Milwaukee’s a great city for drinking. It’s a great city for dogs. It’s a great city for drinking with your dog. And why shouldn’t you? There’s no reason a night out with friends shouldn’t include your best friend. Or, if you’re single, that you shouldn’t take advantage of the dating cheat code “PUPPY.” Or that Fido should be stuck at home when you could be enjoying the sudsy charms of a warm Milwaukee summer together. After all, it’s not drinking alone if you’re with your dog.
Fortunately, there’s no shortage of places in Milwaukee that will allow you to bring your best boy or girl along for a pint, with many advertising pet-friendly patios and some even permitting dogs inside. These six establishments set themselves apart as especially canine-accommodating, though, either offering facilities that make a visit with your pooch particularly convenient or going out of their way to throw an extra bone to dogs and dog-owners.
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1. Black Husky Brewing
909 E. LOCUST ST. | 414-763-4141
The first individual listed on the Staff page of Black Husky’s website is Smokey. Smokey’s a dog, and Black Husky comes about as close as a brewery can to identifying as a canine-led establishment. Though founded by Tim and Toni Eichinger (humans), the brewery was named for their dog Howler, and the beers are tributes to their son’s sled dogs, whose portraits grace the bar’s wall. Raise a glass of Deck Dog German pilsner to Rinky, a Dogfather pale ale to Loki, or order a few flights to honor the whole pack. Your own leashed, well-behaved dog is welcome both on the patio and indoors, where all the timber and flannel on display – a nod to the brewery’s origins in Pembine – should have them dreaming wild Northwoods dreams.
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2. Component Brewing Company
2018 S. 1ST ST. #169 | 414-988-0100
Owning a dog has been shown to yield a whole host of benefits: increased happiness, better health, a longer life. At Component Brewing Company, you can add one more to the list: cheap beer. Dogs get their humans $1 off all beers from 1 to 6 p.m. on Dog Day Sundays, a promotion the brewery has been running for several years. “We are a family-run business and dogs are family,” says DJ Kowalske, Component’s co-owner. Pups are welcome both inside and on the front patio, and the brewery provides them with water bowls and treats. For humans, Component provides a strong selection of beers, including their Mosaic Theory American IPA and Chase Ave. Chaser pilsner.
Dog owners can also enter their pooch in Component’s dog of the month contest by tagging the brewery in a photo of their dog taken at the bar. Followers vote for their favorite furball on Instagram, and the winning dog gets their owner free draft beer for a month. There are good dogs, and then there are great dogs.
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3. Estabrook Beer Garden
4600 ESTABROOK PKWY., SHOREWOOD | 414-219-9065
The beer garden in Shorewood’s bucolic Estabrook Park was the country’s first such establishment since Prohibition, and the place keeps things classic, serving beer brewed at Munich’s Staatliches Hofbräuhaus, bratwurst, giant Bavarian pretzels and Landjäger, a traditional snack sausage of German hunters and, presumably, their hunting dogs.
Though not part of the beer garden per se, right next door is Estabrook Dog Park, which has dog toys and lots of wide open space if your pooch is the type that needs to blow off some steam before she can be expected to chill and politely listen to polka for an hour. You can also give your dog a quick between-steins stretch on the Oak Leaf Trail, a section of which runs right past the beer garden.
4. Gathering Place Brewing Company
811 E. VIENNA AVE. | 414-635-0569
There’s never a bad time to bring your dog to Gathering Place, but there is a best time. Every Wednesday from 4 to 10 p.m., the brewery hosts Yappy Hour, when guests with dogs get $1 off full pours of draft beers. “We want to encourage people to bring their dogs with them to the taproom,” says Caitlyn White, the marketing associate at Gathering Place and the owner of Bodega, a husky, chihuahua, fox terrier mix. While you tip back a Lederhosen Tuxedo dark weizenbock or Stor Bjorn Nordic red ale, your dog will be provided with water and treats. Or, if you really want to show that you’re a team, get one of Gathering Place’s signature Treffpunkt Kölsches for yourself and a dog toy shaped like a can of the same for your drinking buddy.
While Gathering Place doesn’t serve food, it does partner with the enthusiastically dog-friendly Riley’s Sandwich Co. to offer discounted deliveries of both human and dog snacks from Wednesday to Saturday.
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5. The Hounds & Tap
W175N5645 TECHNOLOGY DR., MENOMONEE FALLS | 262-293-6100
“We always wished there was a place we could take our dogs and they’d feel as comfortable as we felt,” Leah Neuroth says of why she and Jeffrey Wilgus opened The Hounds & Tap last year. While other dog-friendly places simply accommodate pets, The Hounds & Tap is fully species-egalitarian. Its bar straddles an indoor play space divided into areas for large and small dogs and a 5,500-square-foot outdoor dog park complete with picnic tables, artificial turf and splash pools. Grab a cocktail or craft beer and something to nosh on from the rotating cast of food trucks that visit the tavern, and let your pup run wild with her new pack of best friends. Staff is always on hand to make sure water is fresh and four-legged guests behave themselves.
In addition to its tavern and dog park, The Hounds & Tap offers daycare, boarding and grooming services. It occasionally hosts fundraisers and breed meet-ups and is available for corporate events and birthday parties for humans or dogs.
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6. Smoke Shack
332 N. MILWAUKEE ST. | 414-431-1119
While Smoke Shack’s patio is always open to pets, the Historic Third Ward establishment is another place with a dog-specific happy hour: Pups & Pints, which is held 4 to 6 p.m. each Monday, from early June until it gets too cold. Specials (which are the same for Smoke Shack’s other weekday happy hours) include $5 draft beers, a trio of cocktails and discounted food. For dogs, Smoke Shack is the rare place that goes beyond the standard water bowl and treats, providing its furry guests with smoked chicken. For free. Like, they don’t even have to do the whole puppy dog face thing. Smoke Shack just gives it to them.
And where many restaurants put up photos of any celebrities that have eaten there, Smoke Shack goes one better with a wall of dog pics, which you can add to on your visit or peruse from afar with the hashtag #dogsofsmokeshack. The restaurant will also be holding a dog package giveaway through its Facebook and Instagram accounts in July and August.
