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Welcome, welcome back to Civic Media, mid mornings.
My name is Greg Bach.
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Still lots of great show ahead for you today at 1035.
Another installment of the award.
not nominated, but well recognized as a thing show.
Take it or leave it.
It's the second one.
We've done, we did one last week.
We're doing a second one.
So I'm just waiting for the WBAs to roll in for us because this is, this is the height of art.
So take it or leave it today.
It's the James Beard edition.
The James Beard award nominations were announced this week and a lot of very deserving chefs and restaurants here in the state were a part of that group.
So we'll be talking about that.
My thoughts on dining experiences.
My thoughts on cocktails.
My thoughts on cocktails.
I love a cocktail.
I'm just running out there, but you can be a part of the conversation too.
Let us know your thoughts on the restaurants.
Let me know about restaurants in your area that don't get the love they deserve.
It's a great restaurant with a cool burger and good prices.
Let me know.
I'd love to hear from you.
And then this shouldn't be a thing rounds out the show for this week.
Today is the Harpy ending edition.
See what I did there?
That's called a pun.
harpy ending edition.
So lots of show still ahead, but we're going to move it on to our first guest this morning.
She is a business reporting intern at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Her name is Francesca Pica, and she is our guest today.
Good morning, Francesca.
How are you?
First of all, are you inside safe, warm?
Are you okay there?
I
am safe, no worries.
Okay, good.
Thank you for having me on this very cool January day.
Let's see here looking at this the mid mornings and civic media still negative 12 Calvin.
Is that what I assume you're in the Milwaukee area?
Yes.
Yes.
Here in Milwaukee, it's it's around the same.
So.
It's that windshield though.
It's even colder.
Yeah.
Negative 30.
It feels like
I like, I like telling my friends who are still enamored with the, oh, winter must be so beautiful.
I'm like, sit down.
Just negative 12.
Oh, that's really cold.
Negative 40 with the windshield.
Oh my God.
It's like, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, just
exactly.
It almost feels like the temperature is lying to you.
You know, you have to check the windshield because that's where the real fun
is.
Exactly.
We're not talking about whether right now, although we're Wisconsinites, we could talk about the weather all day long.
We're talking about the work you do at the Journal Sentinel and it's very unique reporting.
Tell us about you and what you do at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and how you got into this, this.
I don't want to say niche topic, but something that I feel like we're, you know, when we talk about the headlines, we talk about the headlines, but this is something that I think also really affects the people.
Tell us about what you do there.
Yeah, so at the Journal of Sentinel, I cover kind of a...
kind of smattering of different areas.
So I do a lot of real estate, which is what kind of we're going to be focusing on, but also energy and utilities, as well as grocery prices.
And as well as air travel, I do a lot of, I take a lot of trips to the Milwaukee airport.
And what kind of combines them all together is the idea that these are kind of big every day, like, you know, expenses that people encounter in
their life, you know,
their
energy bill, their mortgage bill, their grocery bill, you know, their travel expenses.
And we've seen, especially with the rise in concern about affordability and, you know, the number of Americans overall who are really worried about, you know, making, you know, making all these payments and covering everything that these are kind of really important things that people are looking at.
So yeah, I'm very excited to
to be able to kind of dig into that with you.
So I want to talk about, I want to talk a real estate in a moment, but I do have to ask, you said something very interesting.
You say you take a lot of trips to the airport.
Now, are you taking trips or are you just going there going still there?
So I cover Milwaukee Mitchell international
and I've
never flown out of it, never flown out of it, but I've been there like,
yes, you
have.
Countless times.
So what do you so what why would you I mean?
Is it is it reporting on news from the airport?
Like what what brings you to the airport that makes you like?
Why do you go there?
What what do you generally covering?
So I cover I cover news that happens at the airport a lot of the time They're they're doing new construction projects or TSA is announcing new changes or you know, there's gonna be new flights added So those things are
stuff that I come to for it.
And then I also talked to passengers about, um, what, what's your response to these changes?
How are you feeling about this?
Um, and that's always something that's, you know, insightful to see as well.
And so right from the source, right at the airport.
I was going to say at a time when opinions are probably very both honest and brief when it comes to people traveling, they're like, I don't care.
I don't have time.
I don't like it.
