The Garage and Hi Hat Lounge on Milwaukee’s Brady Street are closed effective immediately, and a sale of both bars is pending, the owners announced Tuesday.
Leslie Montemurro, a co-owner, said in a statement that Scott Schaefer, owner of Jack’s American Pub on Brady Street and Milwaukee Brat House on Martin Luther King Drive, and his business partner, Daz Towers, are the buyers.
Montemurro said sale talks with Schaefer began earlier this summer as the owners planned to retire. “In light of recent events and resulting staffing concerns, we made the decision to move forward with the sale now, rather than attempt to continue operating in the interim,” the statement said.
Employees will be paid for two weeks off and offered two more weeks of severance. They will also have the chance to work for the new owners. Schaefer said he intends to keep the bars the same and aims to reopen by mid-October.
The announcement came eight days after a DJ “no play” list from The Garage spread on social media. Beginning August 23, posts showed a text and a printed list telling DJs they could no longer play about 40 artists, including remixes, or they would lose gigs. The text said the order was “coming from ownership.” The names were predominantly Black hip-hop and rap acts, including Lil Wayne, Future, 21 Savage, GloRilla, Lil Baby, Gucci Mane, Rick Ross and Migos. “No Milwaukee Rap” was printed at the bottom.
The Garage posted on August 24 that ownership had not approved the list and had spoken with the employee who issued it. “The intention was to eliminate music with lyrics that referenced violence or guns, and create a more relaxed vibe at the establishment, but a list of artists was certainly the wrong approach,” the post said.
Montemurro said the owners were proud of more than two decades on Brady Street and grateful to pass the businesses to someone who “cares about Brady Street and this community the way we do.”
