Longtime patron buys the iconic Milwaukee LGBTQ dance club La Cage – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Safe and welcome.
That’s how Dave Wolz felt when he started going to La Cage in Milwaukee more than three decades ago.
“It was a place for me to kind of figure out my sexuality and meet people that had the same mentality that I had been hiding over these years,” he said.
Recently, Wolz became the iconic dance club’s new owner — and he wants to make sure it continues being a “safe spot” for members of the city’s LGBTQ community, just like it was for him. And he also has some new ideas up his sleeve, including burlesque shows and bingo.
“We provide entertainment and an outlet for LGBT people to find others in their own community and other people who are allies,” Wolz said.
Going from patron to owner
La Cage, which opened in 1984, was the first gay bar Wolz ever went to. At that time, it was an “exciting” video dance bar that played tracks and remixes he had never heard before.
“It was the first place I went to when I came out and it has a special place in my heart,” said Wolz, a graduate of Wauwatosa East High School and Lawrence University.
Over the years, Wolz became good friends with La Cage’s founders: George Prentice and Corey Grubb.
Prentice and Grubb owned the business until 2005, which is when Kris Heindel and Michael Jost took it over, a previous Journal Sentinel report said.
A few years ago, the founders became the owners once again to give the establishment a revamp after hearing it was facing financial woes, according to a 2018 Milwaukee Business Journal report.
Fast-forward to last winter: While Wolz was in Florida visiting with Prentice and Grubb, he said, they were talking about being ready to step away from the business.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘It can’t turn into something else,’ ” Wolz said. “It has to stay true to La Cage.”
There are “very few” LGBTQ bars and dance clubs, in general, in the area, Wolz explained.
After coming into a bit of an inheritance after his father’s death, Wolz — who owns a company that does software for animal hospitals — decided to buy the business.
“I almost see it as I’m a caretaker for another generation until somebody else picks up the reins in another 10 or 15 or 20 years,” he said. “I see it as an institution in Milwaukee that needs to be saved, it needs to be continued, it needs to continue its legacy.”
What La Cage offers
Wolz described La Cage, located at 801 S. Second St., as a “multi-venue” dance club with a dance floor; a lower-level bistro lounge where people can order food and play pool; an upper-level show lounge; and six bars.
“There’s a different sense of energy in different areas of the club,” he said.
La Cage’s programming includes drag shows Thursdays through Sundays; karaoke on Thursdays; local and guest DJs Thursdays through Saturdays; an AYCD (All you can drink) Thursday wristband deal ($14 for rail, $20 for call, $30 for premium and $5 for soda); and happy hour from 4 to 9 p.m. daily with two-for-one rail drinks and beer, and $1 off other beverages.
In addition to drinks — including about eight beers on tap, craft beers, ciders and craft cocktails — La Cage also has a small kitchen that serves up “traditional bar food with a slight upscale spin,” Wolz said, including homemade tacos, Mexican street corn, wings, mozzarella sticks, burgers, fries and more.
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Bolstering happy hour, adding more entertainment
Wolz officially took the business over in mid-June, and the physical building that houses La Cage was recently purchased by a real estate investor, according to Wolz.
The club didn’t miss a beat.
“My whole anticipation of it was to get the club, sit there, observe it and figure out some small things we’re going to try to do,” Wolz said.
So far, Wolz has begun bolstering the business’ happy hour.
Instead of holding it in the lower-level bistro lounge’s bar, he said, it’s been moved to the main bar on the corner with an open door and windows “to get more light and happiness and more neighborhood connectivity.”
In the future, Wolz said he plans to add aerobatic/silk and burlesque shows, special musical guests and performances, as well as “Boi” Bingo.
La Cage’s hours are 4 p.m. to bar close Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to bar close Sunday.
For more information on La Cage, visit lacage.club or facebook.com/LaCageNiteclub.
Contact Hannah Kirby at hannah.kirby@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HannahHopeKirby.