Wine Maniacs

The pizzettes and risotto is to die for!!! I have never gone wrong with any of the food and the wine is out of this universe. The staff is very knowledgable with the different types of wines.

So cutting edge and trendy, oh what maniacs they are! The wine list is that of Applebee’s, except that Applebee’s doesn’t have the audacity to serve Trader Joe wine and call themselves a wine bar. Save yourself the slow service and buy a bottle of two buck chuck to drink on their beautiful riverside patio; even with the open container fine you will save yourself money compared to this overpriced poser.

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Rick, the manager, gave us a few samples to try after I told him I was a cab girl. Brought out 2 great wines to try and we ordered a bottle. We ordered up the bacon wrapped dates, steak and goat cheese pizzette, and Mediterranean plate. All were wonderful. The river view is a lot of fun and my husband and I were able to relax and enjoy on a kid-​free night. A Groupon brought us there and the good food, wine and atmosphere will bring us back.

I think it’s overpriced and they push high priced wine on you without you realizing it. I’d probably give it a 3.5 if I could.

Went here on a Friday night with a friend to check it out. I’ve heard some good things about it, and I thought, «why the heck not?». After a bit of confusion trying to find the entrance, we were instantly greeted and sat at a table.
We just had a few seconds to look at the menu, when our waitress came buy and asked us if she could get us something to drink. I was slightly overwhelmed by the fact that they had JUST sat us down. We hadn’t had time to even look at the wine menu yet. She gave us a few more minutes, since we weren’t ready, and when she came back we ordered two glasses of the ‘Desire Piesporter Kabine’, and a roasted garlic potato pizzette. They were able to accommodate our no bacon request, which was wonderful!
We were given our drinks, and about 20 minutes from ordering, our pizzette arrived to share. The wine was divine, and had a very fruity/​green apple finish. Our pizzette was pretty great as well.
The reason for the three stars is simply the price. I’m not 100% sold on how expensive it was. It was $ 8 a glass, which seems normal at first, but it really wasn’t a full glass. Maybe, I’m just used to going to bars and places that fill it up, but I was kind of underwhelmed by how less we received. The pizzette was small, but that’s the point of a pizzette, which I get. I just didn’t really see how anyone could spend $ 12.50 for it without sharing it to split the bill, because it just wasn’t justified in my opinion.
Our waitress was pleasant, and split our bill, and wished us a wonderful evening. I’d go back again to try the cheese plate, when I feel like splurging myself.

Wow. First up the manager is awesome. Inviting friendly and helpful. So many wine places just pour and that’s ok. This guy takes the time and asks questions and gave us two samples to see if we liked one better (we did).
Second is the view. Wow. All the way down river to the new bridge over St. Paul. Just picture perfect. Sit outside and revel in our awesome city.
Third is the food. We had the roasted beet and goat cheese pizzette. Super thin and fantastic taste. Next was bacon wrapped dates. Omg. You had me at bacon but wifey grew up with a date tree in yard and it brought back fond memories of her dad. Bonus. Last was the cheese plate. Super fantastic. Generous? Yes. Great selection? You betcha. The star was the Stilton. Still thinking about it days later. A five year cheddar, a soft cheese I can’t remember (quite good) and a Gouda. Topped off with grapes and fresh strawberries. Perfect.
Last but not least was the wine. We had a French white variety i had never had nor heard of. Dry and flavorful (pic is loaded) Perfect.
Not sure why the negative reviews. Maybe it’s time to give a second chance here as it was great this day.
A bonus is the doors all open to the outside so enjoy a sunny or rainy day here. I know we will.

The wine was good, but the list was overall pretty expensive. Service was good and patio view was great. The bacon wrapped dates/​almonds were yummy.

This place kind of surprised me enough, that I think I’ll go back, if I’m feeling like I have some disposable income again.
It’s not inexpensive, but it’s a little tucked away, so when my friend and I went on a Tuesday night, it was empty. We had just come from dinner, and just wanted a glass of wine, and maybe something to nosh on. They had a cheese and fruit plate for $ 19, but it was too much, so we asked if they could do a half size, and they obliged, and charged us $ 10.
We each got a glass of red wine — I think a Malbec, for $ 10 a glass.
A lovely evening. Overstaffed — 3 on hand, with only 2 patrons, but it looked like a large party had just left, so I’m sure they were quite busy.
The food looks decent, so hopefully I’ll have time to go back for a happy hour or something at some point soon. When I can see the river — that’d be ideal.

