Business Over Beer - Wisco Dive Bar Episode

Transcript

"um yeah dude i haven't been there it's been forever since i've

been there yeah and i'll i will admit i did not close wolski's

um doing what i do i typically do not close bars and uh when i

was down there we just had so much stuff going on i teamed up with

visit milwaukee they had reached out to me about coming down

and hey you want to come down to milwaukee and review some of our

bars and And so I think I hit I hit 22 bars 2

distilleries and then a supper club while I was down there for

that weekend For a weekend Well yeah that was that was a four day

trip Oh my goodness bro Lots of Ubering for sure No joke

Wow All right let's just get started because I have so many

questions for you I'm pumped for this man I'm serious It's got

to be against the law to look this damn good Watch out now

Because baby I feel real good and I wish I was Watch out now It's

got to be against the law to look this damn good *********** Watch

out now Everybody watch Watch out now I'm ready for this

time And I came to groove the whole Well hello everybody and

welcome to another episode of the Business Over Beer podcast I'm

your host Ben Surratt and I am super pumped that I can finally

meet this guy that we have on today before I do though I want

to let everybody know that I'm drinking some Elysian Can you

see Probably can't see Yeah there we go There we go There we go

Kind of That's the problem with these screens like these

backgrounds There we go Awesome So mystery guest who are you and

what do you do My real name is Jared Schuetz and I guess I'm

the Wisco dive bar guy And I travel all over the state

basically shooting commercials for these locally owned awesome bars

all across the great state of Wisconsin Yeah man And I've like

for people who don't know obviously we've been trying to do this

for a while And I really appreciate you making taking the time to

do this man I know how busy you are So I'm super super grateful

for you doing this Yeah no And like you said we've been I feel

like it's been a few 3 or 4 months and trying to get together in

person And then it's like the podcaster you know it's always cool

to meet up in person but sometimes just the way the world works

out sometimes we have to do stuff this way which is which is

always cool as well For sure We'll make it happen sometime though

real soon Yeah for sure So tell me a little bit about Wisco Dive

Bars What what is Wisco Dive Bars I created this craziness

January 14th of 20 22 I just I had this idea like I love these

dive bars I've I've loved them my entire life or what since I've

been 21 or close to it And and I just had the idea of you

know I thought well like newspapers are dead um so you don't

see advertising for dive bars on there you've never heard a

commercial for a dive bar on the radio you've never seen a

commercial on tv for a dive bar and like there's a gap in the

market here where these places are so majestic and such a vital

piece of wisconsin history like let's promote them to keep them

around um because i know how wisconsinites think i i i know if i

could showcase them a cool bar an hour hour and a half away from

where they live they would go there and they have proven that

hundreds and thousands of times um in the last you know almost

three and a half years Yeah that's crazy How many how many

people do you have following you now I mean a rough estimate

because you're on TikTok The gram Yeah TikTok Instagram

Facebook YouTube and threads I'm around three hundred

and sixty five three hundred seventy thousand followers That's

that's insane And that's all organic yeah it is and i and i made

it a point to do that i wanted it to be organic i know that these

bars are organic and they got a following the organic way and

that's the exact way i don't pay for followers i don't pay to

boost my views um i don't do any of that stuff i just let the

followers you know find me and it's it's cool when i get to an

area where say I could be down in the Milwaukee area and I could

just see like all of a sudden all these people from Milwaukee are

following me Then I get to Green Bay and it's the same thing I

can get to a little tiny town somewhere in the middle of nowhere

in Wisconsin and anybody with ties to that little town whether

they grew up there still live there used to live there They just

rally around what I do And I think with the amount of following

that I've created I think people just think it's really cool that

a guy like me with the social media following that I do finds

their little hometown that might be 6 bars a farm 2 churches and 3

bars ************ And I just described every small town in Wisconsin

I was just gonna say man uh so define a dive bar like what's a

dive bar to you like um you know and there's no set criteria

of what you know makes a place a dive bar like you have to

have 8 of these ten to be a dive bar um and i tell people like

dive bars dive bars are kind of like real estate it's all about

location sometimes um i i've gone to a lot of really great places

that I probably wouldn't consider dive bars but they're in a town

of 75 people or they're out in the middle of the country

surrounded by farms and in the really nice places But I I just

think like location almost makes a place a dive bar you know

kind of you know versus the overall look of it but you

know your prototypical dive bar just kind of the sightings falling

off and probably looks like it they started painting it and then

stopped uh you know a quarter of the way through and you know

you've got the wood paneling you've got the yeah you know i

mean for me like like i think of a dive bar i think of um

like 3 beers on tap um a whole bunch of like uh like

rumple mints and some deep fried food but good food Like good

good food But like you said the small town the atmosphere is

what I think when it comes to a dive bar You know and so many of

these places are just the pulse of the communities that they're

