The Avalon Theatre remains dark, Oriental Drugs and Goldman’s are gone. The last 10 years have been bad for local landmarks. Art’s Concertina Bar was another symbol of Old Milwaukee that was about to disappear. The city’s last remaining polka bar was rescued last fall by a new owner, an energetic young St. Francis firefighter called Andy Kochanski. Now called Kochanski’s Concertina Beer Hall, the bar is getting a gradual facelift while remaining true to its purpose of preserving polka in a city where polka once was king.
There used to be more concertinas hanging on the wall...
The old owner, Art Altenberg, left five of them. There’ve been other changes. I’ve been scrubbing the walls! You can see pictures of the line between clean and not clean on my website. The mirrors are brand new. The place used to be very dark and I’ve painted it a lighter color. The two high-definition TV sets are new. I was at the last Christmas party Art had here. It fell on the night of a Packers’ game. A table full of old ladies had to smuggle in a TV set! I said to myself, when this place is mine, no way in hell will anybody have to smuggle in a TV to watch the Packers!
So you were coming to the Concertina Bar as a patron?
For about 10-12 years. A friend brought me here on a whim. I loved its uniqueness. It’s a one-of-a-kind gem of Milwaukee.
Did you imagine you’d ever own it?
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Throughout my career of going to bars, I’d always walk into a place and take everything inputting it into the perspective of what I’d do if I owned the place. But I didn’t want to own just any bar. When I decided to take the plunge and acquire one, I looked at a number of places but they would have been nightmares to fix up. Then I remembered hearing that Art wanted to sell. I realized I could own the Concertina Bar if I made a lot of deep sacrifices.
Was taking over as easy as you hoped?
I went into it thinking it would be a turn-key situation. It didn’t turn out that way. It was lots of work! Without the help of friends and family, I’d have been up the creek. I couldn’t have done it myself and I couldn’t afford to pay the contractors.
What’s going on at the Beerhall?
Tuesday night is an acoustic open jam. Wednesday is a polka open jam. Thursday is free dance lessons from 7-8 and then different kinds of bandssurf, rockabilly, bluegrass. It’s a non-polka night to bring in the Bay View hipsters and the young East Side crowd, so they experience the place and want to come back another night to try out one of those crazy polka bands. Friday-Saturday are polka nights. Sunday is another polka open jam and, of course, Packer games when they’re on. Monday we’re closed for now. There’s no cover.
What’s the polka scene like?
It’s not like it was in the day, which is why I’m doing everything I can to expose younger people to polka music. It’s primarily older people but there is a younger generation of polka fans and musicians. I have to say I’ve never felt so much love and support as I’ve had from the polka people.
