Palm Tavern

 

 

I read about this place on Draft Magazine's "top 100 beer bars in America list" for the last 2 years so I finally got a chance to check it out. Its in the "hippest" area of Milwaukee but it is a sincerely cool neighborhood. F**KING GREAT. Awesome dark decor. Especially cool was the framed Joe McPhee LP on the wall. Very solid selection, good mix of locals, regionals, nationals & internationals. Well curated. It was cool to try Abraxas on tap. The highlight for me though was Bruno, who I believe is the proprietor. He played awesome music, mostly reggae & Afro-beat. He was a total blast, great conversation about beer, music & his history. I really like the fact that the Palm is over 10 years old, so it predates the current trendiness of the craft beer bar scene meaning that it was cool before such a thing was cool. I highly recommend this place & I can't wait to return.

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure what more can be said about Palm Tavern. It is far and away my favorite Milwaukee bar - but that has as much to do with the bartenders as it does the selection.

Palm is a small place with 25 taps. No TVs, but always eclectic music playing. The taps are all quality and include a selection of beers that should appeal to most drinkers. Dan and John are incredible, attentive bartenders who go out of their way to make sure that guests find what they're looking for. Not sure about something? They'll happily pour you a sample. Prices are good, and totally fair for the area. If beer isn't your thing, they have a huge selection of scotch and whiskey.

Seriously, check this place out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Atmosphere - This is a small dark bar that is designed for quietly enjoying a good beer, not dancing to house music in a club

Quality - The beer is fresh and served in the proper glassware and the bar is clean

Service - The bartenders are knowledgeable and willing to go over the beers available and really seem to have a passion for craft beer

Selection - The selection is fantastic with some of the best offerings in WI. Such greats have included: The Bruery - Humulus Lager, 3Floyd's Zombie Dust, Founders Breakfast Stout... The list goes on

Overall - Just a great little beer bar that is perfect for kicking back and enjoy a quality beer served up by a knowledgeable staff

The Palm is more my speed. If you don't know exactly where you're going this place is easy to miss so keep an eye open. A cozy little spot with polished brass and row upon row of whiskey. The taplist has been excellent on every visit and you couldn't ask for nicer bartenders. Every draft is kept up to date on the chalkboard at the end of the bar with no shortage of quality suds to choose from.

The small, homey, comfortable quarters make The Palm a place you could easily spends a few hours on a bar stool talking the day away with friends and locals while putting away great beer with the occasional whiskey pour mixed in here and there. Highly recommended.

One of the best places in milwaukee to grab some select craft brew. Their draft list and bottle list can rival some of the biggest bars and brew pubs in the city. And every once in awhile they get some rare stuff that no one else has (CBS on tap in Oct of this year).

Atmosphere is a little on the hip side. Not exactly a high energy bar, but I like the artsy touch to it.

NOT a place to grab a brew and watch a sports game. But who cares when you are drinking some of the best beer the city has to offer.

Definitely one of the hidden gems of the city.

Located in the hipster/bedroom community of Bay View, The Palm Tavern is a special find. From the outside, it appears a bit scary, with a door and a single window of construction glass. Only a small neon light, behind the glass, is any indication this is a bar. Actually, from the outside, it looks like someone's two story blue-collar home.

Although related to the more mainstream "Sugar Maple", the Palm keeps a low profile with no listings on Twitter or Facebook. Not even a website. I once told the bartender, you would never know this was this nice on the inside. I was told, "only people who want to be here, find their way here. No one walks in by accident and we like it that way."

The comparison is quite striking once you walk in. Small bar, polished brass, and a spectacle of liquor and fine beers from around the world. There's always something special there.. including some unannounced, unpublicized CBS just last week.

If you have a beer or two and chat up the barkeep, he/she is often willing to go into the cooler and find something special you might like. This place is all about relationships... so tip heavy and see if you can get access to some of the rarer treats in the back.

Great place all-around. Try to stop by if you are in the area.

This is a belly-up type tavern that does its main job very well and that is serve good beer (and spirits if you are into that). Move along if you you want chique and hip.

