Agency bar in Milwaukee is a 2025 James Beard Award finalist

The finalists for the James Beard Awards 2025 were announced on Wednesday morning.

The Milwaukee Cocktail Bar Agency, which was opened in the Dubbel Dutch Hotel in 817 N. Marshall St. at the end of the last summer, was appointed this year as a finalist in the national category of the best new bar, a new category.

The owner Ryan Castelez debut as a pop-up at Discourse coffee on 1020 N. Broadway before moving her to his own room last August. The bar is known for its innovative concept with a non -alcoholic counterpart for every cocktail on its menu.

Last year, Forbes Magazine said that it was probably the country’s first hybrid concept.

“We love the idea of ​​creating safe spaces that are not only based on the concept of alcohol,” Castelez told Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last summer. “People who do not drink want to feel enclosed and integrated and have a normal night. We try to do this with agency – give the drinkers the agency to make this choice, and both parties feel equally valued.”