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Havenwoods Taproom and Beer Garden, 5840 N. 60th St., kicks off a new partnership on July 31 that will bring month-long brewery “residencies” to the northwest side taproom.
The first featured brewery will be Fonta Flora Brewery of Morganton, North Carolina.
Created in 2021 by Portland-based taproom Function PDX, brewery residencies feature a single brewery in a deeper way than a simple tap takeover.
Function PDX featured Fonta Flora during a residency in November.
“The traditional path into a new market often asks a brewery to make a long-term commitment before it has had the opportunity to build real demand,” says Function PDX founder Casey Armstrong.
“Our residency model changes that. It gives breweries a focused and meaningful presence in the market, while giving consumers the opportunity to experience a broader range of beers they typically would not have access to. Havenwoods Taproom and Beer Garden gives us the right home to bring that model to Milwaukee as we look at our next expansion market.”
The residencies allow for a rotating selection of beers, collaborative events, brand storytelling and direct engagement with local consumers, says Havenwoods’ Chase Jaffray, who adds that Havenwoods is working on opening a food truck park on the city’s North Side.
Beginning July 31, guests at Havenwoods will not only get to sample a rotating selection of Fonta Flora beers on tap, but also packaged beer from the N.C. brewery. Jaffray says some further events and programming will be announced soon.
“For Havenwoods, the partnership introduces a new layer of rotating brewery programming while building on its role as a gathering place for the surrounding Milwaukee community,” an announcement noted.
“The Fonta Flora residency represents the first step in an ongoing calendar of brewery partnerships, with additional month-long residencies expected to be announced throughout the year.”
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press. A fifth collects Urban Spelunking articles about breweries and maltsters.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has been heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
