Bourbon Beat
Milwaukee
Summary
The Bourbon Beat operated at 400 N. Plankinton Avenue in downtown Milwaukee from about 1961 to 1963 and appears in national gay bar guides of the period. It was a renaming of the Black Nite, whose reputation had been damaged by a 1961 confrontation; the Milwaukee Common Council required a new name as a condition of keeping the liquor license. After relaunching the bar, operator Wally Whetham moved on to open the nearby Captain's Cabin. The Plankinton Avenue building was demolished in 1966 for the extension of St.
Paul Avenue.