by Dive Bars are a must-stop for many on a Wisconsin road trip. They offer unique qualities, often cheap beer options, and sometimes some of the best food you could ever stumble across. Then again, sometimes all they have are chips hanging from clips along with some pickled eggs in jars or beef sticks. It all depends.
Jared Schutz, an avid fan of Wisconsin dive bars, starting cataloguing them on social media in January 2022. His goal was just to help celebrate them and share some of the best. He started near his Spring Valley home, eventually branching out across the state uncovering all kinds of dives, decor, and customers – most of whom welcomed him, others raising an eyebrow at why he whipped out his phone to shoot video in their local watering hole.
Nearly three years later, his Wisco Dive Bar Reviews have covered 700 of them. He shoots a video at each, describing the merits of the bar, meeting locals, and uncovering what makes each one noteworthy, culminating in a rating (not with stars, but with Busch Lights). Each gets catalogued on his socials (including Instagram, where we first found him) and his website, WiscoDiveBars.com. He now gets recognized often when he enters a dive bar – and increasingly on the street, for his work. The bars themselves know he’s there to celebrate them. He has many more to explore, considering several thousand dive bars operate in the state.
Wisconsin Dive Bars take center stage in this new podcast episode
In this State Trunk Tour podcast episode, Eric Paulsen and Jared discuss the merits of Wisconsin dive bars, some of the “must haves” to qualify as one, how they fit into their communities (even when they’re seemingly in the middle of nowhere), and how “Busch Lights” became his star rating standard. We also cover how his social media reach has led to partnerships including Kwik Trip, even leading to his own brand of Vodka, which just came out recently. We also cover some specific dive bars and what makes them unique, share a few stories, and note a number of them in the region around his home in western Wisconsin. And yes, we’ll have additional episodes that focus on other parts of Wisconsin soon!
If you love a good dive bar, you’ll love this conversation. Connect to it here or stream it now below:
