Milwaukee Recommendations
Seeking MKE recommendations - largely looking for clothing, especially good secondhand or thrifting, and anything that leans workwear or milsurp. Also open to good food, breweries, music, or anything else you enjoy in and around the city. Thanks!
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I randomly discovered Milworks last time I was in Milwaukee. Not secondhand, but definitely in line with workwear/milsurp.
Cheers, did some research and that seemed to be among the top responses. Since there weren’t lots of responses, I’ll share some of the other places I visited so far for others to reference in the future:
Falcon Bowl flea market: once monthly and happened to be this weekend, lots of vintage clothing and sportswear along with home goods booths
Handsome Hound: small basement with curated secondhand, again good vintage tees and decent pricing but pretty small space/selection
SayWerd: curated secondhand tees/sportwear and video games store, lots of Bucks gear
Haven’t been but heard good things (will update as I try them in the coming days):
Tip Top Atomic Shop: vintage clothing
Dandy: combination venue and vintage clothing/furniture store
Plume: curated vintage, seems womenswear focused
Dime a Dance: antique store with some vintage clothing
Alive and Fine: curated vintage
To Hell and Back: curated vintage
Retique Store: upscale goodwill, somewhat curated and nicer than typical GW
Spruced57: curated vintage, largely womenswear
All Goods: curated vintage, sportswear/streetwear focus
BC Modern: secondhand furniture, don’t believe they have clothing but close by other stores on this list. Only open last weekend of each month
Antiques on Pierce: huge (50k sqft, 3 floors) antique mall with 100+ sellers, including clothing, furniture, home goods, records
Dretzka’s Department Store: huge selection of secondhand everything
St Vincent De Paul’s thrift: several across southern WI, best reviewed one is ~30 mins west in Pewaukee but there’s 5-6 within a half hour of city limits
Managed to hit several of these spots this weekend, here's my thoughts for anyone else in Milwaukee in the future
Dandy: heavy on vintage housewares and furniture, smaller but solid selection of vintage clothing skewing womenswear.
All Goods: heavily curated vintage tees and jerseys, lots of sportswear, prices a bit higher with most stuff being great condition. Felt less thrifty and more like a retail store but secondhand goods
Antiques on Pierce: easily the best spot I tried in MKE, enormous warehouse with 4 floors - skews towards home goods and furniture but a solid amount of clothing, jewelry, records and audio gear as well. Also an art gallery on top 2 floors and consignment furniture. Well worth a stop, I spent 3 hours and could easily have doubled that.
To Hell and Back: located in an art gallery basement, cool but smaller space with well curated mens and womenswear about 50/50. Lots of older blank tees vs. branded/graphic stuff in other spots
Tip Top Atomic Shop: very womenswear focused, just a few small racks of menswear.
Plume: also mostly womenswear, 2 smaller racks of menswear
BC Modern: Light on clothing but well priced for what was there, mostly vintage furniture. Very cool staging of "rooms" with lots of 70-80s styling and vintage home goods/kitchenware as well. Turns over month-over-month and only open last weekend of each month but well worth a trip if they're open if you care about interior design. Very friendly owners as well.
TLDR: Antiques on Pierce is enormous and has everything, best vintage shop/market I've ever been to. All Goods or SayWerd for vintage graphics and streetwear stuff, To Hell and Back or Handsome Hound for broader vintage clothing. If you're in town while they're open, Falcon Bowl flea market and BC Modern are well worth a look.