And yeah like you said I mean maybe the true dive bars don't even

have tap beer They might you know I've been to bars that

appear to have three hundred different selections of liquor I've

also been to bars that like here's our ten choices of liquor

you got like that's that's what we have you know and some of

these bars only have 6 or 8 different beers you know like it

like it was growing up you know and going to bars and stuff in the

you know in the late eighties and early nineties where you would

just see you had your Budweiser your Miller I mean Bush Light

probably wasn't even a thing back then but just very few selections

You had your Schlitz your Schmidt your PDR of course And now

there's like I swear every week there's 15 new kinds of beer or

vodka seltzers or now these THC drinks are becoming a thing It's

crazy There's just so many options I don't know how bars decide

what they're going to carry and what they're not Yeah I mean they

listen to their people you know that's it That's the big thing

Kind of like what these dive bars do They don't they don't need

to change because their their patrons come back regardless Right

Like do you have you ever talked to a dive bar who like they

were going to change or they have changed and they lost people

like has that ever happened That hasn't happened I guess not that

I can think of right off the bat but I do So the one place that

pops into my mind when he said like talking about changing the

Moccasin Bar in Hayward which is an absolute staple of Hayward

That place was actually owned by Seymour Ham the founder of Ham's

No way So like it's an old place and they have quirky

taxidermy in there It's incredible And we were up there I've

stopped I've been there a handful of times but we were back up

there last summer again And I heard that through the grapevine

that somebody was buying it and they were going to take out all

the taxidermy and i thought well they better not because that's

that's what makes that place you know what it is and and the owner

that i i talked to um he had it for sale and and he said he was

going to sell it to this guy and they were going to change

everything and he's like no he's like if you're going to change it

i'm not selling it and he said they will always always have

hams beer on tap there like that's that's one of the rules like if

you're a new owner here's the rule like you always have to have

hams on tap so um So I mean that's that's cool I mean the you

know once you once you take something out of a bar like you can't

get it back like you can't you know and that place is just you

know it's right on the main drag in Hayward It's kind of the

gateway to the gateway to the gateway to the greater Northern

Wisconsin you know in the Western Wisconsin side But but I'm so

glad that you know he put his foot down and stood up for the

place and tells you just how much you know he appreciates the

nostalgia of everything that that place holds from day one until

present day Yeah I love that man So how many have you visited now

And how many Eight hundred something Eight hundred and seventy

five Oh geez And when did you start this January 14th of 20

22 So um so yeah it's uh i mean i average i probably

average reviewing a bar every like 1 point 1 point 3 days so about

every you know every 30 4 hours or so and you have a day

job too right yeah i'm a carpenter monday through thursday um and

then i have my my youngest daughter who is 14 I have her half

the time Like so I just I got her from school today So I'll spend

a weekend and week with her And then next Friday I'll drop her

off at school at 7 30 And by 11 I might be in Superior I might

be in Ashland I might be in Milwaukee Madison So yeah then I hit

bars on the weekends and then i'm up at 4 30 on monday morning

ready to go back to my other job how do you balance all that it's

it's not easy um it's not easy and it's i i i feel like my

life before i started this was busy now i've somehow crammed a

to 80 hour a week job into my already busy life and the people

you know like you guys get to see the videos that I create

like that's just you know a one minute minute and a half kind of

thing there's so much that goes into it whether the travel I mean

I might any given weekend I might I might spend I ten hours

driving you know going from different locations to there's

sometimes where I drive you know if I go to Milwaukee I'm driving

four and a half hours before before I even get to the first place

So it's taken it's taken a lot to balance it out And and

it's I get so many comments that people say well you're living my

dream job Well people don't understand Like it's it's more than

what you're seeing on the screen That's for sure I mean that's you

guys are getting to watch the 3 percent of it there's 97

percent that goes on that's maybe less fun um but it's all stuff

that needs to be done and and um you know this is it's not easy

running a small business so i- i mean i totally can relate to

these bar owners on you know what they have to do to create a

small business Cause I- I mean my account- took off so fast I was

I was an LLC I believe April second or April third of 20 22 So

less than less than 3 months I was an LLC So I mean I've

been a small business for a little over 3 years myself so I know

the struggles Yeah And it does cost a lot of money to do what I

do I mean the travels and you know if I have friends in an

area that's awesome right Somewhere I can you know stay for free

But I do get a lot of hotel rooms you know and the way I look

at it like if I get a hotel room like your average hotel is

hundred and twenty five to one hundred dollars now I mean I've got

to sell I've got to sell 8 hoodies to make up for that you

know to make up for that hotel room So you know it's a constant

you know it's a constant flow I mean but it is what it is I

embrace it all I I hope people can see in my videos that I'm

having an absolute blast doing this And I'm I wouldn't I

wouldn't change it for the world yeah i'm glad you brought that up

