1. Make Yourself a Wolf Float
CHRIS DROSNER | EXECUTIVE EDITOR
I attended the best-in-class Great Taste of the Midwest beer festival in Madison on Saturday, and it was fantastic as usual. Everyone always asks, either out of politeness or genuine curiosity, what my favorite beer was, and most years the answer is extremely unactionable: a rare beer from a brewery in Missouri that you can’t even try at the brewery because it hasn’t been made in three years. Not this year. The best thing I had at the festival, hands down, was an ice cream float with Chocolate Shoppe vanilla ice cream and The Wolf, 3 Sheeps Brewing’s fantastic imperial stout. The beer is chocolatey and rich on its own, and it blends perfectly with that cold, creamy sweetness. The Wolf’s vanilla accents, derived from aging in bourbon barrels, are drawn out by the ice cream, too. I’ve seen four-packs of The Wolf, released this spring, still floating around bottle shops that carry such finer beers. So do yourself a favor, scoop those up and have a little great taste of the Great Taste at home.
2. Grab an English Muffin From Donut Monster
ANN CHRISTENSON | DINING EDITOR
If I go out for breakfast and the restaurant offers an English muffin as a bread option, I’ll more than likely jump on it – even knowing it’ll probably be a pale, pathetic commercially made product. I still dream about the super-thick, fluffy homemade English muffins at Watts Tea Room (a Downtown legend that closed in 2016). I’d get an order of maybe five of them to-go and split them with a coworker. The best! RIP Watts. Now, I turn to the next best thing – the English muffins from Donut Monster, which are a great foundation for the bakery’s breakfast sandwiches and also are sold in four-packs for home consumption. And consume them, I do!
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3. Chomp on Sweet Lemon Berry Curds
ARCHER PARQUETTE | MANAGING EDITOR
Last Thursday, I ventured to the State Fair alongside a brave group of MilMag editors tasked with trying every single Sporkie. I won’t delve into the details of our perilous quest – You can read more (much more) in the story I wrote about it. Suffice to say, for this story’s purposes, that my favorite was the Sweet Lemon Berry Curds from Saz’s BBQ. They were sweet, delicious and quite addictive – if you’re going to try one Sporkie at the fair, this is the one I’d recommend.
4. Bowl for a Dollar
JONATHAN JOSEPH | DIGITAL EDITOR
If you’re looking for something to do this week, but need to save some money for the State Fair then check out Falcon Bowl’s vintage bowling alley. For the entirety of August, reserving a lane only costs one whole buck per hour, which is a huge discount from the original $25 pricing. The bowling alley itself has been around since 1915 and stepping into it feels like entering an exhibit from the Streets of Old Milwaukee. So, let this century old Milwaukee institution be your home for a night of bowling and beers.
5. Hear Buffalo Nichols at Cactus Club
EVAN MUSIL | ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
It’s been three years since we last spoke with modern bluesman Buffalo Nichols, months before the release of his spellbinding album The Fatalist. The full-length effort masterfully infused blues guitar and deeply felt storytelling with electronic beats and atmospheric synths that eroded distinctions between traditional and contemporary sounds. Since then, the Milwaukee native has continued to sharpen his songwriting and expanding his stylistic horizons, with a smattering of recent singles and likely more songs that haven’t found their way online yet. He returns to Milwaukee this Friday, Aug. 14 at Cactus Club for a homecoming show. It should be a good chance to hear how far he’s come.
