1. Soothe Your Soul With a Treat From Rocket Baby Bakery
EVAN MUSIL, ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
Whenever I need a pick-me-up – and that was the case this weekend after a trip cut short, damn lake effect snow! – Rocket Baby Bakery in Tosa is there for me. A tried-and-true blueberry cream Danish? Or an almond croissant, caked in powder? A seasonal muffin sounds superb. Why not grab it all? OK, I didn’t grab it all, but I came close. And one bite of that Danish, its rich cream cheese and buttery, flakey pastry, put my mind at ease. Anything in that bakery case could.
2. Mark the Edmund Fitzgerald Anniversary With a Good Read
CHRIS DROSNER, EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Perhaps you’ve heard that the Edmund Fitzgerald, the finest ore freighter ever to ply the waters of the Great Lakes, sank in Lake Superior 50 years ago on Monday. There’s been a media blitz around the anniversary, because this is a story – of tragedy, mystery and human avarice – that still endures today. I can’t recommend enough to read author John U. Bacon’s new book on the ship and those lost, Gales of November. I think it’ll become the best authority on the ship that’s been published to date. If you want a narrow slice of what’s inside, check out our excerpt from the book, focusing on the Milwaukee (Northwestern Mutual) connection to Big Fitz, which as close as a ship gets to a celebrity before she plunged to the floor of Lake Superior 50 years ago.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
3. Try a Doner Kebab at Doner Kebab
ANN CHRISTENSON, DINING EDITOR
Ever had a doner kebab? You’d likely remember it. It’s a sandwich of spit-roasted meat (not unlike the Greek gyro) folded inside a fresh-baked flatbread. Milwaukee now has a restaurant devoted to this treasure, called (fittingly) Doner Kebab. Long story short, the owners opened their first doner restaurant, in Hartford, in 2023. A few weeks ago, they expanded to Milwaukee (138 E. Capitol Dr., sharing a strip mall with Outpost Natural Foods). The meat in this Turkish sandwich can vary – at Doner Kebab, it’s seasoned beef, shaved off the spit into tender, slightly charred shards. The house-made flatbread the beef is nestled in is thinner and less bready than pita and piled with shredded lettuce, onions (lots), red cabbage and tomato. As with a gyro, there’s a creamy sauce – but not the thick, cucumber-laced tzatziki. This one’s thinner, and you can choose the flavor emphasis: herb, garlic, spicy or all three.
4. Shadowbox with GZA
ARCHER PARQUETTE, MANAGING EDITOR
If you’re a ’90s hip-hop fan such as myself, then you know GZA. The Wu-Tang Clan MC made what is arguably the best Wu-Tang solo album ever with 1995’s Liquid Swords. He’s currently on tour for that record’s 30th anniversary and is stopping by The Rave on Thursday, Nov. 13 for a show. Having never seen any of the Clan live, I’m pretty excited, and I absolutely plan to have Liquid Swords on repeat all week.
