The Palm Tavern

emerge077

Illinois

4.55/5  rDev +5.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | $$

Stepping into the Palm, you notice the eclectic music, dark warm colors, and a row of equally eclectic taps. It's a cozy and inviting space.

We were greeted at the bar and promptly handed bottle lists, which was nice. After ordering a round and having the first bottle practically explode like a science-fair volcano, a second bottle was offered and poured in tandem. This was exemplary service, and wowed me.

The selection is deep and eclectic. Many Belgians (a whole page devoted to Lambics & Gueuze), also well-rounded German & English options, and American craft rarities. Bottle list is actually several bound pages, large type, organized by region/styles/bottle size (Belgian 750's on the front). Once or twice a week it's $3 off these bad boys.

A must-stop in the Bayview area. Smoke-free as of March 4th, 2008.
Also worth a mention, Classic Slice Pizza located nearby at 2797 S KK.

04-08-2007 02:45:40 | More by emerge077

woodychandler

Pennsylvania

4.64/5  rDev +7.4%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5 | $$

This was a place where a couple of adages applied: “Looks can be deceptive” and “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. With the exception of the neon sign in the window, this looked like a fortified World War II bunker from outside. As I stepped through the doorway, I thought that I had somehow been transported to the set of Blue Velvet – dark, ringed with tables and chairs; the polished dark wood, black bakelite, and diamond deck bar was at a left oblique from the door. The back bar featured corrugated copper folded to look like a curtain and topped with a metallic pineapple. They had a pressed-tin ceiling and small, white candles burning on the bar. The music was all early (pre-Beatles) ‘60’s. Beautiful.

Of the twelve taps, seven were Belgian and zero was BMC! Anchor Steam and Bell’s were the only American micros, plus they offered two Unibroue and Trumer Pils. What about bottles, you ask? How about seven pages of 12-point type divided by “American Bottled Beers”, “European Bottled Beers”, “Belgian Bottled Beers”, “True Trappist Belgian Beers”, and “BIG Bottled Beers”.

01-05-2007 01:22:57 | More by woodychandler

northyorksammy

Ontario (Canada)

3.7/5  rDev -14.4%
vibe: 2.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | $$

Must stop for beer geeks, in word unique selection. Not many taps, but a few amazing ones such as two struisse IPAs. A great bottle list, with the expensive ones from the stores at decent prices/fair markups, and other expensive imports. Very dark, hard to see at all. Very knowledgeable bartender. Neighbourhood dive atmosphere. i wouldn't let my wife walk around the streets here. Smallish place and everyone more or less to themselves. Would check this place amnd the Sugar Maple regularly for your Belgium one-offs, double IPAs. They are near each other.

09-05-2011 13:23:42 | More by northyorksammy

dirtylou

Washington

4.36/5  rDev +0.9%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4 | $$

Oh Milwaukee. You tricked the world into thinking you were a rusty excuse for a city while all the while hiding this gem of a neighborhood, Bayview.

As you head south away from this bland city center on the abysmal Water Street, a whole new world opens up when you hit Kinnickinnic. By the time you hit the center of Bayview, you are surrounded by beer bars, coffee shops, and some of the finer neighborhood restaurants in the city.

my most recent visit (finally) brought me through The Palm. I've frequented Sugar Maple in the past, but actually much preferred its quiet sister-bar the Palm. The tap selection leans belgian and has a lot of great options.

The location is non-descript - i passed it by accident and the exterior bears no real advertisements.

The bar is very small, dark, and loaded with quality decor. The ambience is really conducive to conversation. I had the Cuvee Jacobins Flemish Sour and a Green Flash/Feullien collaboration. My lovely Milwaukee enthusiast enjoyed a Saison Dupont and Unibroue Terrible.

Service was great and the bar was very quiet between 6-7:30 on a nice Friday afternoon. The Palm is great, but I won't soon be spreading that news. I like it just the way it is.

04-30-2011 06:05:02 | More by dirtylou

DaPeculierDane

Wisconsin

4.1/5  rDev -5.1%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

Cruised to Milwaukee with Nchrist and Golden2wenty1 for brews at Palm Tavern and Roman’s.

Palm Tavern was very pleasing as expected. Great selection of Belgian beers.

Taps: Radeberger Pils, Grimbergen 2x, Konigshoeven 4x, Piraat, Kwak, Anchor Steam, Beels 2 Hearted, Blanche de Chambly, Ephemere, Lenny’s RIPA, Kasteel 3x, Pere Jacques, Lindeman’s Pomme and Framboise.

Bottles: Several hundred, mostly Belgians. Very good variety. Several that I’ve not tried, some that I’ve never seen anywhere else.

Prices: About what one would expect to pay in Chicago at the Map Room or Hop Leaf. A touch higher then we are used to in Madison, but the Wednesday/Sunday special ($3 off and big bottle of Belgian) makes up for that.

Service: Prompt, reserved but seemed to be knowledgeable about beer.

Atmosphere: Dull. The bar is one small room on the ground floor of a small house. You wouldn’t find this place if you weren’t looking for it. The walls are painted dark and a few intimate tables line them. Lighting is good but otherwise there isn’t much of anything interesting going on here…unless you count the menu and walls of whiskey. I must admit that just reading the lengthy beer menu over and over again is quite entertaining and looking at the hundred plus bottles of scotch is pretty fun too.

I'll be a regular customer here in the future.

06-06-2007 21:36:20 | More by DaPeculierDane

crossovert

Wisconsin

4.56/5  rDev +5.6%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4 | $$

Nice hole in the wall that probably has the capacity for about 50 people max.

