We don't eat a places like TGI Friday's very much, but on my son's birthday, we had to think of a place to take him that would be relatively fast, since we had only two hours to get to an appointment, but also fun for him.
Since the season ended, he's been pointing to the stadium every time we pass it and saying, "in there." So, I thought Friday's Front Row would be the perfect choice. And daddy hit a homer with this one.
He munched down an entire grilled cheese, despite having dipped it a few times in the tartar sauce that came with my fish and chips (he also insisted I try this new combination), and some fries, too. We sat facing out into left field and talking about the dozen or so games he's been to and pointing to the places we've sat together.
I reminded him of his first game -- at 6.5 months old -- when we watched our team -- the Mets -- beat our other team -- the Brewers. He reminded me that he wanted a pretzel, something he's used to sharing with mom at Brewers games.
He gave me the full run-down, pointing out the TVs (scoreboard), the clock, the towers (foul poles), the often puzzling "that one" (we don't always know to which one he's pointing) and the rockets (the fireworks that shoot off when a Brewer homers) ... of course, the rockets!
Later, to his delight, mom arrived, just in time to witness our friendly waiter Ryan bring over a gang of fellow waitstaff to sing happy birthday and present our son with a bowl of ice cream, a treat he doesn't get too often. Little surprise, then, that he cleaned the bowl and might have licked it clean had we allowed that.
I did my best trumpet sound, he shouted, "charge" and off we went.
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.
