A flight at Turtle Stack Brewery.
LA CROSSE, WISCONSIN, HOLDS a reputation as a beer-drinking town.
Want booze with your breakfast? During Oktoberfest you could attend Kegs & Eggs, starting at 6 a.m.
Weeks after La Crosse’s celebration of its German heritage, Oktoberfest signs are still posted. Overhead permanent signage also directs you to bars.
The city’s annual Oktoberfest and volume of downtown bars back that up. Or just ask any college kid in La Crosse and you’ll likely get the same assessment.
I ate at Buzzard Billy’s, which includes a bar, and then walked through The Starlite Lounge (a 1950s style cocktail lounge) afterward.
On a recent visit to this Mississippi River town, I spent some time downtown drinking beer (at a brewery), dining and shopping. If I was bar-hopping college age, I could have hung around into the evening and drank until bar closing time. Not that I encourage excessive drinking, but I was once young…
I believe all bars in Wisconsin are now smoke-free.
Digger’s Sting is a retro steakhouse and cocktail bar.
Advertised drink specials alongside a sign that reads: Tavern League of Wisconsin…A Responsible Server.
By far the most creative bar signage.
I noticed, in particular, how La Crosse bars really try to draw patrons inside with creative signage. Take The Library, which clearly aims to attract college students via this message bannered across its awning: If Mom calls, tell her I’m at The Library! My second daughter, who attended the University of Wiscosnin, La Crosse, confirms that The Library truly looks like a library inside. She worked at the library. Not The Library. But at UW-L’s Murphy Library.
Anyone know how many places sell alcohol in downtown La Crosse?
Should you happen to visit La Crosse, take note of all the bars. Try to count them. I wonder how many line the streets of this historic downtown.
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Check back Monday for the final post in my La Crosse series. And click here, then here and here to read my first three posts.
© Copyright 2015 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
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