Omar Gagale came to Milwaukee from Somalia and has been a successful businessman. He set up Lula's, an African restaurant on Oakland Avenue, and then...

Out for a long walk one night, Mark Bucher kept going and going until he found himself on a bleak stretch of South Kinnickinnic Avenue, among the ruins of a once-thriving business district in an obscure corner of town called Bay View. It was the mid-’80s and Bay View’s renaissance was still over a decade away. “I saw this empty storefront,” recalls Bucher, who...

Café Corazon is the newest addition to Riverwest dining. The restaurants in this neighborhood tend to be small, and Café Corazon is no exception. The Mexican eatery is located in a curious triangular-shaped building that once housed a tavern but had remained vacant for years. The small bar is front and center, with a few tables surrounding it. The wall behind the bar is filled with some Day of the Dead skulls and religious artifacts. The Spanish word “corazon...

Fighting Bob Fest, a gathering inspired by Wisconsin’s leading progressive of the 20th century, Robert La Follette (former Wisconsin governor and senator, as well as a presidential candidate in 1924), returns to Baraboo on Sept. 12. Headliners include Jim Hightower, Blackwater investigator...

I'm cautiously optimistic that yesterday's shooting at the Locust Street Festival won't tarnish the annual Riverwest celebration. Without downplaying the severity of any shooting, yesterday's incident wasn't particularly sensational�the victim and the shooter apparently knew each other, so it wasn't a random act of violence�and the Locust Street Festival doesn't have any real history of violence f...

The Pettit Foundation’s Cecelia Gore and Randy Bryant, the East Side developer and president of the Milwaukee County Historical Society, exchanged wedding vows at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church. The ceremony was officiated by the Rev. Louis Sibley III, with...

You only have to cruise through the packed corridor of cars on Commerce Street on a Friday night to recognize the vitality of the chic Beerline neighborhood. The site along the west bank of the Milwaukee River between Pleasant Street and Humboldt Avenue is host to Bikram yogis and...

Ma Baensch Food Products has stood at the intersection of Locust Street and Humboldt Avenue since 1945, gathering years as one of Riverwest’s oldest businesses. Whether visitors to the annual Locust Street Festival in June see Ma Baensch’s red brick building complete with electric blue...

Brew pubs tend to be large places, as exemplified by Rock Bottom and the Milwaukee Ale House. But Stonefly Brewing Co. in Riverwest offers a similar atmosphere in a smaller space. Stonefly first opened under the name Onopa, until Julia LaLoggia purchased the place from a friend and made the switch. The main bar/dining...