Valentine's Day is our St. Patrick's Day

If there is one thing at Bryant's as consistent as the delicious cocktails, it's love.

Unlike most modern bars, Bryant's was built for love. The cozy dark lighting and cozy booths create the perfect environment for gazing in to the eyes of your beloved. There are no TVs to distract your gaze, no dance floor to break up the space, no pool tables and no bar games- when you come toBryant's it's about you and your companion. Conversation, laughter, and heady drinks mix to create the perfect environment for love.

Is Bryant's the perfect place for a first date? Probably not, especially if you don't know the person. If the date goes wrong (and let's face it, it may), the quiet music and lack of distraction will quickly highlight the awkwardness. Personally, I would say Bryant's is the perfect place for a second date. If you know you have a connection with your date, bring them to Bryant's for some serious one on one.

Why Bryant's? Ask your grandparents: Bryant's is a proven place for love. I have met dozens of people who say they dated at Bryant's, their parents/grandparents dated at Bryant's, or they got engaged at Bryant's. I even met one fellow named Bryant whose parents loved Bryant's so much, they named their child after the lounge. Now, that's love.

Probably the most famous Bryant's couple, long gone from the memory of most Bryant's patrons, were Bryant and Edna Sharp. This couple created and owned Bryant's for nearly 20 years. It was their vision to create a space full of romantic music and delicious cocktails; a special place, closed off and separate from the everyday world. The separation from the outside world was especially important in the late 1930's. America was just coming out of the Great Depression and just entering a World War. Life was hard and people appreciated a romantic place to get away from the everyday.

Unfortunately, we don't know a lot about Bryant or his wife Edna. However, we did find a memorial to Bryant that was quite telling of the couple and their love for each other:

Personally, I never met Bryant, but I am sure he would be happy to know that Milwaukee is still enjoying the lounge he created over 70 years ago. If only he could see that couples still get a glimmer in their eye when they mention their special times at Bryant's. I'm sure he would be proud to have his name on the most romantic spot in town.

This weekend we are celebrating Valentine's Day at Bryant's. We will be making the best cocktails in town, plus we will be serving Pat's Valentine's Day punch and the Defrongue. Here are our hours, hope you can stop by:

Friday, February 11 5PM-2:30AM Velvet Lounge 10PM-1AM

Saturday, February 12 5PM-2:30AM Velvet Lounge 8PM-1AM

Sunday, February 13 8PM-2AM

Monday, February 14 7PM-2AM

Drinking Made Easy

Do you know who Zane Lamprey is?

I'll be honest, I didn't know who he was and I had never seen his television show "Three Sheets". My first contact with Zane was a phone call from the producer of his new show "Drinking Made Easy" last June. He wanted to bring in a film crew and shoot part of his new show at Bryant's. The answer? Of course- sounds great- of course I know who Zane Lamprey is! I was excited for Bryant's to be featured, but I was most excited that another national television show would be featuring Milwaukee.

The television crew showed up on a Saturday afternoon after filming at the Bomb Shelter down the street. There were four crew members, a producer, some guy named Steve McKenna, and Zane Lamprey. I was impressed with Zane Lamprey. He was funny, easy going, and obviously very smart. He took control of the entire filming, which lasted a few hours- he was consistently calm, funny, and seemed quite sober (which is impossible, given they had been drinking at the bomb shelter for quite a while before visiting us).

We made them several drinks, including a Pink Squirrel (an almond like ice cream drink that was invented at Bryant's back in the 1940s), a Wisconsin Old Fashioned, a Mai Tai, a Brain Buster, a Frank's Drink, and a drink created for Zane called, appropriately, a Zane Lamprey. Of the drinks, I watched Steve McKenna drink a Mai Tai, a Brain Buster, and a Pink Squirrel. Plus, he finished the last half of all the other drinks I made for the crew. Even though this was over a couple hours, I have no idea how he was standing after the filming.

Six months later, in December, I finally got an opportunity to watch the Milwaukee edition of Drinking Made Easy. I have to say, Zane and his crew highlighted some really great Milwaukee institutions. Places that are often overlooked by travel writers and even local journalists. Great Lakes Distillery, the Bomb Shelter, the Safe House, Bad Genie, and Wolski's were all featured and all looked great.

For the Bryant's segment, they distilled several hours of footage down to around 5 minutes, which featured the Pink Squirrel and the Zane Lamprey cocktail. Unfortunately, they didn't show much of the interior of Bryant's and they didn't get in to the history, but this isn't really the point of the show.

If you are a fan of Three Sheets or Drinking Made Easy, you know that they build in a lot of drinking games in to the show. Here are the main drinking games (from the Drinking Made Easy web site):

1. The first person to see Pleepleus, gets to make someone else drink.

2. The first person to see a CONTINUITY ERROR in the show gets to make someone else drink.

3. Before Zane and Steve engage in the 6 SIX-pack challenge, pick a side. If the person you picked to win loses the challenge, you have to drink.

4. When Zane burps, the last person to make the “Good Burp” sign (putting your thumb to your forehead) has to drink.

5. When Marc touches someone (by putting his hand on their shoulder, arm, etc),the first person to say "touché" gets to make someone drink!

We propose a sixth game that would just apply to the Milwaukee episode. When watching with your friends, everyone has to take a drink whenever John (the owner of Bryant's and the nervous bartender in the episode) says "right". Trust me, you and your friends will be thoroughly drunk in no time!

