Curly’s Pub

Lambeau Field

1265 Lombardi Ave.

Green Bay, WI 54304

www.packers.com/lambeau-field/curlys-pub.html

 No visit to Green Bay is complete without a stop at Lambeau Field!

Parking: Free at Miller Entrance

Days: Monday-Friday

Times: 5-7pm

Drink Deals: $2 off Draft Beers, $1 off Rail drinks

Food Deals: No food deals

Nightly Specials:

--- Sunday: Build your own Bloody Mary; Draft Beer Specials

--- Monday: Burger Blitz & Draft Picks (4-10pm)

--- Tuesday: $2 Tuesdays, including $2 Sliders, Fries, and Select Beers 

--- Friday: Fish Frydays and other specials

Special Note: Game Day Hours – For home Packers games, Curly's is open to game ticketed guests only during specific hours. Non-game ticketed guests can enter Curly's through the Miller Brewing Co. gate entrance 45 minutes after the conclusion of the game.

Quick recap: I was visiting Green Bay, WI to meet my new baby niece (sweet little thing, more hair than her Daddy!) and my bro & I snuck out of the house for a little Happy Hour Tour. We had some success at White Dog, Black Cat, but then struck out at the Sardine Can and Taste of the South. Cutting our losses, we did what everyone does when they visit Green Bay, we went to Lambeau Field aka Packers Stadium, for a “5^th Quarter” 5-7pm Happy Hour at Curly’s. 

Inside Lambeau Field, looking down at the Atrium

Entering from the Miller entrance, we cut through the pro-shop and then headed up a spiral staircase to visit Curly’s. The pub immediately reminded me of a massive sports-themed Applebee’s with its big bar and family dining set-up, and hometown wooden tables and chairs. PB and I grabbed a seat at the bar, trying to avoid sitting too close to the folks at nearby tables, but ending up right near the server’s station, where we were privy to the hilarious line, “If I knew where the muddler was, would I be using an ice pick?”

Inside the bar

Said ice pick was being used to muddle my Old Fashioned, a popular Wisconsin cocktail. My pal Kitty Packard had introduced me to Old Fashioned’s back in LA and most joints there do it up with whiskey, bitters, a sugar cube, and some fruit garnish. The Wisconsin version is a bit different – offered as sweet or sour and with whiskey or brandy. I went with the sweet brandy version complete, which I think was made with Sprite. I’d definitely be interested to see how those Wisconsin folks make their Sour Old Fashioned! That said, I did enjoy the sweet cocktail, definitely goes down a little smoother than the traditional Old Fashioned.

 

An Old Fashioned at Lambeau Field

My Green Bay Old Fashioned wasn’t on Happy Hour, but only cost $5.50, which is totally all right pricing coming from La-La. PB had a Winter Lager, $3.25 during HH. Again, no food deals at this Happy Hour and we were completely full from our fried fish plate at White Dog, Black Cat so we forwent the regular-priced food this go-round, but I would have loved to have tried their version of the Wisconsin bar staple, fried cheese curds or their popular Playoff Pretzel Bites (in the $6-10 range).

Skipping the food and on a real-life 5^th Quarter deadline to make it back home soon to relieve sis-in-law; we finished up our drinks and headed back home, mini-Happy Hour Tour complete.

Love it! In place of a bathroom mirror in the ladies' room, Lambeau Field features some old Packers pictures!

And dear reader, worry not –I did get to sample some cheese curds at TitleTown, a local brewery with a very tasty menu!! They offer a Happy Hour as well, but only on week-days (we went on a Sunday) and with no food deals. What gives on the food deals, Green Bay?!

 

Playing Statues with Coaches Lombardi and Lambeau!

--JB

Rating: 3.5 Martinis (Great experience of Happy Hour at an NFL stadium, but not great deals)

White Dog, Black Cat

210 S Broadway 

Green Bay, WI 54303 

(920) 445-0440 

whitedogblackcatgb.com 

Parking: Free Street Parking (gotta love the Midwest!) 

