Jackpot, located at 825 E. Center St., is a vintage thrift clothing shop, with styles ranging from the ’50s to the ’80s, which makes retro clothing available to residents west of the Milwaukee River.

The store has slightly higher prices than other thrift stores. However, depending whom you ask, its ample variety of fashion options may make up for it.

>> Full Story

In the midst of the always changing, ever-so eclectic Riverwest neighborhood, a uniquely Wisconsin tradition still thrives.

Klinger’s East Bar & Grill has been a staple of the Riverwest community for 31 years, serving food and drink while also actively participating in neighborhood organizations. Originally a sports bar, around the mid-1980s the owner, Glen Klinger, decided to import a small town taste to the big city: The Friday night fish fry.

>> Full Story

Every Friday night from 9 p.m. until 2 a.m., Riverwest’s staple nightclub, Mad Planet, offers customers a chance to recreate the eighties, at least through music, for four bucks. Leg warmers, spandex and three-inch bangs (heavily sprayed with Aqua Net) are optional. Because the DJs incorporate some music from the seventies and nineties in their sets in order to honor the requests of club-goers, what was formerly known as Eighties Night is now Retro Night.

>> Full Story

The likes of “Cosmopolitan,” “People,” and “GQ,” are what comes to mind when we think of magazines, but these are only a sliver of a much larger zine (the informal name for a magazine) pie. Zines, often thought of as niche publications, come in a variety of formats and subjects.

Just ask Milo Miller, a veritable zine expert, who specializes in queer zines. Four years ago, almost to the date, Milo and his partner Chris started the Queer Zine Archive Project (QZAP). The two met in 2001 when they were living in the San Francisco area, and realized they both shared an interest in zine making and collecting. Together, they had about 350 zines; they wanted to share them, but the question was, “how?”

>> Full Story

You’ve got to respect a video store that forgoes playing the typical family shlock in favor of showcasing a film like Ken Loach’s “The Wind That Shakes the Barley.” This alone should be enough to tell you that Riverwest Film & Video is quite a departure from Blockbuster or Hollywood Video.

SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1Formerly housed on Locust Street, the store moved to its current location during the summer of ’06. Nestled right next to Fuel Cafe, the store is adorned with throwbacks to yesterday’s pop-culture, as well as seemingly random objects sprinkled sparingly throughout the room.

>> Full Story

On our second huge pitcher of Riverwest Stein tap beer, I tried to make myself throw up in the graffiti-laden bathroom of River Horse, a favorite bar amongst Riverwest residents. It was a tough call, though I opted to save my vomit for later.

Upon re-entering the social atmosphere, I forgot about my nausea and tried to enter the conversation as if nothing had happened. This bar is good for that… conversation and forgetting. The music was loud, but the ambiance persisted. Like when a beat goes on in your head long after the song is over. Danzig was playing, the soundtrack to a forgotten past that we were trying to relive.

>> Full Story

I ventured out to Riverwest in Milwaukee on a cloudy Saturday morning. I’ve found I do not cross paths with this side of town as much as I would like.

I am bundled up in my winter coat, hat and mittens because it is quite chilly this morning. Yet, it is still a comfortable temperature to be out for a walk with my friend, Ashley. As we approach a busy intersection I tell her that I wish we took walks like this more often. With such busy schedules, we find it a relief to be able to enjoy this nature walk.

>> Full Story

Hipsters, hippies, artists and punks; yes, I understand many consider these the main inhabitants of Riverwest. I’m not necessarily going to disagree, but there is one more group many people forget about, the bikers.

By bikers, I of course mean bicycle riding folk. They’re not really a separate class, but more the unifying quality that ties the other four classes of the neighborhood together. Bikes are really more of an agreed upon mode of transportation for the community.

>> Full Story