It's too high.
It's too low.
I don't, why do I have to take my shoes off?
Um,
Okay.
Well, I, that's, that's very interesting.
And, and, and you've never flown out of Mitchell.
Okay.
Well, that's just that.
That's going to stay in my brain for a while.
Um, well, let's talk about real estate.
I mean, this is, this is a topic that can be discussed for hours and days because there's so many nuanced pieces to it.
But you know, the, the, with, when it comes to Wisconsin, the overall housing and buying of homes here, what does it look like?
What does it look?
What did it look like in 2025?
versus where people may say it could go in 2026 on projections.
Right.
Yeah.
So 2025 was kind of a weird year for kind of the overall market.
There were kind of a couple of big things that were happening.
And then there's kind of this longer term housing shortage that kind of the whole state has, but it's more acute in kind of urban areas like Milwaukee and Madison.
kind of the big thing that the Realtors, the State Realtors Association recently found is that home prices are rising but they're rising at kind of a slower rate than they have been in like the last five or so years.
So that's pretty notable in the sense where you are seeing this kind of ease of the pace at which home prices are rising and that can be pretty
pretty kind of a good sign for buyers.
Yeah.
That, you know, things aren't kind of as crazy as they were in the days of, you know, the COVID pandemic where low mortgage rates really drove a lot of people to snatch up homes as quickly as they could.
And that put a lot of pressure on prices.
And the other thing is, like I mentioned there, the kind of the mortgage rates, and that's something that's obviously across the whole country.
They were pretty high over the past couple of years.
They rose a lot to kind of try to cool off the super hot housing market.
Yeah,
and it seemingly has been working and It's kind of put a little bit of moderation on home prices and now they're starting to come down Again, a slowly a little bit You know month might month and so that's something that can be good for for home buyers as well that they
are going to get a better mortgage rate.
And it's also kind of a good thing for those sellers who bought those low interest rate homes in the pandemic era.
They were kind of holding onto those because of how good their rate was.
They didn't want to trade it in for a worse rate.
Well, now they kind of have more of a chance to go back onto the market.
If you're just joining us on civic media mid mornings, we are talking to Francesca Pica, who is a business reporting intern at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
We're discussing the real estate market, the real estate state, state of the union.
I don't know how you would say it, but like where we are with real estate here in Wisconsin.
And I think there's a couple of things that like, you know, I looked at the reports you sent.
And something that really hit me was the fact that, you know, the amount of days, the average days, the house days on is far different than it was a few years ago.
I mean, there was a time where you like, I would say like in that 2020, 2021 time, if you didn't have the amount asked for plus
a bundle of cash plus a bunch of things you would go for you would and you and you didn't get there immediately you would lose house houses would sell in 24 hours and that was it and it would be it just became very very difficult to even look at houses let alone buy one I mean is it still very hard to buy a home and like are we looking are the is that from 2008 also from the pandemic what is it like right now for people to buy homes as far as the process goes
Yeah, so you picked up a good point about the number of days on average homes are spending on the market.
That's been ticking up over the past few years and that gives home buyers a lot of relief because they just don't have, they don't have to jump on the first thing they see.
They don't
have to feel like, you know, we need to, you know, upper offer to make sure we get this home because we're competing with so many people.
It's going to get snatched up so quickly.
That alone gives
people breathing room and you know is less likely for them to have to pay more for a home because they you know will will be able to be able to shop their options um more easily than they were in the past but I think looking at kind of the overall just like historical trends there's still not enough housing overall in the state to kind of meet
Demand like it's improving, but it's still kind of got a ways to go especially in urban areas And that's where you kind of see a difference in the different regions of the state It depends a lot on where you're looking so if you're if you're someone who is looking in Milwaukee or Madison or even places like Green Bay You're gonna still see a lot of those kind of rising prices you're gonna see a lot more stiff competition just because
They're kind of still behind on the housing supply side of things and have been since 2008.
And we only have a few minutes in this segment left.
And we're going to say like, cause what you're talking about there also, you know, when I look at the reports, it said the inventory for houses under like 150 to $175,000 is so low.
Whereas like they're like, but the inventory for houses over 500,000 is, well, we got tons of those.
Of course you do.
