Rosie’s Waterwork

This place gets no points for décor, an awful lot of carpet for a bar, but the staff was awesome. We stayed for a few hours, so the bartender comped a bunch of our drinks. He was also playing his own (good!) music the whole time, so no worries about having to pay for a jukebox.

A nice looking urban bar but had the worse bartender ever as this slob was so inattentive to all except a small group of people he knew. Thee beer on tap tasted awful as well and one has to wonder how attentive they are to installing the tap properly.

My kind if place… I’m early & the first customer of the day… Manager is great & friendly. i like the length on this bar… old school… so far so good

I went in here to watch a Thursday Night Football game and have some drinks because B-​Dubs was packed. Pretty good find here… seemed local, cheap beers, several TVs.
This is not a dance club or anything like that this is a bar! No food, No frills, just drinking and good Blues music. Nice place to start your night off!

Was visiting from Chicago. I thought Rosie’s had potential as a dive bar. The wait staff was very unfriendly. The music was also way too loud for that kind of atmosphere. Drinks were reasonably priced, but that’s not enough to ever get my business again.

Was in town for work and I think I found my «local» hangout. Pretty quiet with spurts of birthday goers coming and going. Great bartender who knows how to conversate and regulars that aren’t territorial.

The drink specials are the bomb, where else can you get 2 dollar shots of everything but patron. The bartender created some great shots, and the prices were very reasonable. Wish this was the first place I went that night.

place is weird one time will have fun next time place weird as hell just stay away

Visiting from out of town and did a bar crawl on Water St because it was late and were staying down the street. Rosie’s is a recovering dive bar it seems. She is perked up on pink paint and Christmas lights. (Too bad I love a good dive bar that embraces the grittiness) Service was alright, bartenders were attentive and friendly, too bad the one attending us didnt know squat about beer. Also all their draft beers were flat which we guess was because they weren’t tapped properly. Would I be back? Nope there are better bars on Water St.
Drinks: ²⁄₅
Service: ³⁄₅
Location: ³⁄₅

This place is always packed and has a very nice variety of music. They also have very nice drink specials. The bar area is very lively and has a very relaxed atmosphere.
I would definitely come back if I am on Water Street to start off my night.

Dive bar that reminds me some of the bars in college. Came here for my birthday and apparently they give the birthday person a free mug and 3 – 4 free drinks, as well as drink specials for their entire party. There isn’t too much space so it could get packed on weekend nights, but there is a lot of seating and the waitresses are friendly and efficient. No problems with getting drink orders quickly even when ordering 10 – 12 at a time. I would come back here the next time I’m in Milwaukee

Descriptive phrase: Water Street’s dive.
Rosie’s is a unique bar on Water Street in that it doesn’t cater solely to skeezy frat boys and drunk party girls. A group of us came here on a Saturday night after escaping the intensity (heat, music, people) of Harp. No line, music you didn’t have to shout over, open seating, let us in!
Rosie’s is no-​frills. Long bar with seating across from it against the wall. TV’s above the bar. Plenty of drinks to choose from. Beers were no cheaper than other places on Water, but the bartenders were infinitely friendlier. The manager even went way out of his way to satisfy an odd request I made.
I wouldn’t hit the town specifically for Rosie’s, but if I’m near Water I will seek her out over others on the street.

Hrm. My friend and I were walking down Water Street bar hopping, just to get a feel of the night life in Milwaukee.
One of the last bars we walked into was Rosie’s. At first, it was a little difficult to enter the bar because the bouncer was arguing with someone leaving or going in, I’m not sure. After making our way past the guy, we walked into what looked like an old sports dive bar.
It was pretty dim inside, lots of TVs playing different sports games and I believe I remember seeing a pool table towards the back of the bar? Nothing about this bar appealed to either of us.
And as quickly as we walked in, we were just as quick to leave. I’d say we were in the bar for a good 5 minutes. Sorry Rosie’s.

Wahoo! Rosie’s birthday bar!!! I really do enjoy this place. Ready for the pros and cons?!?
Pros:
–Great atmosphere
–Lots of seating
–Large tables for big groups
–You drink free on your birthday and get a glass birthday mug to keep (come on, everything loves free things!!)
–Great beer and shot deals for your friends on your birthday
–Typical fully stocked bar
–Funny signs by the registers
–Vending machine for late night snacks!
–The occasional cop stops in to collect their beer can tops! haha
–Good location on water
Cons:
–Sometimes the bartenders are cranky
–The bathrooms are gross
–Sometimes the patrons are a little sketchy
–Terrible parking
–Decent deals if it’s not your birthday… but still not as good as other places
–It seems like the perfect place to have typical bar pizza… They don’t serve it. So sad!
Overall, I have had a great time here. A bar can’t be perfect but I definitely think they have some things to work on.

