Milwaukee Brewing & Distilling Company – owned by Eagle Park Brewing – has announced that its new taproom in Bay View will have its soft opening on Friday, Aug. 2.
A grand opening event with live music and more will take place on Saturday, Aug. 17.
The taproom is in the former Tonic Tavern, 2335 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., which has been renovated.
The new venue will not have a brewhouse. It will feature a range of beers and spirits made by Milwaukee Brewing & Distilling Company at its Muskego facility.
Milwaukee Brewing will continue the Tonic tradition of hosting live music. There is an indoor stage.
Tonic's large outdoor area has been remodeled.
"Much of the work on the space was cosmetic besides the new patio," says co owner Jake Schinker. "We loved Tonic Tavern and it was a careful balancing act to choose what to update and what to keep.
"We wanted it to feel new but still keep it familiar to those in the neighborhood that frequented here."
Eagle Park's roots are in Bay View, where it opened in 2017 in the Lincoln Warehouse on 1st and Becher Streets.
"Bay View holds a special place in our hearts," says Schinker. "When we left our original location here in 2018 we were sad to leave, but being back here and being part of the wave of new businesses opening in the area is amazing!
"It already feels like we never left."
The new taproom was announced this past spring. Tonic Tavern closed in February.
When Eagle Park Brewing and Distilling bought the brands of the closed Milwaukee Brewing Company in September 2022, Schinker told us that he and his partners planned a taproom focused on the brand.
Milwaukee Brewing Company opened in 1997. It closed its Brewery District taproom in August 2022 and sold the business and facility to Pilot Project Brewing.
Eagle Park has taprooms on Milwaukee's East Side and in Muskego, where it operates its production facility.
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.
