The Ultimate Weekend in Milwaukee, Wisconsin For a Sports Fan

Before you go

Two sporty days in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Day 1

Morning

• See a Great Lake: Lake Michigan is Milwaukee’s navigation landmark, economic hub, and freshwater oasis. It’s also the backdrop to the best place to get your steps or fill of culture: The Oak Leaf trail spans 135 miles of path. Give yourself a break and some caffeine on the sprawling patio at Colectivo, which features locally roasted coffee, home baked goods, and solid sandwiches. Need something stronger? Head across the street to the Roundhouse Beer Garden at McKinley Marina. You might fortify for a hike out along the pier or over to the Art Museum—the striking Santiago Calatrava-designed ship-like structure has become a futuristic logo for the city.

Mid day

• Get in the kitchen: After a morning of lakefront leg work, the Riverwalk Commons Pickleball Courts is ideal to get arms swinging and balls popping. Then head across the street to the Milwaukee Public Market. Stock up on beer, wine, cheese, sausage, and spices and olive oils, then fill up on fresh seafood from St. Paul Fish Market, or barbecue, or maybe even a salad.
• Unwind in Milwaukee’s living room: If you can’t decide between game playing or watching, or drinking, there is Third Street Market Hall. The sprawling Wisconsin Avenue oasis features shuffleboard, cornhole, Top Golf, and one million TVs for all the games. Also, there’s beer—in a dangerous and brilliant pour-your-own tap situation. And somehow this is all to bury the lead of maybe the single best food collective in town: Dairyland’s got you covered for an old-fashioned burger and curds. From there branch out toward Peruvian chicken, pho, ramen, tortas, or, because sports are on, pizza and chicken wings.
• Have a beer in the breeze: Warmer months require filling up on Vitamin D, and for that, there are beer gardens. Try Estabrook, for hiking, frisbee golf, and fishing, or South Shore Terrace, where you can count the sailboats and check the kitesurfing.

Afternoon

• Roll: Once dubbed the “Bowling Capital of America,” Milwaukee was the headquarters of the American Bowling Congress for more than 100 years. No longer, but still a righteous ode to the city’s proud Germanic heritage. (Bowling with pins likely originated in Germany, not as a sport but as a religious ceremony). Head out to Falcon Bowl, a 100-plus-year-old bar and alley with dangerously cheap drinks, live music, and a base to jump up and out to Riverwest’s bohemian bounty of hangs and eats—try Centro, Nessun Dorma, or The Tracks.
• Roll some more: Koz’s mini bowl is a family-friendly stop, featuring the last original duckpin bowling in the U.S., and giving access to some of the best Mexican fare in town—especially Carnitas Don Lucho on the weekends.
• Roll one more time: By contrast Bay View Bowl is the new kid on the block. But it’s an ideal starting line for a bar crawl: Burnheart’s, Newport, or if you find yourself dragging, Anodyne has you covered for coffee, beer, or Neopolitan pizza.

Evening

• Witness Giannis: For most of the year there are few better options than a Bucks game at Fiserv Forum. The slick beer-keg-shaped house that Giannis built was opened in 2018, offering good crowd flow, easy sight lines, one million food and drink options, and Milwaukee’s beloved Greek Freak probably dunking on someone’s poor face. Marquette University’s men’s team plays here too, if you want to get an in person glimpse at coach Shaka Smart’s high slot flow offense.
• Hear some tunes or climb a wall: Around the corner is Turner Hall, where you could catch a national touring act seemingly any night of the week. Formed in 1853, the Milwaukee Turners are the oldest civic group in the city, dedicated to strengthening community based on the ideal of “Sound Mind in a Sound Body.” It’s a tradition continued with gymnastics and rock climbing, in what might be the longest continuously running gym in the U.S.
• Iron your shirt for dinner on Milwaukee Street: Make a reservation at Third Coast Provisions for oysters and Great Lakes walleye, hit Flourchild for inventively hip pizza, or pop into Zarletti for carbonara and housemade ravioli. Around the corner is Amilinda, at once the coziest and most exciting restaurant in downtown, a place that has chef Gregory Leon recently nominated as a James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Chef.

Day 2

Morning

• Get in the swing early: Highbury and Nomad are famed morning time soccer bars, opening doors and bottles at irresponsible hours for shenanigans while the rest of the city is still in coffee mode.
• Become a morning person: Feeling friskier than a spectator? You could try a kayak or pontoon, depending on your level of adventure-seeking. Either one will lead you down the Kinnickinick River, for a quick tie up and meal at Barnacle Buds, where you’ll need a grouper reuben and a bucket of cold ones.

Mid day

• Soak up some sun: Yes, Milwaukee has sun, and beaches—most notably Bradford Beach, a perfect marriage point of the East Side’s high-rise urbanity and Lake Michigan’s freshwater greatness. Take a refreshing dip, try your hand at some beach volleyball, or grab a burger at Moosa’s custard stand.

Afternoon

• Catch a game: If there’s any game happening, Steny’s is the place to settle in. More than a sports bar or a chicken wing destination, much more than a spot to grab a shuttle to a Brewers or Packers game, it’s the tried and true beating heart of Walker’s Point, Milwaukee’s oldest, but ever-changing, neighborhood.
• Catch a game with real live shoe squeaks: Up the road is the Al Maguire Center, home of Marquette’s women’s basketball and volleyball teams. Named for Marquette’s beloved men’s coach of their '70s heyday, the facility is an intimate part of the school’s expanding urban campus, one that hasn’t looked or felt the same since Dwyane Wade took the Golden Eagles to the Final Four in 2003.

Evening

• Tailgate and maybe take in a game: It’s actually outside of a Brewers game that one witnesses the true apex of Milwaukee drinking culture—watch as patrons turn a sliver of American Family Field parking lot into some idealized version of their living room. It’s acceptable if you wait a few innings to make it into the game—if you make it in at all. But the park is more than a summer hangout. The Brew Crew continue on as a perennial contender, one that just can’t quite catch the breaks to get over that playoff hump.
• Roll some dice: The ever-visible flame atop Potawatomi Casino might call your name whether you’re feeling it or not. From slots and high-stakes bingo to table games and poker, plus the Dream Dance Steakhouse and a spanking new sportsbook, it’s the place to go all out, and then to get a room and some recovery.

If you have three days

All of the above, but add...

• The Pedal Tavern is like a spin class, but fun. A rolling group party on a bicycle bar is the best way to get a tour of the hip Third Ward and Walker’s Point neighborhoods, with customizable bar stops along the way.
• While the Bucks and Brewers are the tickets to chase in town, don’t sleep on a sojourn north to Lambeau. The Jordan Love-era ramps up this fall, and is an easy and straight two hours up I-43 to Green Bay.
• After making it interesting at Potawatomi, or, before taking in any action at Fiserv, Major Goolsbys is the spot to watch something. Here they seem to tempt the question: How many TVs is actually too many? Also, for a sports bar, the chicken wings are better than they have any right to be.
• Pettit National Ice Center is a good place to test your mettle, or watch the best of the best test theirs. As a training site for US Speedskating, the West Allis complex is the spot for everything icy and fast, from open skates to official time trials.

If you have four days, plus

All of the above, but add...

• The AHL might be the minor leagues, but an Admirals game doesn’t feel like it. Panther Arena gets hottest in the middle of winter, when the team takes the ice.
• Pre or post game at the Old German Beer Hall. Today it doesn’t feel like there’s much linking Milwaukee to the old country on Old World Third Street but it almost always finds its way in. Here you’re having beer, pretzels, and brats. You can diet and dry out back home.