What Happened to Packy's Pub After Bar Rescue? (Milwaukee, WI)

Packy's Pub was a Milwaukee tavern owned by Patrick "Packy" Campbell when Bar Rescue filmed "Irish Eyes Aren't Smiling" (aired December 14, 2014). Jon Taffer's team retrained the staff on drink and food preparation, refreshed the bar's decor, and rebranded the business as Campbell's Irish Pub, leaning into an Irish theme built around the owner's own name and adding new signature cocktails and pub fare to the menu. The rebrand outlasted many of the show's other Milwaukee-area makeovers: Campbell's Irish Pub continued operating for roughly eight years after its Bar Rescue episode aired, considerably longer than the run of Milwaukee's other featured bar, Y-Not III, which closed and was demolished within about two years of its own episode.

According to Milwaukee Record, the building at 4068 S. Howell Avenue had been listed for sale since 2017, and in April 2022 it was purchased by Hector Espinoza of Guaves Homes LLC. Espinoza told Urban Milwaukee at the time that he had not decided what he would do with the property but that it likely would not continue operating as a bar. Campbell's Irish Pub closed that same month, which Milwaukee Record described as leaving Milwaukee without any of its original Bar Rescue-featured bars still in business. Milwaukee Record's report did not tie the closure to any specific problem on the part of the pub's operators, framing it instead as a consequence of the long-pending building sale and the change in ownership of the underlying property.

No reporting since April 2022 indicates a new tenant has opened in the former Packy's Pub/Campbell's Irish Pub space, and web listings describing the property's current use have not been independently confirmed. The pub's roughly eight-year post-rescue run stands out among the show's Milwaukee-area subjects, most of which closed within a few years of their episodes airing.