MILWAUKEE — Just off of Brady Street sits a neighborhood bar called Wolski’s Tavern. 

It’s been in Bernie Bondar’s family for four generations. His great grandfather, Bernard Wolski, opened the establishment in 1908.

“I think it’s a real friendly bar,” said Bondar. “We’re not pretentious. We’ve got good bartenders. Good service.”

Bondar and his brother Dennis took over the bar in 1973. That’s when the famous “I closed Wolski’s” bumper sticker started. 

“The economy was terrible,” he said. “The Vietnam War was winding down. Nobody was working. People would come in the bar at noon when we were opened and stayed until two. Fourteen hours. They stayed out late. They said, ‘Hey, we should get something,’ so my brother Mike said, ‘we can give you a bumper sticker.’ Then all the other customers wanted one.” 

The bumper stickers have traveled as far as Africa and even flew on a fighter jet. 

“It’s so cool you hear all sorts of people say, ‘I’ve seen this on Mount Kilimanjaro,’ or, ‘I saw this on a football stadium in Germany,’” said Sean McCarthy.

McCarthy and his cousin Nick Olson will be the next generation in their family to own Wolski’s. They’re the nephews of Bondar and his brother.

“It’s so neat to see how my family worked so patiently and worked at for forever and had such a global outreach,” said McCarthy.

McCarthy hopes to follow in the footsteps of his uncles, who served as owners for 50 years and to continue the legacy of Wolski’s Tavern for many years to come. 

“We’ve kind of been bred for this,” said McCarthy. “We’ve been told since we were little kids that this is in the future, so we’ve kind have been practicing.”