Drink free on your birthday… That’s literally all you need to know about this place.
Alright, so every year when my B-​Day comes around, gotta hit up Rosie’s for some free drinks. 4 drinks to be exact. Or is it 3 now? Seems like they keep cutting it back every year since I’ve started coming. These drinks can only be domestic beers or rail mixed drinks. Nothing wrong with that, since it is free. It’s basically a rectangular room with lots of seating which is nice. However, this ends the positives.
The prices here seem extremely high for basically a dive bar. Their «specials» are normal prices at other bars. I even saw an advertisement on the wall for $ 3 miller bottles. Woooooo what a special! Seriously? That is normal everyday prices. They also try to rope your friends into buying drinks when it’s your birthday by having this same deal. C’mon Rosie’s, you can’t fleece me with that nonsense. Get some real specials Rosie’s… Take a lesson from Duke’s up the street.
The last few times I’ve been part of a birthday entourage, we’ve basically had the birthday boy or girl chug their drinks so we could get the hell out of there. Me included when it’s my special day. Just not worth it to visit here on any other of the 364 days of the year (365 for leap years). Rosie’s is a «plain» bar in every sense of the word. Just a bar that you forget about in T-​minus 1 day… Yup I already forgot this place.

Gotta love rosies.

I went here every Wednesday for a year after turning 21. This place grows on you and never gets old.
Weekends are your typical water street fare. You might as well call the whole street the Home Depot, there are so many tools around its ridiculous. Thankfully, Rosie’s is a bit of a refuge from that. This place feels more like the bar your dad used to go to (and still does) instead of just a drunken sausage and slut fest. It might get crazy here, but there’s always a sense of calm and relaxation.
Weeknights here are the real shiners. The bartenders really get to stand out, and they give a very friendly pour to regulars. A bit of a ‘Cheers’ atmosphere at times.
They did away with the pool table (which i’ve danced on) and other video poker games in leu of more seating, and also recently revamped the menu into more of a brew pub fare. Rosie’s seems to be going down a more of a craft beer route, too. A welcome refuge from the pitchers upon pitchers of tap MGD i’ve funneled into my liver.
All in all, Rosie’s is a great place to see Water Street for its excitement, but not necessarily get slapped across the face with it.
9 times out of 10 you’ll probably see some girl stumble in (or crawl out) with a tilted Tiara and runny mascara. You drink here free on your birthday.

I’ll admit Rosie’s would have gotten a better review from me had I written this before the last few times I’ve gone here. This is my favorite go to place on Water when I can’t sit outside. It’s a «dive» in the sense that it really doesn’t fit in with the rest of the bars on Water; less college kids, a little more chill, and I’d say dark, but most of the bars on Water are dark.
The drinks are always reasonably priced and the employees are always super nice. I also love that at a certain time at night on the weekends, people will get up on the benches and dance — which I admit, is something that I love to do here.
However the last couple of times were a big disappointment. They have changed their Birthday Special. They use to give you a mug and you would get free beer and rail drinks all night on your birthday, while your friends got drink specials all night. Your friends still get drink specials and you still get a mug, but you only get four drinks. Which in the scheme of things is still a great deal, but so sad to hear that the old deal was gone.
One of the stalls in the lady’s bathroom was clogged — that being terrible being that there are only two stalls. The next time I went, someone decided to try to use the broken toilet and the whole lady’s bathroom was flooded — gross. Although they did stop people from going in until they could clean it up that night.
And on my last visit, they had a photographer trying to take photos of everyone in the bar. Normally not a weird thing at say a club, but that’s not the place Rosie’s is. He tried to tell us it was for the Facebook group, but we didn’t want our photos on there. Then it got real weird when two college girls started dancing on the benches and were all over each other in the most inappropriate way while he took photos. To call it weird would be an understatement.
I’ll go back again, but it’s just not the same as it use to be.

When I lived in Milwaukee, Rosie’s was my «go to» place, so on a recent weekend in that fine town– of course I had to head over to my old stomping grounds.
The good news is that the only thing that has changed is that Rosie’s is now smoke free! Yay!
The place is still packed as Water Street is on weekend nights. It’s always a great place to meet people or to hang with friends. The pool table is still in the back where you can check out the guys playing while you wend your way to the bathroom. The beers are still cheap and cold and the music is blaring!
To call Rosie’s a dive bar is a bit of a stretch– there are far better dives around. But as a local watering hole after work or in the evening– Rosie’s is where everyone used to and still seemingly goes. That’s what I love about Milwaukee.. .. . some things never change!

Crowded and smokey!
Let’s face it — after spending most of the evening on or near Water Street, I’ve realized it — I’m old!
I’ve been to Rosie’s on a couple of other occasions and always had a good time. This time was no exception. Had a couple of drinks, talked to some of the regulars there and then headed out.
The drinks were strong, service good, and the music LOUD! I guess that’s what I should expect when we walk into a place where they have bouncers checking ids, but they say to us, «Nah, go ahead. You 2 are old enough.»
I will still be a must stop for any trip to Milwaukee for me.