Frozen custard is more than a dessert in Milwaukee. It's a culture, a lifestyle and a passion. Find the stories behind your favorite flavor at local festivals and homegrown neighborhood stands. From the stand that inspired television's Happy Days to the big three - Gilles, Leon's and Kopp's - take a tour through the history of this guilty pleasure. Learn about its humble origins as an unexpected rival to ice cream and its phenomenal success as a concession at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933 that made the snack famous. Milwaukee authors and editors Kathleen McCann and Robert Tanzilo launch a celebration of custard lore, featuring a stand guide and much more. Dig into what makes Milwaukee the Frozen Custard Capital of the World.

The sky was the limit, as the Mafia indulged in running alcohol, extortion, protection rackets, adn skimming from Las Vegas casinos. The Cream City had its crooked lawyers, corrupt cops, and even a mayor on the take. There was the blood of those who dared to stand in the syndicate's way, who were found dead in ditches or as victims of car bombs. While now considered extinct, the Milwaukee Family was once a dominant force in the Midwest.

As the country sought healing and peace after the Civil War, Wisconsin citizens took up Pres. Abraham Lincoln's challenge "to care for him who shall have borne the battle." Their efforts paved the way for the establishment in Milwaukee of one of the original three branches of the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. In May 1867, the first 60 veterans, including a musician from the War of 1812, moved to a single building on 400 rolling acres west of Milwaukee. By the end of the 19th century, the bustling campus boasted its own hospital, chapel, library, theater, and recreation hall, in addition to the grand main building. Subsequent wars and military conflicts created a need for additional buildings and services. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 2011, the campus continues to offer a healing environment for today's patients and stands as a testimony to advances in veteran health care.

In the late 1800s, the area was developed by immigrant Poles, who became the dominant population for over 100 years. A survey nearly a half century later revealed that people of 110 national backgrounds now live on the Old South Side.

Milwaukee's Italian families have a distinguished heritage, one that began in a great rush to the city shortly before the turn of the 19th century. Seeking a way out of the economic misery of their homeland, tens of thousands of Italians made their way to the Midwest, lured by the promise of Milwaukee's well-paying factory and service industry jobs. The emigres brought their colorful traditions and culture with them, making themselves at home in close-knit neighborhoods. Arrivals from various villages settled into specific blocks, with a widespread Sicilian contingent living in the old Third Ward, while Italians from the north settled in Bay View. Others moved into the Brady Street area. Not afraid to work, at first the Italians were railroad employees, fruit peddlers, refuse collectors, shopkeepers, tavern owners, or skilled craft workers in the masonry and stone trades. Today, the descendants of those first arrivals make up an extraordinary share of Milwaukee's business leaders, politicians, clergy, restaurateurs, and educators, while others have become police officers and military personnel. The Italian Community Center and Festa Italiana continue to provide marvelous opportunities to socialize.

German immigrants began arriving to Milwaukee in the 1830s. By 1859, over one-third of the city was German. They opened schools and churches, started businesses, ran for office, and introduced professional German theater, art, and music to the city. Milwaukee soon became known throughout the United States--and even abroad--as the "German Athens of North America." There is a reason Milwaukee is known as the city of beer and brats, why it is here that the biggest Germanfest in the country takes place, and why still today the German language can be seen and heard throughout the city. As the well-known German newspaper the Frankfurter Allgemeine stated in 2008, "Deutscher als Milwaukee ist nirgendwo in Amerika" (There is nowhere in America more German than in Milwaukee).

The history of Chinese Milwaukee begins in April 1874, with the opening by Wing Wau of a Chinese laundry at 86 Mason Street. Other Chinese soon followed, and by 1888, there were at least 30 Chinese laundries operating in the city. Charlie Toy moved to Milwaukee in 1904 and within two decades had built both one of the largest Chinese trading businesses in the United States and a six-story Chinese-style building in downtown Milwaukee described as the largest and most luxurious Chinese restaurant building in the world. An example of the community's influence as a whole is the period 1937 to 1940, when the community of less than 300 residents contributed more money to the Chinese war effort against Japan than any other Chinese community in the United States except San Francisco.