Great selection of wine, excellent small plates, service top notch. Specialty Pizzette’s are to die for.

Love the Pizzettes. LOVE the wine. As the food & wine changes seasonally, I love they let you try a few before committing to a glass. Rik by far knows his business on wine and food. Love the patio dining in the summer and is beautiful to look out at the river in the winter. Plus if you haven’t gone to an event in the condo upstairs, you’re missing out for sure!

Figured out where the entrance was, it took a little searching. The place was empty for the first 30 min. we were there. Service was excellent as you would expect as the only people in the place. They were out of one of the small plates we wanted and the other was mediocre at best. A lack of quality ingredients plagued the dish. The meat and cheese plate was sparse for the 25 dollar asking price, but they didn’t spare the packaged crackers. The service and wine selection are the only things that earned them 2 stars.

If I could give them 6 Stars, I would!!!
I came to wine maniacs for only the second time with almost a year between the two visits for Walkers Point Foodie Week.
We chose Wine Maniacs out of several other choices because 1) the menu read really well and also 2) because there was a wine paired with every course (including dessert) at the same $ 31 price as all other participating restaurants!
The first course was a crawfish risotto paired with Piesporter. OH MY GOD. In this town of Milwaukee that I love, I’ve had such trouble finding good risotto. Baby Jesus, this one was amazing and cooked and seasoned so very well. I asked and was told there was asiago and cream which were the main factors in the wonderful Mac and cheese-​like richness. Excellent. I could’ve eaten more plates of it!
Next was pork loin with a cherry wine reduction and potato pancakes. Coming from someone who would almost never order pork loin, it was truly wonderful, a good portion size and satisfying. Potato pancakes were very good, as well and perfect accompaniment to the pork loin. This dish was paired with an excellent full bodied Petite Syrah. Wild Hare was the brand, I recommend! (see pic captions for other label names)
Last was a spicy chocolate bean curd and a side of Stilton cheese — reminiscent of blue cheese. Weird, right? But actually the depth and salt from the cheese with the sweet and slightly spicy chocolate bean curd worked well together! The server mentioned taking a taste of the cheese and then drink of the wine to experience the contrasts and also how they somehow work together. Paired with a Malbec.
My friend asked for a dessert off of the other $ 21 dollar foodie week menu as she was so glad that she did! It had a wonderful cream atop a dense and moist bread pudding-​like cake. It was great that they were accommodating and allowed us to switch up between menus.
All this in addition to the inspiring view of the river and reggae band playing at another establishment across the river, loud enough to hear but far enough away not to be too disturbing, made for one fantastic evening!
There were a lot of empty tables on this final Saturday night of Walkers Point Foodie Week and I lovingly say to all: you guys REALLY missed out!
I went back to tell the chef, Candice, and her assistant, Tony how wonderful our meal was and was shocked to see the teensy weensy small space of a kitchen that they have to work out of! No stove, just burners. Really, they blew me away! And Chef Candice was very gracious.
I will definitely come back.
Sure hope they get that risotto back on the menu — or something like it.
The regular menu did not read as well as the foodie week menu, I was quite underwhelmed. However, after eating the food I now give it more consideration!
Kudos, Wine Maniacs!!!
Great experience.

Very hard to find the entrance, we had to walk around to 3 different doors before we realized the unmarked door at the very end was where you enter. Service and food were subpar at best. Rude hostess, awkward waiter, burnt flatbread, and overpriced wine bottles. Take your business elsewhere.

From the poorly marked entrance to the awkward interaction with a server, this place is a cluster. We walked in and said we had a reservation. A couple walked in behind us and they did not. There was a nice table by the windows but for some reason she gave the window table to the other couple. Then the executive chef was pretending to be a server. After we waited for 10 minutes we got to order a burnt flatbread and subpar wine. We will NOT be going back.

