Beyond BoDeans: Breezeway Studios

When you walk into Sprizzo, 363 W. Main Street, you’d never guess that in the 80s this place was one of the premier recording studios in southeastern Wisconsin.  Breezeway Studios was an affordable place where notable Milwaukee area bands like the BoDeans, Die Kreuzen, Realm, Those xCleavers, Couch Flambeau. Liquid Pink, and the Mighty Deer Lick recorded.  The studio was run by Lee Crooks who, according to an old Journal article only chose downtown Waukesha (against the advice of everyone) because of the low overhead, not the historic charm.  They probably figured they could operate there with no hassle since nobody gave a shit about downtown during this era.  The studio opened in 1983 and closed around 1990.

For a state with limited success in the rock music world, Wisconsin has an incredible history with our studios.  Royal Recorders in Lake Geneva was used by Robert Plant, BoDeans, Cheap Trick, Survivor, and Adrian Below. Smart Studios, run by Butch Vig, has recorded albums by a slew of popular alternative and indie rock bands including Nirvana, Garbage (which Vig is a member of), Smashing Pumpkins, Promise Ring, Archers of Loaf, and Death Cab For Cuite.  Another up and coming studio is Bayview’s  The Mystery Room.  Run by Justin Perkins, this place is becoming a go-to place for indepen dent and punk artists including Screeching Weasel/Riverdales, Dan Vapid and The Cheats (ex Screeching Weasel), Hayward Williams, and Sub Pop’s Jaill.

Patch Readers Pick Fuzzy’s for Best Breakfast Spot

Today it was announced that Fuzzy’s won the Waukesha Patch best breakfast or brunch readers poll.  I like Taylor’s Peoples’ Park brunch when I want something a little nicer and when I want to slow down and relax on a Sunday morning.  It is also a great place to take out of town guests to show off our downtown.  However I agree 100 percent with the readers, Fuzzy’s is the best breakfast spot in town.  Here’s why:

That is the Tostada My Breakfast from Fuzzy’s. It is one of my favorite breakfast items anywhere. Its features grilled flour tortillas with beans, chorizo, scrambled eggs, onions, peppers, and cheese with hash browns, sour cream, and salsa. It is delicious.

Mexican breakfasts not your thing?  Try their incredible biscuits and gravy (available weekends).  I like mine with sunny-side up eggs on the biscuits and the gravy covering everything.

I also finally tried their version of eggs Benedict last week.  They use their silky smooth cheese sauce instead of tangy Hollandaise and burger buns instead of English muffins (though you can get them with English muffins, just ask). Its not a true Benedict (go to Taylor’s for that one, it’s great) but it sure is tasty.

If omelettes are your thing, they have a bunch of those too.  I am not a big omelette fan but below is a Philly Cheese steak one from Fuzzy’s that is occasionally offered as a special.

Their Bloody Mary’s are very good too but most times I just get coffee.

The fact that I have three photos of different Fuzzy’s breakfast dishes (I also have one of a Mean Jean burger, but that’s for another day) on my iPhone is a testament to how much I enjoy eating there.

Check out Bolzano’s Salami at the Farmers’ Market on Saturday, May 5

The Farmer’s Market starts this weekend and I wanted to alert you to a vendor that has not been at the Waukesha Farmers’ Market before (at least to my knowledge) but is worthy of a visit this Saturday.  Bolzano Artisan Meats is a Milwaukee based company making interesting, hand crafted, and (most importantly), incredibly delicious old world salamis.

Bolzano’s Old School Salami

Don’t let the price steer you away, even though they can go for up to 15 dollars apiece they are worth every penny. They use heirloom pork for their products, including Red Wattle pork for their Pig Red, an impressive salami that contains no added spices, yet remains very flavorful and complex because of this unique breed of hog.   It is probably my favorite of all of their salamis but  you can’t go wrong with any of their choices.  If you really want to embrace the “eat local” mantra, check out the Figgy Puddin’, a salami with dried fig and cocoa nibs from Waukesha’s own Indulgence Chocolatiers.

Beyond BoDeans: M.I.J. and Jeff Hanson

With all the guitar town hoopla this spring people usually think of Les Paul and the Bo Deans as the City’s main contribution to music, and they deserve those accolades. However I feel that Les Paul is far more valuable for his technological contributions to music than artistic ones and while I see why the BoDeans are a Wisconsin favorite, their style of music never did much for me. I’ve seen them numerous times and they always were entertaining but they just don’t appeal to my tastes. So as my homage to Guitar Town, I’d like to start a feature called “Beyond BoDeans” where I explore  some other, lesser-known musical acts from Waukesha.

