’Tis Dining Month, the tastiest time of year! This means we’re dishing up fun and fascinating food content throughout October. Dig in, Milwaukee! OnMilwaukee Dining Month is served up by Potawatomi Hotel & Casino and Wollersheim Winery & Distillery.
When the Bucks hit the hardwood to face the Houston Rockets in the home opener at Fiserv Forum on Saturday, Oct. 22, it’s going to be a happier place than ever for craft beer fans.
Beechwood Sales & Service, which, with Anheuser-Busch, inked a multi-year partnership with with the Bucks in July, is remodeling a number of the bars in the arena to bolster the presence of craft beer in the Fiserv Forum.
That deal – which, according to a joint press release issued in July, makes Beechwood and Anheuser-Busch, "the exclusive beer and seltzer sponsor, including non-exclusive sponsorship rights in the ready-to-drink canned cocktails category" – replaced a sponsorship by Molson Coors.
“You're going to see an expanded presence of craft beers from Beechwood, including beer from Third Space,” says Andy Gehl, co-founder of Third Space, which has become a partner in Beechwood Sales & Service’s sponsorship with the Bucks.
“That has opened up opportunities for Beechwood’s craft beer partners,” says Gehl. “There will be other craft beers, too.”
Now, you can expect to find Third Space’s Happy Place and its brand pretty much everywhere beer is sold in the venue. I was unable to obtain a list of other craft brewers whose beer will be sold at Fiserv, though we know Central Waters and New Glarus are on it.
“We're really excited for the opportunity to get our brand in front of tens of thousands of fans every game with our brand spread throughout the arena. If people want to order on the app, they can get it that way, too.”
Third Space will have a logo presence at all of the craft beer-focused points of purchase in the venue.
Gehl says that Heavenly Haze IPA, and likely other beers, will also be available.
"Third Space Brewing is excited to partner with Beechwood to give Milwaukee basketball fans a local craft experience at games this year,” he adds.
“It is rare for local craft breweries to have the opportunity to partner with a World Champion professional sports team, so we jumped at the chance to get involved in Beechwood's partnership with the team."
The sponsorship means more than just a return to selling Happy Place at the Bucks arena – something that was done on a limited basis before the pandemic shut down.
“We will be doing quite a few activities in and around the Fiserv Forum and games that really activate the Third Space brand,” Gehl says. “So we'll be doing in-stadium activations like, craft beer samplings of Third Space beers, meet the brewer experiences, a lot of game watch parties and ticket giveaways at bars that sell our beer.”
According to Gehl, the Third Space beer has already been delivered to the Fiserv Forum in anticipation of the start of the Bucks season.
"It will be much easier for basketball fans to find their Happy Place at the arena this year."
The Bucks are expected to announce updates to its food and beverage offerings at a press conference on Wednesday morning.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
