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Local Beer
Milwaukee is nicknamed Brew City for a reason. The city was built on German brewing traditions and was once home to the world’s four largest breweries: Schlitz, Blatz, Pabst, and Miller. Of those four only Miller remains in the city, but a ton of microbreweries have sprung up in the other’s place.
There’s Lakefront Brewery, Sprecher, Milwaukee Brewing Company, Leinenkugel and many others that can be found on tap all around the city.
Cheese Curds
Cheese is definitely a Wisconsin thing: on this trip I sampled local mozzarella cheese, aged cheddar cheese (on top of a steak no less) and even chocolate cheese but I’m basically obsessed with cheese curds. It’s probably a good thing that you can’t get them in DC because my wedding diet would be totally destroyed.
Cheese curds are just solid bits of sour milk created during the cheese making process. Kind of like the hunks found in cottage cheese but bigger and better. They taste similar to cheese but saltier and mild and are best eaten fresh (you’ll know they are fresh if they squeak in your teeth).
During our time in Milwaukee we tried plain cheese curds, fried cheese curds, cheese curd fritters, but the best was the Leinenkugel battered cheese curds I ordered at Summerfest. Yum.
Usinger Sausage
Cheese, beer and sausage make up the Milwaukee food trifecta. As I mentioned before, thanks to all that German heritage locals love their brats.
The most iconic sausage maker in the city is Usinger, who have a factory and deli counter in the middle of downtown, decorated with little sausage making elves. They sell everything from salami to blood sausage.
Cocktails
Old Fashion’s are quite popular as are bloody Mary’s- usually served at brunch with a variety of interesting snacks on sticks.