1. Eat a Beignet at Crawdaddy’s
ARCHER PARQUETTE, MANAGING EDITOR
The week before last was an absolutely jam-packed thrill ride for ol’ Archer – I did my laundry, beat Kingdom Come II: Deliverance on PS5, decided to start referring to myself in third person aaaaand went to Bastille Days. I was lured to the event by the promise of beers and sweet treats, and afterward I had two takeaways. One: the Storm the Bastille runners smell very bad if you’re too close to the street. I have learned my lesson, which I really should have anticipated, and will avoid being that close to so many sweaty people sprinting past me again. Two: the beignets at Crawdaddy’s are very good. So good, in fact, that I looked up if they’re on the restaurant’s regular menu when they’re not hosting a tent at an event, and they are! Order those suckers with the cognac-infused strawberry sauce, and you will be having a good time.
2. Make the Perfect Frozen Hash Browns
CHRIS DROSNER, EXECUTIVE EDITOR
I don’t love breakfast, but I do love hash browns. They’re just a must for breakfast at home. But I have never been able to make them as well as a restaurant – they end up charred instead of golden brown, brittle or raw (or both!), instead of that perfect crisp. But I’ve recently cracked the code thanks to a 13-year-old tip on Reddit from Birdman_Harvey, a user claiming (at the time, at least) to be a cook at a breakfast restaurant. From what I can tell, the real innovation in technique is to use a couple pats of butter on top of the frozen potatoes instead of additional oil, but the whole thread is worth reading if you need to up your home browns game. For the first time in dozens of tries, my browns were perfectly done, the chassis for a sunny-side up egg and a dollop of chorizo. Hmm, maybe I can be a breakfast person after all.
Experience an unforgettable evening celebrating great design!
3. Go to the Milwaukee Night Market
ANN CHRISTENSON, DINING EDITOR
This Wednesday’s Milwaukee Night Market is the first one of the season (the June event having been cancelled due to crapola weather). I seem to rarely make these markets, but provided the AQ continues in a positive direction, I think I’m gonna be there. There’s plenty of street food options in the lineup, but I’m leaning toward two – Immy’s African Cuisine and Cocina Filipina, which I hear is very close to opening its brick-and-mortar at 3801 W. Vliet St.
4. Go Swing Dancing in Riverwest
JONATHAN JOSEPH, DIGITAL EDITOR
Every Tuesday night, Third Coast Swing hosts swing dancing in Falcon Bowl’s massive event hall. I’ve never been one for dancing in public, especially in a well-lit room, but swing dancing has been a great way of facing that fear. The fun starts at 7 p.m. with a formal lesson from a veteran swing dancer teaching the crowd some new steps, followed by an open dance from 8-11 p.m. Live music is performed by a rotating cast of Milwaukee musicians. The crowd is full of dedicated dancers who show up every week or people who might never come back after their first try, regardless, all are welcome to dance. 801 E Clarke St.
5. Stroll the Art Preserve in Sheboygan
EVAN MUSIL, ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
Talk about a building that’s a work of art itself. The elegant medley of towering wood beams, tall glass windows and smooth concrete walls that make up the Art Preserve in Sheboygan – run by the John Michael Kohler Arts Center – uses most of the same materials as the artwork inside. But the fascinating art inside is not elegant: It’s eccentric, imprecise, and irresistibly alive. Life-size concrete statues. Dozens of animal carvings. Shelves of books cast in resin. They’re pieces from environments made by self-taught artists, many of whom are from Wisconsin, like Fred Smith and Mary Nohl. The whole three-floor museum is doable in a day, but there’s much to see. Some collections are nearly the entirety of an artist’s output. The enormity and vitality of creation hit hard when you gaze upon a lifetime of art. As our group made our exit, we shared the same sentiment: Bless the weirdos who make things. Though, isn’t that all of us? 3636 Lower Falls Rd., Sheboygan