But like when, when young people, Gen Zers and millennials are looking at maybe getting that first house, when they see that inventory so low, it's just very discouraging.
What do you hear from folks who are those ages who just are like, no, can't do it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You're getting a lot of people who are seeing what they can compromise on in terms of what, you know, the size of their home, where it's located, what school district it's in, if they're, you know, thinking about family and kids.
It's a lot of that of, okay, I'm not going to get the type of home that I'm looking for right away.
It's just not feasible.
There aren't enough of them in my price range.
So.
you know I'm going to take you know I'm gonna look around expand my search maybe look in places where you know aren't my ideal location but you know it's what it's what's available to
me
um and you're also kind of seeing people um still with those higher interest rates there are still more people who maybe would be looking for homes that are still kind of trying to wait it out yeah
Um, until those, you know, if those keep falling, then that could kind of help them financially as well and feel like they're in a more comfortable place to look.
So there's kind of two pools of people that are, um, you know, either they are looking, but they're compromising or they're kind of waiting to really enter the market until they might find some more favorable conditions.
And I think that's, you know, a point I would make.
when you're looking at buying a house, really search for a good real estate agent.
A good real estate agent is going to gear you in the right direction and give you the hard advice you need to hear and be very honest with you.
And I was very lucky to have one because in the same position, it's like, here's a house.
It's available.
We should buy it right now.
And she's like, no, you're not buying this house.
It's a terrible house.
Don't do that to yourself.
So we're going to be talking more with Francesca Pica from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on the other side of the break, talking about the housing market in Milwaukee and some very
expensive and I guess oh cool a Barbie house too all right cool we'll be talking more with Francesca on the other side don't go anywhere you're listening to Civic Media mid mornings my name is Greg Box stay tuned stay warm and stay close
you're listening to Civic Media stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started
Welcome.
Welcome back to Civic Media.
Mid mornings.
My name is Greg Bach.
I am your host, your buddy, your pal, the guy who hopes you have hand warmers, feet warmers, and hey, if you have a tush warmer, fine, get one too.
I don't care.
Just stay warm.
It's very, very cold.
You're listening to us on the Civic Media Radio Network, and we are here talking with Francesca Pica from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Remember, don't go anywhere after the 10 30 news.
We have got ourselves.
Addition number two of the herd of
not yet award winning segment call, take it or leave it where senior producer Tucker comes onto the show, gives me a bunch of scenarios from a topic.
This time it's going to be about the James Beard awards that have been, uh, the nominations have been released.
I'll give my thoughts and then you'll be better off for knowing those things.
And then we close out the show with, this shouldn't be a thing today is the harpy ending edition.
So don't go anywhere.
Still lots of great programming, including just stuff after me too.
This doesn't shut down when I'm done.
We've got Tom Hartman.
We've got
I'll tell you more about that.
After after the 10 30 news right now we are talking to Francesca Pica who is.
a business reporting intern at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel talking about the real estate market here in Wisconsin over the past few years.
And something that came up here in the information you give us is that Milwaukee is apparently chlorine to Zillow, one of the 10 hottest housing markets in 2026.
I mean, it kind of makes sense.
Milwaukee has been on the up for the past few years and more people have been discovering how cool it is.
Honestly, it's a cool city to live in.
It's
getting a little more expensive.
But I mean, that's kind of the par for the course when you have the kind of things they're doing in Milwaukee.
Yeah, yeah.
And Milwaukee kind of has the benefit of being relatively affordable, like as a baseline.
So, you know, if you're coming from Illinois or Minnesota, you can find a pretty affordable house, at least in Milwaukee, some of the outer suburbs, maybe a different question.
You know, Milwaukee itself is, it's still relative.
You can you can find a decent amount of affordable stuff.
depending on where you are.
So that kind of helps attract more people to it.
But, you know, with that influx of demand comes the fact that, you know, that's going to push prices up if Milwaukee doesn't, you know, have enough of that housing to meet all that demand.
And one thing it hasn't really been doing is building a lot of new stuff, especially, you know, in Milwaukee, the city, it's hard to, it's hard to build out.
You can't really do that anymore.
But
even in some of the surrounding suburbs, it's, you know, they're still not building enough to really meet demand.
So that's kind of pushing up competition as well and pushing up prices.
