Alt’s Antiques

My girlfriend and I visited Milwaukee for the July 4^th weekend. We both dig antiques, so naturally found Alt’s, but on the 4^th came to find the shop closed – we figured holiday, no problem. The next day (Sunday) we returned to the same sight, so I gave the number on the door a call and left a voicemail.
Not 20 minutes later, I got a call back inviting us to check out the store, so we drove over. Michael was there, waiting for us, with the store all lit up. And what a beautiful store it is! It truly is packed, but each and every piece deserves to be there. Not only that, Michael knew the story behind every piece I asked about. Everything is priced to sell, and items come and go very quickly.
But what sets Michael and his shop above the rest was how he communicated all this to us – as if we were old friends stopping by for a chat. He told us his story and made us feel right at home. When he closed up shop, I realized he had opened and closed it just for us. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Man, this place. I want to go all the time just to see what new stuff he got. I saw Michael Alt at the Urban Garage Sale at Turner Hall a few months ago and immediately was charmed by the odd collection of things he had.
The store is a teeny little space, crammed full of antique pulleys, taxidermied creatures, metal signs, bug displays, buttons, keys, amazing rocks/​fossils, and about a thousand other things. The owner is great, he’s clearly delighted to be collecting this stuff for us, and seems to burst at the seams watching us discover what he has. There were too many people in there for me to fully explore, but I am definitely returning. Soon.