BWW Onalaska, Wis. and other La Crosse Area sites

ranger · **Joined:** Tue Jan 12, 2010 12:27 am **Posts:** 630

The BWW is a typical BWW. I think the management is excellent, and the servers are generally friendly and efficient. But the food is high in fat and not all that good. The location is smoke-free. They have a patio area open for smokers when the weather allows it. There are several hotels in the area, a couple within walking distance. It is a long way from downtown La Crosse, about ten miles.

We currently have two other locations.

Players is right in downtown La Crosse. As far as I can tell, they don't serve food. You should be aware that it is a gay bar. I've played (trivia!) there a few times. The regulars are reasonably friendly and mostly know better than to hit on straight guys. There are three hotels within easy walking distance. Players currently allows smoking, but Wisconsin will go smoke-free next Summer. I would call the beer selection mediocre.

Ardies is about a mile from downtown. It has, easily, the best food of the three establishments. Nothing fancy, but good dinners and great burgers. Sadly, the dinners are not available in the bar, and trivia is not available in the dining room. It is also smoke-free. The beer selection is pretty good. They only have eight working playmakers.

Edited 1/22/10

tommyk · **Joined:** Sun Jan 10, 2010 8:37 pm **Posts:** 70

I have fond memories of La Crosse.

My first "real" job out of college was as a textbook salesman for Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in the mid-1970s, covering Wisconsin, the U.P. and a strip of Iowa and Minnesota along the Mississippi. I did a week of training/shadowing with the rep who had been covering the area and had moved to take over one based in the Twin Cities. He was a connoisseur of strip clubs and La Crosse and Madison had the best ones so we split our week between the two UW campuses.

The last time I was there was on a road trip with my dad in the mid-1980s. He had gotten tickets to see a production of A Prairie Home Companion in Red Wing, Minnesota, with a group from the South Bend/Mishawaka NPR listening area. He wanted to skip the bus ride with the group so we could stop off in La Crosse and look up some relatives that he had been in touch with in his genealogical researches. We didn't get to see if the strip joints were as much fun as they had been but it's nice to hear that the town is still a "Sin City."

ranger · **Joined:** Tue Jan 12, 2010 12:27 am **Posts:** 630

Sadly, the strip clubs in town are all gone. Too many bluenoses. There is one about 30 miles North.

They were still around in the mid eighties though, I think.

Visiions in Madison is still going. I remember enjoying it in the seventies when I visited there, but IMHO it has gone downhill.

TCHCNB · **Joined:** Tue Jan 19, 2010 2:19 pm **Posts:** 284

Also fond memories of La Crosse as I went to college there 1975 - 1979. Back then legal drinking age was 18 (can you even imagine that??!!??), so we had a bar right in the student union on campus that we made use of when we didnt want to go downtown.

Very fun town. When Iwas thre the whole Onalaska area was not developed yet. I think the mall opened right around the time I was leaving college. There was really nothing out there at the time except for the K-Mart, as I recall anyway.

Strip clubs?............ahhh yes, my very first time!! The (in)famous Blue Tiger on 3rd St. downtown.

ranger · **Joined:** Tue Jan 12, 2010 12:27 am **Posts:** 630

I just missed you. Came to La Crosse at the beginning of 1980. Kmart was on the South Side then, where it still is. There was one built in Onalaska near the mall, but it closed several years ago.

Sometimes when I'm standing outside BWW waiting for the bus, I look over the urbanization of what was farmland when I first saw it. I can see Best Buy, WalMart, Home Depot, a Hampton Inn, and many other businesses.

I did visit the Blue Tiger once. Long gone now.

Thanks for the trip to Nostalgia Land!

FrankC · **Posted:** Fri Jan 22, 2010 4:16 am