I love the visual, tangible components of the music world. Bands’ promotional materials, merchandise, album artwork and the independently-created show posters can tell you a lot about the spirit and ambition of their music. Displaying these artifacts on your wall, in your iPod, within public art or in conversation perpetuates the bands/artists’ vision for their art, both audio and visual.
Yield Bar (1932 East Kenilworth Place) has established its little parcel of the Milwaukee music scene in recent years. The bi-level bar is plastered with aged and contemporary concert bills, posters, announcements, stickers and massive, wall-size odes to The Doors and The White Stripes.
It’s dark but not dingy. It’s hip but not in any way haughty. It’s very rock and roll. It’s my perfect bar.
It was hard for me to keep my focus on my most recent visit to Yield. My eyes were lured by the poster-covered walls displaying names like The Shins, Fleet Foxes, Nada Surf, Johnny Cash, the Wildbirds, Elvis Costello, Tommy Stinson and the Eels. In all honesty, it’s a modern version of what my bedroom walls looked like in high school – omitting the bright spandex and skyscraping hair of some of my ’80s heroes. Some of the larger pieces of postered art were literally spotlighted while some of the darker corners required this glasses-wearing inquisitor to venture closer to recognize who was who on the wall. For a moment I felt as if I was in a museum: spotlighted works, shuffling slowly around the interior walls, shushing my girlfriend as I gazed…
Meanwhile at the copper-topped bar, ladies and gentlemen sat and drank their cocktails and conversed with the bartender. He was very cordial and definitely knew his vodkas as I overheard him conversing with some Grey Goose fans about what could possibly be better.
Off in one of the shadowy corners sat a group of fellas with a collection of empty pint glasses, giving the impression they had been there a while, maybe since the 4 p.m. open. They were quiet, but I guess the air between us was filled with the Black Keys and I have yet to experience a voice that can disturb those punchy tunes.
As I previously mentioned, the bar opens at 4 p.m. daily (or noon on Sunday’s). Every single day of the week, from 4-9 p.m. is happy hour: buy one, get one taps, rails and bombs – BOOM! Not only is a daily happy hour a rare and amazing offering, but also a happy hour that lasts until 9:00 p.m. is both alarming and generous. Cram those two deals together and you have five hours of bargain drinks, that’s…uhh…35 hours of wallet/purse relief per week. Thank you, Yield, for taking the economic burden off of your drinkers.
Hold your horses! Don’t jump ship at 9:00 p.m. In fact, just yield as you read this next part. The deals continue post-9 p.m. and persist until closing bell. On Sunday it’s $1 off all bottles and $5 tall Ketel/Bacardi drinks; Monday has $2 tall boys and $3 shots of Sullivan’s Irish Whiskey; Tuesday slings $2 macro domestic bottles and $5 tall Stoli drinks; hump day schleps $2 taps and $3 Jameson Shots; Thursday offers $2 PBR taps and $5 tall Absolut/Captain Morgan drinks; both Friday and Saturday have $3 tap of the night and $3 shot of the night. Deals aplenty!
To be more specific for you beer nuts, there are three tap stations behind the bar each housing a plethora of flavors and breweries. Some of which include Tyranena, New Glarus Moon Man, Guinness, Left Hand Brewing Co.’s Milk Stout, Lakefront East Side Dark, 312 and of course Pabst and Miller. Not to be outdone, the bottles chilling in the cooler have equipotential; Chimay, Furthermore, Red Stripe, Delirium Tremens and three kinds of Petrus, a Belgium beer brewed by Brouwerij Bavik. I did not expect this to be a beer drinker’s bar, at least one that has such a diverse group of flavors and breweries.
The next level of Yield Bar is open when there’s live music. They pride themselves on hosting bands with original tunes (sorry, no cover bands) so keep your eyes on their Facebook page for the latest and greatest news and specials.
Yield Bar has a great location (just off of North Ave. and Prospect Ave.) it has plenty of room for the bands and the fans that follow, the décor is definitely way better than your coolest friends bedroom in high school, the drinks are diverse, and on the upcoming warm nights, they have French doors by the upper bar that can be thrown open to welcome in the summer breeze. I’m smitten.
Yield Bar is merely a stop on your search for good times. They won’t happen at the same bar (regularly) and they can’t happen at the same party (I’ve tried), so cautiously glide through your drinks and savor every conversation and remember to give way to spontaneity.
“To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” – “Ulysses,” Alfred, Lord Tennyson
