Twitch’s Bar has its own personality

August 16, 2018

By David Nordby The Brillion News

BRILLION – Live music, apple pie shots, arcade games and cheeseburger baskets. Twitch’s Bar and Grill on Main Street has brought a new flavor of entertainment to Brillion.

The new bar opened in May and replaced M&P’s Smokehaus that closed earlier this year. The man behind the nickname Twitch is Gene Lohse. He’s a big rock music fan, so when patrons surprised him with a shared taste in music, Lohse knew he would fit right in.

“The one thing that I think surprised me is the amount of people that really like rock music in a smaller town. I was a little shocked about that, but it’s been great,” Lohse said.

Lohse grew up in New Holstein and now lives in Menasha with his wife, three kids and a dog. The location in Brillion opening brought him to town, but he’s always liked the size of the area.

“I’ve always been in a small-town life,” Lohse said. “I always liked the New Holstein area.”

Lohse had the experience he felt he needed after he previously ran a private bar.

“It’s a little better than I expected. The town welcomed me pretty good,” Lohse says.

Lohse has had the nickname, Twitch, for more than one decade now and thought it made for a good name of a bar.

“Give it a little bit more personal feel to it,” he says. “Whether it’s me or any of my bartenders they should feel like they’re welcome here, a little conversation.”

Lohse currently has four bartenders working for him, two of them are Brillion residents. The bar already has regular customers too, he says.

“I had a pretty good idea on how to run the bar part itself,” Lohse said. “I’ve always been real good with conversating with people so that was a huge bonus, where I could jump in running right away and I didn’t have to learn how to talk to people, how to keep inventory, things like that.”

Please see the complete story in the August 16, 2018 edition of The Brillion News.