Well, and that's something too is like, you know, there's a lot of people out there who want to buy homes and nothing against condos.
My mom lives in a condo, but a lot of people don't want to buy a condo.
They want to have space.
They want to have property.
They want to have nobody, no neighbors.
Directly next to above or below and I know that that can maybe be a little daunting and there's just not there's there's finite space So really there's no new home construction on a massive base of that base is happening there and Yeah, I mean the home price too.
I mean when I was looking for a house.
It's like I can't for what I want I can't even live in Milwaukee It's gotten that expensive, but if expense is no measure to you if money means nothing
Francesca, there are tons of opportunities for people to buy homes that are anywhere between one to two to five million dollars.
Do you want your own forest?
Francesca's got more news for you.
Good news for you.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
The, the luxury real estate market, it exists in Wisconsin, which I think may come as a surprise to a lot of people who don't associate those five million, even $10 million homes with, with Wisconsin, but.
Yeah, if you take a trip outside of Milwaukee and you go to, you know, Lake Country in Waukesha or Lake Geneva, you're going to see some of the biggest lake homes you've ever seen.
And those things go for, you know, four or five up to 10 or so million, depending, you know, on the exact kind of specifications.
So, yeah, it can get pretty wild.
Well, and that's the thing too is like, you know, I had the, I had the opportunity to go to Butternut, Wisconsin this year, which is in the Northwoods area.
And we were on a beautiful Butternut Lake.
We had, we're on a pontoon ride and we saw beautiful homes.
And I asked the lady who was in charge of the whole thing for us.
I said, how many of these homes here are like legacy, like handed down from grandparent to parent to kids and how many of them are like.
big money.
She goes mostly big money now.
People can't afford to live here.
And I think that's a sad thing for me because I don't know how old you are, Francesca.
I'm not going to hazard a guess, but I'm of a generation where you
could
say like, Oh,
like my parents have a cabin up North nowadays.
That's, I mean, like I could, I'm, I'm not, I'm, I just want one house to have a whole second property is like grandiose in scale.
But I feel like that started going away now with these huge homes.
Cause a lot of these homes, yes, they're big, but you're really paying also for tons of acre property too.
That's I think as big as sell as the house itself.
But one home that I was made aware of in Wisconsin is the Barbie themed.
pink Hudson home that if you want is, oh, it's only $1.1 million.
Come on now.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I feel like every once in a while, once in a blue moon, you just get these like one of a kind, like unique homes and you're like, I didn't, this exists.
Like someone must have poured so much time and money into making that house as pink as possible
and
head to toe.
Um,
But yeah, I mean, Barbie is from Wisconsin.
Yeah, that's where she grew up.
So I mean, I suppose it's fitting in a way.
Although I will say this, Francesca, you and I have very different definitions of the word unique.
This is very, I mean, the only thing like the only saving grace is the sitting room.
Or is it, no, the, oh no, Ken's Mojo Dojo Casa, because it just looks like, it looks like your parent's bar.
That's what it looks like with the big old deer head on it.
But yeah, $1.1 million in this.
tribute to Pepto Bismol can be yours right now.
Just go for it.
I implore if you buy this home folks, let me know.
I want a tour of it.
Francesca Pica is a business, a business reporting intern at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel talking today about real estate here in Wisconsin.
Thank you so much Francesca for stopping by and sharing your thoughts on this and giving us your expert ideas on where we are in Wisconsin with real estate.
Thanks for having me.
All right, when we come back, another edition, the second edition of Take It or Leave It, this time it's the James Beard edition.
But don't go anywhere.
We got more coming to you.
Civic Media, Mid-Morning.
My name is Greg Bach.
Stay tuned, stay warm, stay close.
Welcome, welcome back to Civic Media, Mid-Mornings here on Civic Media.
My name is Greg Bach.
I'm your host.
your buddy, your pal, the guy who hopes you have a good warm coat for going outside today because it's still very cold.
The civic media mid mornings, weather balloon that we put on senior producer Tucker's credit card says it's still 12 below zero still feels like third.
Oh, nope.
Folks, we have an announcement.
It's negative 11.
Woo baby.
Yeah, we did it.
Yeah.
negative 34 windshield.
I mean, we're getting there before we know it shorts weather.
