MILWAUKEE — Lakefront Brewery, Inc. has announced it will add a walk-up food counter featuring locally sourced products and extend its tour schedule to include weeknight tours from 4 p.m. through 7:30 p.m. The brewery’s Friday night fish fry will also be revamped, with all cooking and food operations to be taken over by the brewery featuring locally sourced food.
The new food counter will be open on weekdays during brewery tours and will have a limited menu, including Wisconsin-made artisan cheeses and meats. Local food providers will include Growing Power, Miller Bakery, Rocket Baby Bakery, Great Lakes Distillery and Bittercube.
Lakefront’s fish fry will continue to be served on Friday only and will continue to feature the Brew House Polka Kings band. However, Lakefront’s kitchen operations — which were handled by Vecchio Entertainment Group — will now be overseen by a new hospitality general manager, Jessica Koehler; new head chef, Kristin Walker, and sous chef, Matthew Venzke. The operational name will change from Lakefront Palm Garden to Lakefront Beer Hall. Marvin Waters will serve as the beer hall manager.
“We are very excited to offer visitors more tour opportunities and more local foods overall,” said Lakefront owner Russ Klisch. “This is a natural evolution of our commitment to customers and to local and sustainable foods.”
Lakefront’s Friday fish fry will be temporarily on hiatus during the transition period. Klisch plans on reopening the fish fry as soon as possible.
Lakefront Brewery, Inc. was started in 1987 and is celebrating its 26th anniversary this year. The brewery distributes its products to 35 states, Israel and Canada. Lakefront Brewery, Inc. was the first brewery to brew a government-approved, gluten-free beer, New Grist, and brews the oldest USDA-certified organic beer, Organic ESB. For more information, visit www.lakefrontbrewery.com or call (414) 372-8800.