That makes the nearly six year old Hybrid - the newest gay bar in the city - the oldest bar on the block. Was Originally a Butcher Shop and Grocery Store Today, Libby’s is closed, replaced with Van Buren’s Whiskey Bar, and Angelo’s is being remodeled, and will reopen under the ownership of Fried, who has since bought out his partner. To the south were Angelo’s and Libby’s, each of which had been in business for decades. Van Buren streets at the foot of the Edward D. It was located in an old building at the southeast corner of E. The opportunity to open the Hybrid came for Nate Fried and Bill Lison with the closing of Dancing Ganesha Restaurant in 2007. The nearest spot, the venerable This Is It, was still a good hike downtown. Meanwhile, the target audience included a growing population in the Brady Street – East Side areas consisting of folks who perhaps did not care to travel a couple of miles for a congenial tavern. It was not long ago that gay-friendly establishments (as we call them now) were generally concentrated in a small, then-unpopulated area of the city’s post-industrial near South Side. The name itself alludes to the changes that have occurred in society and in the gay tavern business in recent years.
Established in 2010, Hybrid Lounge is the newest - and perhaps last to ever open - of Milwaukee’s gay bars.
