An evening at Three Brothers Restaurant

Wait a minute, why am I writing about a dinner out that Jim and I had recently? I promise you'll enjoy it--there's a brewery, a historical building, AND a model-railroad tie in all wrapped up in one post.

As usual, click on any photo to enlarge.

We visited the Three Brothers Restaurant in Bay View, Wisconsin, a building that is on the National Historic Register. I'm glad we talked to our server about the building's history, because the information online is scant. They have no website and their page on Facebook contains little data.

Historic designation.

It was built in 1897 by the Schlitz Brewing Company as a local saloon. It closed in the 1940s (according to our server) and was purchased by Milun Radicevic. The date it opened seems to be between 1952 (from our server) to 1954 or 55 (from Wikipedia). It's been run as a Serbian restaurant by the same family ever since.

The bar area. Note the neat old Schlitz globe light.

Guessing this statue is part of the original bar decor.

This is an old-fashioned type of restaurant. Food is made after you order it, and some items take up to an hour to prepare. Bills are calculated by hand--I saw no computer inside at all, only a calculator--and they take only cash or checks. Some of the Schlitz decor remains inside and outside. My favorites were the globe light above the bar and the statue up in a corner (see photos). Much of the decor is either original or pretty old--the tables are 50s formica and the bathrooms have tile and very tiny sinks (sorry, no bathroom photos!).

This was hard to photograph because of the window glare. It's a display of Schlitz bottle labels, next to the bar.

Our table had a Schlitz lamp (not original, likely from the 1970s).

I'm not one to photograph food and share, but these dishes were delicious and photo worthy. Jim had stuffed peppers and I had a pickled stuffed cabbage. For dessert, Jim had a strudel with cinnamon custard, and I had a chocolate truffle. The strudel was served freshly baked and hot.

Appetizer consisted of tomatoes, olives, goat cheese, meat, and a salad spread.

Stuffed peppers with potato dumplings.

Pickled stuffed cabbage.

Strudel with cinnamon custard.

Chocolate truffle.

A view from across the street.

Standing on the sidewalk across the street.

Most of the building front.

View from near the alley.

Side view.

The neighborhood had neat stone curbs.

Now for the model-railroad part. In the early 1980s, Heljan released an N-scale model of this building, which Jim built and painted (he lived in Minnesota at the time). It struck him as odd that a Danish company would release a model of a Milwaukee-area structure. This visit has inspired him to re-paint the building to better match the colors. He's also searching for a new spire. (The one that came with the kit was poorly designed and he ended up tossing it.)

Jim's 1980s built and painted structure, minus the spire. He's been inspired to repaint and upgrade it!

Have you visited any historic places? Have you modeled any of them?