"Bar Month" at OnMilwaukee.com is back for another round! The whole month of February, we're serving up intoxicatingly fun bars and club articles -- including guides, unique features, drink recipes and more. Grab a designated driver and dive in!
It's bar month at OnMilwaukee.com and I won't likely get out to more than a couple bars all month in my leisure time. The result is that my bar of choice is the liquor cabinet and the refrigerator at home.
While the image of someone drinking at home is sometimes perceived as a sad one, I rarely feel blue when I pop the cap on a Stella or pull the cork out of a beloved Barbera in my kitchen and enjoy it with dinner.
Even less sad is drinking at home in summer, when there's no bar in town that can serve up the same pleasure I get sitting out on the patio as the dogs chase one another, my toddler enjoys the sunshine, the "water feature" (aka fountain) gurgles away and we discuss what we'll cook on the grill that evening.
In fact, even after looking at what seems like a proming two-week forecast for February in Wisconsin, I still yearn for summer. That's when it's fun to be a homeowner (mostly), enjoying the fruits of one's labor and of one's check-writing. In winter, it's all shoveling, ice dam breaking and trying to ease the effects of nature. In summer, it's getting out the kiddie pool, cooking up some brats and having an evening grappa before bed.
Of course, summer has it's hiccups, too -- like mosquitoes, lawn mowing and the rumble of the boom cars in the alley -- but right now I yearn even for those (kinda).
In the meantime, I'll keep enjoying my wine, beer and spirits of choice mostly in the comfort of my own home -- no one smokes there and there's no fear of DUI -- although I will think of the good times to be had in area taverns, where there's camaraderie, the conversation struck up by chance and the electric atmosphere.
Best of all, at home -- unlike in bars -- I'm rarely tempted to drink to excess.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
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