This weekend’s forecast of 39 degrees and partly sunny weather doesn’t sound so bad for January in Milwaukee– unless, of course, you are constructing three outdoor bars out of 23 tons of ice.
Due to expected warming temperatures and possible rain, the Third Ward’s Toast to Winter event, set to be held tomorrow, will instead kickoff at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 1. The announcement was made on the event’s Facebook page: “Mother Nature has a different idea about what we all wanted to do this weekend.”
The event marks the opening of hand-carved ice bars at St. Paul Fish Company, Cafe Benelux and The Wicked Hop, all located on Broadway and St. Paul Avenue in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward. Weather permitting, the restaurants will keep the ice bars operating for as long as possible.
A portion of the proceeds from each ice bar during the event will be donated to the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee, Fisher House Foundation, ALS Association and Wisconsin Humane Society.
Max Zuleta, Guinness World Record holder and master carver at Franksville-based ice sculpture studio Art Below Zero, is the artist behind the, collectively, 150-ice-block creations. The studio also created the ice bar that stood outside St. Paul Fish at the Milwaukee Public Market for a couple of weeks last winter.
