WHO WE ARE
Welcome to Scooter's, Eau Claire's premier inclusive dive bar. Stemming from an LGBTQ+ foundation in downtown Eau Claire, we have grown into the Chippewa Valley's haven for dance, karaoke, drag, and good times. As a locally-owned-and-operated establishment, Volume One readers have repeatedly selected Scooter's for Eau Claire's #1 Dance floor for 16 consecutive years. We're dedicated to continuing this tradition, being a refuge for the LGBTQ+ community while keeping our arms wide open to any who simply want a good and safe night out.
OUR MISSION
Scooter's is a safe, inviting bar located downtown Eau Claire who is proud of who we are and the environemt we foster. Our mission is to embrace everyone, and create positive experiences through good drinks, great nights, and the people who make them.
OUR VISION
Scooter’s will be the Chippewa Valley’s most recognized inclusive bar and known beyond Eau Claire as the place where everyone belongs, with a strong cultural presence and a thriving year-round community of regulars and partners.
OUR HISTORY
Scooter's opened at 411 Galloway Street in Eau Claire on January 3, 1997. The original owner, Wayne Marek, chose the name to honor all of the Scotts who helped make the place possible. By then, the address already had a space in Eau Claire's LGBTQ+ history.
Before Scooter's, there had been two short-lived gay bars at 411 Galloway: the ephemeral, only-open-at-night Back Door (1991-1992) and Clay Crowley's Scruples (1992-1996). Jody Kvapil and David Beranek purchased the bar in December 1997, relaunched it, and celebrated the Grand Opening for the whole month of February 1998. Many of the early Pride celebrations in the Chippewa Valley have their origins in the early nights of Scooter's, now carried on as Pride in the Park by the Chippewa Valley LGBTQ+ Center. In the early 2000s, the owners hired Miss Dee-Lovely to paint a mural inside the bar depicting its history. The artwork features prominent local drag artists and references the gay bar predecessors that had occupied the building.
Twenty-six years later and now owned by Jody Kvapil and Brett Berg, Scooter's is one of Wisconsin's oldest LGBTQ+ spaces,. Volume One readers have selected it as Best Dance Floor in town for 16 years running.
Staying power like that doesn't happen by chance; it happens because the people running the bar haven't forgotten why it opened in the first place: to give the LGBTQ+ community of the Chippewa Valley, and anyone who wants to stand beside them, a space to belong.
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