Brothers Bar & Grill

I like it here… I hadn’t been out in God knows how long and just was looking for a fun night. This was one of the few places around that actually had specials… also they have good music! I appreciated the wooden table that was available for seating, as I don’t like to just stand around the bar or be on a sticky black bar stool. There was also an outlet for charging your phone! I had a good time here and I will be remembering this place for the next time I’m out and want to let loose a little. Only pet peeve is the wait time on the drinks but honestly you will get that anywhere on Water Street…

This place is a joke now.
I used to come here all the time for Wednesday wing night and it used to be an enjoyable time. However, with the new staff and management ideas it’s just become a frustrating ordeal and waste of time.
I’ll make a list to make it a little easier and end it up with the kicker which really pushed me away from this place.
Good–
–Wings (Taste, Value)
–Price of beer
That’s about it
Bad–
–Incompetent bartender
–Wings are SALTY AS ALL HELL (like seriously if you eat these drink a gallon of water before you go to sleep or else your mouth will end up as the Mohave Desert)
–The wing makers are SLOWWWWW now. It used to be slow but bearable but last night when I went it took them 30 minutes to serve the 3 people in front of me. When you have a system like theirs where it’s a line and you have to stand and wait this 30 minutes for 3 people stuff just doesn’t cut it.
–Wings had very flabby skin and it was pretty gross
–First beer was very dirty, probably a bad tap
One additional thing that peeved me was we had some friends stop by later to meet us who are not 21 yet and they got refused at the door. Again, this never used to happen and it’s something that they’ve done recently. It’s understandable on bar nights but when you have a night that’s essentially your «Wing Night» you have to expect some people come just for wings.
And lastly, the extremely stupid thing that made me realize I would not be coming here anymore. No one in our group ate all of the wings, so as we go to leave we take them with us to eat later. Again, this was NEVER A PROBLEM BEFORE. I’ve been here dozens of times and never had a problem taking leftover wings, and you shouldn’t have a problem especially when it’s food that YOU PAYED FOR. But nope, as we go to leave the bartender tells us we have to THROW OUT our leftover food. Like… What? How can a restaurant ever think it’s okay to make their PAYING customers throw out THEIR own food that they didn’t eat. We tried arguing but he wasn’t having it. I regretfully threw out my wings (What a waste of food) along with the rest of my party and left.
Never coming back, I will never support a business that thinks this is okay.

Great bar! Thursday drink specials are amazing. Worth it to purchase a mug! $ 2 then $ 10 all you can drink! Awesome people ready to have a good time. I must accuse them of a little false advertising regarding drink specials but it’s a minor blimp in their system. COME FOR A GREAT TIME

This place is a joke. We waited in line for over an hour for wings and when we got to the front of the line, the worker said no more customers even though there were plenty of wings behind the the counter. The manager told us that wings were only available until they ran out, but they had plenty of wings available behind the counter. Then they told my African American friend to leave the Establishment when he asked why we couldn’t be served. I’ve never been so disrespected at a restaurant. Id rather go to McDonald’s than stepping food in this place again. The workers are very incompetent.

Would give ZERO if i could. Falsely advertise their deals on their physical windows and then dont follow through. Waited an hour and a half for wings, then they «ran out» then their MANAGER said i shouldve checked online and that the signs on their window didnt count and that i «need to leave»

Came in on a Friday night and had an absolute blast at this bar. They have beer pong, darts, pool and an awesome crowed. My only complaint would be that out of all of the televisions they had at this place, not a single one was playing K-​PAX (and believe me I checked every single one of them). When I asked the bartender if they would be willing to play K-​PAX or at least a film containing Casey Affleck they did not answer me and simply poured me another beer. However, I would definitely reccomend this place to anyone looking for a great time in Milwaukee.

