Comments on Milwaukee's Weirdest Bar

wow. if i lived there, it would be one of my hotspots. maybe i'd send out-of-towners there. "oh, you should check out AQUA, it's totally upscale. you're into zebra porn, right?"

wtf do you drink there ?
apple martini ?
midori melon balls ?
blue hawaiians ?
..
i too am envious as hell !

Ah, yes, the '80s.

You'll feel a lot more comfortable there, Dan, if you go do a few lines of blow off the plexiglass counter in the men's room.

Dan, I'm not moving to Philadelphia or Milwaukee, no matter what. Why, I'd just as likely not move to New York City or Chicago.

I love that the proclaim it to be upscale. But I haven't seen something so funny as the zebra porn in a LONG time...

The 80s? They opened this bar LAST YEAR.

Philadelphia, Milwaukee, what vacation sweepstakes from hell did you win, Dan?

Watertown in Lower QA (R.I.P.) would have gone to this level had it succeeded. It was halfway there already. Unfortunately, nobody went. I really enjoyed that place.

Not a vacation—hosted a fundraiser for a get out the vote effort in Philadelphia that hopes to defeat Rick Santorum, then came to Milwaukee to give a speech at UWM...

Comfort Inn? Really, Dan - don't you think you'd be more comfortable at the Pfister?

Give me Milwaukee anytime... I've grown to love it (my partner's family lives there so we visit often) because it mixes midwestern with let's face it, *weird* and interesting.

what do you expect... you're in milwaukee.

Milwaukee eh? The bar at the Comfort Inn, huh? Must be where the dudes meet the ladies for a "noon-er", a little tête-à-tête in the sheets for the professional class... perfect spot, she feels all upscale, pretty and can have something blue to drink, he can feel confident that NO ONE he knows will walk in, and he can try on something with orange juice and grenadine for that extra touch of sophistication.

Did anyone else notice the front page coverage that Dan's Philly speech received in the Huffington Post? Well done Dan!

Why don't I know about this place? I'm sitting in Milwaukee right now.

Where is it?

You should go to the Safehouse if it still exists! Great 80's spybar! Used to sneak up there as a kid to drink when I was underage!!! You have to see it! Classic! Aren't Laverne and Shirley from Milwaukee???

Make fun of "Aqua: Upscale Restaurant and Bar" all you want. But I bet that you'll always remember it and every once in a while secretly wish you could be there, sipping a fruity cocktail concoction underneath the zebra porn.

This is exactly how I imagine Club Lagoon to be on the inside, except with a boat.

Dude, calm down, you're the editor of Seattle's only newspaper and you just wasted a few hundred words describing Moe's (from The Simpson's) when he tried to get slick with it and update.

It's a trendy bar in the midwest, not a fucking Rorshach test. Gay much?

I was impressing with the article in Huffington post. Mostly, that I think Dan has offically confussed everyone -even journalist- with his age.

Aqua is a bit weird. But, when it first opened, the hotel was not a Comfort Inn. And the place has been trying with commendable spirit to "find itself." It started as an upscale restaurant serving Kobe beef, then a dance club, and lately it's been going for the jazz crowd. (I'm a little surprised it's still around, to be honest.)

But while you're in Milwaukee, stop wasting your time at Aqua! Get to the Safehouse (as someone else suggested)--it's good, cheesy fun. Visit the Ale House for a fine microbrew. Take a tour of Miller Brewing (and enjoy a couple free beers on the house.) Hit the bar scene on Milwaukee Street. Do some shopping in the Third Ward. If you have to spend time in a lounge, visit Swig on Water Street, Bleu in the Pfister, or The Knick (which is just two blocks from the Comfort Inn.)

Milwaukee's got plenty to offer (and even more to make fun of) if you get yourself out of Aqua!

I think I saw that place on an episode of Silk Stalkings.

There's no such thing as "Kobe beef". Not in the US. There's "Kobe-style beef, from Wagyu cattle, or Wagyu-Angus hybrids. Kobe beef from Kobe, Japan, cannot be legally imported into the US.

Last year? God help us.

People, Dan grew up in Chicago. It's not that he doesn't know how to find a fun bar, it's just that he's got that ineradicable second-city inferiority complex that compels him to scoff at all things Milwaulkee before he makes any attempt to enjoy himself.

Dear Fnarf:

Kobe beef from Kobe, Japan, is not actually from Kobe, Japan. Kobe is a port city with some slaughterhouses, not a cattle town or region.

The term is a WWII relic. When American sailors captured nips and their stores, and ate the delicious beef therein, and then asked the nips where the delicious beef came from, they said "Kobe," that being the port the Japanese navy's supply ships operated out of.

Given a decent transportation network, "real, genuine Kobe beef from Kobe" can actually be from any part of Japan.