I honestly had no idea what to expect when I signed up to do this... had heard that it was a…read more"haunted" tour. Heard that it was a "Gothic" tour. Also heard that it was an "historical" tour. It was all of those and more! It started raining about an hour before we were supposed to meet, and was considering skipping out. I am SO glad that I made the decision to join the group. Rain or shine, good weather or inclement, I would recommend Gothic Milwaukee tours to anyone and everyone. Anna's love for history and Milwaukee, shine through her as she regales her followers with stories of fame and fortune, ballrooms and back allies. She. Is. A. HOOT!! I got goosebumps more than a few times, listening to her tell stories about what has happened behind Milwaukee's beautiful facade. All said and done it's about 90 minutes, and approximately 3 miles of walking. The terrain is easy, it's all on city sidewalks. And Anna does a fantastic job of attracting your eyes to all the amazing things that downtown Milwaukee has to offer. If you like ghost stories you need to book a tour with Gothic Milwaukee. If your love is history... Anna is your girl. If walking around and learning about architecture and cool "fun facts" about where all the businessman went for their lunch breaks (hint: it wasn't a soda shop), then you need to walk this walk! Just found out that Gothic Milwaukee also has self guided walking tours of Milwaukee in card form!! I am TOTALLY getting these for everyone for Christmas! What a great way to show people how great Milwaukee is AND get props for giving the coolest gift of the year!! I am happy. Thank you, Anna.

I really wasn't sure what to expect with this tour. The website www.gothicmilwaukee.com is pretty…read morebland, there's not a lot of information about the tours online as far as reviews go.....but DAMN this tour was WELL worth the $10! First and foremost, the tour guide Anna is phenomenal. Who knows if the stories are true (although doing some quick google research, all the stories seem to pan out!) She is very friendly, a great story teller, and really...really funny. The walking was light, with plenty of stops along the tour. Great stories about people you've heard about in Milwaukee, and some you haven't. The stories about the Pfister Hotel were really really interesting. This tour is definitely worth $10...and I'm looking forward to the Holiday tour as well.

Hilarious costumes on great people! You should come…read more Dudes & Walters & Maudes. Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what have yous. It's really just a silly & great time in the park. There are a number of beer vendors & White Russian booths. There are random Milwaukee fried festival foods. There are good time gals & fun lovin' fellas. They sell Big Lebowski merchandise that you can't find anywhere else. There are even more adult & more dude-like branches of this festival that infiltrate evening bowling lanes & perpetuate the tomfoolery through the weekend. It's another excuse to wear funny costumes with a lot of fun people & drink outside & joke around with new friends. If you can't find fun in Summertime Milwaukee, I can't help you. It'd be like going to Amsterdam & completely missing out on the tulips. Tulips.

I love everything about this event…read more For an entire weekend in September, nearly 175 buildings are free to enter and open to the public. There's everything from guided tours to pamphlet assisted self-guided tours to spots where you simply stop in and have a look around. We got to see inside places that we would never have otherwise had the opportunity to see. It's an amazing opportunity to get to know Milwaukee a little bit better (even if you're native to Milwaukee!) and the stories behind some of the beautiful buildings and architecture in our fair city. The stops we made this year were: +All Saints' Episcopal Cathedral +Ambassador Hotel +Basilica of St. Josaphat +Calvary Cemetery Chapel +Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist +The Fire Station on Broadway (the oldest fire company in Milwaukee, founded in 1839) +Frank Lloyd Wright's Burnham Block--American System-Built Homes +Summerfield United Methodist Church All the stops were extraordinary in their own way. My favorite was the Basilica. I had never been inside and it's breathtaking. Frank Lloyd Wright's Burnham Block was also fascinating and probably the most heavily guided of all the places we explored. My son enjoyed the Calvary Cemetery Chapel the most for the creep factor (a small chapel on the top of a hill surrounded by graves and containing crumbling tombs? He was delighted). Pro tip: They have a website which details all the stops. Our plan was to utilize that throughout the day to figure out where to go. However, (due to high volume traffic, I'm sure) the website was super slow on Sunday when we went. So, we used it to figure out our first stop (Ambassador Hotel) and then picked up the Doors Open paper guide there (which has all the same info as the website and each stop had a stack of them). I am seriously already looking forward to next year. Get to it!