This place doesn’t even deserve 1 star. I read online they were playing the fight and we’re going to have drink specials. They were charging $ 20, which is not that bad for the fight. Went to buy some drinks to find out they aren’t having drink specials because of the fight. I asked for a pitcher and he said they didn’t have any more pitchers left. So instead of him offering to go downstairs to get one, I had to do that myself. We noticed that they had not bought the game yet, but assured us it would be on. Not til 10pm did we find out they were no longer showing the game. They lied and said it was timewarner fault when you could see on the TV that they had never bought it. We did end up getting our $ 20 back, however spent so much money on drinks because they had drink specials all but that one night, coincidentally.
No one was apologetic.

Bar sucks got banned for Unilocal review just stay away

was really quiet when we walked in. The bartender was really nice and helpful. Then it got crowded and the bar was full of guys. I could probably count on one hand how many girls I saw in the bar.

Severely understaffed. Took 25 minutes to get a drink at 5:45 at night. Terrible. They had one bartender behind the bar with lots of people waiting. The service was ridiculous.

Tied for my least favorite bar on water street.
The bartenders suck, they can’t handle a crowd, the drinks are horrible and they false advertise they’re specials yet don’t tell you until you get the bill.
Only positive I’ve heard about this place is they have some pretty good wings, I’d rather not try them.

We went in on Wed. evening when we saw their $ 2 tap beer and $ 3 burger/​wing happy hour sign. My phone battery was dead so I didn’t have a chance to check out other Unilocalers.
We sat at the pretty empty bar, ordered our taps, and the friendly girl behind the bar was very nice and quick to get our orders. Unfortunately, when we wanted to order the burger and wings, she said the kitchen was closed until 9pm, when they start serving, get this, 15 cent wings! OK, so after reading the reviews here I see that everyone else knows about this… but hey, I was without my Unilocal this night.
I was too hungry to wait until 9 though, so we finished our beers, said we’d be back for the wings, and walked to another restaurant to eat some burgers. That review coming up soon.
We did go back for those wings, thinking we’d eat some there, and take leftovers home. When we walked in, the place had exploded into a totally different place. It was packed tight with 20 some year olds, with a line to the order window longer than the bar and going further back, almost to the entrance, where by the way, there was a bouncer now. And the music had turned up a few notches.
We figured that the line would move pretty fast, since all they had were wings, right? Wrong… I think it took them about 30 minutes to serve 2 people. We literally moved up two steps during that time.
Had I been there when I was younger, and with a group of other young ones, we would have just enjoyed our time in there. But I’m getting older, prefer cocktails, and definitely am too impatient to wait over an hour to get some cheap wings, so we left.
My 3-​star rating reflects the tap beer not being very cold, and the kitchen taking too long to serve wings. Unfortunately I don’t know what the food tastes like…

I’m sad because the Brother’s in Madison closed down, and now I have this Brother’s…but it’s not the same. The specials were always better at the Madison one and people tended to stay a little classier on the dance floor.
They make lovely flavored long islands for $ 5 a pop. I would highly suggest trying the blue raspberry one! They have an all you can drink deal on Thursday nights for both rail liquor and beer. It’s not a great special because you are limited to rail for liquor and domestic for beer.
My friends have also had problems with their staff in the past. They are not nice come bar time.

Just got an email stating that they are going to be ordering more wings from now on, hoping that they don’t run out before midnight. They are also going to be more aware of what is being played on tv.
I’m willing to go back in there, but prolly at 7. If you have to wait 2 hours regardless, it’s better to eat at 9ish than 11ish.

A good time was had by all… I presume.
I enjoyed the music being played in this place from the moment I walked in until the time I walked out about about 3 hours later. Why did I leave then? A friend suggested another place and I followed. This place had potential to be a drunk, dancing haven had I waited about 30 more minutes. I would definitely make a stop into Brothers if you’re looking to dance and be silly. Vodka drinks were cheap! For 2 vodka sodas it was $ 7. I’ll take it!
What pissed me off…:
+I waited about 15 – 20 minutes to close out my tab. I kept being passed over by 3 bartenders to help other customers. Very. Frustrating. I didn’t tip. They can suck it. My friend actually wrote on the check «don’t be a jerk next time». They deserved it.