Their tap list isn't very long but it is of high quality. Had a glass of Founders CBS followed by a glass of FFF Dreadnaught. Doesn't get much better than that. Quality was top notch - fresh beer with nearly spotless glassware. Service was friendly and prompt. I also got to chat with the owner for awhile too, which was cool.

For kicking back in an unpretentious atmosphere while enjoying good beer, this place is hard to beat.

Must stop for beer geeks, in word unique selection. Not many taps, but a few amazing ones such as two struisse IPAs. A great bottle list, with the expensive ones from the stores at decent prices/fair markups, and other expensive imports. Very dark, hard to see at all. Very knowledgeable bartender. Neighbourhood dive atmosphere. i wouldn't let my wife walk around the streets here. Smallish place and everyone more or less to themselves. Would check this place amnd the Sugar Maple regularly for your Belgium one-offs, double IPAs. They are near each other.

Yet another stop on our bar hopping night. Not much to look at on the outside, but one you are in, it is a small but cozy looking bar with plenty to choose from on tap.
What was really cool is the wide selection of whiskies they have behind the bar; this would be a place I could see going to and have a cigar while sampling a few different spirits, though we were there for beer!
Really a solid tap selection of local, midwest, and imports to choose from. We grabbed a high table by the door and enjoyed sipping on our beverage of choice. A cool little place I would definitely go to again

Oh Milwaukee. You tricked the world into thinking you were a rusty excuse for a city while all the while hiding this gem of a neighborhood, Bayview.

As you head south away from this bland city center on the abysmal Water Street, a whole new world opens up when you hit Kinnickinnic. By the time you hit the center of Bayview, you are surrounded by beer bars, coffee shops, and some of the finer neighborhood restaurants in the city.

my most recent visit (finally) brought me through The Palm. I've frequented Sugar Maple in the past, but actually much preferred its quiet sister-bar the Palm. The tap selection leans belgian and has a lot of great options.

The location is non-descript - i passed it by accident and the exterior bears no real advertisements.

The bar is very small, dark, and loaded with quality decor. The ambience is really conducive to conversation. I had the Cuvee Jacobins Flemish Sour and a Green Flash/Feullien collaboration. My lovely Milwaukee enthusiast enjoyed a Saison Dupont and Unibroue Terrible.

Service was great and the bar was very quiet between 6-7:30 on a nice Friday afternoon. The Palm is great, but I won't soon be spreading that news. I like it just the way it is.

I used to have a different perspective on Milwaukee. I had spent some time in the downtown area, but never the Bay View district. After a recent trip through the Bay View district, my view is totally changed. Our first stop was Romans Pub up the road, and that place is fantastic. Next we stopped here after a long conversation with my buddy about whiskey. They have whiskey. They have a vast selection of whiskey from every region of the world. Some really nice higher end stuff, but mostly just a broad range of middle of the road whiskey.

Their beer selection was right on par with the whiskey. Like mentioned before, about 25 taps ranging from Belgian to local favorites and Midwest hits.

It's a smaller bar. If you have a large group, you may want to call ahead, I'm not sure of their policy on this. It's a darker place (like alot of bars I've noticed in the Bayview District). The crowd is young and hip. Fun, discerning atmosphere.

Nice hole in the wall that probably has the capacity for about 50 people max.

It has probably the coziest atmosphere of any restuarant/bar I've ever been to. It has 25 taps, mostly Belgian oriented with a few IPAs an stouts. They also offer samplers. I got Cuvee de Jacobins, Rouge, Broukot Vlaskapelle, Jolly Pumkin Maracaibo Especial, and Nebreaska IPA.

The taps were set at a great temperature, probably around 55 degrees which seemed just about perfect foe all the beers they had.

The bartender is super knowledgeable and friendly, by far the best I have come across. He knew everything about the beer including the rare Bockor and Cuvee des Jacobins, which happened to be his favorites on tap at the time, everything down to different brews each of the breweries produced and how they were produced and through which importing and distribution channels they came. He also was giddy about the Rodenbach Grand Cru that they were getting on tap the next weekend.

What a great stop in Milwaukee.