A lot of taverns like to refer to themselves as "neighborhood" establishments.
Lee's Cleveland Pub and Grill, 14000 W. Cleveland Ave., in New Berlin, really means it.
Matt Lee's 16-month-old establishment is located in a rather quiet residential neighborhood. The building, which previously housed Gabby's Deli and long before that a PDQ food store, was vacant when Lee took over.
A veteran of the bar business, Lee envisioned his new place as a combination Irish pub and sports bar.
Here is a scouting report:
LEE'S CLEVELAND PUB AND GRILL
14000 W. Cleveland Ave., New Berlin
(262) 754-5337
leesclevelandpub.com
HOURS: 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Sunday through Thursday; open to 2:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday. (Kitchen is open from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.)
HISTORY: Matt Lee, a former manager at Club Paragon in Greenfield, opened the bar in January 2009. The building previously housed a deli and a PDQ supermarket.
VIBE: It's a casual, neighborhood bar and restaurant that draws a steady clientele from area businesses during lunch and happy hour. At night, the place gets busy with softball teams and sports fans. The bar is spacious and there is a hall available for parties.
DIVERSIONS: A large area for Golden Tee, Power Putt, shuffleboard, pool and darts. Oh, and there are several very large HDTV sets, most tuned to sports. The bar also offers Wi-Fi.
BEER LIST: In addition to the standard Miller and Leinenkugel products, the bar offers a boatload of interesting selections.
Taps include Bass, Blue Moon, Guinness, Hacker Pschorr, Harp, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Smithwick's and Spotted Cow. Import bottles include Amstel Light, Beck's, Boddingtons, Corona, Dos Equis, Hoegaarden, Labatt's, Molson, Newcastle, Okocim, Peroni, Pilsner Urquell, Red Stripe, Stella Artois, and Strongbow.
Premium bottles include Lakefront Eastside Dark, Land Shark, Red Hook, Magic Hat #9, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Woodchuck Amber, Fat Tire, Sam Adams and Leinenkugel Classic Amber, Creamy Dark, Sunset Wheat and Summer Shandy.
FOOD: The Friday fish fry ($9.50 for haddock and $10.50 or bluegill and perch) features all the fixings and draws a solid crowd. Burgers, sandwiches, wraps, salads, pizza and prime rib are excellent. The appetizer list is standard, save for the Scotch eggs ($7), two hard boiled eggs wrapped in pork sausage, breaded and fried.
SPECIALS: Happy hour runs weekdays from 2 to 7 p.m. and features 25-ounce taps for the price of a pint and triple drinks for the price of a double.
Host of “The Drew Olson Show,” which airs 1-3 p.m. weekdays on The Big 902. Sidekick on “The Mike Heller Show,” airing weekdays on The Big 920 and a statewide network including stations in Madison, Appleton and Wausau. Co-author of Bill Schroeder’s “If These Walls Could Talk: Milwaukee Brewers” on Triumph Books. Co-host of “Big 12 Sports Saturday,” which airs Saturdays during football season on WISN-12. Former senior editor at OnMilwaukee.com. Former reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