because you're right every single video that i've seen of yours you

seem like your energy level is is the exact same if you saw

one from like a year and a half ago 2 years ago it's the exact

same energy level how do you keep that up man like what keeps you

grinding and and and having that energy that love that passion

I think one of the things one of the main things that makes all of

my you know that like you said that level I'm just being me

I'm not this isn't an act like what people you know I love

going out to bars and meeting my followers And it's not often that

I go to a bar where somebody in there doesn't know who I am

anymore But you know since I started this there's a lot more

there's plenty of more people that are doing dive bar stuff on

you know social media And like that's cool I'd like to think

I'm the pioneer I'm the you know kind of the OG to really blow it

out of the water And you know when people are trying to copy

me that's a you know I'm flattered But competition is good It

keeps me grinding And I can have a thousand people trying to copy

what I do but The one thing you know I can't control that I worry

about things I can control and I guarantee there isn't anybody

that's going to outwork me doing what I do I take a lot of pride

in what I do I work way harder than I probably should but I've got

a passion for this and this is my baby It came from a thought

and it's turned into you know what it has and and i i feel i feel

like i'm just i'm just getting ready to take off now even

though even though i'm you know you know three hundred and

sixty thousand plus followers and um i think last year uh last

year i did on all formats uh right around seventy seventy five

million views wow so um so yeah it's But it's a grind It

is It is But like I tell people if you're not willing to bust

your ass for yourself who are you going to bust your ass for Amen

dude And that's with anything man That's just anything Yeah I mean

I'm old school I'll be 48 here at the end of the month I share a

birthday with Wisconsin oddly enough Do you really May 29th Yeah

Wisconsin became a state May 29th 18 48 I'm a little younger but

but yeah it's almost like i was born to rep wisconsin with you

know with what i did just from just from day one um and i

absolutely love it i mean we've we've got the nicest people

in this state and so many of them hang out at these awesome local

dive bars whether they're eight hundred square feet or twenty

eight hundred square feet yeah i agree it's what makes that you

know it's it's the dive bars it's the supper clubs it's but it's

the people man like at the end of the day the people here are

are authentic you you know what you're gonna get when you talk to

these people and in the small towns man it's like you know

it's it seems like for me it grounds me a little bit like

when i lived in washington state for i moved for about 20 years my

wife and i and we would visit and going to like mill home

supper club in in outside of keel wisconsin and meeting with

local people it just grounds me It grounded me You know what I

mean I got back to my roots I guess that's what it is I got back

to man this is where I'm from I need to embrace it Because for

years I tried to run away from it But moving back now 20 years

later and then seeing what you're doing and doing what I'm doing

here and getting back out in the community bro it's I truly

understand now why I love the people here I just do It's crazy

to say Well and that's a cool thing about these dive bars because

you could walk into any dive bar and there may be say there's

8 guys sitting at the bar One might be unemployed One might be

a retired farmer One might be a retired doctor One might be a

school teacher One might be a bartender You know just all walks of

life And they're all the same Yeah When they're in there nobody's

better than anybody else You know they're all the same And I

think that that's just one of the one of the things like I

instantly feel that when I walk into a place like I could just I

can just read the room And you can just tell when you know

people are disingenuous But I mean it doesn't happen often at

all doing what I do It's you know it's the nicest people And then

when I when I walk into a place recording to I I always go in

first Oh and I'm always one hundred percent respectful to the

people that are in there I'm coming into their bubble That's

their that's their safe house And I'm you know I'm coming in and

just taking a little bit of their time doing what I do to help

promote their bar So I'm being a hundred percent respectful and it

really helps too with all my reviews being a hundred percent

positive *********** I don't wanna people have asked me like well I'm

still waiting for you to tear a bar apart now imagine if i if

i tore a bar apart and 3 or 4 months later i i drove by that bar

and they were closed because i because i killed their business um

with my negative i mean that wouldn't sit well with me and i

would probably walk away from what i do because of it um yeah

you know i mean this is a lot of these people it's it's not just

their livelihood it was their parents and some of them even their

grandparents and and great grandparents I mean they hold

generations of you know memories and and I just I love that I

can capture everything that goes on with these bars Cause you

know I think supper clubs more so than dive bars but we're losing

a lot of them Like we really are But I feel like we've we've

had a lot more we've lost more bars but probably a lesser

percentage you know they're you know supper clubs were Yeah

dude a hundred percent Are we losing a lot of supper clubs Is that

really a thing I mean it seems like it is Like I don't you know I

mean maybe Maybe not I know you know but I think the thing is

it seems like the counties like there was maybe ten supper

clubs in each county Yeah that's true But there's a hundred dive

bars you know Yeah that's a good point So when you do lose one it