Days: Tuesday-Thursday Time: 4-6pm 

Drink Deals: 3 Domestic Beers for $4; 2 Single Shot Rail Mixers for $5; Buy One Shot, get 2nd half-off

Food Deals: Nada on the Food Deals

Nightly Specials (from 7pm-Close): 

--- Tuesday: Any Import $3 with purchase of Dinner Special; $4 Pinnical Flavored Pints

--- Wednesday – All You Care to Drink House Wine for $10; $2.50 Bud and Bud Light Bottles 

--- Thursday – $2 Pabst Bottles; $3 Jameson or Michael Collins Shots; $4 (call) Whiskey Pints 

 

When friends and colleagues asked where I was going for my short February vacation, they got a kick out of the answer… “Green Bay, Wisconsin.” No offense to Packer Land, but I might as well have said Antarctica, leaving sunny Southern California for this wintry small city on the Bay. It wasn’t a Lambeau Field tour that brought me; it was the arrival of my niece, a sweet little babe with a full head of hair. 

While I was of course in Green Bay to shower love on the little love-bug – no long weekend trip would have been complete without a Happy Hour stop or two. So on a cold, but not freezing afternoon, brother (and Beer Maestro) PB and I left my sis-in-law and a sleeping Baby B at home and headed for a mini-Happy Hour Tour. 

After visiting UrbanSpoon’s hit-and-miss Happy Hour listings (really, sometimes, the restaurants ranked high for Happy Hours don’t even have them!), we decided to start at White Dog Black Cat – a ½ café, ½ bar in the downtown area. On a Happy Hour Tour, we opted for the bar side of the restaurant and made nice with the bartender who helpfully pointed me in the direction of the Spotted Cow beer from the New Glarus Brewing Company in Wisconsin. 

Two-Hearted Ale and a Spotted Cow

We found that Happy Hour consisted of drink deals only featuring prices much better than anything I see in LA – 3 domestic beers for $4 and 2 for $5 Rail Mixers. My Spotted Cow and PB’s floral and hoppy Two-Hearted Ale were not on special, but only cost about $8 total, so not a bad deal. As for food, appetizers run from about $3.95 to $6.95, but we were more intrigued by the special of the day, a fried fish plate with fries, coleslaw, and pumpernickel bread for $7.95. 

Yummers! Fish and Chips; Coleslaw and Pumpernickel Bread - all this for $7.95!

PB has learned that when someone recommends a restaurant here, it’s not so much based on the quality of the food, but the quantity and we found this true at White Dog, Black Cat – the plate had enough fish to feed us both! The quality was all right too, though a bit too much batter for our palate. Still, how damn cool to pay about $20 for 2 beers and dinner!! 

The whole bar had a café kind of look with antique knick-knacks and big cozy chairs and loveseats in the front. The bar definitely had a Midwest kind of feel, and it was fun to see something like 8 dudes enjoying afternoon brews, lined up on the bar-front stools. Dudes!! 

Da Bar Side of the Joint (the dudes got there later)

We headed out and attempted stops at 2 more Broadway St. bars to not-so-good results – the first was the Sardine Can (seriously, visit the site and the story makes sense) and our arrival there was something like straight out of a movie. I swear the music stopped, we got stared at from head to toe, and a highly intoxicated man’s hand froze in the air mid-wave. Given this and the fact that the only other females there were the bartenders, I kindly made PB back-up “gracefully” and run out of the bar to the amusement of the gawking patrons. The scene at the next stop, a southern restaurant called Taste of the South, wasn’t nearly as dramatic, but they also didn’t seem to have a real bar. C’est la vie as the New Orleans folks might say. 

 

The Bra and the Sis

So, with an hour and a half left before Baby B was set to wake up, we headed to Lambeau Field, I guess I was going to get that tour after all!

--JB 

Rating: 3 Martinis