So speaking of senior producer Tucker, he is here right now for another installment, the second installment of take it or leave it.
The fantastic brand new and totally original game show where Tucker reads off a list of things having to do with the thing we chose.
And I give my thoughts on whether or not I will take them and or leave them and tell you why it's new.
It's shiny.
And I'm waiting for WBA to give me an award right now for, but we can't do this without senior producer Tucker.
So everyone welcome the show, senior producer Tucker.
Good morning, Tucker.
How are you today?
Uh, I'm great, Greg.
It's great to join you live.
I'm glad my weather balloon, uh, is working out for us.
It was only $7,200 too.
I couldn't believe it actually went through.
It was awesome.
That's good.
Uh, you know, I'm glad it, you know, I'm glad my, I have a good credit score.
So that's great.
So.
All right.
Okay.
Well, yeah, we're on our second, uh, take it or leave it game.
Are we, are we ready?
This today's.
Tigger Leave is themed under the James Beard Awards, which just came out this past week.
Wisconsin was involved with 12, I think, awards
overall
across the state.
It wasn't in just one area.
But a lot of folks are in Milwaukee and Madison, and as usual, I think.
So these are James Beard-inspired.
Some are kind of directly, but then more or less kind of restaurant.
OK, restaurant scene.
All right.
All right.
That sounds good.
Are we ready to?
I'm ready to take it.
OK.
Yeah.
Fantastic.
OK, so our first one.
Well, so this is coming from the Milwaukee bar named Motherships.
Yes.
Maybe
some of the listeners
know
of.
You know of.
I do know.
Yes, I do.
It won an award for the most for being an impressive with reopening after especially after a flood occurred to it not too long ago They're known for their fun drink names.
The boof is out there coconut curry painkiller.
That sounds fun I didn't think you could do coconut curry into a drink, but I want to know what that is all about the number after six So this got me thinking take it or leave it weird names for drinks.
Yeah
I take it.
I mean, yeah.
I mean, for me, the weirder, the better.
I mean, as long as you describe what it is, because I don't have to be like, you know, if it's, you know, the Alabama squirrel smash, I'm like, yeah, give it to me.
I drink it like, is there's real squirrel in there?
I'm not drinking it, but I'll totally take a drink with a fun, fancy, weird name.
Yes.
I mean, I always thought you could name a bar on a Monopea, right?
And every drink could be like a sound right be an actual onomatopoeia Which is one of the most fun words to say in English language, which like can I get a buzz?
Can I get a smash a quack?
Can
I can I get a hook?
That's one where you like you're like I just ordered a regular drink and you built this one strong I mean can I just get a can I get a single hook?
There you go.
I Came up with some some drink names though
Oh, yes, let's hear what they
are.
So I just came up with a couple because we got lots to cover here today.
But the first one is the the old man fashioned, which is just like a regular Wisconsin, old old fashioned sweet.
Only when you drink it, you talk about how it was so much better back in the old days when you were coming up as a kid, how everything was affordable and kids actually respected their elders.
That's the old man fashioned.
And then, okay, so then there's, this is the Wisconsin Bloody Mary and it has to be ordered like this.
And it requires people across the country to understand it.
So a Wisconsin Bloody Mary outside of Wisconsin is a Bloody Mary with a chaser.
Cause if you go outside of Wisconsin, that's not something you get with your Bloody Mary.
You don't usually get a chaser and they will look at you like you are a, a fool when you're like, well, where's my chaser?
Well, why would you get a chaser?
Cause it's the Bloody Mary.
It's the whole thing.
So there's, that's the Wisconsin side.
So that's Wisconsin.
So that's outside Wisconsin, inside Wisconsin, Wisconsin, Bloody Mary immediately triggers a Bloody Mary just with a full beer completely.
And then finally the Greg Bloody Mary, which is a Bloody Mary with a full beer and a another Bloody Mary.
That's, those are my drinks.
Okay, so you're a fan of the Bloody Mary.
I generally have one Bloody Mary a week on Saturday mornings with my wife.
We go out to a bar in Kenosha called Church & Market at 10 a.m.
I'm not kidding.
This is what we do.
We get there when they open.
We have our Bloody Mary.
We're there for like a half an hour and then we go do our thing.
Oh, that sounds fun.
I might have to join you at the church.
