Looking for a roundup of Milwaukee food and drink news? Then take a bite of our cleverly titled, bi-weekly Food/Drink Roundup! This week: Bar Rescue!
Has it really been 10 years since kinda-sorta-reality and failing-bar-revamp show Bar Rescue blew into Milwaukee and “rescued” two Milwaukee bars? Good grief, it has…
Remember in 2014, when host John Taffer and company transformed beloved East Side dive bar Y-Not III into a ’70s-themed Smirnoff cocktail emporium called Nick’s House? Remember when Nick’s House closed two years later—and was straight-up demolished two months after that? (The site remains an empty lot to this day.) Remember when things went a little better for south side bar Packy’s, which was transformed into Campbell’s Irish Pub, also in 2014? (Campbell’s closed in 2022.)
Wild times. Anyway, Bar Rescue is back in Milwaukee. For real this time.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel confirms that the show is in the midst of “rescuing” new-ish downtown Jamaican bar Tropic MKE, 518 N. Water St. “A person on the production team who did not give their name said a small group of guests would be allowed inside Tropic at 7 p.m. Wednesday night, and again on Friday, Sept. 20, for a grand reopening,” the JS says.
We checked it out on Thursday morning, and yep, it sure looks like Bar Rescue to us. Good luck, Tropic! [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
• After a long wait, Biggby Coffee plans to open this November in the former Starbucks in Red Arrow Park. [Milwaukee Business Journal]
• Speaking of Starbucks, the coffee behemoth may be coming back to Brady Street—at 1438 E. Brady St., to be exact, in a strip mall space formerly occupied by T-Mobile. [Urban Milwaukee]
• The Milwaukee Public Market will be the site of a Taylor Swift Eras-inspired dinner on Sunday, October 20. [OnMilwaukee]
• Hill Valley Dairy plans to open in the former Clock Shadow Creamery space, 138 W. Bruce St., in late October. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
• A new Columbian cafe called Capybara Cafe is coming to the Crossroads Collective food hall, 2238 N. Farwell Ave. Love ya, capybaras. [Urban Milwaukee]
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