The Depot reopens after minor renovations, upgrades

Rachel Kroeger

Staff

April 7, 2025

GREEN BAY – A business partnership among friends is helping preserve the history of a Green Bay landmark while at the same time providing a modern, one-of-a-kind dining experience.

Scott Martens, a member of The Depot’s advisory board, said the restaurant’s owner, Shawn Zambrada, was a long-time employee of Titletown Brewing Co. – the business that was previously housed in the more-than-century-old former train station.

“We are helping Shawn get everything going,” Martens said. “My wife and I have been doing everything with him.”

Martens said his friendship with Zambrada started when he and his wife visited The Depot – located at 200 Dousman St. – for a burger special that caught their attention on Facebook.

That meal, he said, led to a personable dining experience – courtesy of The Depot’s customer-oriented staff – and a tour of the then-closed upstairs bar area – compliments of Zambrada.

“We’ve been friends for years,” he said. “Sometimes you need (help) from somebody that’s not in the same business as you.”

Martens said he operates his own waste disposal business while working front of house at The Depot during the evenings – as he said “I love talking to people.”

Recently, Martens said The Depot was closed for a few days for some light remodeling that included a new coat of paint on the walls and an updated menu.

“Our point of doing it was just to update (the building),” he said. “Titletown (re)did this building in 1996, I believe it was, and it’s kind of held its same motif – same everything since that time. So, our idea was to make it The Depot, not ‘the old Titletown.’”

Martens said Zambrada worked for Titletown Brewing Co. “for many, many years” prior to taking ownership of the building upon Titletown’s cross-street move.

“He loved his time at Titletown, and that’s why he’s here,” he said. “He loves this building. When Titletown moved, he had the opportunity to start his own thing and have this building, and that was his dream.”

Martens said the building was built just before the turn of the 20th century.

He said the Chicago and Northwestern Railway began using the station in 1899.

One of the rails outside the restaurant, Martens said, is still active, and sees roughly five cargo trains a day passing through.

“This is a historic building,” he said. “It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings.”

Martens said due to its history and Zambrada’s love for the building, their goal was to breathe new life into it while preserving its historic attributes.

“If you think about it, anybody that’s been in Green Bay over the years – or their family (has) been born and raised here – more than likely, they either came here by ship or by train,” he said. “So, (think about) how many… generational families came to Green Bay and came across these floors?”

Additionally, Martens said the train station served as the literal depot to pick up and transport the Green Bay Packers to and from their away games.

“The Green Bay Packers used to (board a) train to and from their games (from here),” he said. “The history of Green Bay – so much of it comes right through the same floor you and I walk on in this building.”

The former train station’s extensive role in the history of Green Bay, Martens said, serves as his and Zambrada’s motivation to keep those stories alive while simultaneously modernizing the space.

“All we want(ed) to do was freshen it up a little bit – make it ‘The Depot’ and let it stand out,” he said. “And we love to share the history with people. There’s many, many pictures in this building – a lot of history shown – and pretty much every one of us is excited to be a part of this building, and is more than happy to show it off to our visitors.”

Light upgrades

In addition to painting the walls and updating the menu, Martens said The Depot’s upgrades included a transition to LED lighting.

“We got some lighting upgrades (that are going to) brighten up the place,” he said. “Some of the (lighting) still (uses) old incandescent bulbs and all that kind of stuff. So, we’re in the process of upgrading some of that.”

The lighting upgrades, Martens said, also include installing new outdoor lighting to highlight The Depot’s location – something he said he and others on the staff feel is often overlooked.

“We just want it to be a little more visible,” he said. “Unfortunately, we run into a lot of people who don’t understand this building is even here. They drive by it on (Dousman) Street, and they just think it’s a big old brick building. We want to bring some more life into that.”

Part of wanting to bring more attention to The Depot, Martens said, lies in also wanting to expose more people to the rail district of Green Bay.

“With everything that’s been going on with the downtown district… we’re part of the whole,” he said. “We’re not on Broadway – we’re just off Broadway – but we really want people to experience the downtown Green Bay atmosphere.”

Coming next month, Martens said the city is hosting live music at Leicht Park – right next door to The Depot – to help alleviate crowd congestion around the time of the 2025 NFL Draft.

“We feel that’s going to help,” he said. “The amount of people that are supposedly coming in for (the draft)… not everyone’s going to be able to spend the whole time in the Titletown District. So we want them to experience (all of) Green Bay.”

Martens said The Depot is also getting some technological upgrades.

“We’re in the process of installing more TVs,” he said. “(Right now,) we’ve got four big screens that all (combine) into one big TV.”

Though some flooring in the dining and bar areas, both upstairs and downstairs, was upgraded, Martens said the building still features most of its original wood flooring.

“We are keeping the maple flooring that’s original to the building – that will not get replaced, because that’s character to this building,” he said. “The floors that have been replaced over the years (are the only ones) we’re updating.

Because of the age and size of the building, Martens said the local contractor they hired became a bit overwhelmed with the upgrades – but added they “worked their tails off” to meet the deadline.

“There was a deadline that we wanted to meet, so we were only closed for a couple of days,” he said. “There were some unforeseen things, of course, in (this) large old building that… they had to work around.”

Martens said the city’s fire department has also paid a visit to The Depot to make sure the historic building was safe – especially with the uptick in tourism expected in the next couple of months.

“Some things have changed now because of the draft – some of the ordinances – and we’ve been visited by the fire marshal,” he said. “(There were) no issues, we’re just learning a lot more things, and everything that they’ve been telling us, it’s all fairly new, because this area has never experienced anything like what this draft is going to be. So, they’re on their A+ game.”

Others on their A+ game, Martens said, include The Depot’s staff.

“The staff has just been unbelievably awesome on all the changes,” he said. “They’ve been a part of it, they’ve been helping (and) we’ve had some cooks that have come in when we were closed, on their off days, and literally steam-clean things. It’s their work area – it’s their home away from home – and they took the time to come in and help with a lot of things while we were shut down.”

‘A personal connection’

At The Depot, Martens said his wife and Zambrada make their own specialty margaritas and Old Fashioned in-house, both of which are always on tap.

Martens said the community has excitedly welcomed The Depot’s take on what he describes as an “unbelievable” Old Fashioned.

“I try to make sure everybody gets to try it and see what it is, and we’ve had such a great response to it,” he said. “It’s actually made with Four Roses Bourbon, which is not a rail bourbon – it’s a good bourbon. So it’s a bourbon, sour old fashioned.”

Martens said people who’ve tried it love The Depot’s Old Fashioned so much that they’ve been asked to bottle it.

“We’ve had people coming back for it,” he said. “We’ve been asked if we bottle it so that they can take it home, which we do not, but it has gotten such a (great) response from people. We’ve had so many people on Fridays and Saturdays that have been coming back, and they’re like, ‘Oh, get me that old fashioned.’”

One of the reasons Martens said he and his wife became friends and business partners with Zambrada and his staff is because of the experience they had while dining at The Depot.

That evening they patronized The Depot, he said they felt like family and were inspired to help bring others into the restaurant for that experience.

“That’s what we want,” he said. “We want people to have a personal connection with us, our staff, our building and our food. So, that is what we do.”

To learn more about The Depot, its upgrades and its hours and specials, visit thedepotrestaurantgb.com or its Facebook page.