Nine taverns in four hours, plus a barrel roll

In spite of the unseasonable cold and rain, a sizable crowd hopped from bar to bar Saturday evening for Historic Milwaukee’s Tavern Crawl through Riverwest. Along the way, faithful crawlers listened as Lakefront Brewery co-founder Jim Klisch told stories about the beginnings of his brewing days and the hidden volume of tavern lore that once graced the Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee.  The erstwhile beer baron even re-created a barrel roll up to Nessun Dorma, which in a former life was the first place to sell his homemade brew.

A crowd followed up the three blocks in the rain just to listen, before entering the very busy eatery and bar.  Perhaps they would have better luck at Stonefly Brewery on Center Street, which hosted a champagne-toasted party in honor of the 30th anniversary of  HMI’s Spaces & Traces event.  But that too was staffed with raggedly-run waitresses and bartenders trying to keep up with the ravenous Brew City crowds.

There were nine locations in all ranging from Tracks, Linneman’s, and RW Public House to the north and Polish Falcon Bowl and Gee Willickers to the south.  We made it to all of them, ending our journey in the dark haunt of the Uptowner at Center Street’s end.  Start up our slideshow below for scenes from Saturday evening, or visit or Flickr Account for the whole set.