Located in Cathedral Square Park, MiKeys is a great place for barbecue with a great value happy hour from 4-7 p.m. It’s also the perfect spot for dinner and a lively bar with music, interactive bar games and other entertainment. MiKeys has a dual personality. It’s a restaurant for casual dining whose exposed brick and fireplace adds a warm and inviting touch. They have a wide variety of meats fresh from the smoker, burgers and sandwiches and plenty of “social starters” for sharing. When the clock strikes 10 p.m, MiKeys’ other personality comes out in the form of a lively “Naughty Nights” bar scene, making it a hot spot for socializing.
MiKeys will have an expanded menu rolling out in July with a sneak peak posted on their website. Most of the meat on the menu comes from Surg’s Hidden Creek Farm in New London, Wis., and is prepared authentic barbecue style and smoked for up to 12 hours. There are four signature sauces ranging from the tangy vinegar and mustard-based Sweet Carolina to the spicy Texas Wildfire made with the hottest peppers around.
They offer seasonal salad and soup. Their “award-winning chili” is packed with smoky meaty flavor and topped with cheese ($6). MiKeys has plenty of traditional Wisconsin starters to choose from, including fried pickles, cheese curds and a few choices of chicken wings ($9). One standout starter, the “Pig Wings,” has two smoked pork shanks covered in Kansas Cousins barbecue sauce, a tomato and molasses-based sauce ($5). It’s a flavorful variation on chicken wings with more meat on the bone. The home-style sweet corn bread isn’t overly cake-like but boasts good texture and is only mildly sweet, served with a cinnamon butter ($4). There are several other sides to choose from, mostly prepared in house, including creamy mac ’n’ cheese, French fries seasoned well and crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, vinegar-based coleslaw, baked beans and potato salad.
The MiKeys Burger is a whopping half pound, cooked to order and topped with fried onion straws and served on a toasted pretzel bun. The six-hour smoked Texas beef rib was surely the size of Texas and impressively served on the bone. The tender brisket is available in either 8-ounce ($15) or 16-ounce ($28) portions. The spicy sausage is house ground and has the perfect amount of heat from the spices. If you can’t decided on one of the meat choices, you can opt for a combo platter of two to four meats.
So whether you are feeling naughty or nice, MiKeys is a sure bet to have a great time any time or day of the week.
MiKeys
811 N. Jefferson St.
414-273-5397
$$
Handicap access: Yes
GF, CC, FB, RS
