O'Lydia's Bar and Grill — Restaurant in Milwaukee

AUGUST '23 UPDATE: Cannot express how disappointed we are with O'Lydia's handling of the shuttle for the Pink concert. I sincerely appreciate that they offer free shuttles to events. But if the lone bus they choose to run to a sold-out venue (while their other vehicles sit unused in their lot) is packed so full to the point that it is unsafe, no amount of "free" is worth the risk. Worse, the friendly driver stressed that we needed to be "right at this point of dropoff" for the ride home. The many disappointed O'Lydia's patrons who waited in the rain in the AmFam shuttle area only to find their anticipated ride home packed so full by the time it got to that point (TWICE!) before some of us had to give up and find alternative transportation back (TWO HOURS LATER!) would have gladly paid for more reliable service. As we have for past event shuttles, we actually did pay for the service by spending more than $100 at O'Lydia's preshow. And to be honest, for the first time, our meal was subpar. Although O'Lydia's hardworking servers were great as always. One final note: Much of the blame for the post concert shuttle mess rests resoundingly with AmFam Field for ineptness, lack of any staff, and no signage. Even so, don't tell people you'll be picked up "right here," only to really pick up customers blocks away. Sadly, we'll be choosing one of the many other establishments that offer shuttle service for our next event.

Update: Finally got a chance to come back here and are loving it more with each visit. Came in for food and drinks pre-concert at Fiserv and took their free shuttle. Very convenient! Irish potato skins are ok. Reubens are always good. Mozzarella sticks are ginormous! Happy hour drinks are especially inexpensive and strong. Can't say enough about the friendly staff and Free shuttle service to sports and concert events! Great vibe!

Patio is nice, but bar area has been way too packed lately, not safe during COVID. O'Lydia's has good food and incredible specials, with hard-to-beat prices and fun thrown in for free. Our fave is the Turkey Melt and Homemade Chips. The Friday Fried Cod, while a bargain, is good, but I prefer more meaty fish portions. On the other hand, the potato pancakes, which I always appreciate on a fish fry, are flavorful, but perhaps too thick. Delicious tarter, applesauce, rye, and crunchy slaw all tasty. I was disappointed in the Reuben Rolls off the late night menu, preferring Mo's version. The pork and beef Sliders are pretty good on the apps menu. (Can't remember which, but one of 'em had a little spice kick I wasn't expecting. There are so many more things off the menu we're anxious to try, not the least of which are the Saturday Steak night and Weekend Brunch. Daily Themed Happy Hours feature ridiculously good food and drink prices, but we'll have to stick to patio or...

O'Lydia's is a delightful bar and grill with a four seasons patio, as well as a traditional outdoor patio. Viewing from the street, and when you walk in, it doesn't look very big due to the location and style of the original 1800s building. However, with the patio spaces they can accommodate a lot of people. Which is a very good thing when it comes to wings on Wednesday. We tried three appetizers (mozz sticks, Reuben rolls, and Irish potato skins). They were all very large individual pieces and were just delicious.

Wings are $0.95 each with a one drink minimum. The drink does not need to be alcoholic in nature. Minimum of five wings per sauce. I had the buffalo and the O'Lydia's BBQ (they have 3 BBQ choices). First let me say the wings are not the chintzy little things you find at a lot of places. These are meaty. And the sauces are fanTAStic. The buffalo has that expected tabasco kick without being the burn-your-mouth-so-bad-you-can't-taste-anything-else level of heat. The O'Lydia's BBQ is sweet, but not overly, with just a tiny kick for balance. Others ordered in our group: garlic parmesan, honey mustard, and Jameson Brown Sugar. All agreed they are the best wings we've had in quite some time. I even ordered an additional 10 to take home.

I will warn you, they are heavily sauced, which is by NO means a bad thing, but it makes them a messy adventure. I brought vinyl gloves - I keep them in my kitchen for cooking so I grab some on my way to dinners where I'll be eating finger foods. It's just easier clean-up. I also have no shame in using napkin bibs...only one who didn't have sauce on my shirt at the end of the evening!

Our server Kristen was great. She was very attentive and patient with our seemingly ever-changing orders as she went around the table. She was pleasant and not pushy to get us to move along. She checked on us regularly but not excessively.

I recommend O'Lydia's to the wing lover, though I'm sure their regular menu would just as delicious. They do also serve the wings as a regular appetizer so you don't NEED to go on Wednesday, it's just the special that day...

I was a customer here now and again, but also an employee here for 11 months.

This bar and grill really did me a solid, to say the least. I want to give credit to the Sacketts for their business and team-building acumen. Milwaukee is a land of beer barons - some have novel concepts and some have great taste, but that’s not at all it takes to run an establishment for the long-run.

In retrospect, I learned so much about business just from the way O’Lydia’s was run. Apart and/or together, there is enough business logic in the Sacketts that I think deserves to continue to control what it does and probably take on more ownership as time goes on. In the short-term, all sorts of businesses can have their day. Over the long-term, I think the most pots of gold come from hearts of gold, and I think the Sacketts have them. That is something that is so often overlooked when business owners make seemingly tough or cold decisions to keep everything running the right way. O’Lydia’s believes and protects its team members and its customers in a world where it’s increasingly difficult to do wisely.

I didn’t so much quit honorably, ‘cuz when I need to move on I tend to burn bridges like the banshees of my Emerald Isle ancestors the Tuatha Dé Danann. Milwaukee is the place I was born but I seldom felt a place there. At O’Lydia’s, I still had one anyway. Yes, this place is a great place to have a great meal and at least a few drinks - but in organizational terms it really sobered me up. The fundamentals of all business are right there at that bar. It’s a good product and good customer service for a worthy payment, and at no level of business scaling will it ever be any different, even if it’s all multiplied by millions. It might be cliché, but everything is right there in the simple foundations. The good experiences people have at O’Lydia’s are based on solid mechanics.

Where there’s not tenure in the physical world, there’s still tenure in the spirit. May the blessings of Tír nAill flow to the terrestrial realm of O’Lydia’s bar and grill and may all within be merry, rich, and excited for the...