Review 2400!! Doors…read moreOpen is one of my favorite MKE events, mostly because I am a huge nerd who loves architecture and our beautiful city! Fortunately I managed to marry a man who loves MKE history too, so we try to never miss this weekend. If you have not gone here are some of the stops I've really enjoyed: *Masonic temple on 30th and Wisconsin *Frank Lloyd Wright homes on Burnham *The Federal Courthouse *The model RR club in an old train station - this is the first year they've participated an it's truly a hidden gem! *Tge Joan of Arc chapel on MU's campus It's free, it's fun - be a tourist in your own town! Historic Milwaukee does a great job pulling this together every year - it just gets bigger and better. Many thanks to all the volunteers and docents who help make this event what it is. Also, they now have a mini block party on Michigan Ave - don't miss having a tasty drink from Swinging Door and a delicious empanadas from the Olano's cart!

The Wisconsin Beer Lovers Festival is always a good time…read more For an admission price of $60, you gain entrance, a souvenir tasting glass, and unlimited beer and food samples for the duration of the event (which for regular admission price, runs from 1-5pm, or you can pay a bit more to get in a bit earlier). Tons of amazing Wisconsin breweries and eateries are represented at the festival. Highlights for me on the food front were Bar Louie, who brought some amazing soft pretzels that they then dipped in some pretty rockin' queso and Maple Leaf Farms who were offering some duck meatballs that pretty much rocked my socks. As for beer...oh my gosh--with roughly 50 breweries representing--so much Wisconsin goodness! We had a blast trying the many wonderful offerings. There was definitely a beer to suit every palate. The festival takes place at the Bayshore Town Center (on the outdoor streets, which were blocked to traffic). In addition to beer and food, they have live music the duration of the event. Definitely an event I look forward to enjoying again and again. Get to it!

This was so much fun! I had never heard of it before but it is definitely worth it if you like…read morebeer, food, and live music. Luckily there's enough parking in the mall parking garages that we didn't have to look for a spot for long. There were so many breweries I love from Milwaukee & Madison and a ton I had never heard of before too. It was fun to try different versions of my favorites kinds of beer and plenty of new different flavors as well. (Buckets to dump them if you don't like it or want to not get drunk and try more.) A lot of people brought little lanyards or carriers for their tasting class which was smart because there were not a lot of high tops to set down your beer and a lot of the food required more than one hand. That being said there was an amazing variety of food. They had everything from salad, lettuce wrap shrimp tacos, specialty popcorn, cheese, pretzels with beer cheese, potstickers, Mac & cheese, bbq pizza, cold cut sandwiches, fudge, cookies, and more. A lot of places offered coupons or giveaways or things to buy too. The best part is the lines were never too long so you could definitely stop at every vendor if you had a few hours and weren't too full!

If you have kids that are into fire trucks or firefighters, this is a must-visit opportunity for…read morethe family. Heck, if you yourself are interested in some Milwaukee Firefighter history, you'll want to check this out too! It's currently open to the public every first Sunday of the month (April through December) from noon to 3pm. It's free to look around but donations are accepted. While we were there, there were a handful of retired firefighters (with experience from that fire house) on hand to give tours and answer questions. We found it to be very informative and fascinating. Had no idea until recently that that was even there and open. I'm pretty sure you can schedule a visit too, if their current open house hours don't work for you.

An absolutely amazing place to visit. Whether you're a child, teen, young adult, or older... you…read morewill love the history. Plenty of people around to answer questions also and give you greater insight.

Since I'm a train fan I stumbled upon this little Milwaukee transit museum in Cudahy while surfing…read moreYelp for some obscure museum type places to check out. The place is on a main drag with a Main Street feel because of the diversity of the business and I got parking one door down. The place is in the lower space for now with the upper opening in the future with plans for a big layout I was told so the place is a work in progress and about a year old now. The lower level Is a treasure trove of local transit artifacts from the past with a model railroad layout, signs, street car items, models etc etc. The museum is free but please leave a donation in the old fare box as you walk in to show your support and to keep them going. You can buy pictures of the past transit cars and VHS tapes, who has a VCR anymore. It's cool looking at all the old local transit history items and pictures of a time long gone that I never experienced and just imagine how different times were back then.

Great place to visit to discover the mass transit history of Southeastern Wisconsin. Exhibits,…read morearchives, streetcar and interurban layouts, artifacts, photographs and more. Free admission.

Meat raffles!…read more Sketchy carnival rides! Polka bands! Cudahy! If you didn't grow up in Cudahy, then you've probably never been to Sweet Applewood Fest. This was my first time and it was everything I expected from a festival in Cudahy. It's like a church fest without the religion - you got your brats, the traditional Friday Fish Fry and Sunday Chicken to eat and beer to drink. Music is generally cover bands, there are tents in case of rain and beer is probably more expensive than it should be (but if you bought 4 beer tokens you got one free, so props to that). It all benefits the Cudahy Lions Club which is cool. People watching is absolutely epic. Also, the cleanest Portajohns I've ever experienced as well as a proper hand wash station. Say what you want about Cudahy, but they're clean in the toilet department.

