MILWAUKEE — Tucked away in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Milwaukee sits Wolski’s Tavern. The historic bar has been in the community for more than a century. 

What You Need To Know

  • Wolski's Tavern has been in the Milwaukee community for 115 years

  • The tavern plans to tentatively stay open until 4 a.m. the week of the RNC

  • Wolski's Tavern is known for its "I closed Wolskis" stickers

PJ Johnson is a longtime bartender and said the crowd ranges from college students, locals and even tourists. Many stop in to grab a beer and get the famous “I closed Wolski’s” sticker. 

Johnson said he wasn’t surprised when organizers from the Republican National Convention reached out about delegates visiting during the week of the RNC. 

“I know that the Secret Service has been here,” said Johnson. “I think FBI has been here, capitol police has been here. It’s more so anticipating where people are going to go and checking out the scenarios for security issues. I think that’s great because everyone wants to be safe.”

Organizers are encouraging Wolski’s to stay open an additional two hours past its 2 a.m. close time. 

“We have scheduled bartenders until four but we don’t know if that’s necessary because if it’s not going to be busy at 2:30, we’re not going to have our bartenders stay open necessarily,” said Johnson.

As of right now, he said everything is up in the air because they’re unsure if the tavern will be getting a crowd or not.

“I don’t think we had to do it, but we’re entertaining the opportunity to do it just to see what’s going to happen,” said Johnson. “We might have a state or we might have an American Samoa. Who knows what road it’s going to be? I think they want places like us that are somewhat Milwaukee in its history to be a part of it.”

Regardless, he said he’s looking forward to the national attention Milwaukee is getting and is hopeful Wolski’s Tavern will be a stop visitors make.

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