View the This Is It website.

This Is It was opened in 1968 by the June Brehm. Its first advertising in a gay publication doesn't appear until the August 1972 issue of the GPU News however, when its ad stated "The East Side's New Food 'N' Fun Bar" and listed proprietors Mike and June.

The August 1976 issue of the local "GLIB Guide" describes the business as follows: "Popular downtown lounge busy with reserved gentlemen and then some not so reserved."

Joe Brehm, June's son, continues to operate the bar as a gay bar in relatively unaltered condition architecturally. Of course, color scheme and other changes have been made (the booths along the east wall were removed, etc.) but the bar retains it overall ambiance. While June retained ownership for over 40 years, until her death in January of 2010, her son Joe was the effective manager throughout many of those years.

Under Joe's management, the bar has the distinction of being not only one of the longest continuously running gay bar in the city, but also being a staunch supporter of the gay community. Joe was close friends with Terry Boughner and Jerry Johnson when they produced the Wisconsin Light newspaper, helping them computerize and use new technnology for typesetting, layout, email, etc. Joe and This Is It! are also often the first in line to support community causes, hosting fundraising events for the Cream City Foundation, AIDS, and other worthy causes.

Through the years, Joe has kept the bar exciting, and has maintained a loyal following of old-timers as well as new blood. The bar continues to be busy on evenings when other bars' business lags, in part because it is the only gay bar in the immediate downtown area (and thus easy for visitors staying in downtown hotels to get to), but also because even the young guys new to gay life like the combination of old and new they find in the bar.

Read the article about This Is It!'s 40th anniversary from the November 2008 issue of Q-Life newspaper.