Seriously, we had a great time meeting Zane and his crew and being a part of this fun show. If you get a chance, watch Drinking Made Easy on HD Net and visit the great Milwaukee establishments that were featured on the Milwaukee episode.

Cheers!

Cocktail of the Week: The Fernandito Cocktail

The cocktail for February 8 through the 11th is the Fernandito Cocktail, created by Gary Regan.

We chose this cocktail after searching for a better use for a common spirit: spiced rum. At Bryant's we are huge fans of rum. We use different varieties of rum in many, many of our cocktails. Light rum, dark rum, 151 rum, aged rum, Puerto Rican rum, Guatemalan rum, and yes, we even occasionally use coconut-flavored rum. The one rum we have found little use for is spiced rum. All of the Captain Morgan spiced rum we pour is mixed with coke. Not saying there is anything wrong with this, but there has to be a better use for spiced rum, right?

When someone wants a drink made with spiced rum, we find they will enjoy some of our house-made spiced drinks. The Navy Grog, the Fog Cutter, and the Scorpion are a few of the drinks we make with our own spice mixture. Personally, I feel these drinks blow any store bought spiced rum out of the water, but I may be a little biased. Or I may have had one too many Navy Grogs in my life (these drinks, by the way, are served in our ultra-cool skull mugs, which make them all the more mysterious).

For those of our guests who are not a fan of our house spice mix, we have finally found a cocktail that works well with store bought spiced rum. The Fernandito combines spiced rum (we are using Cruzan spiced rum, which has a heavy vanilla flavor), raspberry liqueur, lime juice, and orange juice.

The Fernandito has all the traits of a great cocktail- simple in ingredients, but complex in taste. It highlights the flavors of the spiced rum without being too boozy. This cocktail is so great, it will appeal to fans of rum and fans of spiced rum (yes, these are often two different groups of people).

Stop in during Old Fashioned Cocktail Hour this week and try the Fernandito for only $5. Follow it up with a Geronimo or a Hawaiian Eyes and make it a night!

Bryant's Cocktail Lounge Mythbusters

Bryant's first opened in February of 1938. That's 73 years of serving the finest cocktails in Milwaukee. After so many years, there are bound to be a few myths and misunderstandings surrounding such a historic business. Some of the myths are fun and add to the charm. For instance, did Frank Sinatra used to frequent Bryant's on trips to Northern Wisconsin? We may never know, but enough old timers tell that tale. Others are just plain ridiculous- no, Al Capone did not run a bootlegging business out of the basement of Bryant's.

There are three common myths that surround Bryant's that we have decided to address.

1. Bryant's used to have a drink menu.

We hear this a lot. People swear that Bryant's has or had a drink list and, the last time they were in, they ordered off a menu. Sometimes this frustrates people so much that they leave, believing that we are hiding the menu from them!

We heard this myth so often that we had to ask the old manager (who worked at Bryant's since the 1950s) whether there was, at one time or another, a drink menu. She, as well as every other employee, insist that there never was a menu at Bryant's. It was the original owner Bryant's philosophy that a menu only leads to limited choice and prevents experimentation.

While we agree with Bryant, there is another, more practical set of reasons. First, who would be able to read a menu at Bryant's? It is so dark, we would have to make the print really large. This would make the menu, which would contain over 400 drinks, the size of Webster's unabridged dictionary. If we did have a menu, how the heck would we classify all the drinks? We would have to have a cross referencing index or perhaps a card catalog. Purely from a practical standpoint, our staff is much better at helping you choose a drink.

2. Bryant's Hates and/or Owns At Random

At Random, the similarly styled cocktail lounge located in Bay View, is often mixed up with Bryant's. At Random, which does have a menu, is also dimly lit with delicious cocktails. The feeling is different, but there are definitely a lot of similarities.

Since these two establishments share similarities, people start assuming things. The most common belief is that there is an angry rivalry between Bryant's and At Random. The second, less common belief is that we own or used to own At Random.

The truth is that Bryant's Cocktail Lounge and At Random are similar because the owner of At Random used to work at Bryant's. In the 1950s, he left and opened his own lounge in Bay View. This is why you will see some of the same cocktails at both establishments. They also share a similar style that was more common back in the day. There actually used to be several swanky cocktail lounges in Milwaukee- Bryant's and At Random are just the two best ones that happened to survive several periods of changing tastes.

There is no rivalry between At Random and Bryant's. In fact, the owners were friends for many years. Our staff will often go to At Random on their nights off- after all, where else would you go for a tasty cocktail if you didn't want to go back to work? We believe that there is plenty of room in this city for two cool cocktail lounges and Bryant's and At Random both offer great places to have a cocktail.

3. Bryant's is Haunted

It is difficult to confirm or deny this one. There have been a ton of strange happenings at Bryant's, but we have never been able to catch any on tape.

Footsteps, voices, stools moving on their own, customers being tapped on the shoulder only to turn around and find no one there. We have also seen shadows and people who were not there. Even our most skeptical staff members are suspicious of some of the weird happenings at Bryant's.

After 73 years, there have been two owners, several long term staff members and countless customers who have passed away. They all loved Bryant's and, if you believe in this sort of thing, would probably try to come back to sit at the bar and enjoy an Old Fashioned. I can't think of a better place to spend an afterlife!

I hope you have enjoyed this edition of Bryant's Mythbusters. Do you have a Bryant's myth you would like explained? Let us know and we will do our best!