just feels like a bigger loss than a bar closing you know Yeah

When you first started what was the reception from was it like

what is this guy doing Or was it you know people like welcoming

right away I think at first it was a combination of the 2

And even me on my end I was like what is this guy doing **************

But you know I think people embraced it really quick And

like my very first video a little bar langer's bar it's the

size of a one-car garage basically and it's not too far away from

from where i live and i remember back in the early eighties

even had gas pumps there like it was you know um and you know i i

want to say maybe they went out you know 8283 something like that

but uh but i i just did a video of me pulling in you know as I

was driving in I took a picture of the bar and then uh and

then I did a back pan of the bar Cause that's where the quirky

stuff is at That's where the pickled pigs feet are That's where

the pickled eggs are That's where the and I thought that's that's

the that's the stuff that the people want to see And that's why

every bar has that back pan of the bar Cause there's some weird

stuff back there um so it and that video was a little bit

different i mean i just i i had a i had you know my bars i would

just put them to music i would just you know i wouldn't do a voice

over whatever and then that first video blew up like on

tick tock did over half a million views um get out and i was like

excuse me like what in the world is going like I got to go to

another bar And then for whatever reason then I just took my phone

this phone exactly And I'm like hey I'm here in Spring Valley

at my hometown I'm outside the spillway For whatever reason I did

that and that was so smart for me to do that every video

starts with my face so you instantly know that it's me yeah um and

it starts with my voice and i get i get recognized by voice so

much um and and like getting back to the competition thing like

it's not even a competition like these other people that are doing

the dive bar stuff but um but that's one of the things that makes

me stand out so i'm i started doing the voiceover thing like maybe

a year and a half ago or so uh maybe maybe getting close to 2

years where i started doing the voiceover and doing um the review

the verbal review that way um and that's been that's been gold i

mean it's it's made me stand out uh so much more um you know it's

uh but Yeah And like I'm always constantly trying to throw new

things and tweak things a little bit Like I've always done the map

at the end of my videos to see you know like people obviously if

they love the bar like where is it So if I show it on the map

you know they can see it But then I also I also have a website uh

Wisco dive bars.com that's been around uh 2 years in January Um

it but it shows that you get on there and shows a map of

Wisconsin Every bar location I've been to is pinned I saw that man

That's rad Yeah that really is cool man Yeah Even Arizona to

writers Yeah Yeah Yeah I've hit some in Arizona too And you know

you can you can zoom in on any place So if you're say you're

camping up in Ashland you're like well get on Wisco dive bars dot

com See the bars I've hit around there You can click on any tab

It'll pull up my video off of YouTube And then there's a big blue

button that says navigate here and and it'll give you GPS

coordinates right to the place So yeah it's amazing Is so do you

do this by yourself or do you have help I am by myself I mean

my my fiance helps me you know a lot of times she's driving

you know she helps with you know maybe ordering some stuff and

some little behind the scenes stuff But I do all the video and I

do all the editing I do all the call all the shots I'm the you

know if somebody shoots me a message on TikTok Facebook Instagram

YouTube threads shoots me an email it's always me on the other end

one hundred percent And I don't care if I have fifty million

followers I always want it to be that way just because I'm in

total control like this is I don't want other people speaking for

me I just take a lot of pride in being you know the you

know the the the numero uno to uh to what i do so yeah uh what

has what has been the most surprising um uh aspect of

what you're doing has anything like said wow i didn't expect this

to happen um i mean as far as i mean well i mean i i i was i

was doing this for maybe 6 7 months And I told my I told my

fiance I'm like well I'm like we're always going to quick trip

Like I should just mix in some quick trip videos doing what I

do and see if I can get quick trips attention And I got their

attention And they and they messaged me I believe they I think

they reached out initially on TikTok and said Hey we love your

videos We think quick trips and dive bars go hand in hand I'm like

So do I obviously they do Um and now I've I've been under

contract with quick trip for almost two and a half years So

they're one of my sponsors Yeah That is incredible Well I saw

didn't you get Oh was it Crocs Was it Crocs Yeah you mean

these ones that I'm wearing right now Yes Bro Dude I was like I

don't see myself as a Croc person until I saw those first pair

of Crocs I've ever owned Honestly Those are fantastic Yeah

and I've got a big quick trip flag hanging up here You can't quite

see it but I've got Gosh where is it I've got a sticker on

the side of my beer fridge a see you next time sticker magnet um

yeah i i absolutely love quick trip their their social media is

is hilarious and um i don't know if there's anything um more

wisconsin than dive bars and quick trip i agree man and bagged

milk Yeah Yeah Yeah And it's there's such a there's such

a great company and they treat their employees so well And I'm so

I'm so proud to say that I'm part of that quick trip team

And it's yeah I was actually you mentioned Arizona I was I go to

Arizona every year on vacation and and It was January of 20 24

I was sitting at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix just waiting

