The Black Rose

The Black Rose
(Milwaukee, WI)



The only Irish pub's I've ever stopped into in Milwaukee are Trinity and The Harp and my experiences at those have mostly been surrounded by drunken people and drinking Sprite, so when I had some coupons to actually get some food at a Milwaukee Irish Pub I took my chance. The Black Rose has a great location, being located right on Oakland next to Solo pizza, the Miramar Theater and right across the street from Oakland gyros, it's a very easy to find spot. It is also attached to Solo pizza, which I wrote a review about before.


I think the atmosphere of the place was one of the better ones I've had in a bar. It was very super clean and wasn't packed, but it was an afternoon. It had lot's of sunlight coming in through the large front windows and they had plenty of big booths to sit in that were kind of similar to the ones at trinity but not as decorated. The bar was also very nicely set up with some packer decorations and a good amount of alcohol against the wall. If you get bored there they also do have a deer hunting arcade game! The bartender we had was also super friendly and made the experience there even better. Now that the atmosphere of the place is done with, let's go to the food.

While being a bar, an Irish place and a pizza place, there is a lot to offer on the menu from each of these of these categories. In the bar food category the menu offered burgers, starting at $6.95 for a plain cheeseburger and to $9.95 for the ultimate cheeseburger, and also nachos for $8.95, chicken tenders for $6.95, and Fish and Chips for $11.95. For the Irish options you got to choose from stuff like Shepherds pie for $10.95, Irish Stew for $11.95, and many peoples favorite the reuben for $8.95. As for the pizza it's the pizza from Solo, so if you wanna know pricing just read my last review for it. So even though the menu wasn't huge, it offered a lot of different things. As for what I ordered, I usually don't get burgers but I had a coupon for one so I went with it.


My coupon was that for $6.95 I could get any burger, fries, and a drink so I decided to try the most expensive burger, the Ultimate Cheeseburger. The burger was Angus beef topped with Cheddar, Jack, Swiss, and American cheese with some bacon and scallions also included. If you wanted you could get sauteed mushrooms, but those aren't for me. It also came with some bbq dipping sauce, which I actually didn't notice and I wish I would of. One of the most interesting things about this burger that made it different from most places is that it was on normal sourdough toast, no bun here, which was one thing I enjoyed about it, even though I couldn't really tell that it was sour dough. The burger itself was well made and very flavorful, thick, and juicy. I haven't had a burger in a long time so I'm not sure what qualifies as a great burger but I think this qualifies for one. All the cheeses were packed on nicely, and as a cheese lover, I couldn't of asked for more. As always though, bacon always goes well with anything and it went perfectly well with this burger. The fries that you got were your average fries, nothing special but still tasted good. The burger was a bit sloppy an wasn't presented amazingly but I won't knock it down for that because it still tasted good.

If your ever in the mood for a drink or a bite to eat I would for sure check this place out. With items starting out about $7.95 for appetizers and meals going up to about $14.95, for the Chicken Broccoli Alfredo, the prices are about what you'd find all around Milwaukee. With a unique menu featuring mac and cheese to reuben rolls, there is a good amount to choose from. Also with the friendly and clean atmosphere, it is a place to check out during an afternoon and probably even during the night. So if your on the Eastside and not near the bars on Water, check this place out, you may even like it more than Trinity.

Summerfest Round 3:

Pitch's/Miss Katie's Diner

This is one of the few places on the Summerfest grounds that I've never heard of before, and the fact that they had something called a fried Frito Pie makes me kind of upset that I never have. Located near the Chipotle and JoJos Martini Bar, it's pretty easy to find if you are heading over to the Marcus or the Classic Rock Stage.

While I have been taking a picture of the menu at these places, I have failed and didn't at this place, but from what I can remember there were ribs and a few other classic diner foods. The ribs were quite expensive, if I'm remembering correctly, but those didn't interest me as much as the fried Frito pie. The fried Frito pie is basically deep fried chili with Frito chips around it. They give you 4 decent sized little pies along with some salsa and some sour cream for $5.


I'm not going to lie to you and say that these things look appetizing, they actually looked like really weird chicken nuggets. I really didn't know what to expect or what these things really were. I was super surprised when I finally took a bite and found out that they were pretty delicious. The chili inside wasn't a spicy chili, it was more of a sweet chili with lots of beans in it. The Frito crust went quite nicely with it and added a little crunch to the soft center. Even though I didn't try the salsa that came with, they went really well with the sour cream. There's not much else to explain about it. If you like chili, and you don't mind having a nice crunchy layer around it then you'll probably enjoy this. I loved the beans and I loved the crust, and even though it wasn't very filling, I didn't feel to bad parting with $5 to try these things out.

