"Bar Month" at OnMilwaukee is brought to you by Miller Brewing Company, calling Milwaukee home since 1855. For the entire month of March, we're serving up fun articles on bars, clubs and beverages – including guides, the latest trends, bar reviews, the results of our Best of Bars poll and more. Grab a designated driver and dive in!
Bryant's Cocktail Lounge
Yesterday's best new bar results opened up OnMilwaukee's Bar Month with a bit of a surprise, five craft breweries taking up all five top spots in the poll. But if day one brought a sign of perhaps new times brewing in Milwaukee, day two's results for best craft cocktails brings us back to a Cream City classic: Bryant's Cocktail Lounge, winning for an impressive sixth year in a row.
As if we could you blame you for coming back to this South Side staple. In case the blissfully buzzy ice cream drinks and boozy concoctions, like the rum-heavy Brain Buster, the house original Kismet and the Pink Squirrel, weren't enough – all ordered without a menu, instead matched up by your waiter based on your preferences – the atmosphere at Bryant's is delightfully retro, dark lighting and smooth jazz and oldies hits setting the perfect scene for good cocktails and even better conversation. No wonder it's been noticed by the likes of Vogue and Esquire over the years.
It was yet another easy win for Bryant's, almost doubling the vote tally of its nearest competition, the soon-to-be-moving Boone & Crockett. Things got a bit tighter in the back end of the top five, however, with about 30 votes separating Riverwest hideaway Foundation Tiki Bar, the tasting room at Walker's Point trendsetter Great Lakes Distillery and the sunny Third Ward rooftop The Outsider.
Meanwhile, when it came to the editors pick, the OnMilwaukee staff reached outside the top five for its choice cocktail: Phoenix Cocktail Club.
OnMilwaukee editors' pick: Phoenix Cocktail Club
Runners up:
2. Boone & Crockett
3. Foundation Tiki Bar
4. Great Lakes Distillery Tasting Room
5. The Outsider at the Kimpton Journeyman