waiting for my vacation to be over to get on my plane and come

back home And that's when Quick Trip sent me an email and

officially offered me my first contract So obviously it means a

lot to me I know exactly where I was when when I got that that

email So so yeah i and that's doing what i do like i said

it costs so much money for me to do what i do and i could i

couldn't do what i do to the extent that i do it without um

without my sponsors um yeah how many sponsors do you have so i've

got my 3 uh my 3 big sponsors like nicolay law is another one you

may have seen a billboard or 7 i would love i would love to

interview that dude yeah russell so i got russell's right here go

ahead and interview him if you want to But yeah I've got

Nicolet Law I've got some more Nicolet Law stuff here Like I've

got my own personal little billboard up here I don't know if you

can see it in the shot But like they sent me my own personal

little billboard Dude that is awesome And then I have Iron

Mountain Refrigeration Oh yeah They're down in Pleasant Prairie

Like they sent me this sweet beer cooler Yeah you know right

in right in pleasant prairie i mean it's a wisconsin-based company

and yeah um i i love supporting wisconsin companies uh definitely

and i'm always always looking for more uh some more sponsors as

well and i've done some other smaller stuff too with people like

hey do you know something like this and you know get you know x

amount of money whatever but uh but these are these are legit

contracts where where I I make money yeah that helps pay for

hotel rooms and gas and and beer and and food and and whatnot so

yeah I understand uh speaking of the other thing you have is merch

I love your merch bro I I when I see your merch I'm like that

is wicked awesome so what prompted that was it just did you

was it just out of people telling you you need to have merch or

how did that that come about um well actually uh the way i mean

the way this this tick tock account became a thing is like

tick tock has a creator fund like the way you make money on your

views on tick tock um is to join the creator fund you have to

have x amount of file i'm not even sure what the criteria is

anymore but i think it used to be you have to have ten thousand

followers and have at least a hundred thousand views a month

something i don't i'm not even sure um but so i had a regular

tick tock account and i got in the creator fund january first of

2024 um and my views as soon as i got in the creator fund where i

was getting paid for views which isn't a lot like it was it was

like 3 cents per one thousand views or something um but i got in

the creator fund and uh and my view is just tanked So I

was like I was in the creator fund for a week and I got out of it

************ It was probably January 6 January 7th when I got out

of the creator fund and I I told myself like all right

screw the creator fund I need to create an account where I can

sell merchandise Stay out of the creator fund which I'm not in the

creator fund I don't get paid on views on TikTok but my

merchandise more way more than makes up for the views the money i

would get from views on tick tock so that was i if this might

sound really weird but i i think i i created this account

around um merchandise sales like i almost created the merchandise

in my head before i created the account i got that probably

doesn't make any sense whatsoever really yeah so yeah and i did

like this logo like i designed this logo myself with uh the help

of uh my local uh my local uh screen printing place uh ambry that

works down there um helped me design it like she uh i told her

what i wanted and she like yeah that's it like that's what i had

in my head um so i've ran with that and then maybe uh uh gosh

it was probably maybe two two and a half months later uh probably

wasn't even that long uh probably a month and a half later um i

went with these wisconsin license plate hats um yeah those are

awesome and i've sold a ton of them like i like i do i do really

well on merchandise sales it's always a roller coaster um You

know you just never know I mean I don't ever want to rely on my

merchandise sales because you know I might I might sell I might

walk into a bar and sell five hundred dollars worth of stuff I

might not sell anything So do you take your merch with you

yeah i have my oh most of the time i have my merch with me um

in my truck i've got stuff toted up i basically i'll buy a bunch

of merchandise and and then i'll make my money back- one t-shirt

hoodie hat koozie um at a time But you also have an online

store too right I do have an online store and it's actually down

right now My merch lady was switching websites but it should be

back up and running by the end of this week I would assume or end

of this coming week Okay cool because I just love it I think

it's amazing It's something that I've always wanted to do too so I

truly appreciate that I think it's awesome man That hat What made

you think of that hat Honestly I thought of this hat because a

buddy of mine who is a local musician and he's really big

on social media too I saw a music video of his 4 years ago

probably And he was wearing a Wisconsin license plate hat

It said something totally different on it But I remembered

that I have a photographic memory so I remembered that And when I

was thinking about hats I'm like gosh I wonder if I Google

Wisconsin license plate hat And this company City Lokes came up

It's the only merch that I have that isn't made in Wisconsin

um they're made out of california um it's a great little company

city lokes um i think they've been around for maybe close to 20

years now um i can call them uh they'll answer on the second ring

and they know exactly who i am um when i answer the phone so

um they're yeah they're wonderful and and people can those are

available online um through my uh through my link tree on in

my bios but um as far as my t-shirts and hoodies and stuff like

that that all comes from uh comes from a different company um

furlong design studio right in a little town at diamond bluff

they've got- i don't even know it's right on the mississippi

river um they might have there might be 75 people in that town but

they do have an awesome awesome dive bar that's a biker bar called

the naughty hog which is named perfectly That's awesome Yeah

