A lightning trip to Milwaukee
How our family ended the year
Being Japanese, New Year’s is a bigger deal than Christmas for my family, so my parents and sister visited us in Chicago around it. My parents suggested taking a short trip, instead of staying in Chicago for a whole week. It turns out that they didn’t have any ideas on where to go, and my wife and I were in charge of deciding the time and place as well as lodging and transportation…
Anyway, we decided to go and stay in Milwaukee on the night of 12/30, since it’s the closest place we can go and have more than a few things to do. Also, I found an Airbnb with 4 bedrooms1 that was less than half price. This was my fourth time in Milwaukee, but my parents’—and my son’s—first time.
Things to note:
Given we had some first-timers, including a toddler, we didn’t do much that was new to me or my wife.
I don’t have too many photos, partly because I’m not going to share pictures of my son until he can give meaningful consent.
By writing this, I might be fishing for recommendations from more seasoned Milwaukee explorers2.
Day 1
Our first stop was the Syrian restaurant Damascus Gate in Historic Mitchell Street3. My wife and I went there a couple of years ago, and the food was great as before. Unfortunately, too few people seemed to be working at the time and the service was comically slow. I’m going to guess it’s a year-end glitch. The highlight was the toddler eating hummus with a spoon on his own.
We then headed to the Milwaukee Art Museum, which is a must-see just for the Santiago Calatrava-designed reception hall4. My wife and I were mostly concerned that the kid wasn’t taking a nap. We did take advantage of the kids’ area on the first floor, where older kids were making brooches with wires. He played with the brooches left on the table as examples. My parents and my sister saw a bunch of art.
The museum cafe was definitely interesting. We’d never been there, and it must be different from our previous visits to the museum anyway. It’s run by Discourse Coffee, which also has a downtown location closer to the river. In addition to regular coffee drinks, they have “craft” drinks, which are basically cocktails with caffeine instead of alcohol. And when I stepped up to order, I realized that they have a rotating list of “experimental” drinks. (Their online menu shows the experimental drinks that I saw, for now.)
I asked the barista which experimental drink she recommended. She pointed to “To All a Good Night”, saying “well I made this drink, so I’m kind of biased.” So that’s what I got. This sort of thing could easily get too cool for its own good (how many people know what umeboshi is?5), but this was a tasty drink. The sour note from the umeboshi syrup wasn’t too much, and the rosemary and pine smoke worked well with the tea.
Our Airbnb was in Lower East Side, so we decided to walk to Glorioso’s Italian Market and get our dinner from the deli. Their sandwiches were excellent, especially the chicken parm.
Oh, and even though we left Chicago for the night, Chicago didn’t leave us.
Day 2
We got breakfast at Colectivo Coffee on the lakefront. Yes, I know we have Colectivo in Chicago, but this location is unique. It used to be the Milwaukee River Flushing Station, built in 1888. We had to look up what a “flushing station” was, and it’s sort of what you imagine. They were pumping Lake Michigan water up into the downtown section of Milwaukee River to flush sewage out. And even though Colectivo turned this space into a coffeeshop, the pumping machinery is still there.
After checking out of the Airbnb, we headed to the Milwaukee Public Market. I keep forgetting that they’re not open early enough for actual breakfast, which is what I expect of markets. So this ended up being a morning snack, which is fine. We got breakfast poutine (poutine with eggs and sausage) from West Allis Cheese. My dad found some ginger cookies from (I believe) C. Adam’s Bakery6.
And before going home, we had to stop by Mars Cheese Castle. One of the cheese samples was an excellent 8-year aged sharp cheddar, which I got. Then I had to get some New Glarus beers. I maintain that their Moon Man pale ale is a perfect beer, and their fruit beers are also excellent. At the food court, the toddler had his first fried cheese curds. No better way to end his first Wisconsin trip.
What I’m listening to now
I’m a bit behind on my music, partly because
posted his year-end lists of recordings. This is from his The Best Recordings of 2023 (Honorable Mention List).This is a recording of solo piano pieces written by the Armenian-American composer Alan Hovhaness. The pianist is Haskell Small, who is also a go player. I don’t know him personally, but he’s definitely a friend of a friend.
I admit to not having listened to much Hovhaness before, but this is good stuff. Most of the pieces were inspired by mountains, the mood is meditative, and there’s a lot of non-Western scales. This really is approachable contemporary classical music.
The toddler having his own bedroom is a big win.
I’m looking for things that we can’t easily find in Chicago.
Looking things up, I just now realized that Historic Mitchell Street is the name of the neighborhood.
Although, every Calatrava building just looks like a Calatrava building after a while. I didn’t know the train station for Lyon’s airport was designed by him, but I went into the station, looked up, and immediately knew. As an aside, Lyon–Saint-Exupéry Airport might be the best airport name.
I know because I’m Japanese. It’s pickled ume (a Japanese fruit similar to a plum or an apricot). It’s quite salty and sour on its own and you’d usually eat it with something else, like white rice.
Some of the cookies he got were supposedly Moldovan (they were still ginger cookies). I’m really not sure if that’s correct.
I too adore Moon Man, and I love that Rainbo poster from 1997!