Record shops on Milwaukee’s East Side are a wellspring of new, used, and rare LPs for both the avid collector and the kid who just bought a used turntable.

Atomic Records (1813 E Locust St, 414-332-3663) is undoubtedly the best source for new indie vinyl in Milwaukee. Fitted with a knowledgeable staff of music geeks, Atomic Records consistently delivers the right stuff.

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Jim Searles is a collector. He collects things reminiscent of a much grander time: ornament and regal impracticality. “Old movie studio executive offices were so elegant,” he says, gesturing around his collection.

There is a chair that looks like it could have belonged to a French king, a sofa draped in red-crushed velvet, and piles of old books.

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Brady Street Pharmacy is the kind of place where legendary tales are told. It may be a tale about the chaos that happened last night on a bar crawl down North, or a story of a relationship that went down the tubes, But, if you are real lucky you could here tales from the decades when one would think that the pharmacy diner was built.

But, much to ones surprises the diner wasn’t built in the 1940s, the heyday of pharmacy counters, it was built in 1983 when James and Barbara Searles first turned the decaying Astor Theater into a pharmacy/diner but were still able to restore the a piece of the theater as well. Searles explains that the simple diner exists to support the efforts of the theater, and its efforts to support growing arts.

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Nestled between Oakland and Maryland Avenues is the clothing and vinyl store, Niche. Located just out of eyesight at 1922 E. Park Place, Niche specializes in a mixture of Vintage/Indie, clothing as well as the East Side’s largest collection of Electronic Vinyl. The store also features artwork from local artists that is switched out every 2-3 months.

Niche opened back in September of 2004 as a business venture between Brandi Kupsky and Justin Grall. The two sought to try opening a store combining Brandi’s love of fashion and clothing with Justin’s love of Electronic and Vinyl.

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Listen up: if you eat pizza anywhere other than Zaffiro’s on the corner of Farewell and Brady St., then you cannot call yourself a true East Sider. Don’t worry if you can’t get your lazy, order-pizza-by-phone-butt over there because they aren’t hurting for business.

This restaurant has been a Milwaukee icon for almost 60 years. I grew up on this pizza, my mother grew up on this pizza and my grandparents were some of the first people to eat this pizza when the Zaffiro family opened their doors in 1951.

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The Bronx- The Bronx is home to some of Milwaukee’s most illustrious landmarks, including numerous 15 route bus-stops and the second largest Pick N’ Save on the entire East Side.

Upper East Side- Studio apartments starting at seven figures is a common sight on the Upper East Side. A reservation at Dorsia, a highlight of the district and one of Milwaukee’s finest dining establishments, should be made roughly three years in advance, with a bill of $550 commonly being referred to as “reasonable.”

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