The Brew City MKE Beer Museum, which the Milwaukee County Historical Society opened in October 2017 as a pilot museum in a former restaurant space at The Shops of Grand Avenue, will close for good at last call on March 3, but could pop up again in a new location.
The hope was that the pilot museum/bar would become a permanent Milwaukee beer museum, but new plans to convert the mall into office space, a food hall and residential units means the taps have dried up for Brew City MKE.
The 3,000-square foot museum, with its own operating tavern inside, grew out of the 2016 MCHS exhibition, "Brew City MKE: Craft, Culture, Community," which told the story of brewing in Milwaukee.
MCHS, located at 910 N. Old World Third St. – two blocks north of Brew City, which is on 3rd and Wisconsin – currently has a Prohibition show on view.
"Our hope was to try out the exhibit and our brewing collections on their own to see if people had enough interest to support a museum solely focused on telling the story of Brew City," said Mame McCully, executive director of the Milwaukee County Historical Society, in an announcement this morning.
"Locals and visitors came to enjoy the exhibit, the only Milwaukee Beer Bar in the city, located inside, and the many programs and events that were held in the space."
According to the press release issued this morning, "The demand for this type of museum concept has now been proven and the Historical Society has been working with community partners to identify a new location."
Brew City MKE Beer Museum is open through March 3. Details on hours and admission are at the website.
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.
