You can add another name to the list of changing East Side establishments. Jason Growel, owner of The Eastsider, confirmed to the Shepherd this morning that the bar’s last day of operations will be Saturday, Dec. 16.
Growel recently sold the bar to Taylor Layton, who plans on opening a new establishment called Baccanera, a craft cocktail and wine bar with a soccer theme. Layton was once a Milwaukee Wave player.
“The area is changing,” Growel said. “It’s becoming more like a Bay View or something like that. The college scene is dead over there. You can just tell by what’s happened. Rascal’s is gone, BBC is gone and all of the other college bars that were there. I think it was just time.”
Eastsider was once heavily frequented by UW-Milwaukee students, and known for their Wednesday night fishbowls and Thursday night $1 bombs. On many nights you could see lines wrapped around the block to get in. Growel thinks that the new concept will better serve the changing neighborhood.
“I believe that bar will do well with all of the development that has gone on there, especially those apartments that have gone up,” Growel said about Baccanera. “Those places aren’t cheap to rent so I don’t believe that college kids are renting those. It’s probably people in their late 20s, early 30s. I think that this kind of establishment is going to work wonders for them.”
Growel purchased The Eastsider, which has been around since 1999, 10 years ago. He says he had been looking to sell for about a year. After the sale, he hopes that he will see some familiar faces until the bar’s last day in business.
“Come and say goodbye if you want to, have a drink and toast to The Eastsider before it closes down,” he said.
