Bay View, Milwaukee
Milwaukee is a city of neighborhoods and one of the best is Bay View, located south of downtown, east of Interstate 43, and north of St. Francis, it borders Lake Michigan.
Bay View in Milwaukee
Originally a factory town, Bay View is the site of the 1886 Bay View Massacre, when laborers protesting for an 8-hour workday were fired upon by order of the governor. Seven people died, including a 13-year old child.
Today, Bay View, a historically working class community has seen an influx of new businesses. The good news? Some of the old ones still remain.
Bay View neighborhood in Milwaukee
The heart of Bay View is Kinnickinnic Avenue (pronounced like “ka-nick-a-nick” and otherwise known as “KK”)–Wisconsin Highway 32. Filled with great restaurants and funky shops, it’s “hipster central” for the area. If you can ignore the guys with beards and skinny jeans that are trying way to hard, you’ll find a lot to love here.
First off, are excellent restaurants and coffee shops. Here are a few:
- Lulu Cafe
- Guanajuato Mexican Restaurant
- Colectivo Coffee (a Milwaukee institution)
- Cafe Centraal
- Riviera Maya
- Odd Duck
- Honeypie Cafe
- Hi-Fi Cafe
- Hue Vietnamese
It was around lunchtime when we popped into Honeypie (2643 S. Kinnickinnic) and they were serving brunch. I opted for the Scallops Benedict–wonderfully seared scallops, crispy/chewy English muffins, perfectly poached eggs, a lemon Hollandaise sauce, with a side of potatoes and crispy bacon. Excellent!
Scallops Benedict, Honeypie Cafe
My suggestion: park along KK avenue and start walking! You’ll see the Bay View Bowl (celebrating its 90th anniversary in 2015), Collector’s Edge Comics, the Avalon Theater, the Alchemist Theatre, the Bay View branch of the Milwaukee Public Library, and vintage shops, antique stores, used books and music stores, and eclectic clothing shops.
