Thief Wine Shop & Bar

A great place to stop in for a glass of wine or bottle of beer inside the public market. I’ve dropped in a few times and found the service to be helpful, and friendly, without the pretentious that sometimes gets associated with wine.

I liked their wine selection but I was pretty much ignored while the trained a trainee. I prefer wine bars where I can engage in conversation about the wines and their merits. If you are looking for that experience this is not it.

Got a $ 10 bottle of Shiraz for the hotel room.
Good stuff.

Descriptive phrase: friendly wine bar.
Thief Wine Shop & Bar, located in the Milwaukee Public Market, offers a great complement to the surrounding businesses. Offering some of the only seating on the first floor, Thief lets you bring food from anywhere else assuming you also buy a glass of their wine. And their selection is varied, with prices standard for the area. It’s hard to beat their $ 10 and under bottle racks, though. I’ve always had very friendly and knowledgeable service, too. Thief is a great local business and worth a stop while in the Market.

Thief Wine. Aptly named. Congrats on your honesty. Same labels available at Metro Market for less. I was turned away tonite after arriving late for a tasting. Unfortunate experience, but consistent with previous visits at other locations.

Get on their loyalty program!
The specifics are escaping me but, If you’re a wine drinker like me, any loyalty wine program is worth it :)
And they are really good with asking every time when you check out. Once you spend enough you get a credit. Yay! Money towards wine (that you’d spend anyway!).
I especially like to check out the under $ 10 wine cart at the front of the store area. There are reds and whites, sweet and dry, etc. Have some fun! Experiment! It’s 10 bucks!
Sitting at the counter is also an entertaining experience in one of the coolest spots in downtown Milwaukee — who doesn’t love the Milwaukee Public Market?! Ok, maybe not the parking but everything else!
The workers are also very knowledgeable about the wines and are quick and willing to help you select something. I first tried Vino Verde here and I’ll always remember and accredit that to this particular Thief Wine!

Fantastic service, great selection, wine store on premises-​Love Thief!

Great selection of wines! Servers are always welcoming and kind. The best part is that they allow you to bring your own food to the table as you drink your wine and relax. By far the best hangout at MPM!

Stopped into Thief at the Milwaukee Public Market to celebrate after buying a piano (!!). It was pretty busy, and we eventually found a place at the bar after another couple left.
We ordered two red wine flights — the «three countries» flight and the Italian flight. Both of us really enjoyed the wines we sampled — they were delicious yet very different from each other without creating cognitive dissonance. My favorite of the Italian was the Pinot Nero. It was robust without being too dry or fruity/​flowery.
We also ordered the smaller cheese plate. The selection was good — three Wisconsin cheeses and an imported cheese from Spain (I think). I enjoyed the plate very much, although I think it could have used some sliced apple or pear, or even jam, as it was rather dry.
We had really good service. The girls behind the bar were working very hard but were still classy and personable.
Glad we stopped in — looking forward to a second visit!

My girlfriends took me here for my birthday wine and cheese. I’ve had nothing but great experiences here before but this time Nick, our waiter, made it even that much better. He brought us samples until we found just the right bottle, chit chatted a bit a made a great cheese plate. I recommend this spot to anyone. The public market, in general, is a gem in Milwaukee. I just hope you have the opportunity to take a sip with Nick!

There usually only one reason why I go to the Milwaukee Public Market, and it’s for Thief’s wines.
An excellent selection (which rotates regularly) along with good service. I’m always asked if I need any help, and any question I do ask is often answered with brevity and clarity. If you need help finding a specific varietal or looking for a food pairing or even just a wine to enjoy, they’ll be ready to help.
They also have wine tastings, which I haven’t been to, yet.
I personally recommend the Zepaltas RRV pinot noir from 2013. I buy a bottle whenever I’m there.

Love this place! They have such a great eclectic selection, and the bar pour list is changed up regularly. I also really like that you can get 2 different sized pours as well as a carafe, so you can sample several different wines. They have a nice «small bites» selection, as well as buying something from another vendor at the MPM and eating it there with your wine. Their tastings are always great, featuring many different themes… if I could, I would go to them all. And, they are educational as well, if that interests you. If not, they pick up on that and let you just enjoy the wine. Highly recommend!

Nice little shop and wine bar, it’s our go-​to spot in the Public Market. They’re fine with us bringing food from some other market shop and camping out at one of their tables as long as some of us are drinking wine. That’s really all they serve, they have some beer and a bottle of sake and I think a couple of bottles of scotch, but they only have wine glasses, and I have to have the appropriate glass for whatever I’m drinking, as I’m incredibly well bred. The shop’s selection of wine is remarkably varied considering how little room they have.

