Garage, Hi-Hat Reopening Delayed
New owners appeared before Licenses Committee, but must wait for approval.
The Garage. Photo by Joey Grihalva.
In August, a popular Brady Street bar, The Garage, came under fire after photos and videos of a discriminatory “No Play List” posted inside the bar’s DJ booth were leaked and circulated across social media. The list banned music from more than 40 popular rappers, all of whom are Black. Adding to the firestorm, “NO MILWAUKEE RAP” was added to the bottom of the list in capitalized and bolded letters.
Shortly after the online uproar, owner Leslie Montemurro, who also owned the attached Hi Hat Lounge, announced the sale of both bars to Scott Schaefer, Darryl Towers and Ryan Cooke.
The bars have been temporarily closed since early September.
The new owners quickly announced a plan to reopen both bars under the same names and, on Sept. 10, posted that The Garage’s “tentative grand opening day is set for Oct. 15.”
Six weeks later, neither bar has reopened.
Cooke, Towers and Schaefer appeared at a Licenses Committee meeting Tuesday to discuss their liquor license application.
No neighbors offered testimony for or against the application.
Area Alderman Alex Brower told the committee he “had a conversation with the new owners that, obviously, a business gets to choose the kind of music it wants to play, but we agreed that any curated list is not going to be discriminatory and is going to be welcoming to every single person on Brady Street.”
Schaefer verified the conversation with Brower and Brower then moved to approve the license.
The new owners will have to wait a few more weeks before they receive the official “go-ahead” to reopen.
The application is now pending before the Milwaukee Common Council, which will vote on the license Nov. 4.
Schaefer and Towers also own Jack’s American Pub and Milwaukee Brat House through Heard Hospitality, which Schaefer founded. They also owned WurstBar, which was recently rebranded Underground Tavern and subsequently closed on Oct. 8. Cooke works as Heard Hospitality’s director of operations.
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