders Jerry and Eunice Koepke, inspired by a sister church’s shop in Nebraska, began buying handcrafted items at prices that would support a family for a year, in countries they visited while on Lutheran Missions.
The idea of Missionaries conjures up a spectrum of opinions, however making a concerted effort to contribute to local economies while on “God’s business” deserves commendation. Third World Handcrafts operates as a non-profit ministry of the Capitol Drive Lutheran Church. Located in the heart of the Northside neighborhood Capitol Heights (Capitol Court to most locals), Third World Handcrafts is the unsung founder of the Fair Trade movement in Milwaukee. WJTM4′s Carol Meekins did a story on Third World Handcrafts as a part of her series Positively Milwaukee two years ago this week. The shop’s fair trade item of the day was Mexican silver jewelry.
Fair Trade for All
8730 W. North Avenue, Milwaukee County
Capping what could become Milwaukee’s most prominent street of continuous business activity, North Avenue, the street’s west end houses Fair Trade for All specialty gift shop. Attracting numerous curious shoppers, Fair Trade for All’s assortment of wall ornamentation, sculptures, clothing, bags and other eye and soul soothing consumables fill every display shelf vacancy. Some of FTA’s rare accessories benefit specific causes such as jewelry made from the ivory-alternative Tagua nut, crafted to combat the disgusting practice of poaching elephants. Handbags and computer cases designed from spent Cambodian rice and fish feed bags by Malia help battle the illicit sex trade. Family owned and operated, Fair Trade for All models sustainable and just business practices daily. On Fair Trade Day Fair Trade for All spot-lit Thai jewelry.
Four Corners of the World
5401 W. Vliet St, Milwaukee
On 54th and Vliet, Washington Heights cradles Four Corners of the World a non-profit fair trading post. Four Corners of the World offers many of the essential fair trade products such as accessories, chocolate and coffee. However, a few specific fair trade brands stand out at Four Corners. Available specialties include Malia Designs, Devine Chocolate, and a Four Corners of the World special blend coffee (along with many other blend varieties) by Madison-based coffee co-op Just Coffee. Good Paper, Four Corners’ featured Fair Trade Day product particularly notable for engaging an industry not readily associated with fair trade, assists communities in areas of the world like Rwanda, Manila, Philippines, and the Himalayas that have really struggled during the industrial and post-industrial era. Good Paper’s products offer an array of fine handmade greeting cards, stationary, and journals.
More than just a trading post, Four Corners of the World spawned from the desire of Southeastern Wisconsin Initiative for Fair Trade (SWIFT) to give Milwaukee a hub for environmental sustainability and high-road economic education. Links to film, periodicals and the Speakers’ Bureau (a listing of cost-free speakers that offer specialized knowledge on sustainability and economic justice topics) and many other Fair Trade resources can all be found at Four Corners of the World.
Future Green and Cafe Tarragon
2352 S. Kinnickinnic, Milwaukee
Subdued and tranquil, Future Green has an outdoor feel indoors. It’s simple, a bit rustic and frankly will bring you in touch with your natural side. Sweatshop-free forest trail or urban-adventurer-ready polo shirts and other active-wear hang out waiting to be whisked away. Contemporary and ethic styles of women’s clothing can also be purchased. Novel items like the featured Guatemalan dolls stand by preparing to brighten the recipients’ day. The sustainable products available set Future Green apart from the solely Fair Trade oriented shops. One-stop shopping for sustainable cleaning products, housewares, home flooring and Photovoltaic Cells (Solar panels) is amazingly possible at Future Green. Cafe Tarragon, tucked in the back of the boutique, attracts taste buds that hanker for vegetarian and gluten-free dishes. Cafe Tarragon’s menu offers only vegetarian cuisine, and as an added bonus, a gluten-free bread alternative to the regular baguette. Gluten-free desserts taunt you as you nibble deliciousness, and believe me their entree satisfies cravings.
The Fair Trade Community is thriving in Milwaukee and the beautiful thing about the movement is that it is truly a Citywide effort. A listing of all participating shops in Milwaukee, and surrounding areas, is available on Milwaukee Fair Trade Coalition’s website.
Cheeky Cool, Cafe Corazon
To festive Milwaukeeans, no opportunity to have the summer’s first Margarita presents itself better than Cinco de Mayo. Cafe Corazon sits as a kitsch landmark on the Beerline bike trail, happy to oblige distilled agave cravings despite Cafe Corazon’s Puerto Rican inspiration. Nestled just North of Burleigh on Bremen Street deep in Riverwest (the unofficial home of Polish flats) uninhibited good times radiate from Cafe Corazon’s craggy triangular-shaped building.
The traditional cantina spirit lives inside Cafe Corazon. Patrons converse jovially, aided by house specialty libations removing any inhibitions one might have of sharing minimal space with the maximum number bodies. There will be no cagey American sensibilities requiring acres and privacy here. Diners in wait stand, sit or lean with beverages clutched and mingle with neighbors.
Decor tinted with teal tropical ocean hues, starkly contrasted with blood-red bar and wood trim, give backdrop to the ample religious relics and Catholic keepsakes commemorating the Christ’s Passion that occupy every free nook. Enjoying more than one of the tastiest and tartest mouth searing Margaritas served on record will certainly beg an extraordinary test of self-control, to avoid unseemly acts beckoning God’s forgiveness. Fortunately the Parish Priests of this Mass, of Latin-inspired cuisine, shepherd wayward appetites with insatiable dishes.
Good things come to those who wait for a place at one of the six coveted table tops tended by the cafe staff. Part of the Cafe Corazon experience must include the faux pas of wetting your appetite by eying others’ food while on stand-by. There is no denying that every food combination appears absolutely delicious, urgently flying out of the kitchen quickly uniting with the ordering guest.
Certain details such as the thinly sliced medallions of radish garnishing the tacos, the secret house tomatillo and cilantro-based green salsa or flavorfully doctored black beans, compliment the traditional Latin menu nicely. Plates of tacos, enchiladas or quesadillas with choice of filling, including the lesser known Mechada (slow cooked pulled beef) anchor the menu. Sea Food aptly varies the menu further and all dishes have a vegetarian option. Keeping with sustainable ethics, Cafe Corazon uses Restaurant Supported Agriculture and raises its meat locally.
Cafe Corazon serves up tastiness Tuesday through Saturday 11am to 10pm. Saturday and Sunday offers brunch starting at 10am.