Always.
Over an hour away, but maybe I could uh,
there you go
around in the area.
Exactly
church and market
I'm not paid by them
either.
I'm not paid by them
Yes, this episode is brought to you by church and market church and market a great name, too Okay, so our next take it or leave it.
Um, so I feel like James Beard Award winning kind of restaurants and this is me They're ripping it, but they are usually
places you wait to get in or
you're like
wanting to, not always,
I'm
gonna 100% sure, but that's kind of the mystique around it maybe.
So take it or leave it waiting over 30 minutes for a great meal and I have a sub one after this, but overall, would you wait at the location for over 30 minutes?
If it's a great meal, take it because it's gonna be, I feel like you're getting a unique experience.
That doesn't mean my anxiety and my...
tendency to become prickly in those situations aren't going to be a factor, but I would have to keep telling myself, this is going to be a great experience.
This is great food.
We're going to do this.
Hopefully Tucker's company credit card will clear this time.
He's paying for it.
Yes.
Take it.
Okay.
Okay.
Well, I mean the sub one, cause this got me thinking of my childhood.
I don't know if you really went to really super nice restaurants, but we would go to like,
I remember waiting over 30 minutes for like an Olive Garden experience.
I like that you called it an Olive Garden experience.
You know, I love it.
A bread.
Thanks.
Or like, yes, I feel like Olive Garden and no, I mean, I have respect for Olive Garden.
They they have great food there.
But like the like the best of you, I just feel like that's a, you know, everyone's waiting or like Texas Roadhouse or something.
I feel like there was always this like over 30 minute dreaded.
You showed up on a Saturday night or Friday night.
Like take it or leave it waiting for those for lack of our term chain restaurant.
I would say leave it.
Cause cause exactly it's a chain restaurant.
We can go to different place or we can go to a different Olive Garden.
It's just down the road.
I feel like those waiting rooms, and that's what they really are.
Those vestibule waiting rooms are just a breeding ground for disaster because everyone is sitting there holding their little thing in their hand, waiting for it to buzz.
And you're all looking at each other going, you got here after I got here and you're sitting next.
You know, it's just, it does not.
But then once again, once you get seated, all of that washes away.
Cause you're like, excuse me, breadstick me.
I need breadsticks now.
Yeah, well, maybe they should start.
Maybe they do this now.
I haven't been for a while where especially in this situation, but like if they bring a little carton breadsticks to give or make the waiting room an experience just notes for management.
But live should I go back to Olive Garden experience?
Yeah, well it is an experience.
You can get
unlimited pasta soup.
It's been at least a year, but I did go not too long ago.
Yeah.
It's good for like, I feel like a lunch on a weekday.
If you can get that done, um, that's, that's the time to go to all.
I went, I was hanging out with a friend of mine.
We get, we try to grab lunch once a month and he goes, where do you want to go?
Can we go to Olive Garden and finally like halfway through the meal goes, why here?
I'm like.
unlimited soup, salad and breast sticks.
I'm sorry.
I can't get away from it.
So there, I'm,
I mean, it's good.
You know, if that's what you need and it's already
made this edition of take it or leave it's brought to you by church and market and Olive Garden.
All right.
Um, okay.
Great.
So moving on to, uh, so public parking is a new bar here in Madison.
Okay.
That sounds very hip.
Yeah, it's public parking.
It's it is.
It's also really hip to a next door to one of the more lore dive boards like caribou tavern, I think.
So that maybe adds to its hipness.
But it was a national semi finalist for best new bar.
OK,
James Beard award.
All right.
So take it or leave it and a long week, a new place or go to your comfort zone.
Oh, I guess that's different than take or leave it.
I guess take.
Take it or leave it going to a new place after a long week of work.
I'll take going to I'll take going to a place after work after a long week.
In fact, I mean if it wasn't so cold it might be today, but it's too
cold.
This is not the Friday.
No, it's not.
We're all
yeah, I would say well, I would say leave going somewhere new I would probably want to just go to the place that I'm used to for that time I don't not want to go to the new place, but I
I need after a long week, you need some stability.
You need dependability.
And I feel like if you can go to that place, you're like, even if they don't know your name, you just know what's on the, the, the, the, you know, what kind of drinks they have, you know, what's on the taps.
