The Tracks was one of the first four accounts of Lakefront Brewery, which first operated from an old bakery a couple of blocks away on E. The business also maintains a long support of community events including Locust Street Daze, where a stage is erected outside on the street between The Tracks and the Ma Baensch Herring Co. The outdoor recreation keeps the clientele young the old-timers can watch from the sidelines. The volleyballers tend to be in their late 20s and early 30s, which is a demographic sweet spot for beer consumption. The Tracks was the first to embrace outdoor volleyball in season, opening the courts on the former right-of-way of the Milwaukee Road’s fabled “Beer Line,” which ran so close to the building that the structure, built by Leiser & Holst in 1906, was designed with its northeast corner cut off to accommodate the tracks. The changes here have been subtle but significant. Throughout it all, and the ensuing decades, The Tracks has maintained its consistency as a neighborhood gathering spot for food and drink. The neighbors won the commercial district was saved, and the Riverwest neighborhood, as we know it today, was given birth to its identity and eventual growth. The neighbors arose and meetings were held, some right here at the bar, where customers face each other, with the bartender working inside the ring. The area west had already been widened, stripped of its commercial properties, giving it the desolate appearance it holds to this day. Humboldt Blvd., where the tracks sits on the northwest corner, and N. At the time he purchased the place, Riverwest faced an existential threat: there were plans to widen E. ![]() Wolbersen has since sold a majority of the business, but retains a 30 per cent interest, and owns the real estate as well. We’ll start with Peter Wolbersen, 73, who rebranded the old tavern, naming it after its next-door railroad when he set up shop in June, 1970. ![]() ![]() Whereas many legendary Milwaukee bars have seen their ebbs and flows over the decades as old customers age out, newcomers age in, tastes change and neighborhoods evolve, The Tracks, established in 1970 and still, in part, under its original ownership, retains a comfortable stability.
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