Exploring Wisconsin's Unique Tavern Culture

Why the Badger State has the most interesting bars in the nation.

Be sure to check back here tonight, around happy hour, when we publish our full interview with Jared Schultz, the founder of Wisco Dive Bars. We chat about Jared’s unique platform, the taverns he loves, and the importance of these third spaces in small town Wisconsin. Grab a glass of your favorite beer (we recommend a Spotted Cow). You won’t want to miss it!

I had my first run-in with a Wisconsin tavern in high school.

No, I wasn’t skipping class, hoping to snag a beer. I didn’t even own a fake ID. I had yet to sip my first taste of alcohol.

I was in our high school play and volunteered to help promote the event by plastering posters all over town. My buddy Josh and I go to work peppering mom-and-pop businesses with our marketing materials when my eyes landed on the flickering neon of one of our town’s venerable watering holes.

I had an idea. What if we went inside and asked the barkeep to let us put up a poster? That way, I could satisfy my curiosity and see a place I had long heard about but never stepped inside. I wasn’t sure the daylight tavern customers were our target demographic, but why shouldn’t we allow them to be patrons of our melodrama?

Soon, posters promoting our performance appeared in all the bars in downtown Elkhorn: The Elkhorn Saloon, Kelly’s RedRoom, The Sports Page, and The Jury Room.

The Jury Room was the most fascinating. It was hidden underneath an old esplanade of an indoor mall with fake Disney-esque storefront facades, housing mini businesses, including a paperback book store and a deli. The crown jewel of the Olde Towne Mall was the basement pub, Jury Room, an ode to its location across from the county courthouse.

My fascination with taverns started because they were a threshold I had always heard about but never ventured into. The irony in Wisconsin is that many taverns are considered family-friendly affairs that welcome children with open arms. Minors, as long as they are in the presence of adults, are allowed to be present and get this — even consume drinks.

When I reached legal drinking age, I’d return home to Elkhorn to join recent graduates and fellow high school classmates for holiday breaks that included stops at our town’s watering holes and the bowling alley (which also, shockingly, included a bar). Black Wednesday would be the most famous (or infamous) as dozens of us straddling the tightrope of college and adulthood would reminisce about school and figure out where life would steer us. One of our favorite rituals was the County A Pub Crawl. Located on the outskirts of Elkhorn, this rural highway was home to about half a dozen bars, and we would stop at each one for a drink and hang out with a mixture of farmers and folks looking to blow off steam.

Throughout life, the Wisconsin tavern has served numerous chapters of life. I’ve watched Packer games at rural pubs out in the country. I had my bachelor’s party in the Chippewa Flowage, where a pontoon boat shepherded us from lakeside tavern to lakeside tavern — the type of place that was made of logs and sold beer for less than $2.00 a pint. I’ve darkened the doors of urban dive bars in Milwaukee and Madison but have sought the places so far off the beaten path that you’d need a local to tell you how to get there. Ahem, Zenda Tap. Cough, cough, Hat Rack Tap.

The Wisconsin Tavern as a Social Gathering Place

Whenever I returned home, I was fascinated that this crush of young adults would brush up against the townies and regulars who were seemingly always there. Same barstool, same customer, same pint of beer — different month or year.

I learned a tavern lesson early in life. Wisconsin taverns provide the best people-watching and storytelling opportunities in the nation. These places are a third space nestled amongst the fabric of the small town's way of life. In Wisconsin, the light of a Pabst Blue Ribbon sign is a familiar and welcome sight next to the steeple of a Catholic church.

The common denominator with taverns in Wisconsin is that they have always served the purpose of bringing together the community. Before the concept of a “third space” was popularized, bars and taverns helped create a needed social place whether you were in a Milwaukee neighborhood, a mining town in Southwest Wisconsin, or a timber camp in the Northern woods.

A neighborhood tavern is almost a uniquely Midwestern concept. In Milwaukee (and many other larger cities), it’s not uncommon to find a residential block anchored by a tavern that looks like a house. Out in the sticks, you’ll find a pub off the side of a highway, right beyond a pasture of cows and a farmhouse.

For decades, these places served as a much-needed place to hang out. Wisconsin bars are deeply integrated with social activities. Some host leagues for darts, horseshoes, softball, and volleyball. For sports fans, the local team is always on the TV, and they are also places to throw some cash into a pot for a football pool or fantasy league.

For a home-cooked meal, the tavern is your savior. Many serve burgers and homemade pizza, while others serve the state’s famous Friday Fish Fry.

The gambler will find good company at the many local taverns with dice games (Shake-of-the-day is a staple), pull tabs, and shiny gambling machines.

Wisconsin’s Unique Tavern History

The history of these places goes back well before the state’s founding in 1848 and is a complex lineage of politics, immigration, and culture.

Wisconsin was settled by many German immigrants who had long made beer a part of their daily lives. This heritage, along with many of the staples of home, including plentiful agriculture and fresh water, led to the founding of many breweries. You’ve likely heard famous beer barons like Frederick Pabst, Joseph Schlitz, Jacob Best, Franz Falk, and Fritz Gettelman.

