The bar was closed “for some time in December 2016 due to some patrons’ behavioral issues,” Jost told OnMilwaukee on March 24th. That’s when the “numbers took a nosedive,” even in the once recession-proof gay bar industry. No new gay bars have opened in the ensuing years, and La Cage has faced several challenges to its survival since about 2010 according to Jost. 2nd St., and did much to give the street its rainbow hue. Three of these now-gone bars were located on S. Since the article was published, Boom, the Room, the Nut Hut and Hybrid Lounge have followed suit. When the article was written, The Triangle and the Ball Game had only recently closed their doors, neither to reopen as gay bars. It’s interesting to see the changes in the last four years of Milwaukee gay culture since then. in Walker’s Point houses multiple gay bars, but it wasn’t until La Cage paved the way that the other bars started coming in.” Posten wrote in 2013, “Today, this stretch of 2nd St. “It’s interesting to see the changes in the last 10 to 15 years of Milwaukee gay culture,” a bartender told writer Audrey Posten at the time. But by May, 2013, when Urban Milwaukee first paid a visit, we reported the ratio had shifted to about 60 percent gay, and 40 percent straight. “George held the second mortgage, and I made payments to Waukesha State Bank (the principal mortgage holder) for five years.” Shifting Landscapeĭuring its first decade-and-a-half the audience at La Cage was 100 percent gay. “Twelve years ago, I bought the bar with good intentions,” Jost says. But keeping things in the gay community is not as easy as it once was, Jost has learned.
He bought the building and the business from Prentice, he said, to keep it in the gay community, and not be developed into condos, for example.
It’s a complicated situation, Jost tells Urban Milwaukee.
On Monday, May 22nd, Prentice took out a Class “B” Tavern application to once again run the city’s largest gay bar.