If your super hungry, this may not be the thing to get because you do only get 4 of them but if you want a little snack, I'd say go for it. This is one of the more unique things you'll find at the fest and a surprisingly good one.

Summerfest Food Round 2:

Trinity
(Briggs and Stratton Stage)



My goal this time around at Summerfest was to find something that could top the amazingness that was my tamales the last time I was there. I looked far and wide and found something that sounded good enough that it just might be the one. When I think of Trinity, I think of a bunch of drunk people standing around in a crowded bar, because that's all I've experience there, but I guess they actually have food also! One of their items that I found interested enough to try was the Irish Nachos.


Homemade potato chips are always a good choice in most dining situations, and having them covered in cheese and corned beef sounded like heaven to me. While for $6.50 the portion wasn't as big as I'd liked it to be but it's Summerfest and that's what happens. The potato chips were probably the best part of the nachos. They were salty and crunchy and overall everything you want in a potato chip. As for the toppings, I can't say that they were amazing. The cheese sauce was your average cheese sauce, plain and only slightly cheesy. One of the most important parts, the corned beef, wasn't as good I thought it would be. While it had a nice salty meaty flavor, it wasn't a strong one. They did put a good amount of the corned beef on it, which I enjoyed, but it was not the best that I've had. One last problem with it was that there was just a little to much cilantro on the nachos and they kind of got in the way of the other flavors. It also came with a thing of thousand island dressing but that's not something I enjoy, so I left it out.


While it may seem like I hated these, I really didn't dislike them at all, it just didn't meet my expectations. The potato chips were great, and it was a nice, but expensive, little snack for me. If you like homemade potato chips I'd give this a try, but it shouldn't be high up on your priority list. Most of the other things on the menu were also $6.50, while some were $5. You can also see from the menu I posted above what other items you can get here, things such as shepherds pie and the popular Reuben roles, which from my experience are quite tasty. So if your hungry at the fest, this is a place to check out if your looking to get a little more interesting in food selection.

Summerfest Food:

Botanas
(Ethnic Village, Summerfest Grounds)

Everyone knows that the big part of Summerfest is the music but one of the other big aspects of it is trying foods from all over the Milwaukee area. One of the not so fun things about this is that they charge you way over the price they would just going to the restaurant, and in smaller portions. Besides this though, trying different foods is a great thing to do while your at Summerfest, so maybe while your out there, try something other than the Mozzarella sticks at Saz's. Located across from the US Cellular stage is where you will find the Ethnic Village and that is where Botana's is located.



They had your usual's such as burritos and tacos but they also had my favorite Mexican dish on there which is a pork tamale. You could either get 1 tamale for $2.50, or 3 tamales with rice and beans for $7, so I decided to get the $7 deal. I must tell you, this was the most food I ever received for the price at the fest. The tamales were pretty big and the portions of rice and beans were pretty average. As for the taste they were pretty good for things being made in the back of a small building. They didn't have the fullest flavor of many of the tamales that I've had and the lack of pork was a little saddening. I would also say the pork was a little blah with the flavor but even with these negatives, they were still delicious. I couldn't stop eating them even though they were quite filling and I was full after my 2nd one. I can say that this is the first time that I've been truly full after eating 1 thing at Summerfest because usually they give you so little that you have to go out and buy more food. The rice was also really delicious, even though it was pretty basic it still hit the spot, while the beans were about the same.


If you like Mexican food and wanna get full for probably the cheapest you can at Summefest, this is a place to go. While not the greatest Tamales I've ever had, they were still delicious and did a good job with something that they probably have to make thousands of in a day. If your down there at all the next 9 days, go check this place out.

Solo Pizza

Solo Pizza
(Milwaukee, WI)

If you know me at all, you know that pizza isn't one of my favorite things in the world unless you add something a little different to it. This is why my only pizza destination is usually Ian's but hey I'm always up for something new. If you've never been to Solo, it is pretty easy to find, located right across from Oakland Gyros and between Goodwill and the Miramar Theater located on Oakland Ave. While my first experience there wasn't the best, which I will get to later, lets begin!



When entering the place you can tell that they really went with a color pattern and stuck with it. I guess it represents the fire used to cook their pizza because their logo is a flame and the whole place is covered with orange and red, which I guess is a pretty creative idea. It's also not the biggest place in the world but it has a good amount of seating, with tables and booths, and also large windows that look out onto Oakland. It is also attached to an Irish bar called the Black Rose if that is more of an interest to you but I didn't get to check that out at all. Even though I liked the atmosphere, did I enjoy the food?