There you go.
Yeah.
So I would leave it for now.
True.
Yes.
And I mean, I was just thinking about this.
I mean, I've been, I've lived in Madison for close to, well,
Closest to a year, but
like
I was thinking like, you know, everything's new and you have to build those stability So
it's kind of
like but now I have a little bit of knowing my places.
Yeah, and now it's kind of this difficulty of How do I?
Do I risk like rebuilding because that is a fun time to rebuild your new your new
Oh, absolutely.
Absolutely.
No, no, I totally get that but there is a comfort and noise like I got my spot Okay,
great so
Let's see.
Let's hop to this one.
Um So like I'm gonna hopefully get all these names right Paul circle Lisa Kirk Patrick and Zach Baker Mm-hmm our Milwaukee area semi-finalist for best chef in the Midwest for James Beard award.
Congratulations to them You gotta go check out your restaurants.
Yes, but take it or leave it.
This is a little bit of a twist on this I have no idea their marital status or anything But and I am not single or anything and I don't think you are either great, but like
Do you suggest dating a chef?
I was talking to somebody not too long ago about dating a chef and the pluses of minus, but take it or leave it if in a world where if you're giving advice to someone who was asking this question,
I say take
it.
I say take it.
Go for it because, you know, I feel like there's a danger and like, Oh God, are they going to be like the dude from the bear where they're absolutely psychotic?
That might not be the best relationship, but.
I mean, I feel like, I say take it, give it a chance.
You're dating.
It's not like your marriage date.
If it's like, oh man, the restaurant's their relationship, not me, then of course, move on, be healthy.
But yeah, I would say take it, go for it.
And plus, if they're cool, you're going to eat really well too.
You're going to be trying all their new ideas.
This is right.
Yeah, I think I think I would agree with you.
I mean, I think it's like it's just knowing the time commitment if they're working every night or something.
Yeah,
well,
I mean, yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's how I say.
If love
conquers all, you can just, you know, schedule doesn't matter.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Exactly.
I know we have just come more minutes.
So let's hop over to this is maybe not James Beard related, but it is restaurant related.
I noticed that Jason Kelsey visited Wisconsin not that long ago
in the
last football season, the football player married.
He's the brother to Travis.
They're basically married.
They're like best friends.
They're best friends, yes.
He went to the Black Otter Suburb Club, I believe, and had the 160-ounce prime rib, which is a humongous giant piece of meat.
Taylor leave it eating like eating these super sized meals
leave
at certain restaurants
leave it we don't need it but you I mean you can you can bag it up and take it home but I say leave it to you that's all that's all window dressing and for money and for prestige so and that has been another installment of take it or leave it with senior producer Tucker thank you so much Tucker for preparing that list and we'll see you next Friday for the next version
the next game of Take It Or Leave It.
When we come back, this shouldn't be a thing.
Harpy ending additions don't go anywhere.
It is the Civic Media mid mornings.
Stay tuned.
Stay warm and stay close.
Thanks,
Greg.
Thank you.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.
Welcome, welcome back to Civic Media, mid mornings.
My name is Greg Bach, your buddy, your pal, your friend and all things staying warm in these super, super cold temperatures.
You are listening to us.
on the Civic Media Radio Network.
We're happy that you're here today.
If you want to be part of the conversation, you can always call or text the number at the same 855-752-4842-855-75 Civic.
Like a comment on the live stream.
Talk about a couple of things here on the live stream.
Jenny says, a Bloody Mary chaser is also referred to as a pony beer, pony beerback or sidecar in other parts of the U S. Well, good to know because.
I'm always, it's always a thing when, uh, when we talk about Bloody Mary's and, and he asked for a chase and they look at you like you're a moron.
That's a real thing and it exists.
Referencing our latest installment of take it or leave it.
The highly awaited game show that's in version number two with senior producer Tucker talking about the James Beard awards and the local chefs and restaurants that have been nominated for this year's highly, highly prestigious events.
So.
As we said, go and visit those restaurants.
Visit the restaurants you love and let us know.
We'd love to hear about that here on the show.
Still great programming, still ahead today.
When we are done, we are going to hand it over to Tom Hartman.
He is going to be on from 11 to two.
John and Gordy is on from two to five.
