Buck Bradley's Saloon & Eatery, 1019 N. Old World 3rd St., a block from the Deer District and the UWM Panther Arena, is currently closed.
Although it hosted a customer appreciation day a few days before Thanksgiving and a Badgers game event 10 days before that, business just hasn’t been good enough during the pandemic to stay open, according to owner Walter Paget, and after closing for the holiday, the saloon didn’t reopen.
Paget told the Journal Sentinel, “It's impossible to keep it going.”
The large bar and grill, which has been an Old World 3rd Street mainstay for 25 years, especially popular after sporting events, is closing temporarily.
Paget told the daily paper that when sports events return around the corner – Bucks, Admirals, etc. – he will likely reopen.
He noted that the inability to host Christmas parties has also hurt his bottom line.
The Journal Sentinel reported that 20 percent of the saloon’s employees are still at work cleaning and performing maintenance while others have found new jobs.
Paget’s business partner – his brother Danny – died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 61 in September, which has provided another challenge, both emotional and practical, for Paget.
Stay tuned for more information on the future of Buck Bradley’s. In the meantime, we send deepest sympathies to Paget and his family.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