The first band/musician I want to talk about is M.I.J. and singer/guitarist Jeff Hanson. In the early-90s Milwaukee was a hotbed of emo music. The success and popularity of The Promise Ring (who recently reunited) had inspired others to start bands playing similar music. One such band was Waukesha’s M.I.J.. Led by vocalist/guitarist Jeff Hanson, their early stuff was a mix of punk and emo. I only saw them once with but recall them being really tight for such a young band. Some of their music can be found on the incredible mkepunk.com website for free. These early recordings aren’t produced that well and I don’t think Hanson had perfected his vocal style (which many say sounds more like a female singing), so if you really want to hear this band at its best, pick up “The Radio Goodnight,” their full-length release on Cauflield Records.  I think the title track is their best tune (click here to listen if you have Spotify).

M.I.J broke up and Jeff Hanson went on to a short, but very well received solo career on popular indie label Kill Rock Stars. In his solo career Hanson was known for his unique falsetto voice and his music style best was described as “chamber pop.” The closest comparison to his singing style would be Grammy winner (and Wisconsin native), Justin Vernon (Bon Iver). His 2003 release, Son and  2005 self-titled release garnered impressive scores of 8.1 and 7.8 (out of 10), respectively, on the annoyingly elitist, yet hugely influential Pitchfork music site.  

Unfortunately in 2009 Jeff Hanson, who had relocated to the Minneapolis area before the end of M.I.J., passed away from what was determined to be “mixed drug toxicity.”

To listen to their early works, visit the M.I.J. page at mkepunk.com

To buy M.I.J.’s stellar release The Radio Goodnight visit Amazon.com or if you have Spotify you can listen to it there.

Here is one of Hanson’s great solo tunes:

Unique Places to Drink: Golden Gate Restaurant Bar

Golden Gate Restaurant (1427 Racine Avenue) sits in an old strip mall on Racine Avenue, just west of HWY 164. The anchor tenant space has held a variety of things from a Red Owl/Town and Country in the 80s to a decent Mexican Supermarket (Super Amigo Foods) which closed about 4 years ago. I still miss their awesome sopes and gorditas. That space will now be home to a large antique store. However everyone knows that the real anchor of the strip mall is Golden Gate Restaurant. In fact when the property went up for sale the owner of Golden Gate bought the entire property, did a bunch of work to improve its appearance, and renamed it Golden Gate Plaza.

Golden Gate has good Chinese food and is my go-to Chinese place due to the close proximity to my house, but the title of best in Waukesha is certainly up for debate. Some of my favorites are the Cantonese Combination, Moo Shoo Pork, and the Twice Cooked Pork. Their wonton soup is also good. However what is most interesting about the place to me is not the food, it’s the bar scene. Its an interesting and unique hybrid of Chinese restaurant, supper club bar, and tiki lounge with a couple of TVs for watching sports or the evening news thrown in for good measure.

I always make it a point to order my food and head right over so I can have a beer or two while I take in the scene and wait for my dinner. This isn’t a place to sample the latest trendy microbrew, so you’d be well served going with your favorite Miller product which for me is High Life. The bar is filled with regulars at happy hour most days and a majority of them are probably over the age of 60. It’s truly a unique vibe there and since there isn’t another tavern in close proximity it serves as a nice neighborhood gathering place where you’ll find a gaggle of regulars talking across the bar to each other about current events.

The look is pure supper club, which is what the space was prior to Golden Gate moving in. Its by no means unique and you could find similar decor at just about every old supper club in the state. Instead of destroying the bar for more dining space (which they could probably use), the owners made the smart move of leaving it as is. Plus you can eat your dinner at the bar if you like. Inside you’ll find comfy barstools, A Brandy Old Fashioned in front of many patrons, and dim lighting. However not everyone is drinking High Life or Old Fashioneds, many people opt for the Tiki Drinks. Paul (the owner and guy you’ll find behind the bar most – if not all – nights) offers up about 10 concoctions ranging from the Tiki staple, The Mai Tai, to their own namesake cocktail, The Golden Gate, a mixture off cherry brandy, and fruit juice, each of which is served in the requisite tiki glass.

