Stage 1 bar in downtown Green Bay, Aug. 5, 2025. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A bar in downtown Green Bay lost its appeal Tuesday night to have its liquor license renewed.
After more than an hour and a half of testimony and discussion at the Green Bay Common Council meeting regarding Stage 1’s liquor license, the council denied the bar’s appeal.
It was back in early June when the common council first voted to revoke Stage 1’s liquor license renewal, citing a risk the bar poses to public safety. The owner of the bar then appealed that decision.
Green Bay police recommended the liquor license denial, citing 18 violations or disturbances at Stage 1 in the past year.
“This non-renewal recommendation does not come lightly. This isn’t a situation calling for another sit-down or another meeting. We’ve had 17 meetings and conversations. I can safely say that the police department has had more conversations with Stage 1 in the past year than any other bar in Green Bay, and there are about 170-ish bars in Green Bay,” said an attorney for the city at Tuesday’s meeting.
The bar was given six warnings, the licensee has been found guilty of three liquor license-related municipal citations. So with fights, a shots-fired call where ID scanners weren’t used and easy wins like just opening or taking down curtains, this isn’t the type of compliance that we expect from our liquor license holders. The city has plenty of reason to and evidence supporting non-renewal of this license.
Alexander Graziano, the owner of Stage 1, said at the June meeting he believes Green Bay has a pattern “of shutting down establishments deemed to serve a demographic that the city seems to view as a problem.”
During his remarks Tuesday, Graziano asked the common council to allow the bar more time to implement their new security measures.
“Time for the opportunity to prove that Stage 1, or whatever it may become in its next stage, and that I be given the chance to prove to you all and to this community, that we care tremendously about being a positive addition here,” Graziano said. “We will do whatever we can to prove that we want to continue being a part of this community.”
The part that we may have seemed to play, or the part that you think we played, while it may have negative connotations to it, it’s not something that will continue, and we’re doing everything in our power to show that we’ve already taken those steps and things have changed, and we’re going to continue to do more to change it even further.
Stage 1 is located at 231 North Broadway Street.
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