Milwaukee, Wisconsin — Trip Report

Why Milwaukee is on this site

Milwaukee is not a luxury destination and this report does not pretend otherwise. There is no Forbes Five-Star hotel here, and no Forbes Four-Star one either, which is why Milwaukee does not appear in The Luxe Zone, where every property traces to a Forbes award. What it has is a grand nineteenth-century hotel that has held a AAA Four Diamond rating longer than any other property in the Midwest, a James Beard–winning kitchen, a ballpark twenty minutes from your room, and a river running through the middle of downtown with a walk along it. We went to see our Texas Rangers play the Brewers, and stayed downtown.

Where we stayed

The Pfister, Milwaukee’s 1893 landmark on Wisconsin Avenue. It carries AAA Four Diamond, and the hotel states it has held that rating for 50 consecutive years, the only Four Diamond property in the Midwest to have done so continuously since the award began in 1976. That streak claim comes from the hotel’s own materials rather than from AAA, and is repeated here as their claim. The building holds a well-known Victorian art collection, a spa, and a bar on the 23rd floor with the city and the lake underneath it. We stayed in a King Suite.

The Pfister is also the hotel with the ghost stories. Visiting baseball teams have stayed here for decades, and a run of players have gone on record about lights and televisions switching themselves on, radios changing station and knocking in empty rooms; a few have asked to be put up elsewhere. Adrián Beltré, then a Ranger, told reporters he slept with a bat beside the bed. The ghost of record is Charles Pfister, who built the place and is said to still walk the lobby and the staircase. We heard nothing. Our friends, one floor along, smelled breakfast cooking in the room next door one morning. There is no room next door.

The Pfister's red awning on Wisconsin Avenue

Downtown and the RiverWalk

The Milwaukee River cuts through downtown and the RiverWalk follows it, under glass skywalks and past the bronze ducks on the Wisconsin Avenue bridge: Gertie, the mallard who nested on a bridge piling in 1945 and became the city’s wartime mascot, and her duckling. The nineteenth-century blocks either side of the river carry their clock faces, mansard roofs and carved stone heads; one office tower had a set of giant red ladybugs climbing it. The lakefront lawns north of the art museum belong to the geese.

A carved stone face on a downtown facade

A downtown clock tower against a white sky

Giant red ladybugs climbing an office tower

The mansard roof and clock faces of a nineteenth-century downtown block

The RiverWalk railings and lamps, a bronze duck in the planter

Gertie the Duck and her duckling in bronze on the Wisconsin Avenue bridge

The Milwaukee River downtown, a glass skywalk over it and the Milwaukee Center tower behind

The ballpark

American Family Field sits about four miles west of downtown, just off I-94. Published distances vary between roughly three and five miles depending on where downtown is measured from; the drive is short either way, and the stadium is set in a suburban parking-lot campus rather than in a walkable neighbourhood. Drive or ride rather than walk it from a downtown hotel. We were there for the Rangers, our home team, on their visit to the Brewers.

The infield and the main scoreboard at American Family Field during warm-ups — Warm-ups, with the roof open.

Steve and Jeannie in the stands at American Family Field, Steve in a red Rangers cap — Us, in the stands.

A batter swings at American Family Field, the crowd behind

Cocktails on tap

The concourse bars pour cocktails on tap: Brandy Old Fashioned and Wisconsin Iced Tea from handles in the same row as the Miller Lite. We have not seen hard liquor served that way anywhere else. It is a very Wisconsin solution to a queue.

Ballpark tap handles in a row: Brandy Old Fashioned and Long Island Iced Tea beside Blue Moon, Miller Lite, Coors Light and Miller High Life — Brandy Old Fashioned and Long Island Iced Tea, pouring from handles in the same row as the beer. Cropped to the taps.

Where we ate and drank

Lakefront Brewery on the river north of downtown, with its tour and beer hall, and the Milwaukee Public Market on Water Street in the Third Ward, where The Spice House has its counter. O’Lydia’s Bar & Grill, in Walker’s Point, is where we were introduced to pull-tabs, the other Wisconsin institution: a paper lottery ticket you peel open at the bar. The locals call it cardboard crack, and after an evening of it we understood why. Dinner was at Five O’Clock Steakhouse, the supper club on West State Street that has been serving since 1946: relish tray, then the steak. Brunch was at Café Benelux in the Third Ward, the Belgian-leaning café with the rooftop on Broadway.

The three restaurants the city is judged by, for a longer stay: Sanford, where chef-owner Justin Aprahamian won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Midwest in 2014 (four courses or a seven-course tasting, the tasting Tuesday to Friday only); Ardent, AAA Four Diamond, a tasting menu from James Beard nominee Justin Carlisle built on Wisconsin farm produce; and Bavette La Boucherie, butchery-led and less formal, the one to hold for a night when the game runs long.

A table of pull-tab tickets at O’Lydia’s — Pull-tabs at O’Lydia’s.

The rooftop at Café Benelux, strung with lights, in the Third Ward — The rooftop at Café Benelux, where we had brunch.

The Milwaukee Public Market on Water Street, the red sculpture at its corner

The red-lit bar at Five O’Clock Steakhouse, a few stools taken — The bar at Five O’Clock Steakhouse, before dinner.

Pro tips

Book Five O’Clock Steakhouse ahead. It is small, it is a supper club, and Friday and Saturday fill.
Brunch at Café Benelux, on the roof. Ask for the rooftop when you book; the ground floor is a different meal.
Do the pull-tabs once. Cash, a dollar a ticket, and set a limit before the first one.
Lakefront Brewery tour, then the Public Market. Same side of the river, a short walk apart, an easy afternoon.
September is the month. Baseball is still on, the lake is warm enough, and the summer crowds have gone.

Getting there

Milwaukee Mitchell International (MKE) is the city airport, roughly ten miles south of the ballpark and a short run to downtown. Past security the sign reads Recombobulation Area, which is the airport’s own word for the bench where you put your shoes back on. Chicago O’Hare is the alternative for connections, at a considerably longer drive.

The Recombobulation Area sign past security at Milwaukee Mitchell airport

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Sources

Hotel and restaurant ratings on this page were checked on 2026-08-09 and are attributed to the body that issues them: AAA for Diamond ratings, the James Beard Foundation for chef awards, Forbes Travel Guide for star ratings. Where no rating was found, the page says so rather than implying one. Distances are approximate and the range is stated where published sources disagree. Photographs are our own.