And then we have Nightlight with Pete Schwabba.
Film critic Rob Thomas will be on and Terry Barr will be talking about her bar ban Friday, introducing a
Let's see here.
She will be introducing a Wisconsin bass, ours who is totally in tune with a brand new song about winter in Wisconsin.
And it says, I cannot emphasize how much she nailed it.
So all that coming up throughout the day.
Don't go anywhere.
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This is Friday.
which means we're not here tomorrow, but Monday coming up.
Oh my goodness gracious.
We've got so much going on.
We are going to be speaking to state Senator Dora Drake on the DEI focused amendment and the need for social programs in Milwaukee and Wisconsin.
Also talking to Asia Barber, who is a writer, stylist and consultant who works with, who works in the intersections of sustainability and fashion, talking about how to make good fashion choices.
maybe avoiding fast fashion when you can.
She's been on CNN NPR and has written for several outlets.
So that's going to be next week here on the show.
Very much hope you can be here.
I very much hope you can stay warm this weekend.
If you can stay inside, please do that.
But as I said before, if you need to go out, just make sure your car has a couple of extra things like some blankets.
If you hit some snow and you hit, you get stranded, get yourself a shovel, just make sure you're taking care of yourself, staying warm.
But that is the most important thing to me to make sure you are safe and warm and, and being amazing.
And I hope you have an amazing weekend, but now it is 10, 55, almost 10, 56, which means it's time for another installment of this shouldn't be a thing.
If you ever have a thing that should not be send it to Calvin and me via my email, Greg dot bach at civic media dot us again, Greg dot bach at civic media.
today comes all the way from I'm sure very cold.
Phil Pittsburgh.
This is from WTAJ.
The CBS outlet.
Let's see here.
It says stolen $30,000 harp found after man jumped naked into Pittsburgh river.
This, this sounds about right.
Been to Pittsburgh.
I know people from Pittsburgh.
This sounds
Correct.
A Pittsburgh man was rescued from a river outside of Accra Shore Stadium after allegedly stealing a harp, getting naked and jumping in.
Pittsburgh EMS River Rescue, Pittsburgh Police and Bureau of Fire responded to a call at Point State Park Wednesday.
of this week and reports said the man was in the water.
According to the public safety commission, the man arrived at the park with a $30,000 harp, which was later discovered to be stolen.
He then left the harp in the park as he just robed and jumped in the water.
Oh my goodness.
This is a very Pittsburgh story right here.
Emergency personnel were able to rescue the man from the water and provide medical care before taking him into mercy.
hospital for which he is in stable condition.
The police later said that they located the owner of the harp, which they said was stolen from the residents in Bethel Park area.
Bethel Park police are handling the burglary incident while they take care of pursuing charges on stolen property.
So I don't understand why you got naked.
That's the thing.
I mean, you're, you're already in a world of hurt.
You've stolen a harp.
You're thinking yourself, well, I don't want to get my clothes wet.
These are nice clothes.
It's also cold outside.
I could get even colder.
So he's like, you know what I'm going to do?
Ditch the harp, ditch the clothes, jump in the river.
Nothing could go wrong at this point.
So I'm just going to say this, in these cold months, I don't think it makes much of a difference.
I wouldn't jump naked into water.
I think it does even worse for you and does not help your situation.
But I'm not here to give you personal advice.
I'm just going to say this.
Don't steal harps.
They're heavy.
They're expensive.
And I doubt you can actually play it.
So that has been another edition of this shouldn't be a thing
All right, folks, thank you so very much for tuning in.
We appreciate you being here this week.
We appreciate you being here today.
Again, stay warm, stay safe.
I want to thank Calvin.
I want to thank Tucker.
I want to thank engineering.
I want to thank traffic without them.
None of this happens.
I'm talking to a mic that does not work at all.
I also want to thank everybody who called, who texted, who got in touch with us on the live stream.
We really appreciate you.
Without you, there is absolutely no us before we go.
Actually, I want to address this really quick too.
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There are updates coming very soon.
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Give us your time.
But don't go anywhere because after the 11 o'clock news, we have Tom Hartman coming up and still lots of great programming happening throughout the day.
So don't go anywhere.
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Stay tuned.
Stay warm.
Stay close.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Take care, everybody.
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