While looking through the menu you see your normal pizza place staples along with some Italian favorites such as ravioli and chicken Alfredo but at the top is their main focus, the pizza. Having three different sizes to choose from you have your personal pizza, which is called a Solo for $4.95, a Mezzo which is $7.95, and Doppio which is $12.95. You can also get a lot of different toppings added to your pizza such as pineapple, pesto, goat cheese, Gouda, Prosciutto, peppers, and a bunch of other stuff. They also have a pizza of the week, which just so happened to be chicken bacon ranch, and that is something you can't pass up. We asked the waitress if the Solo price for $4.95 worked for the special pizza and she said yes so we went for it and let me tell you, it was amazing.

The first thing I must bring up is the crust, it was perfect! It was crunchy and thin, but not super thin, and had a nice freshly cooked flavor to it. The toppings themselves were great also. Having a ranch based sauce on a pizza is new to me and I must say that it worked very well. It wasn't a super strong ranch flavor but it added so much to the pizza. The amount of cheese put on was also great. I'm a huge cheese fan and they put on enough to satisfy me and the bacon mixed into the melted cheese made it even more delicious. I'm not a huge fan of tomatoes though, and they piled them on like crazy, but the pizza was so good that they tasted perfectly fine with it. They did add a little to much of the green stuff, I forgot exactly what it was, but it had a little bit of an overpowering flavor over the other toppings but didn't impact my decision over how good the pizza was. Overall, besides Ian's, this was one of the better pizzas I've ever had in my life. For a personal pizza, it was huge and left me full and satisfied, that is until I got my bill.

Sadly, the $4.95 price tag was to good to be true and when I got the bill it ended up being $9.50, a little more than I wanted to spend. We clearly asked the waitress if this pizza was $4.95 and she told us it was. What we didn't know is that they charge you $.50 for extra toppings they put on the Solo pizzas. Which I guess is better than the $.75 they charge for the Mezzo and the $1.50 they charge for the Doppio. I was very upset that this wasn't mentioned when we asked the waitress, which kind of upset me but didn't take away that I still got a good pizza, just a little more expensive than I wanted. I will say that it was a large amount of food for under $10, and that's sometimes hard to come by in Milwaukee. If you do plan on going here, plan on spending a little over $10 for anything else, except the sandwiches starting off at $8.95, and most of their pasta starting off at $10.95. Even though I'm still a little upset about the price situation, I would recommend checking this place out because it really was one of the better pizzas I've ever had.

Hi Hat Lounge

Hi Hat Lounge
(Milwaukee, WI)

Located on Brady and Arlington is a place that I often wondered about but never actually stopped to check it out. Yesterday I got my chance, and I must say it went quite well. The Hi Hat Lounge is one of the many little "hipster" kind of places to eat/drink on Brady St. Walking inside, it was nothing like I expected it to be. From the old brick walls of the outside, I didn't expect the inside to be this huge almost fancy looking place. Everything was super clean and had kind of an old fashioned look to it, which I guess is why they call it the Lounge. When you enter the building, you are taken to the top floor, which is mostly a small eating area. While your up there you can view the downstairs over the railings, which gives you a perfect look at the bar that they have. Another interesting thing that I found about this place is that they have a hall upstairs that leads to a place called the Garage. Which has the same menu and everything as the side I was on, but gives up a more loud bar feel, with louder music and not as much of a old school fancy look to it as the other side. If you end up sitting in the lounge, you will get a nice little view of Brady St, and the outside dining there, which is always a nice little way to people watch. While the look of the place interested me, the food is the important part.

The menu at Hi Hat was very bizarre to me and I had to have it explained to me but in reality, it's not that difficult to understand. Basically you get to choose from 2 different kinds of sandwiches, either a burger or chicken. If you just want the plain burger or chicken, it's $9 and extras such as cheese can be added for another $1. If just a plain sandwich doesn't interest you, there are different options to choose from at the bottom the menu that can be added to your sandwich. They give you options such as The Knot, The Wisconsin, The Cowboy, The California, and the Rockefeller. Each of these has it's own little thing going on, such as the Wisconsin having apple, chedder and bacon, while the Knot has mayo, brie, apples and bacon. So you choose your meat, then choose which one of these you would like, or don't. Each of these is served with fries or a noodle salad. It was a tough choice for me but I wasn't upset with my choice.