That's awesome Yeah N-A-U-T-I So it's spelled a little different

Yeah I love it Speaking of the places how do you decide where

to go Do you have like a list Like do you have a master like

book lists like a little black book i do i do have i do have

lists made up my followers suggest places which i i love that

um that you know for sure gives me a starting point at the very

least um and now like kind of what i do is a lot of times i will

look at my website and see where the gaps are in my map and

then i'll go fill out you know gaps on the map it was it you

know kind of started out where i was just trying to hit different

counties um and in january i'd officially i've hit bars in all 72

counties of the state so um so that was kind of my first you know

goal was to hit every county Now that we're there now I'm just

going around filling the pockets And summertime always gets

crazy for me because I've got music festivals that I get invited

to like Country Boom down in West Salem just outside of La Crosse

Um that's always the weekend after the Thursday Friday Saturday

after the 4th of July So so obviously I'll be down in that

area hitting bars um along with you know doing the music festivals

and um like I've last year I was invited down to country in the

Berg down in Cedarburg Um so then I'll be down in that area

So I'll be hitting bars in that area you know as well So um and

then like in in in my area uh there's country jam um summer jam

here in Eau Claire So like because I'm hitting bars you know when

I'm you know in the area where I'm you know at the at the music

festival So that kind of dictates kind of where I go on those

weekends So um summer does get does get pretty crazy but it's

You know summertime in Wisconsin is crazy anyway Oh dude Yeah

It's spring break from Memorial Day to Labor Day Let's be exactly

Exactly How do you navigate through the winter Like I mean it

must slow down a little bit Or is it pretty much the exact same

It's it's the exact same You know and surprisingly there hasn't

been I haven't had to deal with crazy stupid weather I mean

I've dealt I remember there was one trip I did a year ago in

January It was so foggy like it was horrible um i i couldn't

see i couldn't were you up were you up by you or where were you

yeah i was uh i was actually in the medford area um okay the home

of the home of tombstone pizza yeah yeah um and it was it was bad

i couldn't get back you know i'm out on these county roads and

stuff that i'm not used to being you know so i'm not familiar but

even i can even you know like you're driving to work it's the

same path i've done for 15 years if you get those foggy

mornings like you just get disoriented and you don't know you know

where you're at so it's you know you just got to be really careful

uh there's been a couple ice storms that were got a little

sketchy um but luckily nothing nothing bad enough where it where it

screwed up a whole weekend that's for sure so Have you had any

unexpected dive bar experiences oh man like i mean i've seen

some i've seen some quirky stuff like what at dive bars i mean

anything from uh mental races to uh vibrator races to uh

what chicken bingo is a thing um it's just just quirky stuff um

yeah it's uh i i've never i've i've never seen anybody

erase a vibrator before and so uh How does it even work

Only in Wisconsin right Is that like a slant Yeah is that a slant

So this was they do it twice a year This is Sandy Hook Tavern

down in the southwest corner of the state like really close to the

like the tip of the southwest corner okay uh and it's not even

really a town it's it's uh it's a great place that it set up

outside um they had a big fish fry going on total wisconsin thing

so they like they had the same vibrators and they would have them

in a um everybody would use the same vibrator but so it sounds

really bad doesn't it um so they would put them in this uh uh

pillowcase and they would they i think they would race like 6

at a time And so people would come up and they'd you know

they'd call a name and and you'd come up and you'd reach in and

grab a vibrator out of the bag And that was that was yours And

and the the funny part is people would people would name their

vibrators I was just going to ask: Yeah And I like one of the

names that I remember like sticks out in my head was Buzz

Lightyear which makes Makes sense But yeah so they race I

would say the course is it must be kind of like rain gutter type

things you know kind of like a forty five degree slant Well then

they go down they go through and they go through these tubes

and then the finish line is down at another level while the tubes

are referred to as the fallopian tubes that they slide down

through and get to the bottom It's redneck engineering

at its finest *********** Oh my goodness That's amazing Yeah And

the cool part is it's all a big fundraiser um it's a fundraiser

for i'm i'm not a hundred percent sure but i believe there's a

local that passed away um and they do like a scholarship and his

you know in his honor that that the uh you know that all the the

money goes to and and they do have a awesome trophy like the

trophy's 4 feet tall with a vibrator on top of it So take that

home for Yeah right Look what I want honey Yeah it's I mean it's

Wisconsin I mean we'll I tell people like you: give us a stick and

a milkweed leaf and we'll make a drinking game out of it We will

That's amazing So let's look ahead Do you have

anything long-term like a book maybe a series world

domination Yes yes and yes I've had people reach out to me

that have books on Wisconsin history and stuff like that because

these dive bars are – The nostalgic history of Wisconsin is so

insane And that's one of the things too like the Tavern League of

Wisconsin is they're here to help preserve You know they've

been around for 90 years 19 30 5 They've been around They're

basically a union for these bars And I've met so many great

people you know through the tavern league and um you know as

long as if i can help it the tavern league can help but these bars

are going to be around for for a long long time and uh but

yeah i mean we've already started plans um like probably a month

or probably a month ago i've already started plans uh for a party

for bar number 1000 um oh yeah we're looking we're looking at

