Last fall, I was in Chicago for an event and walking around near the Water Tower trying to find a reasonably-priced place to eat - good luck, right? -- when I walked past a restaurant with a happy hour menu posted in the window.
The place was one McCormick & Schmick's Chicago locations and it offered $1.95 ¼-pound cheeseburgers (with fries), as long as I bought a drink. Done! In fact, I bought two drinks and still got out of there spending little more than $10. In downtown Chicago, a block or so from Michigan Avenue!
Now, McCormick & Schmick's is in Milwaukee, too -- well, Wauwatosa, really, in the outlot at Mayfair -- and it boasts a similar happy hour menu, with burgers, calamari, steamed mussels, oyster shooters and more at rock bottom prices. There's nothing that costs more than $4. And, I believe the drink minimum is $2.50.
Best of all, the menu is available weekdays from 3:30 to 6 p.m. and then again for a few hours starting from 9 p.m. Add in free and copious parking and it just might be the best deal in town.
McCormick & Schmick's also celebrates "Take Our Daughters & Sons to Work Day," on Thursday, April 24 by offering free lunch to all children dining with a parent from 11:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. So, if you're planning to work with your kid this week, why not treat him or her to a business lunch, too?
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
