Doyle to Taste Good Life of Milwaukee

Governor James Doyle will be in Milwaukee on Thursday, October 5th to attend a fundraiser on his behalf to be held from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. at Good Life, the new Caribbean-themed restaurant/club at 1935 N. Water Street. Good Life opened at the beginning of this month and is owned by D. J. and Cassie Brooks. D. J. is the former drummer for Citizen King, and now performs the same duties for New Sense, when he is not busy wrapping silverware and drumming up business at his new operation, located in a (mostly) new building overlooking the Milwaukee River at N. Humboldt St.

He and Cassie commute to the restaurant every day all the way from their home across the street. This will be the first vist for the governor to the place, but it has already seen its share of politicos over the few short weeks it has been open, including former Sheriff candidate Vince Bobot, who had an event there the evening before the primary election, where he was joined by D. A. candidate John Chisholm. Of course if those two don’t have the “party” credentials to get you excited, the place is otherwise quite a blast.

The building, with its distinctive parabolic roof, has already attracted the attention of MSOE students who have photographed its spare skeleton. The building is attached to an old, particularly attractive, yet small, former City of Milwaukee Ward Yard building that was preserved as part of the deal that allowed for the construction of Boris Gokhman‘s Riverbridge condominium development next door.

The new building has already been remodeled once during its short life — the City failed to note that the plans drawn up by the engineers and architects did not include a second basement stairway, a prudent requirement in this city. D.J. happily tore out a wall, punched a hole in the floor and built the necessary stairs. This is at least the second time that plan examiners (or somebody) in the city have failed to note the absense of the second set of stairs in a newly-constructed restaurant building. (The first that comes to mind is the Terrace Bar. Since that place effectively had no room for the installation of the second stairs, it never became a restaurant. You’d think somebody would put up a stink about this! Feel free to quote me.)

Oh, yeah — the governor. I almost forgot. The reception has a number of sponsors including Ald. Michael D’Amato, Common Council president Willie Hines, John Piette, Robert Peret and the irrepressible John “Mr. Pizza” Budzinski.

This article was originally published by Milwaukee World.