A local bar owner is celebrating three years in business this weekend.
The Marsh Inn, located in Collins Marsh changed ownership on April 1st, 2020, right as the COVID lockdown was put in place.
Todd Roehrig worked as a bartender for over 20 years prior to wanting to purchase his own tavern.
It was actually his wife who brought up the idea to purchase the Marsh Inn while the couple celebrated their anniversary.
“I came out here with my daughter one day, and we just sat and had lunch. I thought ‘This place is awesome! [It’s] exactly what I want,’” he recalled. “I grew up in Valders, St. Nazianz, I used to live in Reedsville, I live in Brillion now, and this is smack dab in the middle of everything.”
On March 17th, 2020, he held a meeting with the staff to introduce himself, which is the same day the shutdown order was placed on bars and restaurants.
Todd told Seehafer News the first month or so was rather trying on him and his family, but he and his staff came up with a way to serve the community through take out.
“My employees at the time would work lunches and dinners,” Todd explained. “We would…make some money throughout the week, and that money goes into buying food for the next week.”
Todd told us the support he received from the community was nothing short of amazing.
“I went home in tears a couple of nights because it’s so overwhelmingly awesome how well this community supported me when I couldn’t open up to anybody,” Todd said. “People would come and order food and they would have a whole back seat full of takeout boxes because they wanted to go to each place in the area.”
Once The Marsh Inn opened up for real, they began not only serving hot food and cold drinks, they also began hosting bands, trivia nights, and Family Feud events throughout the year.
Todd joked that he and his staff have to get “a little creative” with how they move the furniture around to fit it all, but he wouldn’t change it for the world.