I’ve now sat + sipped at the bar proper at MKE Public Market’s Thief location, and I can say with perfect confidence that working (while enjoying a glass of AIX rosé) from this bar might just be one of the best ways one can work.
Also: the gentleman in the argyle sweater behind the bar remembered me AND remembered that I had signed up for their rewards program many moons ago, at their Shorewood location, no less. (I had forgotten that I had done so.) Thank you, kind sir with superior facial recognition skills, for ensuring that I reap my rewards. (I’m still not sure what those rewards entail exactly, though I suppose I could ask. I am still sitting here…)
Thief, all thievin’ my wine-​loving heart: you’re pretty great!

Good location smack dab in the middle of the Public Market. Great wine list with a couple of happy hour choices. It gets a little busy. I was there on a Friday after work and there were people waiting when we left.
Oh, and it’s also a store so you can buy a bottle instead of sitting at the bar. Nice selection and a good stock of $ 10 bottles.

Okay, I need to set up this review with a little story:
So, I’m from Minneapolis, and last weekend we decided to visit a friend in Milwaukee. After a disastrous and trashy night at Summerfest (seriously… does every high schooler smoke cigarettes now? And have to take Instagrams of them doing so?) we were hungover/​maybe a little drunk still. Whatever, it’s the weekend. Our friend wanted to show us the very cool Public Market, so we stopped in. I head to the bathroom quick and next thing I know, my friends are ordering bottles of wine at Thief. None of us are big wine drinkers other than when we were abroad, so this comes as a bit of a surprise to me… but I order a glass of champagne and just roll with it. I have a weird thing for champagne, okay?
This would have been just a weird little 10:00 AM whim if it had not been for the EXCELLENT service we received. So, they don’t have champagne, but the bartender suggests a similar cava, which was delicious. She suggested a petite sirah for the bottle drinkers. It doesn’t stop there– she starts explaining the wine and what we were tasting– not snobbily but in our terms. I totally appreciated the way she treated us– like we wanted to learn, not like we were some college aged idiots who drink only Keystone. Mad props to her.
Not even being a wine drinker, I would totally suggest checking out this place to anyone with any interest in wine.

I am very grateful that Thief Wine is in the Public Market. You can often find me there on Saturday afternoons, pulled up to the bar with some wine (or a beer) and falafels from Aladdin or red velvet cakeballs from the bakery. I love that we can bring food from other vendors and sit centrally in the MPM — perfect people watching from Thief Wine’s location!
The staff is extremely knowledgeable and friendly. The wines that I have had have all been great. If you’re not sure what to get, the staff will have an informed suggestion for you. Another option is to order a flight and try a few! They also offer small plates (cheese/​nuts/​dried fruits/​etc) which pair nicely with their wines.
Recently, they’ve done a few Groupons — so I encourage you to come out and try Thief Wine.

Conveinent location inside the market. Great place to grab a gift but you pay a litlte more for the convience. People here are very helpful though. My husband who’s not a wine guy even feels comfortable asking questions here.
We also like to grab food then sit here for drinks. Great selection and wine flights.

Vino! I love red wine… don’t even let me get started with the song. Red, redddd…
Ok, so I’m not gonna lie to you. I didn’t actually buy anything. However they have a small, but amazing selection. They have more rose wine than I typically see places, and they had some very interesting reds that I really wanted to get.
This was my first trip to the public market, so I didn’t want to get carried away. I plan on going back for the two bottles I had my heart set on: Some Young Punks «Lust Collides» and Alpha Box & Dice «Tarot».
They also have a little bar where you can sit and have a glass of wine, which I probably would have opted for if I hadn’t just had a margarita. The blessing & curse of so many options!

By a country mile, my favorite wine bar is Thief. Phil, the proprietor, has a very extensive knowledge of wine and is one of the few people not only in the state, but in the Midwest with his certified level of expertise. Unfortunately at this time, I do not remember the name of the certification. Anyways, last time I checked in with him he was studying for the final phase of testing. His selection is great, and he can always give you a spot-​on recommendation based on your tastes. I love Sauv Blancs, Red Zins, Red Bordeaux, and complex cabs… and there’s always a few items on his menu (which is frequently updated) that suit my tastes.
He also sells wine by the bottle/​case. Generally I’ll give a list of five or six wines I’m looking for and he’ll get back to me within a day or so to let me know if his distributors carry it. Then I generally mix and match whatever’s available into a case. So it’s also one of my favorite places to buy wine as well.
The Shorewood location is nice, but the Milwaukee Public Market location is way better IMO. There’s something about drinking wine in the middle of a sophisticated urban project like the MPM in the heart of a trendy area of town that adds so much more to the experience.