I'm not a burger fan so I chose the chicken right way, the real debate came between the Knot and the California. In the end though, I chose the California which was a grilled chicken breast topped with avocado, a crab cake, bacon, and pesto for the price of $11.75. While I found the price to be a little much, when I took my first bite I know that it was worth it. The first bite was a little intense, there was so much flavor going on that I didn't really know what I was eating and I had to take a second bite to figure it out. As weird as the combination of these things sound, it was delicious! The crab cake was very soft and mushy, which was weird, but it had a good amount of crab meat in it and had a really great flavor to it. The bacon was done perfectly and added a nice crunch and saltyness to the sandwich, while the chicken was grilled to perfection. The avocado didn't really add much to it, but added a little texture while the pesto wasn't that noticeable, but when it was it added a nice little garlic, oily taste to everything. After I took my first bite, I couldn't put it down and I was finished within a few minutes. I must also mention that I went with the noodles instead of the fries, which were good and tasted like a basic noodle salad. The fries the I did try were also really good with a nice crunch to them and your normal french fry flavor. These two didn't really matter though because the sandwich really took the cake in this meal.

While my original concern of this place was the price, with everything basically starting at $9 and going up to about $12 for just a sandwich. It was really well worth it and I'd gladly pay the price again to get another one. If none of the things I mentioned really interested you, they have a few other things such appetizers that include chicken wings, fries, crab cakes, and cheese stuffed mushrooms, which range from $6 to $9. They also have a Friday Fish Fry which has your normal fried cod, or you can choose 3 fish tacos, which I found interesting, for around $10. The Hi Hat is also known for their Brunch, which is served on the weekend and has your normal breakfast items such as omelets, french toast and sandwiches. If food doesn't interest you, there are also the 2 bars I mentioned before, and it seems like they also have Djs that come in on Fridays. While the only negative thing I'll say is that the service was a little slow, but very nice, I would say that this is a place that is worth taking the time to check out if you are ever hungry out on Brady st.

Miller Park

Miller Park: Triple Play Sliders
(Milwaukee, WI)

Normally I wouldn't consider a ball park a normal food place, but lately ball parks have been getting quite creative with their food options. While this won't be a long review, I must talk about something I ate yesterday at the Brewer game.

While eating a hot dog, a brat and some peanuts are always classic normal ways to go when going to a baseball game, I can tell you one thing that isn't normal, and that's a pulled pork parfait. Now you maybe saying to yourself, what is that? Well it's exactly what it sounds like. It's a parfait class with mashed potatoes on the bottom, then some pulled pork over that, then more mashed potatoes, then more pulled pork, then more mashed potatoes topped with some bbq sauce and chives.


Being as this item is very strange, I just had to try it at the game I went to. With a price tag of $7, it's not the cheapest, but don't except a good price for anything at a ball park. First I'll hit you with the positives starting with the bbq sauce on top. The sauce was delicious, it had a nice spice to it that wasn't strong enough to knock me off my feet and had a really nice flavor to it. The mashed potatoes were also really good, they were nice and fluffy and tasted almost homemade. There might have been a little seasoning in the potatoes, but I'm not quite sure. The meat was also well cooked and was your average pulled pork. Now that the positives are done with, let's get to the negatives.

Starting off, they barely put any meat into this thing. I watched the lady pick small pieces of meat and slowly put them in. She took a few big pieces, but nothing really spectacular. I was really disappointed by how little the amount of meat you get is, you couldn't even cover a piece of bread with the amount that they give you. While the flavor of the potatoes and the bbq sauce are quite good, the pulled pork leaves you a little less satisfied. I've had many pulled pork sandwiches in my life and it's usually an easy thing to make delicious. While the meat was fine, and the flavor was ok, it wasn't enough. There wasn't a strong flavor at all and I could barely tell if there was even sauce on the pork. It was such a little flavor for something that usually has a lot of flavor to it. It wasn't bad tasting or anything, don't get me wrong, it just didn't have the flavor that was I was expecting. This was the real downfall of the parfait. It could of also used a bit more bbq sauce on the top, because there wasn't a lot, and it was delicious so I wanted more.

If you are ever at Miller Park and want to try something different than your usual brat, then this maybe something to check out. If you are interested when you

are there, you can find them at the little Triple Play Sliders stands located in sections 127, 214, and 417. For $7, it maybe a hit or miss for you but I think it is something worth checking out, and doesn't taste as bad as it looks and sounds.