The City That Made Beer Famous

The Milwaukee Public Market is the centerpiece of a re-energized Third Ward in Milwaukee.

It's a collection of shops - with fresh seafood; fresh deli items; coffee; pastry; and a couple of places to grab bites to eat.

Tucked between Water Street and Broadway just south of Interstate 794 - it's an attractive art deco style building with lots of windows and a second level with lots of seats for coffee, lunch, or working on a laptop.

Down the street the district stretches south several blocks with rehabbed old factory and office buildings reborn into restaurants and quaint shops.

The Retique is a hip-looking Goodwill Store on a busy corner.

There are high fashion places and a chocolate shop called the Red Elephant.

It's a very cool place to spend the day, and the day of our visit was perfect to enjoy lunch on the sidewalk of the Wicked Hop.


Their Pretzel bites are made fresh in the kitchen and taste out of this world.  The problem is the pretzels are so good - it's difficult to eat the delicious burger when it's made to order delights each of the senses.

A lunch like that calls for a walk, and one of the newest features in Milwaukee since I last had an opportunity to walk downtown is the river walk.

For blocks along the river stores and pleasant paths lined the Milwaukee River from one downtown thoroughfare to the next.

Further uptown, the former Pabst Brewery is getting new life as a site for offices, apartments, condos, and light industry in some of the 100 year old (or more) buildings that turned out the beer that made Milwaukee famous since 1844.

In the upcoming years, the industrial site will continue to spring to life and will be worth watching.  For now, even the most casual beer lover would enjoy the gift shop with hundreds of vintage collectible beer cans and other memorabilia from some of the brewers that the German immigrants brought to life.

Blatz, Schlitz, and Pabst are gone now - living on as craft beers produced by new brew-masters who paid for the old recipes.  It's really not a bad way to hang on to the past.

There are other places in Milwaukee yet to take in - the Art Museum on the lake; the Harley Davidson Museum, and taking a ride on the city trolley.

One other place that went unseen this trip that I just have to find - the Fonz who lives on in his leather jacketed glory along the River.