that like We're looking middle to end of September probably is

when that's going to happen If I keep up the same pace that I have

I can hone in and I've already got a bar location picked out for

it that will be announced probably maybe 6 weeks beforehand

But I know the owners of the bar I've gotten to know them really

well And I love those guys And I brought that up to them in

April I'm like hey what do you think about be in bar

number one thousand and they they're all about it so just kind

of yeah they'd be you know they'd be almost become family to me

like um so many of these dive bar patrons you know they're you

know they're not blood related but they're you know they're their

family yeah so so yeah i mean it's you know stuff like that i

mean that's kind of the immediate future but ********************

*************** ***************** ******************** ************* and uh what's the one that

uh the diner yeah diamonds and dives whatever yeah i've never seen

it i'm you know i've never i've never seen it um but i mean

that's cool i mean like when i started this that's one of my

buddies told me that um uh you know he's like well you're gonna be

the the guy fieri of dive bars i'm like i yeah you know i know

who he was you know for his cooking stuff whatever before

before that show but yeah i mean i'll i'll take his bank

account any day yeah for sure yeah man hundred percent but um are

there any places that you want to hit in the future like like i

have to hit this besides your 1000 that because that's that's

different but like i i would say um i would say the the

first place that popped in my head when you said that um is tom's

burndown cafe on madeline island That's it's a dive bar out

there And obviously the setting is incredible I've seen pictures

and so I'm hoping I'm hoping to get up there within the next

couple of months That'll be an experience we'll have to take

You know I have to take a ferry over and do all that stuff which

you know will just add to the experience But yeah but yeah

there's there's so many great places that um that i want to

hit the people you know like zenda tap is another one i can think

of right off the top of my head down in the southeast you know

corner of the state um places get suggested so much i'm like why

is it why has this bar been suggested five hundred times like i

need to go figure it out yeah um and and and that's how i i

stumbled across some of these great places and i couldn't do

what i do if it wasn't for the help of my followers because i some

of these places are not easy to find My GPS can't find them

sometimes but Oh dude that's a good that's a question I will yeah

What is that like Like have you ever had that happen where I

can't freaking find this place That's never happened but like going

to a place I remember it was Babes Country Club southwest of

Moston kind of Wisconsin Delish area Yeah The GPS in my truck

it looked like we were driving across Lake Michigan Like it

was all blue there was no road I had no cell phone service but

luckily I was locked in on my phone So I mean I was running

off the satellite So I mean so I was able to like I found it And

I told my fiance I'm like I've got a feeling when we find this

place it's not going to be a country club And it wasn't a

country club And I don't know if they were just giving me crap but

I said something to them when I got there And I'm like well I

thought this was a country club And they're like: well you can go

outside and just tee up a golf ball and rifle it into the woods if

you want to But uh but the rumor rumor had it they wanted to

build a golf course there and they built the 9th hole first

and that's that's all the further they got so whether it's true or

not maybe it was some locals just pulling my leg but hell i'm

i'm sticking to that story Any collaborations that you would

ever do I always thought for you it'd be kind of cool to do a

beer collab Get a craft beer a small beer guy and create a beer

with them That'd be kind of cool yeah um i mean i do have um

i mean i do have my own vodka what yeah that's been a thing since

last august so yeah like my logo that i designed is uh it's

it's on a bottle of vodka um and so yeah like i had uh uh dan

and kim who own uh timekeeper distillery in wasa- it's an old

train depot- that they turned into a into a distillery and now

they they uh they actually have a sister location now they have a

green bay location maybe 6 blocks away from lambeau field so um

so yeah he reached out to me a year ago and asked if i'd be

interested in having my own vodka and i'm like Absolutely

So I got to yeah I got to design the logo uh the label for it and

everything Like I didn't realize that the label it has to be

okayed through the government Um but so yeah I mean it's all

FDA stuff And so I told I told Dan I'm like You know you go

into a bar and all the booze is people want bright stuff and

bright caps and stuff that sticks out I'm like I'm doing dive

bar stuff Let's do it totally different Yeah So I mean I went

black and white He's like I like it i like it so uh so yeah i

mean this is: uh it's distributed uh like i said it's made right

in wasa a hundred percent hundred percent made in wisconsin um no

matter how crazy the world gets we're never gonna have a tariff on

my vodka um and uh um and it's distributed uh right now it's

distributed through uh bills distributing out of monomany and and

superior so if anybody's interested in and getting it get a hold

of bills distributing and Um so yeah and it's good stuff I

mean it's not dive I mean it's dive bar vodka but it's not it's

not real vodka That's for sure Right That's awesome But yeah it

runs um I've seen it in liquor stores from anywhere from 17

bucks to 21 bucks So it's not it's not terrible Um it's distilled

from corn and it's- uh I mean it's your typical lady proof vodka

It's distilled 6 times So it's nice and smooth um and it's

definitely i'm a i'm a vodka lemonade guy in the summer too but

when i'm chilling at home i'm not going to be drinking i'm not

going to be drinking hard liquor and right and uh doing so i can't

be speaking cursive in front of these bars you know doing doing

what i do so i just i stick to beers when i'm when i'm out

reviewing bars probably a good idea yeah What's your go-to drink

