Art Guenther, owner of Just Art’s Saloon, a popular dive bar in Walker’s Point, has died at 80.
The gruff, obstinate, and opinionated bartender was a longtime fixture of Milwaukee’s bar scene, providing a home for 45 years to an eclectic crowd of police officers, businesspeople, lawyers, college kids and neighbors.
Like its owner, the unassuming tavern at 181 S. 2nd St. is one of the last of its kind, said Craig Peterson, a local PR executive and longtime friend of Guenther’s.
“It was a dive bar. Art put no pretenses about what he offered or what he was,” he said.
Most people knew Guenther’s tough exterior. In reality, Peterson said, Guenther had a “heart of a teddy bear.”
When he knew costumers were struggling, he would make sure they were fed and taken care of before they left for the night, Peterson said. He would even look after stray cats in the winter.
“That was a side a lot of folks didn’t see of Art,” Peterson said, “He watched out for everyone.”
Guenther kept his prices cheap, but his occasionally off-color jokes and stories were priceless, Peterson added. Even though his regulars liked to joke that he was a horrible bartender, that’s not what customers came for.
And when people wanted to learn bar dice, they knew who to find.
“I can’t tell you how many newbies had their first shake of a bar cup in Art’s,” he said.
As Milwaukee’s dive bars have slowly disappeared, Peterson said Guenther and his saloon represent a dying history. He wishes more young people got to have the same experience he did.
At other bars, people just don’t know their bartender anymore.
But everyone knew Art.
“In the day of social media where everyone is at arms length, it’s not often that you can be shoulder-to-shoulder at a bar with neighbors and friends and exchange conversation and share ideas,” Peterson said.
The bar’s customers have evolved since the 1980s, first as a magnet for the younger generation, then for regulars and neighbors. More recently, Peterson said a younger crowd has made Just Art’s an “it” bar again.
“He never lost a beat. In fact, in the past couple of year’s his business increased,” he said.
Peterson attributes that to people wanting the local dive bar experience again — one where the owner lives above the bar and knows their name, that looks like it hasn’t been cleaned recently but keeps churning out delicious food.
Funeral services are pending. For now, Peterson can still close his eyes and see Guenther leaning over the bar, waiting to tell a story. To him, he wasn’t just the owner of a dive bar.
“He was it,” Peterson said.
Just Art.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Art Guenther, owner of eclectic Just Art’s Saloon in Walker’s Point, dies at 80
Reporting by Sophia Tiedge , Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
