What Happened to Y-Not III After Bar Rescue? (Milwaukee, WI)

Y-Not III was a longtime dive bar on Milwaukee's East Side, owned by Nick DePalma, when Bar Rescue filmed "Spoiled Brat Party" (aired December 7, 2014). The bar had recently been forced to relocate from its original Walton Street-area building after a 2011 sale tied to a redevelopment project, and the move to a pricier East Side spot on Kenilworth Place left it saddled with higher rent it could not comfortably cover with its existing sales volume. Jon Taffer's team retrained the staff, overhauled the drink and food menus, and rebuilt the space around a 1970s theme, renaming the bar Nick's House after the owner and adding new furniture and signature cocktails.

Six weeks after the visit, the show reported improved sales at the newly relaunched bar. The bump did not last: reviewers who visited afterward described inconsistent drinks and food, and by spring 2016 DePalma announced Nick's House would close. According to Milwaukee Record, the bar shut its doors for good on May 7, 2016, roughly 18 months after the episode first aired. That summer, Milwaukee Record reported that the building itself, dating back more than 125 years and previously home to other neighborhood restaurants, had been sold to a real estate investment firm that owned the adjacent parcel, and that it was demolished over the July 4th weekend in 2016.

The owner told Urban Milwaukee at the time that the cleared lot might eventually become a sculpture garden, though Milwaukee Record noted that plan was never confirmed and no such development has been reported since. The site has remained an empty, fenced lot in the years since, making Y-Not III/Nick's House the more short-lived of Milwaukee's two Bar Rescue makeovers; the other, Packy's Pub, lasted considerably longer before its own 2022 closure. No subsequent reporting indicates any new construction or business has opened on the former Kenilworth Place site as of this writing.