Pool at Vitale?s, then dancing at Purlie?s, then winding down at Mr. P?s. For a generation, the three taverns within a mile of each other gave blacks on the South Side places in their neighborhood to mingle after dark ….However, since the three bars closed in the late 1990s, taverns that cater to blacks have assumed another pattern.
“We call them grand opening grand closings,” said Dwayne Williams, a UW-Madison budget analyst who has a side business as a music and events promoter.