While Chicago was busy getting kicked in The Bean these last few months (Jon Stewart’s epic Rahm Emanuel re-election rant; deadly holiday weekends; Spike Lee deciding his next joint will be “Chiraq;” stop us anytime), Milwaukee was quietly situating itself as the undisputed break-out champeen of the Midwest.

Slight exaggeration? We don’t think so. Miltown has enjoyed one helluva good run of late. (National League Central standings, aside.)

It’s been the darling of a famous — like, 55 million-followers famous — Chinese travel blogger. The NBA’s Bucks are staying put with shovels set to break ground for their new arena mid-fall. The city’s fresh off its annual Summerfest — a.k.a. the “World’s Largest Music Festival” — headlined by The Rolling Stones, Linkin Park, Stevie Wonder, Carrie Underwood, Ed Sheeran, Bastille, Kendrick Lamar and eight zillion others. It just hosted the USA Triatholon for an unheard of third consecutive year. This past weekend, nearby Whistling Straits hosted the PGA Championship for the third time. And last Tuesday, Nik Wallenda walked his longest tight rope walk ever at its Wisconsin State Fair in West Allis (spoiler alert: he lived).

Getting down to brass tacks, Milwaukee’s 2014 tourism revenue (a cool $3.2 billion) was up six percent over 2013 and it’s only expected to keep the overachieving train rolling this year. (A new Kimpton hotel in the Historic Third Ward and SpringHill Suites opening near the Wisconsin Center can’t get here soon enough.)

It’s like the city is finally waking up and discovering its raw animal magnetism. (Literally. There have been lion sightings around the metro area these last few weeks — there must be a shortage of ghoulish dentists in town.)

Or maybe the rest of us are just finally waking up to it?

Here, five (mostly new) ways the pride of Lake Michigan is prying open our eyelids.

BOSS HOG

If you’ve never thought to use “bikers” and “curated art spaces” in the same sentence, you’ve severely underestimated the former’s eye for history and aesthetics.

Now in its seventh year, the 130,000-square-foot Harley-Davidson Museum has no problem drawing in Class M license holders and non-holders alike with its insanely interactive collection of 450 bikes, including the oldest one in existence, and its best exhibit, a replica of a motordrome board track which explores all the brotherhood and bloodshed those 60-degree-banked races caused.

But new this season (and you still have time to catch ’em) are three more draws to its massive 20-acre campus.

It’s been the summer of Willie G. Davidson, the uncoincidentally named grandson of one of the company’s co-founders and its current chief styling officer emeritus. His odic “Artist, Designer, Leader, Legend” exhibit looks at how his bike designs have defined H-D’s look over the years (running now through Sept. 7).

Or, there’s the Milwaukee Rally & Custom Bike Show (Sept. 3-6), where artisans outside the company get to show off their creations (feel free to BYOBike yourself; only a $20 donation needed).

Finally, and most importantly, is the museum’s fourth annual Black Friday Beerfest, Nov. 27, where there will be no running of the 60-inch-plasma-buying bulls — just regional IPAs, hard ciders, craft pours and whatever designated biker you brought to get you home. VIP packages start at $60 (general adult admission, $20).

Continue the easy riding lifestyle over at the Iron Horse Hotel (a nine-minute walk away from the museum), where a century-old erstwhile warehouse has morphed into a luxury, 100-loft boutique hotel popular with one-percenters of every definition (from $289).

KEEP CHUGGING ALONG

Beer is so much a part of Milwaukee’s fabric, its over half a million denizens must water their lawns with the stuff.

Those kids over at the local watering hole drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon? They’re not doing it ironically like some jerky Brooklyn hipsters — this is the actual birthplace of what was, at one time, one of the world’s biggest, baddest breweries. Ditto Schlitz, Blatz and Miller.

You can thank major waves of German immigrants in the mid-1800s for all of them; and you can thank the Milwaukee region’s 22 colleges’ and universities’ 183,000 students for keeping their legacies alive.

But for BTS tours, it’s all about the smaller nouveau crafters like the beergardened Sprecher in Glendale ($5), beer-in-hand-friendly Milwaukee Brewing Co. ($10) and gluten-free tapper Lakefront ($8).

For a more proper sit-down beer-infused supper, hit up Hinterland Erie Street Gastropub where Executive Chef Dan Van Rite and Sous Chef Dan Turek’s surf and turf ops (sourced from all sorts of local farms, fisheries, abattoirs and creameries) are best paired with its myriad in-house grog.

DON’T JUST STAND THERE, BUS A MOVE

To say native Milwaukeean Mike Awve shopped around a little before finally moving back home is an understatement, having gone to college in the Virgin Islands, living in Alaska and leading tours in Cali’s cork country and the Grand Canyon.

But in 2012 the prodigal son U-turned back where he channeled his inner Kramer’s Peterman Reality Tour, wallpapering a bus with his favorite local beer bottle labels, equipping it with a PA system and dubbing his creation Untapped Tours.

Now his $38, three-hour, 11-guests-at-most tour has become the required way to see the city, inspiring one TripAdvisor-gasm after the next.

You get a bit of everything — City Hall, Miller Park, Lakefront Brewery, North Point Lighthouse, the life-size (which is to say, short) Bronze Fonz statue along the Riverwalk — all the while Mike soundtracks it with deep indigenous knowledge and jokes as cheesy and awesome as the free samples at Clock Shadow Creamery, another tour highlight.

VENDOR BENDER

If you’re going to rip off an iconic public market, Seattle’s Pike Place is the way to go. That’s more or less what The Kubala Washatko Architects did when they designed the Historic Third Ward-situated Milwaukee Public Market exactly a decade ago.

Good choice. If you or someone you know likes to eat and/or drink, inside you’ll find 19 indie vendors offering up local ethnic food, meats, cheeses, wines (an outdoor market runs every Thursday and Saturday through October). Take cooking classes or just kick everybody out and rent the space for a party.

WHEREFORE ART THOU

Don’t be fooled by the wurst breath and cheese hats; the locals here love them some art (even the sort without a throttle). Need proof? The Milwaukee Art Museum, designed by Santiago Calatrava of World Trade Center transportation hub fame, is wrapping up a massive reno/resto project for its two older buildings. (All of the galleries have been closed for the past year — come November, 20,000 square feet of all new space will be unveiled.)

Also, the Milwaukee Public Museum is revamping its famous “Streets of Old Milwaukee” exhibit. ‘Bout dang time.