Wausau's No Name Bar is hidden in plain sight
Tracey Bauer opened the new bar - also a restaurant - in September in the Best Western on 17th Avenue
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The name started as a joke. Tracey Bauer couldn’t keep her original name for her new bar and restaurant on the ground floor of the Best Western on 17th Avenue, so she asked her customers. But she didn’t like any of them.
So she decided to simply call it No Name Bar - and that’s the name of the hotel enclave that’s actually quite a bit more than its name implies.
Bauer opened the bar/restaurant in September and it’s been a secret amongst those who found the place, especially the hotel’s guests. But she’s hoping to change that status and get the word out about the place.
Bauer has worked in the food industry since she was 14, she told The Wausonian, but she found her first business during COVID when she saw a need for cleaners. Having successfully run that, she nearly opened a restaurant in the Tigerton area where she lives, but that fell through at the last minute.
Then she saw an opening in the hotel and decided to jump on it.
Origins of The No Name Bar
The original name contained the word “royal,” but she said Facebook doesn’t allow names with that word. Customers made a game of coming up with names, but she didn’t like any of them. She joked she was going to call it the No Name Bar, but after some time the name stuck.
But it’s more than a bar. Besides being a full bar for customers, No Name Bar also serves food, cooked in a homemade style from scratch. Her lasagna has been a popular choice, she says, as has the Fettuccine Alfredo and spaghetti. The bacon cheeseburger has been a hit as well. She also serves home-style desserts.
That food is also available as a catering service. She was just wrapping up one such service and, as we spoke, one of the attendees grabbed a couple more desserts to go, telling her the food was excellent.
She’s also got bigger plans for the bar. The property contains an outdoor area that’s fenced in, so with some help from the building staff, she plans to transform the outdoor space, which has a fire pit and a nice view of Rib Mountain.
She plans to host an online dart league (players at the bar can compete against players from other areas), and there are gaming machines as well.
But right now, the real challenge is getting the word out. Bauer says they need a warmer day between 40-50 degrees in order to install the vinyl sign under the Best Western sign. Right now there isn’t much visibility from the road and Google Maps takes you to Bantr, not the No Name Bar next door.
Once the sign is in place and the map location is fixed, No Name Bar might not be a hidden secret anymore.
No Name Bar is open 4:30 pm to midnight Monday through Saturday. See the bar’s Facebook page for more.
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