Excellent service, very friendly and knowledgable, yet not obnoxious or obtrusive. The outdoor seating is right on the river with a great view, and it’s not on a busy street or sidewalk.

I am not sure what all the fuss is about… I really liked this place! We used a living social deal, and being from out of state… the waiter was super friendly and really gave us great advice on what to do while in Milwaukee!

I went here for a five-​course dinner and wine pairing/​tasting. There were BIG problems, but so as not to bore, I will only share one of them in this review.
There was a group of about 15 people or so at the dinner/​tasting, and at one point, they were going to pour us all a white wine after a red. Instead of giving us new glasses, the waitress, **right in front of the owner**, «washed» out our glasses. She’d pick up one person’s glass, pour in some ice water, swish it around, then dump THAT contaminated, dirty water into the NEXT PERSON’S GLASS, swish it around, and so on and so forth until everyone had everyone else’s backwash in their glass.
There’s a serious lack of basic knowledge about sanitation here.

We visited Wine Maniacs for the first time (during the harsh winter of 2013) with a Living Social deal. Even so, the night ended up being somewhat expensive, but the wine pours were of nice size.
There were two other couples there during our stay.
We ordered a couple of small plates and the chicken was served with a sweet potato/​red potato hash that was almost addictive, nicely smokey with the addition of bacon.
There was a very large selection of wines with 50 wines available and five varied tap beers. The manager Rik was personable and helpful with the wine selections.
If you’re looking for a spot to relax and enjoy the view of the river with a glass of wine, Wine Maniacs should be on your list.

As many other people apparently did last night, we went to use our living social coupon — the last day before it expired. There are NO signs anywhere letting us know where this place was, and we had an extremely hard time finding it from the street. (We did notice a banner near the Riverwalk that was covered by the snow on our way out).
We walked in and there was one girl who stepped away from serving to speak with us. She told us there was a half hour wait, and we asked if we could sit at the bar. She said they didn’t have a bartender so no one could serve us. I said we would wait for a table, but could we have a glass of wine? She went to «check» and stopped at a table. She grabbed their bill, ran a credit card, then came back and said «I guess you can sit at the bar». We were unsure if that meant for wine or dinner, but she was gone too fast to ask.
We waited almost half an hour for anyone to come over. There was a man and a woman and they were the ONLY ones working the entire packed room. The man came over finally and all he said is «Are you having a red or white night». We both said red and he just poured us a couple tastes and walked away. We both loved it, and were peeved to find out (10 minutes later when he stopped back) that it was a $ 60 bottle. We tried a couple more that were just terrible (and all over $ 50) eventually just settling on the first one for times sake. We were ready to order, but when we put our food in (Pear and proscuitto pizette, lobster mac and lamb lollipops) he said that they were sold out of ALL of those. WHAT? We settled on a bbq chicken pizza, an apple and spinach pizza, and a lemon caesar salad. The salad was $ 10 and tasted nothing like lemon. The croutons and cheese were good though. Maybe best to serve with a grilled lemon wedge? The bbq chicken pizza (the reason for the extra star) was actually pretty good. The apple and spinach was just crap. Tasted like bagged nuts, apples and raw spinach. No sauce or anything. We told the man that it should have a sauce and he replied «Oh, the cook should have put some pesto on there, oh well». UM?!
Besides the food/​wait time, the service was flat out weird. Once the gentleman had more than 10 seconds to give us, all he said was how pretty girls this and pretty girls that… creepy. He even made sex jokes! He started going off about the living social and how they were so much more busy than they should have been and all I could think is how GREAT that could have been for their business if they had prepared for it. Now, due to their complete unpreparedness, I most likely will not return.

For a wine bar in a fabulous location, I saw food served in those red plastic hot dog baskets. To add to this, the chair I was sitting in had its seam ripped open and the cushion busting out. Due to a lack of ventilation, the space smelled like old food cooking, and I’m pretty sure I smelled like a hibachi grill upon leaving. Yet interestingly enough the average glass of wine was typically $ 15+. None of it adds up…
This is definitely not the way I want to savor ANY glass of wine.