As the brewing capital of the world, Milwaukee brewers would look to push their beers to the public through elegant beer halls like this one, Schlitz Palm Garden, which opened as a beer and music hall in 1896 at North Third Street and West Wisconsin Avenue. Much like back home in Europe, Germans used these spaces to gather, be entertained with music, and drink good beer.

Brewers competed to build the most lavish indoor beer gardens, some complete with ice skating rinks and bowling alleys. During winter, these gardens served upwardly mobile Germans and hosted bands, choirs, orchestras, and operas.

After the successful Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, some proprietors installed indoor rides and midway games. Pabst Park built a miniature railway and an underground boat ride to draw patrons.

Many brewers also devised ways to connect their consumers directly to their beer by establishing beer halls right next door or on the premises of their brewery. Serving food along with the beer, these raucous halls served as early retail outlets and visitor centers that we have grown accustomed to at major and indie brewers today.

Recently, Milwaukee has seen a revival of open-air beer gardens that pay homage to the traditions brought to the city by its German ancestors. Through partnerships with the Milwaukee County Parks Department, local breweries have revitalized picnic shelters and buildings into food and beer spots for families to enjoy.

The success of these brewing kingpins, combined with the massive influx of Eastern European immigrants, led to a thriving tavern culture. Many early taverns were located off plank roads and served as early “rest stops” for early travelers looking to quench their thirst. Taverns were more high-brow in their approach. As pioneering settlers moved across the state, they could always count on a tavern to fill the void and serve as a community center and gathering spot for locals. Some even had space to sleep, and bartenders were equal-measure innkeepers.

The family-friendly heritage of Wisconsin’s bars is partly due to Germany’s desire to be a place of “wholesome family fun,” often having dedicated back rooms for kids, parlors for ladies, and dedicated time on Sundays for young and old alike to come together.

The earliest dive bars were bestowed with the nickname “rum holes” that were known for illicit behaviors and dirty deeds.

Much like in Germany, plenty of “bierstubes” brought a sense of familiarity to this new home, complete with home-cooked food and, of course, frothy beverages.

The economics of having beer producers so close to the taverns created Wisconsin’s early rise in taverns and bars. Enterprising beer barons saw an opportunity and forged relationships with local taverns with exclusive brewers deals. Known as “tied houses,” they would be early icons to Beervana, featuring the iconic logos and beautiful signage of the brands — like John Munzinger’s Tavern, which featured the belted globe sign that Schlitz was known for.

After Prohibition, many of these taverns continued to pick up where they left off and spun off dozens of bar concepts, from sports bars to brew pubs, discos, and gay bars. They were places to engage with politicians, celebrate cultural heritage, or cut loose and dance.

Today, there are thousands of bars that call Wisconsin home, and chances are you can find many that owe their existence and traditions to these early taverns.

Threats to Taverns Continue

In the book, “Badger Bars & Tavern Tales,” authors Bill Moen and Doug Davis explore the fascinating history of Wisconsin saloons from long before statehood to the modern day. In the book’s introduction (published in 2004), they briefly warn readers of a future when these legendary watering holes may face extinction:

“Less noticed has been the closings of many much smaller businesses throughout the state that are an even larger component in whatever makes Wisconsin, Wisconsin. Without beer and taverns, Wisconsin is just a colder and slightly more hilly and woodsy version of Nebraska. The neighborhood tavern is as much a part of the identity of Wisconsin as sunshine is to Florida or cold to Alaska. A variety of factors has led to many Wisconsin towns seeing the number of taverns fall by half or more in the past 30 years. The decline started with the advent of television, which allowed people to stay at home and have entertainment brought to them, rather than going out and about on an evening of congenial good times.”

For the last 20 years, Wisconsin bars have faced increased pressure. Many weathered the pandemic by leveraging federal aid, but they have been forced to adapt to new trends as younger generations socialize differently or not at all. Ironically, social media and online diversions keep younger folks at home. Many others are cutting their discretionary budgets due to inflation, and countless others are cutting back on their alcohol intake.

Most taverns in the state that have shuttered follow a long-term decline in the loss of small, family-owned businesses. This trend has impacted other Wisconsin legacy industries, notably dairy farms.

As digital distractions become more distracting, there is hope that these “third spaces” can see a renaissance where people of all ages come together over a shared desire to laugh, commiserate, celebrate, and raise a good glass along the way.

Books to Read More About Wisconsin Tavern History

It’s nearly impossible to capture the complete history of Wisconsin’s taverns in a single post. To learn more, I recommend reading these books. They reflect the industry's historical roots and are worth adding to your library.

Badger Bars & Tavern Tales: An Illustrated History of Wisconsin Saloons (Bill Moen and Doug Davis)

Bottoms Up: Wisconsin’s Historic Bars and Breweries

Tavern League: Portraits of Wisconsin Bars (Carl Corey)

Images of America: Brewing in Milwaukee (Brenda Magee)

Tavern adjacent, but a must-read: Wisconsin Supper Clubs: An Old-Fashioned Experience (Ron Faiola)

What’s your favorite Wisconsin bar, tavern or dive? Share it in the comments and we’ll see if we have been there!