The River House

Here's a bar with character, it's ancient, lovely view, in back of the Club Continental.  Limited but serviceable selection of good scotch, I would hang out here all the time if I lived nearby.  The painting the others are talking about is allegedly connected to the history of the property, the face of the wife, body of the mistress of one of the Palmolive barons, rich people scandal stuff.  By the way, the Johnson and Johnson soap family headquartered their company in Milwaukee.  Kelly (or maybe it was Abby)  the bartender, is pretty funny, she revealed some personal information about Joe Namath that he might be very embarrassed about.  If you drink there and tip generously, she might tell you too.

This is where my brother hosted his rehearsal dinner for his wedding.  Located on the property of the Club Continental, a private tennis club/bed & breakfast/the place where my brother had his actual wedding, the River House seems to serve as its de facto hotel bar.  It's a pretty quaint looking place, with a nice outside patio that transitions into a small pier-like extension that juts out into what I believe is the St. John River.

So when we arrived, most everyone had already gotten there.  The staff had been very accommodating with our various decoration requests.  They also didn't have any problem with the entertainment that we had booked (Hawaiian Dancers).    The food was pretty good, although they had missed the theme we had been aiming for.  My brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law wanted a luau theme and was expecting Hawaiian dishes.  Again, the food was tasty, but Caribbean fare is not Hawaiian.  Drinks were a bit on the pricey side.

I only went into the actual River House once, for a bathroom run.  Didn't really look around too much, but there were two things that I noticed.  The pool table, and the giant picture of a naked woman behind the bar.  That one's pretty hard to miss.

The only real negative I have is that they wouldn't allow us to rent the entire place for ourselves.  It was open to the public the entire time we were there, although we did have the pier area reserved just for us.  But that's located right next to the outside bar, and it is a bit awkward when random strangers are mingling with your wedding guests.  And I'm pretty sure I saw a few of them sneak some of our food, which was located on the back patio.  So we had get our food at the patio (which was tight enough as it is), then walk down through the bar and the regular customers before getting into our private area, which wasn't all that private at all.

So, as a bar or hang-out, this might work.  But as a place to hold a wedding rehearsal dinner, not ideal.

Mahalo, and enjoy.

Bartender Abby put up with our drunken shenanigans after a wedding reception.  Very cool place.  Wish I lived closer.  Plus, they have a huge painting of a naked chick behind the bar.  What's not to love?