Milwaukee

• Went to Milwaukee with Deena and Andy intending to go to the State Fair after visiting Ruta’s new restaurant.  We didn’t make it to the State Fair which was ok because Milwaukee was itself so interesting.

Eventhough it is only 1 1/2 hours from Madison we rarely went there as kids. Too bad,  there is much to recommend it.  It used to be more of a working-class town with many of the famous German-American breweries and tanneries.  Most of these have closed or moved since long ago but as Andy pointed out, unlike Madison, Milwaukee didn’t demolish old buildings and it has quite interesting architecture mostly from around 1900 and many buildings featuring a lovely yellow/white brick  Milwaukee, very much like nearby Chicago is on Lake Michigan and has a river running through it.

Milwaukee’s population is around 500,000 (Madison about 175,000) and it feels much more like a proper city.

We couldn’t meet with Ruta who (of course) has a very happening little restaurant as she was busy being interviewed by the BBC following the publication of her recent cookbook.  Meera was there though- I hadn’t seen her for about 10 years and she is a very poised beautiful college student. Food was excellent.

I took a photo of this cool cat trying on a winter coat  in an antique store.  His entire wardrobe, furniture in his flat etc. is all vintage.  Thumbs up.

This hat shop was quite lovely- well worth the trip to Milwaukee on its own,

Groppi Grocery Store in Milwaukee is famous, started by the father of Father Groppi,  a well-known Catholic activist priest from the 1960’s and 70’s I believe.