The Comeback

With its new additions to Sunset and the revitalization of the downtown area, it seems as though the city of Waukesha is staging a bit of a comeback! Good Times readers may recall that I had blogged about the city's deficiencies in this February post. In that post, I lamented of the lack of restauarants and stores in the Waukesha area. We were forced to drive to neighboring cities to dine at Noodles & Co., Buffalo Wild Wings, and Panera. When we were fixin' for Starbucks, we had to drive across town to the one coffee shop in town. We were jealous of those lucky people that could choose from a variety of grocery stores located in their area; we were stuck with Pick n' Save and Sentry. Let's face it: we were basically living in a third-world country.

Nine months later, Waukesha is still no Brookfield. However, the city shows signs of progress. Downtown Waukesha has changed for the better; it is now quite the happenin' place. Visit downtown Waukesha on a Friday or Saturday night and you'll find it teeming with people out on the town! New restaurants and bars have lured us downtown a few times in the last six months. Taylor's People's Park is a trendy place for food and drink - if you go, try their pot stickers. Across the street is The Steaming Cup, which isn't necessarily new to the area (it opened in 2004), but is surely capitalizing on the new business that People's Park and other restaurants have brought in to the area. We stopped into The Steaming Cup two weeks ago for a coffee and cocoa and found the coffee shop packed with people who were enjoying live music, food and drink, and games (Candy Land, Backgammon, Chess, etc.). Also new to downtown Waukesha is The Clarke Hotel and Black Trumpet Restaurant. Jim and I haven't been yet, but we would like to check out the Black Trumpet Restaurant for drinks and dinner sometime soon. Not new to the area, but still worth a mention are Divino Gelato Cafe and Martha Merrill's Bookstore. If planning a stop in Waukesha, check them out!

Waukesha has made great strides toward its comeback with the completion of The Shoppes at Fox River, which are just a hop, skip, and a 3-minute ride away! I was there for the grand opening events at Target (with a Starbucks inside) and Pick n' Save this summer, and am anxiously awaiting the opening of Chili's, Noodles & Co., and Maurice's in the next few months. Buffalo Wild Wings officially opened up its doors this week, and though Jim and I did not camp out in front of the store to be one of its first 100 guests (Free wings for a year went to the first 100 guests), we did check out the newest BWW in the area last night. We agreed that the service was slower than it is at other locations (but to be expected in the restaurant's first week open) and it was not as big as others, but it was still glorious. Jim is now convinced that we should not move (and we probably won't be...stay tuned).

There's still no Panera or Chipotle, Sendik's or Fresh Market, but we do believe that Waukesha is making comeback.