Timekeeper Lounge and Distillery open for business in Titletown

Rich Palzewic

Staff

December 16, 2024

ASHWAUBENON – Dan and Kimm Weber, co-owners of Wausau-based Timekeeper Lounge and Distillery, said it was time to offer folks in the Green Bay area “a taste of what they’re missing.”

Timekeeper is a distillery specializing in innovative liquors, craft cocktails and mixology.

“We’ve been running Timekeeper Lounge and Distillery in Wausau since 2018,” Dan, who is also the establishment’s master distiller, said. “We certainly looked at other communities for several years. When we started building out procedures and systems to have a remote location, we weren’t quite sure where that would be.”

Kimm said she grew up in the Green Bay area – graduating from West De Pere High School – which inspired the couple to choose Titletown for their second location.

“It’s a bit of homecoming for me, and we’re super excited about it,” she said. “It’s been some time since I’ve lived at home, since going away to college, but as we looked at the modernization of our business, this seemed like a great area to extend one of our permits and establish the route.”

Besides growing up in the area, Kimm said she had also commuted to Green Bay regularly to get her hair done.

“After I went away to college in 2005, I’ve lived away from Green Bay for 19 years,” she said. “Though I was away, I’d come back here every six weeks or so to get my hair done by Jessica (Ullmer). She is the owner of the Revolution (Public Market) building in Ashwaubenon.”

Kimm said in conversations with Ullmer, the opportunity came up about space availability in Revolution.

“We thought, ‘what a great location nestled adjacent to (Capital Credit Union Park, home of the Green Bay Rockers), Lambeau Field is nearby and there are a lot of great apartment units close where we offer a unique service we thought the community would be excited about and receptive to,’” she said.

The Webers said Timekeeper, located at 2160 Holmgren Way, Suite 103, shares a space with Souper Day.

“The owner of Souper Day is open during the daytime doing sandwiches and soups, and then we open the space in the evenings,” Dan said. “The owner prepares the food we sell at Timekeeper for patrons to purchase.”

Kimm said they are using some of the same approaches in Green Bay that have made the Wausau location successful.

“One of our big mottos in Wausau is we love to be cross-promotional and community-centered,” she said. “(The model) allows us that same opportunity to do that in Green Bay as well.”

Also being from Green Bay, Kimm said she has “a lot of connections here.”

“In some ways, it feels like I never left,” she said. “One of the scariest things about starting a venture in a new market is there are a lot of unknowns. For us, it was easy to dovetail with a lot of the great, exciting development, but we also already had a foot in the door and an understanding of the area.”

In addition, Dan said Timekeeper is well known throughout the state.

“We distribute almost statewide,” he said. “We are in Hy-Vee and Festival Foods, so we have some brand recognition. We’re already well received in Green Bay, so we thought that bringing our experience of Timekeeper would be received well by the local Ashwaubenon community, the Greater Green Bay Area and visitors within walking distance of Lambeau Field.”

Dan said the goal was to establish Timekeeper’s permanent Green Bay location before the 2025 NFL Draft comes April 24-26.

“We were able to put the wheels in motion, get ahead of things and decide that we wanted a full-time facility here, not just something temporary,” he said. “We’re fortunate to have a location where we can use the parking lot for specific events, with village approval – Packers games, the NFL Draft, etc. We’ll be right in the middle of the draft, hopefully having fans from all over the world experiencing our cocktails.”

Off to a great start

The couple said Timekeeper opened its Green Bay location Nov. 22 – just in time for the Nov. 24 Packers game against the San Francisco 49ers and the Thanksgiving night game versus the Miami Dolphins.

“So far, the first few weeks have been really good,” Dan said. “We’ve been able to iron out the details. With having a manufacturing background, execution is everything to me. We’ve got a great staff we’ve already built.”

Dan said opening a business now is more challenging than it was when they opened the Wausau location from a social media and branding standpoint.

“With Google and even TripAdvisor, there’s a lot of verifications that have to happen now,” he said. “I understand there have been a lot of scams, but even to get a Google listing, we had to take several videos and send them in. We had to schedule meetings with Google to finally, hopefully, get our listing up soon.”

Because of the needed verification, Dan said gaining awareness has been “a bit challenging.”

“We’ve been able to work with some great media outlets… and Facebook,” he said. “Social media has been really big, so every week, we’re seeing more and more people. I think our awareness is slowly growing.”

For now, the couple said Timekeeper has limited hours until things get more settled.

“We are open from 5-10 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and from 4-10 p.m. Saturdays,” Dan said. “We’ll also be open for Packers game days. We’re usually open a few hours before the game for people on their way to Lambeau.”

Though the couple said they still live in the Wausau area, they travel back and forth to Green Bay weekly.

“Kimm and I are fortunate to have her family there, so we have a place to stay,” Dan said. “We are in town all the days we’re open – Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. We’ll do Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in Wausau for production work, and then on Thursday afternoons, we’ll drive over to Green Bay for the opening.”

Dan said it’s important to him and Kimm to be present in Green Bay, too.

“Everybody likes to know the people behind the scenes,” he said. “I think it’s important for Green Bay to know we’re not a huge corporation – we’re really just a husband-and-wife business. I think Wausau has nine staff members, and Green Bay has four.”

Dan said there are about 30-40 distilleries in the state, but “I think you’re going to see more distilleries in the next few years.”

“It’s a growing trend,” he said.

From then to now

Dan said he’s been involved in craft alcohol production for 15 years.

Before opening Timekeeper, he said he worked at Great Dane Pub & Brewing Company, which has four locations in Madison and one in Wausau.

One night after a “few too many cocktails” on a volleyball night, Dan said they thought to themselves, “Wausau could use a distillery.”

“I had 14 or 15 years with the Great Dane and did both jobs while we were opening Timekeeper,” he said. “I have 15 years of professional brewing experience and seven years of professional distilling experience now.”

When he started at Great Dane, Dan said he started small.

“I was a door guy to start,” he said. “I’d come home from college and needed a job, and the guy training me was the brewer – we ended up hitting it off. I followed him around for a few days and decided that’s what I wanted to do with my life. I picked up a two-year, unpaid apprenticeship, but right away, I started home brewing at that point.”

Dan said because of his background in the craft alcohol industry, it was a smooth transition to opening Timekeeper.

“We started with a couple of spirits and began growing our portfolio,” he said. “We currently make vodka, gin, rye whiskey, bourbon, American whiskey, a brandy and a malt whiskey with other breweries.”

Dan said all the grains for Timekeeper spirits are grown in Marathon County.

“We even have a brandy where we do a wild fermentation with a local vineyard, cultivating yeast off the grape skin,” he said.

Dan said they had to pivot the business substantially in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

One of those pivots, he said, was canning Timekeeper’s cocktails and seltzers.

“It was a big pivot going into the ready-to-drink market,” Dan said. “Using my background in brewing and packaging, we immediately pivoted into canned cocktails. You can get our vodka and gin cocktail in cans. Shortly after, we pivoted to non-alcoholic (drinks) as well. We make our own ginger beer. We have a really robust portfolio.”

For more information, visit timekeeperdistillery.com or find it on Facebook.