It has probably the coziest atmosphere of any restuarant/bar I've ever been to. It has 25 taps, mostly Belgian oriented with a few IPAs an stouts. They also offer samplers. I got Cuvee de Jacobins, Rouge, Broukot Vlaskapelle, Jolly Pumkin Maracaibo Especial, and Nebreaska IPA.

The taps were set at a great temperature, probably around 55 degrees which seemed just about perfect foe all the beers they had.

The bartender is super knowledgeable and friendly, by far the best I have come across. He knew everything about the beer including the rare Bockor and Cuvee des Jacobins, which happened to be his favorites on tap at the time, everything down to different brews each of the breweries produced and how they were produced and through which importing and distribution channels they came. He also was giddy about the Rodenbach Grand Cru that they were getting on tap the next weekend.

What a great stop in Milwaukee.

01-31-2011 18:09:43 | More by crossovert

beerwolf77

Wisconsin

4.24/5  rDev -1.9%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Spent an evening here with BeerFMAndy and realized I've never actually reviewed the place.

Ridiculously non descript from the outside. Thia place is next to impossible to spot from the road. I strongly suggest going with someone who's been there before if you've never been. Once inside you find a vampire dark rather small room. Wood bar and stools take up most of the entire space. It's almost too dark for my taste. Cool jazz was playing while we were there which is nice but I not a huge fan of music while I'm concentrating on craft beer.

The selection is pretty well displayed on the chalk board with a bottle list on the bar as well. Not that you can read it without using your cell phone for light. Lots of great taps along with some rare bottles make up a fantastic beer list.

The bartender although quiet got right to work when I asked for a couple beers. He even offered me a water while I waited for Andy to finish his beer. Points scored in my book.

Overall a nice place to grab some solid craft choices. Although a bit dark and low key for my taste.

09-20-2010 23:07:04 | More by beerwolf77

BeerBelcher

Ohio

2.95/5  rDev -31.7%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3 | service: 2 | selection: 4 | food: 2 | $$$

I was there on a Thursday, and I had only one beer. It was from a Belgian brewery (the brewery was on the board but the specific beer was not) and tasted old and turned my teeth purple (not normal I don't think). I've heard a lot about this place, and plan on giving it a second chance, but I was not terribly impressed with the half hour I spent there. The draft selection was about 8 quality beers, and the bottle selection was huge, but I wasn't impressed by the beer I drank, which is likely coloring this review. There was a young man (maybe 23-years old) behind the bar who did not seem tremendously beer savvy, the place seemed smokey, and the music was pretty-loud for a beer focused place. Nonetheless, I'm likely to return to this spot. My good-beer-drinking friends have a certain affinity for it, it is close to Mike Roman's Pub, and I'm willing to admit that it (and I) might have been having an off night that night.

10-22-2006 01:20:16 | More by BeerBelcher

mynie

Indiana

3.63/5  rDev -16%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3.5 | $$

This little hole in the wall is as close to being a literal hole in the wall as a bar can get. The ambience is friendly, quiet, and brickish. Very honest feeling place. No pretensions towards being fashionable or stylish which, paradoxically, leads to the place feeling very fashionable and stylish. It was like I was in a dream sequence wherein I was sitting at some old-timey bar. It was like the bars in Tex Avery cartoons. All the colors were rich like pain. The din of the crowd sounded real but it also didn't.

Bartender was just a kid and he didn't really know very much about the beers he was pouring. He gave out the standard lines that are sometimes inane ("this one tastes like Guinness") and sometimes meaningless ("This ones got a real malty flavor to it"). Still, he was nice.

The tap selection wasn't all that impressive, especially when compared to Roman's right down the street. Don't get wrong; it's totally solid. But a lack of rare beers and one offs really takes thing down a notch. (Which is to say, this may be a very good beer bar but it's not quite the world class beer bar that's worth traveling to).

08-01-2008 22:59:31 | More by mynie

BeerFMAndy

Wisconsin

4.24/5  rDev -1.9%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4 | $$

If I wasn't following someone here, I would have never found it. Minimal signage to this bar is actually quite intriguing. Beerwolf77 and I made our way there the other night for the special tapping of Duvel Green so we could review it like the tickers we are.

We got inside this dive-like place. It was just as dark as the night we came in from, in fact probably darker because of the lit street. Lucky us there was a spot at the end of the bar for us both. Maybe the lack of light hides the imperfections of the dive, but either way, it had a sort of draw to it.

It was a small, small location with minimal room and I could see it being packed beyond belief on a Friday night. I immediately went to the bathroom which was a whole five feet (ish) away from the bar. No sink inside, rather, it was communal one outside between the bathrooms. In Todd's words, "they put your business out on the street so people can say, 'don't shake hands with that guy!' when he skips the last part of the process." Kind of awkward.

I didn't have a chance to really look over the list of things they had to offer since I was ordered for while relieving myself, but I saw their massive selection hiding in the fridge behind the bar and on the tap handles in front of me. Very, very nice selection of Belgian craft!

The service was nice and the bar tender clearly knew exactly what he was doing as he poured which is always nice to see! He wasn't all that friendly as I can't really recall talking to him at ALL but I'm ok with that when I've got a good beer in front of me and a good friend next to me. The beer was freshly tapped at 9 pm and absolutely delicious.

I'd definitely make my way back there again for a special tapping of something, but as a go-to bar, it's a little far out of the way for me and I appreciate Romans' atmosphere a lot more.

09-19-2010 23:12:57 | More by BeerFMAndy