Between the Bars

Your Guide: 2010 Memorial Day observances

Note: The content of this guide was updated for 2010. Between the Bars continually updates the many posts available here, though it's possible some details, specials and offers may have changed. Consider calling first if you have specific questions for the businesses, events or services mentioned in the guide.

One of the highlights of this holiday weekend is the 145th Consecutive Memorial Day Parade, which takes place at 2 p.m. Monday in the heart of Downtown.

According to the Parade's official website, The Memorial Day Parade, which honors all veterans from all wars, is dedicated to Purple Heart recipients. This year in particular, the parade will also recognize all of the women veterans from each war, those who have previously served in the United States Armed Forces and those who currently serve. The lineup features 100 units including color guards, bands, marching units, vehicles and numerous VIP dignitaries.

Lakefront Brewery Tour

There’s definitely a correlation between attention span and amount of beer consumed on a brewery tour.

Milwaukee’s Lakefront Brewery understands this connection. Actually, the owners believe that folks attend brewery tours for three main reasons: one, to obviously drink beer; two, to be entertained; and three, to see where the beer is brewed. In fact, Lakefront Brewery has made this their policy, providing beer at the beginning, middle and end of each tour while witty guides show visitors around their pad, explaining the brewing process and history of their brewery.

Lakefront Brewery has been giving tours for over 25 years, originally in an old bakery building on Chambers Street and more recently in their landmark riverfront location on Commerce Street. Back in the day, anyone who showed up could just walk around and tap their own beers. However, due to the popularity, Lakefront tours have become a bit more formal nowadays, though they're still just as unique and fun as the brewery itself.

Considering the tours get busy, in hindsight, Juanita, Jason and Eric and I should have left much earlier. We arrived at the brewery and entered through the heavy front doors, merging with a line of people expecting to make the 2 p.m. tour. To our surprise the place was brimming with droves of people milling about. The 2 p.m. tour was already full – go figure – so we quickly showed our IDs and paid our admission for the next available spots. Our $7 fee included the tour, plus four wooden tokens to be used for four pours of beer, as well as a choice of a logo printed pint glass or $5 off Lakefront merchandise from in the gift shop.

Struggling Brewers fans

This has been a nightmarish season so far. As much as I don't want to throw in the towel on the 19th of May, I can’t help but notice a pattern developing.

The last time the Brewers were 4-13 at home was at County Stadium in 1985, when they lost 90 games. And until Saturday, when the Phillies trounced the Crew, they hadn't lost seven in a row at home since 2002, when they dropped 106, according to JSOnline.

Four-and-13 is not only bad, it's historically bad. Tack on an eight-game losing streak after a gut-wrenching loss to the Reds yesterday, it’s no wonder why the optimism of their fans is quickly fading like the prospect of a winning season.

As the Brewers continue to fall like a rock in the NL Central, we still don't ask very much from them. We understand that they’re a small market, and there's only so much a skimpy payroll can procure (although the Padres seem to be getting by, spending half the funds and still getting much better results.)

Get Out: April showers bring farmers markets

We all know the rhyme – April showers bring May flowers. But. The spring rains also bring us farmers markets, which are beginning to re-sprout this month all over Wisconsin, blooming with a vast selection of luscious fruits and organic veggies, fragrant flowers and pungent herbs.

Open for the season and always close to home, the markets give local farmers the chance to display their goods, while giving residents the opportunity to socialize and browse the homegrown produce lining the aisles in an open-air and inviting setting.

FYI: The Packers are coming to Milwaukee

This Friday, May 14, is your chance to rub elbows with some of your favorite Green Bay Packers when the annual Green Bay Packers Tailgate Tour makes a stop in Milwaukee.

The four-day, four-city road trip began on Tuesday and has already hit Rhinelander (May 11), Chippewa Falls (May 12) and Reedsburg (May 13). It will end with the grand finale right here in Brew City at the Harley-Davidson Museum.

As part of the Tailgate Tour, the franchise selects four cities and four non-profit organizations to host the event. They then load up actual Packers players and they tour the state, throwing four Titletown-style tailgate parties.

Classic Milwaukee: Touring Sprecher Brewing Company

As the home of some of the country’s biggest breweries, Milwaukee was once hailed as “Beer Town”. Sadly, that designation went, shall we say, flat when the city lost mega brewers like Schlitz, Blatz and Pabst decades ago.

Dubbed “Brew City” nowadays, Milwaukee’s beer reputation remains strong among beer-lovers as brewpubs and micro-breweries have taken the helm, specializing in craft brews that focus on quality over quantity. Within the last decade, such small-scale breweries have been able to revive both the distinctive quality of regional beer and the Old World brewing traditions that once made Milwaukee famous, while increasing local interest.

With interest in craft beers growing, it’s no surprise that hordes of people turned out on Saturday to learn all about barley, hops, yeast, wheat, fermentation and pasteurization and, of course, to sample some of their favorite craft brews at Milwaukee-based micro-brewery Sprecher Brewing Company.

Located in Glendale, close to Bayshore Town Center, Sprecher Brewing Company was founded in 1985 by Randal Sprecher, former brewing supervisor at Pabst Brewing Company. According to our tour guide, it took Randal an initial investment of $40,000 and two cars to start this micro-brewery, which now has approximately 50 employees. Like any savvy entrepreneur, Randy cut corners where he could and put any extra profit back into the business, resulting in pure, sudsy awesomeness. Oh, and tremendous success.

Stamp Out Hunger!

I just finished rummaging through my pantry to put together a bag filled with boxes of rice, spaghetti, soup and canned fruits to donate to the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.

Earlier this week, you should have received a plastic bag in the mail. Letter carriers from across Wisconsin dropped off 2.5 million of these bags and today, they will hit the streets to collect non-perishable food that residents will leave beside their mailboxes.

With prices for basic food items skyrocketing, many families are struggling to put a decent meal on the table. The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive will provide Hunger Task Force with food that they’ll deliver to the hungry and the charities and pantries that feed them.

"Food Wars" Milwaukee: Sobelman's vs. AJ Bombers

The battle lines have been drawn – on the grill – as the Travel Channel’s Food Wars, a new program that focuses on the country’s most renowned restaurant rivalries and the iconic dishes that make them famous, comes to Milwaukee. Food Wars has pitted AJ Bombers versus Sobelman’s Pub & Grill to decide once and for all who grills up the “best burger in Milwaukee”.

In each episode, Food Wars travels to a city in the United States, finds two local eateries that serve one of the area’s signature dishes, and hosts a blind taste test to determine which restaurant’s version is best. Previous shows featured Buffalo, NY, where Anchor Bar and Duff’s battled over chicken wings, and Chicago, where Al’s Beef and Mr. Beef went head-to-head over who serves up the best Italian beef sandwich.