Safehouse

My general experiences with Milwaukee dictate that there is absolutely nothing to do there. I remember being there one saturday when I was about 12 years old and remembering that the streets were devoid of cars and all the business were closed at about 2pm save a burger king. I never went there for the summerfest and I never went to the Rave. During my most recent trip to learn about rubber design and molding at UWM (which was highly informative), that opinion was dramatically changed.

In wandering around with my co-worker buddy Steve, we were looking for an interesting-looking bar for some whistle-whetting. I went down this alley next to this place called the News Room looking for the door to enter. Instead I found this plaque


and I also saw a sign next to it with 'Welcome' in a dozen different language. I thought it was odd, however I figured that this is not the door to the bar, so I proceeded to turn around and go back through the front. I was legitimately drawn to explore this bar. There was karaoke on the other side of the bar, but there was also a room past that that looked like a 007 memorabilia museum. Interesting. I kept going to find that there was another smaller bar room with just a bartender but no one else. I asked the guy what this place was and he said "This is the Magic Bar." His name was Ivanovich. "What happens at the 'magic bar'?" "Give me a $1 bill and I'll show you." Right. The smallest I had was a 10.

"Now", Ivanovich said "I promise to give you your money back..." and he proceeds to fold it up into a very small rectangle. All the time I am looking at him folding this bill of mine and then he unfurls it into a $100! "Oh, but I said that I would give you back your money..." and he folds up the 100 bucks and turns it back into my $10. At this point since I've been gone a while, I got Steve to move from the other bar to this one.


What this place was, was the Safehouse, located near Water and Wells street behind the News Room and its entrance was in the alley just past all the Wilkommen's and Witamy's. Now I don't want to reveal any more because I HIGHLY recommend you go experience this place yourself. Safe to say, this place has totally turned around my opinion of this town.