This morning I bellied up to the bar at the Schlitz tied house in the Streets of Old Milwaukee for my usual three quick shots of breakfast whiskey where the saloonkeeper reminded me that the Milwaukee Public Museum’s 21st annual Food & Froth is slated for Saturday, Feb. 16, from 7 until 10 p.m.
General admission to this always popular event is $75 and includes a commemorative take-home glass, live entertainment and beer and food samples, as well as the opportunity to take selfies with Granny, the Snake and other beloved museum residents.
There will be more than 270 craft beers, as well as wine and hard selzers on hand. Breweries from the area – like Component brewery, MobCraft and Enlightened – will be represented alongside national brews, like Bell’s, and even international ones.
The Museum of Beer and Brewing will share photographs of Schlitz, Blatz, Pabst and Miller, and the beer that they produced. Beer Barons of Milwaukee will also take part.
A VIP experience runs $135 and gets you an extra 90 minutes of access to the museum (starting at 6 and ending at 10:30), as well as a VIP lounge stocked with additional food and special beers that won’t be available to other guests.
As you might have guessed by now, Food & Froth is a 21 and over event.
Proceeds from the event – sponsored by Potawatomi Hotel & Casino – benefit the Milwaukee Public Museum.
For more information, visit www.mpm.edu/beer.
Many of the objects in the Streets of Old Milwaukee Schlitz tied house were donated by area historian Leonard Jurgensen. If you want to learn more about tied houses, check out this post about some that Schlitz owned and this one about some Miller saloons.
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.
