Joey Buona's Restaurant

We went to Milwaukee for a comedy show and met up with our friends for dinner before hand. I had them pick the place to meet and Joey Buona's it was. I had never heard of the place prior. The menu had a ton of of options that all looked good.

We got into downtown Milwaukee pretty early, because we didn't know what to expect for traffic. It also took us awhile to find a good parking spot. It's been awhile since I've been in downtown Milwaukee and I am slowly losing my internal guidance system. So sad.

Joey Buona's was easy to find and much larger inside than I expected. We checked into our reservations and headed over to the bar. I saw that they had the old fashioned on their drink menu, so that is what I ordered. The bartender grabbed a small highball glass, added 2 shots of Korbel, an orange slice, a cherry, 3 heavy dashes of bitters and a small squirt of simple syrup. He swirled the ingredients and added ice along with a small squirt of soda.

I immediately noticed the cracking of the ice in this drink. It was very strong and sour. It could use a bit more bitters, I guess I can never get enough. It was not at all sugary. It was a very posh old fashioned--what I would expect at a place in Milwaukee. With the smaller glass, you get far less soda in your drink that most places in Oshkosh. It was much truer to the Mad Men type old fashioned and I enjoyed it. I had a couple for dinner and it made my walk to the Pabst in the 10 degree, windy weather much easier as I was warm & toasty on the inside.

My husband got a Sprecher root beer and I got the old fashioned and our total was $10. I think this is reasonable for downtown Milwaukee on a Friday night.

Side note: The food was tasty. I can't say I would make a point to go back, but the portions were huge and extremely reasonably priced. We got the deep dish pizza and it was good as the one I've had in Chicago.

Rating (out of 5 olives)

Joey Buona's Restaurant
500 North Water Street
Milwaukee
joeybuonas.com