The Palomino Bar

6/5/2008 7:56:43 AM, thursday, june 05, 2008
Visited with surlysober and flyer. It is refreshing to find a previously undiscovered (to me at least) good-beer oasis in a city whose beer establishments I thought I knew well. Environment and clientèle does feel similar to Comet Cafe, but the bottle list is not quite as long, the physical environment felt significantly less cramped and crowded, and the food menu is longer and more substantial. The establishment itself is a corner tap-room near the lake in Bayview. The environment inside is vaguely hipster/hippy-ish, with plenty of nostalgia and remnants of its former life as an old-man’s corner bar. The beer list is respectable, and in this age of growing beer prices, it is appropriately segmented by price. Menu has a nice selection of sandwiches and hot entrees with an obvious appreciation for all things fried. I don’t believe I will be hanging out to have many rounds here, but definitely plan on stopping here to eat and drink on my way to other purely drinking destinations nearby, such as Roman’s, Palm, and Sugar Maple.

4/6/2008 2:31:33 PM, sunday, april 06, 2008
The Palomino Bar is owned by the same people who own Comet Cafe, and it shows... In a good way. The atmosphere is very similar (lots of smoke and tatoos in a down-to-earth setting), but the food menu is more extensive and filling than Comet’s, and there’s a respectable beer list, with approximately 12 taps and about 50 bottles that span the range from PBR to Bells Expedition. The real reason it deserves to be on ratebeer though is that there are very few establishments in Milwaukee that have good food and an extensive beer list. Several come close Comet Cafe, Cafe Brucke, and Nessun Dorma have nice beer menus but less than extensive food menus Rock Bottom, Milwaukee Ale House, The Wicked Hop, and Trocadero all have decent food but fall short on beer. The Palomino seems to fall right in the middle with great bar food (burgers, fried cheese curds, corn dogs, etc.) juxtaposed with an extensive list of vegan dishes. Plus, it’s in the Bayview neighborhood, which along with the Sugar Maple, Palm Tavern, and Romans’ Pub has become one of the best beer neighborhoods you could ask for.