Category Archive for Huffington Post + AOL Travel
SAFE HOUSE: SPY BAR & THEME RESTAURANT IN MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN. JAMES BOND FOOD, SECRET AGENT DISGUISE.
Shhh… the latest installment of my Huffington Post / AOL travel TV show is out. I snuck into Safe House, a hidden Milwaukee restaurant/bar for spies.
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My disguise consisted of…
Sunglasses: Wanderling Red Queen, gifted from Lumete.
Dress: h.NAOTO, from Closet Child (my favorite Tokyo secondhand store)
Pirate scarf: an old thing
Cut-out boots: Leche by Yosuke, from Marui One Shinjuku’s “shoe heaven” floor
Black floppy sunhat: from Hong Kong
I can’t divulge all the secrets of Milwaukee’s Safe House. Intelligence would have me terminated. Or, at least, the owners would be miffed.
I can tell you it’s a refuge for secret agents, disguised as a restaurant and bar. (Or is it the other way around?) I knew the address (779 North Front Street, Milwaukee Wis.), but struggled to find the hidden alleyway door.
Once I located the entrance, I had to face Miss Moneypenny, who demanded a secret password. No clue. “You’ll have to do what I tell you for entry,” she said. Which, as you can see in the video, was rather embarrassing.
A bookcase slid open, and a passage led to a dining area sectioned internationally (Hong Kong, Eastern Europe etc.) Spy memorabilia covered the walls. Relics included a USSR jail door, a chunk of the Berlin wall and an Austin Powers guitar.
Co-owner Shauna Baldwin, who goes by the title “chief disinformation officer,” tipped me off to gags hidden throughout the restaurant. “Want to know if your boyfriend is playing the field?” she asked. The ladies’ room has a peephole offering a vantage point from which to watch his behavior at the bar.
Even the food has undercover names, such as Ze French Dip and Bond’s Bomb, a chocolate ball with a lit fuse (candle) that I couldn’t blow out. The video shows how my martini was thoroughly shaken, thanks to a retro-futuristic device.
Safe House takes the spy theme to the extreme. Baldwin custom-built a hidden revolving booth exit, and dreamed up a “Her Majesty’s Secret Service” act with a rising torture chair.
But these details are classified. Spies will have to don a disguise, and sneak in to see for themselves.
Thanks to Chief Disinformation Officer Shauna for the tour, to the film crew for their hard work, and to Huffington Post / AOL for the chance to do this travel show.
Please take a moment to view my travel video and article. My cat sends head-bonks for every Like, Share and Tweet! (The short-link is http://huff.to/vEoNrX)
What’s the coolest theme restaurant or bar you’ve ever visited?
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WISCONSIN HOUSE ON THE ROCK RESORT, ATTRACTION & INN: WORLD’S CREEPIEST HOUSE? WIN TICKETS TO SEE MIYAVI LIVE.
What, what? You haven’t yet seen my travel video for Huffington Post, where I visit the world’s freakiest house? Sunday is perfect day to give it a view!
If Alex Jordan were alive today, he’d be on the TV show “Hoarders”.
The Wisconsin eccentric wasn’t happy with a single tea set. He had to own a dozen. Instead of two creepy dolls, he amassed two hundred. Three medical vials? Try three thousand. You get the picture.
Jordan’s knickknacks fill every inch of House on the Rock (5754 State Road 23, Spring Green WI, (608) 935-3639).
He supposedly built the 200-acre complex to show up Frank Lloyd Wright (who called him an incompetent architect). When Jordan finished the home in 1959, curiosity-seekers convinced him to turn it into a museum.
It’s a dizzying walk through the House’s three sections. This is not a trip for the weak-stomached. A few areas smell like a cross between rotten cheese and wet cat.
I slumped through mole-like passages that opened into monstrous displays. Such as, “Heritage of the Sea,” a 200-foot whale and squid locked in a battle to the death, wrapped by a staircase lined with sailboats. “Music of Yesterday,” coin-operated ghost orchestras that bang out circus songs. “World’s Largest Carousel,” hundreds of fairytale beasts spinning under the glow of chandeliers. “Hallway of Infinity,” a glass walkway jutting out high above a valley, with no supports underneath.
The sensory overload left me (and other visitors) battered. I was in awe of Jordan’s grandiose vision, the magic and wonder he created. At the same time, I wanted this claustrophobic flea-market nightmare to end. Wisconsin’s House on the Rock, you will haunt my dreams.
What’s the strangest museum you’ve ever encountered? Would you set foot in this one? See the wonder of House of the Rock in my Weird Wisconsin video.
And stay tuned for the next Coolhunting episode, where I visit a top secret restaurant/bar in Milwaukee.
PS: Absolute last chance to WIN Miyavi Halloween concert tickets for his What’s My Name tour! Tell your friends and enter here; it’s easy.
I previous reviewed his Neo-Samurai tour in this post.
PPS: I’m featured as subculture guide in the Japan episode of Australia’s travel TV show, Roam. It’s airing on National Geographic Adventure in October and November; here are upcoming showtimes.
Song of the Day: Whatever’s your favorite Miyavi song… if you tell me on Facebook, you can win the ticket giveaway!
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LA CARMINA