Brother’s discriminates against people of color.
I have been to Brothers multiple times for their wings on Wednesdays. But after last night I have a bitter taste in my mouth about Brothers. They kicked me and all of my friends of color out just as we got to the front of the line to order wings. We had waited an hour and a half.
They said we had skipped in line. Yes, we did. But everyone does. People around us had skipped in line as well. Caucasian people had skipped ahead of us!
The first time I went to Brothers when people where skipping in line I told the bouncer. He stated, «There is no way for you to prove that, so we don’t enforce it.»
And the fact that they wasted my time by waiting until we reached the front of the line to kick us out. Really?
This was my last night living in the City of Milwaukee. It not only leaves me upset with the establishment. It leaves me wondering if this is normal in the City of Milwaukee.

When it’s slow, Brothers is an inoffensive bar with super cheap specials, a moderate beer selection, and weak drinks.
When it’s busy, Brothers is absolutely terrible. Surprisingly terrible, given its part in a chain of restaurants. Beguiling, even, that there are so many people that would want to crowd the bar in search of these horrible drinks that contain only so much as an idea that there might be a hint of alcohol contained within. Mind-​boggling that anyone with an enjoyment of drinking with friends, having a conversation, or even being in a room with people who don’t vomit in public spaces would ever frequent this place more than once.
There are literally thousands of bars in this city. For the love of god, find another one.

Yeesh, where to begin. Noted are the remarks about discrimination at Brothers. I had a similar experience where a colleague, who is black, was inexplicably asked to leave. That’s alright, we took our spendy tendencies to one of their competitors. Great job. The place is a college, $ 1 beer night, puke on the Golden Tee machine kind of bar. Packed with kids in their early 20’s, with loud music, overpriced drinks and arrogant bouncers. No thank you.

You stay classy, Brothers.
My experience with this place is brief: A guy friend of mine suggested that we get a beer here. We walked up to the door, the ID guy checked our IDs, then another door guy leaned over to my friend & said «Your shorts are too baggy dude, I can’t let you in.»
I recoiled in disgust, surprised. People still do this in 2011, really??? This guy is as clean-​cut & straight-​laced as it gets. His damn shorts weren’t baggy.
A quick glance in the window revealed more than a few guys (who happened to be white) who were inside the bar who had similar looking shorts on. I calmly pointed out, «Hey, there’s a bunch of guys right there with shorts just like his, what about them?» The door guys sheepishly averted their eyes. They didn’t reply.
My friend (ever the straight shooter) calmly remarked, «No big deal, we’ll just go somewhere else. Good night, guys.» He held my hand & we walked away.
Apparently Brothers as a chain has a reputation of discriminating against «certain» people dressed in «certain» ways. That’s a GREAT reputation to have, smh. They faced a discrimination lawsuit for this very thing in Columbus Ohio. Just check out that location’s Unilocal reviews.
They don’t even deserve that one star. I’ll never even THINK about going near this place again. Y’all have fun.

I think Brothers gets a bad rap because it is seen as a Fratty bar that has immature young college kids and thus is why it shouldn’t be a stop on your Milwaukee Bar list. I would actually encourage you to drink at this bar, maybe make it the first bar you hit if you’re drinking on Water Street or Old World 3^rd Street.
When it comes right down to it, Brothers has great drink specials. That’s why it attracts the college kids, because they can afford to drink there. They also play music that is popular to that crowd, Top 40 dance music. It’s usually packed on the weekends and for good reason, so just exercise some patience when trying to order your drink.
Granted, if you’re looking for a quiet place to drink, Brothers is not that location. It’s a location to go out for drinks and have some fun. Brothers makes for a good first stop during your drinking expedition in downtown Milwaukee.