place shout: milwaukee

Being a pretty big techno-geek (for now anyway, but that's a whole separate post), I spend a lot of time on the internet researching programming languages and new technologies. Occasionally my research brings me to some cool, new websites. This time I was researching a language called Ruby on Rails and came across a semi-recently released site built on Rails called Placeshout.

In a nutshell,

"Placeshout isn't about volume - it's about trying to express the positives and negatives of a destination in as few of words as possible. If people agree, that "shoutout" moves up...if they don't, the shoutout moves down and begins to disappear."

So I went to check it out to see Rails on display. It's a cool site however Milwaukee was missing (not yet added by someone) from the list of cities so I added it and put in a quick "shout" for The Lodge. It was just the first thing to come to me and I just wanted to get Milwaukee on the map so to speak. So check out Placeshout and add some shouts for Milwaukee to let the rest of the world know what a cool destination this is.

pleasant friday evening...

Friday night Kirsten and I headed over to the still relatively new Bayshore (Mall) Town Center up in Whitefish Bay to walk around and catch some dinner. I really like what they've done up there with the outdoor mall concept and all. Walking around, I feel like I'm walking through a little city with all the shops and food places and greenery, fountain, etc.

I remember when the Bayshore Town Center was first announced. I worked in Menomonee Falls at the time (yes I do now as well, but that was my first stint up here) and a couple people, one in particular, would go on and on about what a terrible and stupid idea it was to build something with an outdoor concept here in Milwaukee. "It would only be used like 6 months a year!" I'm not sure where the 6 months came from. I am pretty sure that people's legs work all year round but I'm not no scientist or nothing. Anyway, like most people that enjoy ripping on our great city, this person lived way out in some little town somewhere, near Jackson I think, and only came downtown like twice a year. In other words, she was fully qualified to make judgements on things like Bayshore, expanding the freeways, parking, etc.


ANYWAY, Kirsten and I hit up a couple spots and then finally settled on eating at Bravo! Cucina Italiana. Our initial impression was not good though. Our server had this weird robot vibe going on and I'm not one for messing with robots because they're made of metal, and robots are strong.* We almost left after waiting ten minutes for Mr. Roboto to bring our sodas. I thought that was a little excessive and we discussed leaving but just then, as if sensing our thoughts using his human emotion detector, he returned with our drinks. Then the experience was all up hill. Our food was fantastic. Much better than I anticipated. I had the chicken and shrimp scampi pasta. Delicious. Kirsten had...well I don't remember what Kirsten had, but I do remember she liked it a lot. To sum up, check it out you'll love it, but beware of the robot.


* For you Todd

2007, bars, colbert

Happy 2007. I hope the first 8 days of this new year have treated you well. Or, if you're like me, you had a few days off for the holidays so now you're way behind in work and stressed out.

New Year's Eve at Lakefront Brewery was a great time. For a mere $35 you could drink all the yummy Lakefront beer you could, which I did. They also had a bunch of food including Kirsten's favorite and thrice weekly meal, pizza, which made her happy. King Solomon was playing and was excellent. I wasn't sure if I would like listening to Reggae music all night but they were really good.

After the party wrapped up there, our group headed over to a local favorite, Wolski's, for a couple final drinks before heading home around 3:00 AM. And since I was on vacation, I slept until 2 the next day. Ahhhhhhh.

On a somewhat related note, my friends and I have continued to make progress on the mighty list. It currently stands at 191 but a couple may have to fall off. As the list grows and becomes more of a local celebrity in it's own way, it is the feeling of all involved that I need to put some parameters around it for when the day comes and I'm invited to go on the Stephen Colbert show to discuss it. That way I'll be prepared to defend it's mightiness. An so it grows...

Milwaukee Area Bars I've Patroned

Okay, this may be a little sad, but since I have the list, I thought I might as well post it!

