Bryant's Cocktail Lounge — Restaurant in Milwaukee

Sadly I must say we were disappointed, this classic institution. No one for cocktails had everything going for it from the music through the old stereo system and the mix to the dim lights but failed on presentation of two basic cocktails totally! I'll start out that we were first in as we arrived early on a quiet Sunday, followed by six or seven other customer shortly thereafter, when the bartender gave us the spiel on the history of the place that we already knew and then asked if we had any allergies or afflictions that part kind of threw us! If you're in a historic gmail and you're allergic to something, you probably shouldn't be there or you're probably dead! The next tell that I knew that this was going to go sideways. Was the bartender walking back and forth and the sticky sound of the shoes sticking to a dirty floor? Turned me off, Then the next tell was when the bartender walked over the sticky floor to the Rolodex, I knew these expensive cocktails. We're going to not be to expectations for a place. This historic! The cocktails were simple and basic one. A new age take on a martini and espresso martini. This seemed to be dosed with I believe amaretto, No actual espresso! But the three coffee beans on top perfectly placed gave it a resemblance of an espresso martini! Myaconic classic was simple a cosmopolitan! Very straightforward. Never blended as this one was in ice. Never he chill the glass but you don't blend it like a smoothie. I thought maybe I got a vodka gimlet instead because that was the only outstanding flavor present was lime juice that threw me for a loop! Totally disappointed the boys at the end of the bar acute couple enjoyed their flaming drink. I was waiting for him to dump it on the bar and the place catch on fire! As they videoed it for their social media presentation. I guess that's the catch here. Sadly we won't return. Very disappointed as there are so many outstanding places in Milwaukee to get that wow factor cocktail. I wasn't expecting that. I was just thinking of a great place with the great vibe this historic place had and the presentation & mixology...

UPDATED on June 2016:

John, the owner of Bryan's is very nice that he reached out to me and my friend here and with sincere apologies. Later we also had some communication with him through the phone regarding our bills. The server we had that day did give us the wrong price so we got the whole payment refunded. John also offered us free drinks so we went there this past weekend and gave it another shot. It was a much more pleasant experience this time. The drinks were very good, we were all satisfied with our experience and will come back here again.

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This place might changed management that it is not as good as before. The past two visits has been really bad. The drinks are still good, but the service is VERY bad. Last time we waited for an hour for the seat for 5 people, then after we finally got seated, they rejected to serve us because one of our friend forgot to bring her ID. She can't even just stay with us and drink water but has to leave the place right away! The server were just very rude in handling the situation and we don't want to leave our friend alone so we all left and went somewhere else. Tonight we went again to give this place another try, but bad experience again. We barely touched our drinks and the server already asked us to pay and close the tab. She said they can only take up to two credit cards so one of our friends paid in cash. The drink's only supposed to be $8 but she asked for $10. When we asked if we can get a receipt, she rejected saying you only get receipt when you pay with card. Also she never came to our table and check us besides getting the order, bring the drink and collect pays. Even when we trying hard to get her attention, she would just pass us and talking with other people at the bar but not giving us attention. We left very...

People kept telling me than I needed to check out Bryant's so I finally went, and I really enjoyed it! We arrived on a Saturday night around 9:30p and it wasn't crazy crowded but it was definitely the place to be! Parking is, well, I think by looking at the area you can guess.

It was my first time so we went upstairs and were sat at a table and our server came over and gave us a brief explanation of how they roll, essentially, they don't carry menu's. You just give your server a description of things you like to drink, things you don't like, and they create a drink based on that profile. What I personally like about this concept is there are no expectations. Often when you order a drink, you have this expectation of how it will taste and sometimes you are disappointed because it isn't made the way you prefer it (but where's the fun in that?!). This method lets you expand your horizons and gives some of your comfort up, which I personally enjoy.

I also really liked that it was a dim, intimate setting. There were no TV's upstairs and pretty much everyone was talking instead of scrolling through the phone. I miss the times when conversations were paramount to electronic devices and facebook feeds.

We got 2 rounds (3 of us) and the 6 drinks cost us around $55 which I consider well worth it given the experiences and, at least in ours, they didn't skimp on the alcohol. I would absolutely return to see what else they can...