Is it beer That's your go-to drink Yeah I'm definitely a Bush

Light guy I'm going to grab one right now Yeah But yeah I'm a

Bush Light guy I like smooth beer I mean I can drink

pretty much any light beer You can do it But yeah Yeah uh but i

do have crohn's disease too so i have to watch oh wow so some of

the things like i can't eat spicy things and there's just certain

things that just upset my stomach um so yeah i just i just

have to be careful so i mean that's that's kind of the biggest

reason why you know why i stick to bush light it sits well on my

stomach so um And I think it tastes freaking great even

though it's not made in Wisconsin It is the number one selling

beer in Wisconsin without a doubt But I'm sure But I mean I

mean I've got PBR in my in my fridge here too And I mean I love

lining Kugel's right now where I'm sitting I'm I know I'm 2.9

miles away from the original line at Kugel's unfortunately is

no longer a thing but but they do still have their lining lodge um

where you can and they have their pilot brewery there you know too

So the Chippewa falls Yeah I heard are they bringing that back or

are they bringing the the There was something that I saw

briefly about the cabin or the lodge Well the lodge is still open

The Limey Lodge is still open As far as the brewery itself I

haven't heard anything that it's back open I know the Limey Kugel

family wanted to purchase it back from from molson coors um

maybe that's what i saw yeah i don't know if that's a possibility

or not but you know it's unfortunate um yeah you know it's i

mean times change um you know and sometimes you know these

bigger companies buy out the smaller ones and sometimes it's

you know miller doesn't you know the miller doesn't care about the

hundred and ninety years of history whatever it is with

Well I was at 18 64 I believe So I think I think 18 64 So

yeah 180 years whatever it is But but you know I love I like

Lainey's too So I do too man And the the the Shandy series are

phenomenal It really is cool You know Lainey's is one of the I'm

a I am a beer snob I self-admitted I don't care And Lainey's was

one of the first beers that actually kind of like led me down that

road believe it or not man yeah oh yeah a hundred percent it was

so good because it was so consistent right for a smaller a

smaller beer yeah everyone tastes the same no matter yes no matter

where you bought it from or yeah yeah yeah um we're almost out of

time dude but i got some more quick a couple more questions for

you all right um so if you could bring 3 people to your

favorite dive bar for a round of drinks dead or alive doesn't

matter who's coming with you and why it's got to be 3 um

immediate um chris farley and i don't do i have to say why

because i mean that's pretty much self-explanatory yeah um you go

to go to the dive bar down by the river yeah um yeah he uh

you know he is the epitome of wisconsin he was he was

phenomenal um unfortunately you know gone way too soon but um

he just you know he's the most famous wisconsinite that we have

that hasn't murdered people you know um but uh gosh and i

don't man a couple more um gosh that's a that's a

really tough question uh your fiance you gotta bring your fiance

well yeah i mean she's usually with me anyway because she's exactly

she's almost contractually obligated to do this but um but yeah

i mean and she's you know she's great she's she's a trooper for

for putting up with the shenanigans i mean there's there's not

the drama that goes along with it like we don't we don't do that

stuff but um But yeah and obviously yeah I'd like to have her you

know by my side when I'm doing my thing And I don't know you

know another I would say another let's do another He's a

Wisconsinite not born here but I would love to have some cold

ones with Brett Favre at a dive bar Oh there you go Because I

know like it's going to some of these dive bars I've heard stories

of him at these dive bars that I've been at Like oh yeah him and

Mark Chimura used to come in here all the time Chewy Yeah but

uh yeah talk about a fall from grace with chewy but yeah but you

know um yeah and that's and that's the thing like i have people

that follow me that i've got nfl players that follow me i've got

um like colin blackwell uh plays he was playing for the blackhawks

for a couple years now he plays with the dallas stars yeah um he's

from lives in milwaukee in the off season uh from he's from boston

went to college at harvard um but listen milwaukee in the off

season we're going to get together this summer and drink some beers

but right now he's got a stanley cup to win right now they're in

round 2 about one game and none um but uh it you know it

doesn't matter i've got actors that follow me too like andy richter

from the conan o'brien show um really with me yeah um and it

doesn't matter if you've got ten bucks in your wallet or ten

million bucks everybody loves dive bars a hundred percent you know

of that man i love that um jared we are almost out of time i

really appreciate you coming on go ahead and promote yourself uh

where people can find you and all that good stuff Yeah I guess

you can find me on like I said Facebook TikTok Instagram YouTube

Threads Wisco Dive Bars If you're on Facebook look for the blue

checkmark I guess Facebook Instagram Threads the blue checkmark is

there Or check out my website wiscodivebars.com We're going to be changing that up a little bit more We're going

to be bringing more to that but that's where the map is of all currently Other than that you can find me at your local

dive bar If I you've got a favorite bar that that I haven't reviewed yet just sit there and wait and I'll show up

eventually And of course I will include all of that in the show notes Jared Hey love to be a part of your 1000th

place Absolutely So keep me in the loop with that I would love to do a countdown with you OK maybe we do like at

you know 10 We have ten left Yeah we could do a countdown or whatever you want to do I would love to be a part

of that though Yeah had be great And when we get to 999 like we're going to have to do it in print style We're going

to party like it's 999 Right All right Well thank you bro Uh thank you everybody watching everybody listening until

next time We'll see you later Appreciate you There it is That was pretty smooth Huh?