At Milwaukee ChopHouse, 633 N. 5th St., the sweetness in a Bees Knees cocktail or the local honeycomb on the chef’s curated cheese plate doesn’t just taste local — it is local. 

The golden honey comes from four active beehives perched atop the Hilton Milwaukee City Center’s parking garage, where longtime beekeeper Robert McKinney of MJD Apiary tends to a sky-high apiary with sweeping views of the city skyline. 

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The honey, harvested just an elevator ride away from the restaurant’s kitchen, is part of a growing effort to deepen sustainability and serve truly hyper-local flavor — now enhanced by the addition of two rooftop gardens buzzing with blooms.

McKinny is no stranger to urban beekeeping — or to championing the role bees play in a healthy food system. Since 2020, he’s maintained the Hilton’s rooftop apiary, along with other hives in urban Milwaukee, Hartford, East Troy, Mequon and Glendale. It’s part of a larger mission to support pollinators and connect people to the sources of their food.

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"Having an on-site hive gives the Hilton a real opportunity to stand out and build customer awareness," says McKinney. "It’s also a great way for them to take advantage of sustainability and the advantages of hyper-local sourcing."

The hives at the Hilton live on the rooftop from May to November and the bees travel miles to find flowers to pollinate. Even better, the urban landscape actually provides "cleaner" flowers for these generalist pollinators, as rural areas often harbor farms that use pesticides and chemicals that aren't bee-friendly.

It’s one of the reasons why McKinney has also helped the Hilton to establish two urban gardens on the rooftop.  

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“Pesticides kill bees, so people can see that they’re raising these vegetables and herbs without deadly chemicals,” he says. “Chefs don’t always have time to tend to gardens or bees, but it’s a great addition for a hotel like the Hilton. It gives them an amazing story that they can tell to their guests through the food they make using locally raised products.”

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From hive to table

At least once every year, he delivers 60 pounds of honey straight to the Milwaukee ChopHouse kitchen, where chefs incorporate it into appetizers, occasional specials and cocktails. 

Some of the honey makes it into one of the Chophouse’s favorite side dishes, their fried Brussels sprouts. It’s a simple concept: fried sprouts are dressed with a mixture of honey, lemon, salt and pepper and topped with shavings of parmesan cheese. But the complexity of the honey makes the dish exceed the simple sum of its parts.

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More recently Chef de Cuisine Brandon Julien also recreated a dish he’d made at the Pfister Hotel using the local honey. Fried cauliflower is tossed with lemon zest, local honey and Julien’s housemade chili crisp. It’s served over a mustard remoulade with shredded parmesan cheese on top.

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“We really try to incorporate the honey however we can, whether it’s in a honey demi, salad dressings or through the use of something like burnt honey,” says Julien. “I have a swordfish special to run this week with tart cherries and some of Robert’s honey on it.” 

Granat says that Chophouse Manager Rachel Krantz uses the honey frequently to enhance drinks, including classics like their Bees Knees.

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“We want everything to be executed at the highest standard possible,” says Executive Chef Daniel Granat. “In this case, we took a really great recipe and just made it better by using a fresh, local product.”

Bourbon & Bees Dinners

The Milwaukee Chop House also celebrates the story of their rooftop hives with occasional dinners during which attendees can learn more about the bees and taste dishes made with the local honey. 

Their first dinner, the Bourbon & Bees Dinner, was held in the Fall of 2023. It featured a bourbon tasting on the rooftop and a dinner showcasing a variety of courses utilizing honey and bourbon.

This past May, the weather was too cool to host the dinner outside, so McKinney brought his observation hive inside to give diners a glimpse at the life of the rooftop bees and five-plus courses including bourbon and honey brined duck bacon; a fiddlehead ramp salad with corn bread crumble and honey-basil vinaigrette; grouper cheek with yuzu-honey berry compote; and peach tea honey glaze bread pudding.

“You can taste the difference between the honey we buy and the honey that Robert has gathered here in Milwaukee,” says Granat. “And that really makes the process of incorporating it into our dishes so great. From start to finish, it’s so much fun.” 

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Bring the buzz home

When he’s not tending his hives, McKinney also uses his expertise to offer services like getting folks started with urban beekeeping, relocating native bees, removing wasp colonies and educating the public about bees. He also uses proprietary infusion methods to create a wide range of products with the raw honey he’s raised, from creamed and barrel-aged honey to tea- and coffee-bean-infused raw honey.  

Some is available for sale at the Milwaukee Chop House. But McKinney also sells his products online and at local markets. Check out his site at mjdbees.com for more information.