Mittenfest is fun, from a people watching perspective, cause that's all we got to do. It's also a…read morecool place to get some grub as Iron Grate BBQ and many other businesses were down there serving up the goods. It's not the place to get your drink on though as the lines are notoriously long, actually more like ridiculously long! I am a grown person and do not, I repeat, do not stand in line, especially for 45 minutes to an hour. Maybe I would for some things, but not just to get a damn beer, no way! We wound up elsewhere to partake in libations and made a general quick appearance just to see what all the fuss is about. Not sure if I'll be attending this again.All I really wanted to enjoy was a few beers but we walked away briefly enjoying only the scene...

First to review! Boom!…read more (Of course, it's because up until now, no one had added a Mittenfest business listing to Yelp, I myself guilty and probably a more culpable culprit than the rest of you alls.) So, a quick FYI before reviewing. (read: this is a Yelpy public service announcement... ) If a business or event - and event not meaning someone's super bowl party or birthday or whatever, but event as in something large-scale and public in nature that occurs each and every year and contributes to the cultural landscape of MKE - is not already on Yelp, you... yes YOU... can just add it. It's super easy on desktop and even easier from your phone. I added a biz listing for a bar on Friday night that wasn't even on Yelp at all and did so in like a minute flat. Internetninja. Alright, now that that's out of the way, Mittenfest! First to review! Bam. I love Mittenfest. It's a great annual event for a great cause that showcases and highlights a few of things about Milwaukee that make me love this town so hard. +An outdoor street festival in the middle of winter? Check. Embrace your Milwaukeeness and your midwesternness and just get down with the snow and cold. It's good for you and it makes you feel alive. +Get a bunch of people together, donate $$/food/clothes for Hunger Task Force and drink some extra crafty beers and enjoy barrel aged Old Fashioneds and value-added Valentine coffee while catching rad local bands and catching up w/ friends? Yes please. +Local artists/crafters selling some locally-made wares? Bonus. +Goodkind's bone broth forever, please and thankyou. +A solid community vibe, stellar people watching, great drinks, and a general "down to hang" attitude despite weather. Someone said it best when they said this yesterday: "Any excuse Milwaukee can get its hands on to be outside and drink, it will gladly take." So yes. This event is a super-fab annual gathering of good times and good cause that aims to either embrace Milwaukee winter or give it a big fat proverbial middle finger, whichever way you prefer to look at it. In the last few years, popularity of this street festival has soared and with humble beginnings now having grown into 2700 "joins" on Facebox, there's no denying the fact that the festival's facing some growing pains. This is normal. Lines (sometimes long) are normal and should be expected at an event of this physical size (small-ish) and attendance (large-ish). A couple thoughts or potential bits of insight for the organizers as they navigate this growth... -set-up: Brandyland is perpendicular to the street, so there's really no doing anything about having a line cut the festival square in half unless you could use the sidewalk as a line instead. For the most part, people are courteous about lines and not cutting, but the organization game could definitely be upped a touch all things considering. Using natural boundaries or DIY stanchions could be helpful insofar as queues go, too. -I feel like a jerk calling this out, but $9 feels pretty steep for those OFs given the size and the wait. I know costs associated w/ putting this thing on are certainly there: Burnhearts probably has to pay the bands and pay for the permits and port-a-potties but, keepin' it real: the price on those puppies definitely made me stop at one when I otherwise might not have. -Is it crazy to suggest pushing this whole shebang a little further? With the good MF does for a solid cause coupled with its local popularity, seems to me that this winter festival definitely has the potential for growth, both in physical size and scale of offerings. If the City permitting office would allow Burnhearts to close Logan from Potter to KK, food trucks or other restaurants could come hang to provide more food, you could offset lines by having more beer choices, more port-a-potties, a larger area for artists/vendors, areas that are more "family-friendly" in nature, etc... just spitballing here, but seems totally plausible to me should it be something the organizers are interested in. Thanks for hosting this thing year over year, Burnhearts! I may be wrong on this, but I believe Mittenfest is MKE's only outdoor winter street festival at this point. People clearly love it and rightfully so; the concept is great, the cause is stellar, it's quality local art and libations, and it's a great excuse for community to come together and drink outdoors in boots and parkas. Well done.