Its a unique joint and a place that everyone has to check out at least once.

A Belated Welcome Back to Taylor’s People’s Park

They’ve been open since December but it took me until February to return to Taylor’s People’s Park (and April to write something).  I knew my first order would be the Central Park Burger with Pomme Frites, its my go-to burger there. The 1/2 burger is topped with sauteed onions and mushrooms and their signature Gorgonzola & Goat creamed Remoulade sauce. Its the mixture of onions and two of my favorite cheeses that makes this so damn good. The Valley Burger is a close second

It did not disappoint, in fact it might have been the best burger I have had there (and I’ve had quite a few).  The reason? Look at that glistening pink interior.  Perfect medium rare.  Before the fire all burgers seemed to be cooked more to a medium when I requested medium rare, this time it was spot-on.    The fries were crispy and the addition of finely shaved parmesan cheese and truffle oil makes these my favorite fries in Waukesha.  They have Alaskan IPA on tap, which is great but why not some local love?  Lakefront IPA would be a nice fit.

Remington Watson Smith Brewing

Did you know that as recently as 2000 Waukesha had a microbrewery? From 1994 to 2000 the Remington Watson Smith Brewing Company occupied the former Fox Head Brewery at 223 Maple Avenue (shown in its present state above). From what I could gather they had a wide variety of pretty well received brews including a German Style Kolsh, a Pale Ale called Centenni-Ale, which was brewed as a tribute to Waukesha’s 150th anniversary, Nocturn, a higher alcohol Old Ale,  Old Waukesha Ale, which was a tribute to the Fox Head brewery space they occupied, a Blonde Bock, an Amber, and a Rye beer (which are gaining in popularity in the industry now). The brewery was founded by six friends who all were into the home-brewing hobby.  They were Scott Watson Donald (Brewmaster), Steve & Debra Smith, Brett & Wendy Remington, and Christina Hoeth.

Sadly they closed up before the downtown rennisance began.  I have no doubt in my mind that if the brewery had opened up a decade later that they would have succeeded. Its one of the most common businesses that younger people say they would like to see downtown. The craft beer market continues to boom in Wisconsin and we are approaching 60 microbreweries/brewpubs in the state. A microbrewery with a tap room would be a nice attraction in the old Fox Head building. A microbrewery or brewpub with good food would be even better.

Here is an article from the Milwaukee Journal discussing the launch of the brewery in 1994 - Entrepreneurs Brewing Their Recipe to Success. 

Fox Head stone on building has been preserved

Buchner Park Steps

Stairs at Buchner Pool.

I like that the City has preserved the limestone stairs around this park instead of replacing them with concrete ones.  Its a nice reminder of the history and age of the park.  However, the asphalt walkway around the pool and near the volleyball court is out of place and tacky.

Calle Melendes

Recognize this sign? If you’ve ever traveled down Main Street west of downtown near The Strand chances are the answer is yes. You also may have wondered why there was no actual street there, just what appears to be a driveway or alley. I foolishly assumed it was just one of those custom made signs that people order from the back of a catalog but I decided to use the Google machine to see if there was more to the story.  Indeed there is.  According to the book Latinos in Waukesha, in 2006 the alley was named in honor of the Melendes family, who were the first Latino immigrants to Waukesha and the first to own a home here. 

The book also noted that some in the Latino community thought that it was kind of shitty of Waukesha to only name an alley and not an actual road after this important family.  I thought the same thing.  However it was the Melendes family that requested that the alley bear the family name because of what it represented. The alley ran led right to the doorstep of the Melendes home and represented a path to a new life for Hispanic immigrants.  It also was the gateway to the cultural neighborhood around The Strand, which itself has quite the history, but that’s for another post.

For more about the Melendes family, The Strand, or the history of Latinos in the City, check out Latinos in Waukesha by Walter Sava Ph.D. and Anselmo Villarreal.  I know the Library has several copies and you might be able to find it (or special order it at Martha Merrell’s) You can also look at the book via Google Books. I have skimmed through the Google Books version and it looks like a fascinating read. 

This is a pretty interesting video showing what businesses used to be in different locations around town.  The loss of all those grocery stores is kind of a bummer, the loss of a bunch of shitty fast food chains, on the other hand, is actually progress in my opinion. 

Gone from Waukesha’s “inner core” (by russmon1204)

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)