If this week’s warmer weather has you wanting to get to a beer garden ASAP, you’re in luck.
Milwaukee’s South Shore Terrace Kitchen and Beer Garden, which is operated by Milwaukee County Parks, is opening for the 2022 season on Thursday.
“We have the best view in the city, we’re right on the beach steps away from Lake Michigan, and we give back to the parks,” said John Wasilowski, unit coordinator in the food and beverage department for the parks.
All 20 taps will feature MillerCoors offerings, he said, including ones from Leinenkugel’s, Terrapin and Atwater Brewery.
“As we transition more into our late spring, early summer mode, we’ll start getting some special releases we’re really excited about,” he said.
For the first part of the season, a light food menu featuring South Shore staples will be served. It will include cheese curds; a Munich burger that features a 6-ounce beef patty topped with a brat, cabbage, cheese and mustard on a pretzel bun; a Hoan Bridge burger, which is a standard, customizable burger; a pretzel; and a Friday fish fry.
The full food menu will be rolled out around mid-May, Wasilowski said.
Milwaukee County Parks beer gardens will be transitioning back to their glassware program this year from the single-use plastic cups used during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Wasilowski.
People can bring their own pint glass or liter stein to get filled up. Or, people can purchase a pint glass for $2 or a liter stein glass for $5 at the beer garden. People who purchase glassware get a discounted refill price, Wasilowski said.
The beer garden will be “ebbing and flowing” regarding COVID guidelines. It will start off the season with some measures that people have gotten used to the last couple of years, he said, including the use of green bricks to indicate a clean table and red ones to show it’s dirty.
“As things change — like they have been weekly, it feels like — we’ll change with them,” he said.
Depending on sunset times, the beer garden will initially be open from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday and noon to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
In late April or early May, hours will be extended to 4 to 9 p.m. Wednesday to Friday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
For more information, visit buff.ly/2GbPQpU or facebook.com/SouthShoreTerrace.
Tentative opening dates have been set for other area beer gardens, including April 22 for Estabrook Beer Garden and Whitnall Beer Garden, and May 26 for The Vine Humboldt, according to a Tuesday news release from Milwaukee County Parks.
The Traveling Beer Gardens, a pair of simultaneously running tours that travel to different Milwaukee County parks throughout the summer, are also on the horizon.
Those dates, locations and changes will be announced Friday morning, the news release said.
Contact Hannah Kirby at hannah.kirby@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HannahHopeKirby.