1. 1225 Water
2. 4th Base
3. Angelo's
4. Ardor
   
5. Art Bar
6. Art's Performance Center
7. At Random
8. Axel's
9. Balzac
   
10. BAR Milwaukee
11. Bar Louie
    
12. Barossa
13. Bavarian Inn
14. BBC
15. Benno's
16. Big Mouth Frog's
17. Blu
18. Brew City
19. Brother's
    
20. Bruno's
21. Bryant's
22. BW3
23. Buck Bradley's
24. Cafe Hollander
    
25. Caffrey's
26. Calderone Pub
    
27. Cans
28. Caroline's
    
29. Cecelia's
30. Centanni
31. Champion's
32. Circa
33. City Hall
34. Club Brady
35. Club Havana
36. Colonol Hart's
37. Comet
    
38. County Clare
39. Cozmo's
    
40. Cush
41. Dino's
42. Doug's Place
    
43. Dragon Lounge
44. Dubliner
45. Elsa's
46. Emerald City
47. Euro Bar
48. Evan's
49. Eve
50. Fantasia
51. Fat Daddy's
52. Fifth Ward Pub & Grill
    
53. Fitzgibbon's
54. Flannery's
55. Fluid
56. Foundation
57. Franklin's
58. Fritz's
59. GameTime
60. Grant's Pub
    
61. Greg's Place
    
62. Gym
63. Haggerty's
64. Halliday's
65. Harpo's
66. Have a Nice Day Café
67. Highland House
68. HiHat
69. HiHat Garage
70. Hooligan's
71. Hot Shot's
72. House of Guinness
73. Jamo's
74. Jo Cat's
75. John Hawk's Pub
76. Judge's
77. Just Art's
    
78. Kelly's Bleachers
79. Kenadee's
80. Koz's Mini Bowl
    
81. Landmark
82. Leff's Lucky Town
83. Legend's
84. Libby's
    
85. Liquid Johnny's
86. London Bridge
87. Long Wong's
88. Lucas' on State
89. Lucille's
90. Luke's
91. Magoo's
92. Major Goolsby's
93. Mantra
94. McGilicuddy's
95. McGinn's
    
96. Mel's
97. Miller Time Pub
98. Milwaukee Ale House
99. Mo's Irish Pub
100. Moct
     
101. MRC's
102. Murphy's
103. My Office
104. Nessun Duerma
105. Nomad
106. Oak Barrel
107. O'Brien's
108. O'Connors
109. O'Danny's
110. OBG's
111. Old German Beer Hall
     
112. Onopa
113. Onyx
114. Paddy's Pub
115. Palms
116. Palomino
117. Park Bar
118. Pitch's
     
119. Points East Pub
120. Rascal's
121. Ray & Dot's
122. RC's
123. Red Light
124. Redroom
125. Riverhorse
     
126. Rock Bottom Brewery
127. Room 434
     
128. Roots Cellar
129. Rosie's
130. Safe House
131. Sauce
132. Scaffidi's Hideout
133. Scooter's Pub
     
134. Senior Frog's
135. Shaker's
     
136. Shepard's
137. Silver City
     
138. Silver Spring House
139. Sin Bin
     
140. Slim's
141. Sol Fire
142. Solberman's
     
143. Sommelier's Palette
144. Steny's
145. Stonefly
     
146. Stooge's
147. Stout Bros.
148. Swank
149. Swingin' Door
150. Taylor's
151. The Corner
152. The Eastsider
153. The Estate
154. The Harp
155. The Irish Pub
     
156. The Knick
157. The Lodge
158. The National Liquor Bar
159. The Room
     
160. The Roman Coin
161. The Social
162. The Tasting Room
163. The Uptowner
164. The White House
165. The Wicked Hop
166. This Is It
167. Three
168. Thurman's
169. Timer's
170. Tony's
171. Tracks
172. Treats
173. Trocadero
174. Trysting Place - Menomonee Falls
175. Trysting Place - Germantown
176. Turner's
177. Union Station Saloon
     
178. Up & Under
179. Velvet Room
180. Victor's
181. Village Pub
182. Vitucci's
183. Von Rothenburg's
184. Von Trier
185. Vox
186. Walker's Pint
187. Warehouse
188. Water Street Brewery
189. Wilbur's
190. Wolski's
191. Yesteryears
192. Yield
     
193. Y-Not
194. Y-Not II
195. Zad's
196. Zim's
     
197. Zur Krone's