Vines & Rushes Winery: Wisconsin-grown wine with every sip
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August 18, 2025
RIVER FALLS – For those craving a beer and a kumpir in West Central Wisconsin, Swinging Bridge Brewing Company has them covered.
As one of three craft breweries in River Falls – a city with a population of fewer than 17,000 people – Manager Cory Hart said Swinging Bridge’s full menu (including the aforementioned Turkish baked potato) helps the establishment stand out.
“It’s a warm, welcoming atmosphere with great food, great drinks and literally something for everybody, from pets to kids to adults,” he said. “We have little ‘pup cups’ for dogs that are available for purchase, soda and root beer floats for kids, food for everybody and plenty of adult beverages and THC beverages.”
Besides being “the only [brewery in town] with a full menu,” Hart said Swinging Bridge’s vast liquor menu, “saucy marketing,” historic building(s) and the beer itself are what keep the place swinging.
Building the Bridge
Hart said Swinging Bridge Brewing Company was founded in 2016 and opened in 2017.
However, in 2019, he said, the founders/original owners had to close the brewery.
“They had a lot of start-up expenses,” he said. “[They] were busy [and got] good feedback, but [they had a] very small taproom, couldn’t produce enough beer and couldn’t sell enough beer and food to pay off the debt, essentially – mostly given restraints on the space itself.”
Hart said he, along with new ownership, were determined to regroup and reopen.
“We knew the original head brewer, Mike, so we reached out to him,” he said. “We said, ‘Hey, if we were to buy this from the bank, would you come back and brew again?’ He said ‘yes.’”
Within about five months, Hart said, Swinging Bridge was back in business.
In the years that followed, he said the new ownership attained new licensure to expand the establishment’s food and beverage offerings, as well as purchased the building next door for additional space.
“There’s a garage in the back, so we were able to put a patio in between the buildings and the garage,” he said. “We were able to expand and put a full kitchen in next door.”
Both buildings, Hart said, date back to the 1800s and feature “beautiful, old architecture” and limestone walls.
“Fun fact: the original occupant of the brewery was a taproom for a brewery that was on site, called the Opera Saloon, in the late 1800s…,” he said. “It’s been a bunch of things in between…, but it originally started as a saloon.”
When the building returned to its brewing roots in 2016, Hart said the founders named the business after a River Falls landmark: the swinging bridge spanning the Kinnickinnic River.
The bridge, he said, has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places and celebrated its 100th anniversary this year.
Though the brewery exhibits a reverence for history, Hart said its marketing – replete with double entendre – is anything but stuffy.
“[We’re] just some Midwesterners who like to have fun and not take things too seriously,” he said. “But we do take the quality of the beer and the food seriously.”
Swinging suds, sodas, seltzers, spirits
Per swingingbridgebrewing.com, the establishment’s taproom features 30 taps.
“I’m a big proponent of having a wide variety of styles, so at any given time, we try to have a couple light beers, a couple malty beers, a dark beer in the summer, a couple extra dark beers in winter,” he said. “We always try to have a handful of IPAs.”
Of the latter is the Blood Orange IPA, which Hart said was Swinging Bridge’s “old flagship” from when the brewery first opened.
“That was definitely the crowd-favorite with the previous ownership, and it continues on today as one of our best sellers,” he said. “Our [IPA called] It’s Always Hazy: The Gang Uses Mosaic has surpassed the Blood Orange [IPA] by a little bit, I think.”
Other popular brews, Hart said, include the Kinni Kölsch, the Llama Lime Shandy in summer, the orange-cranberry-cinnamon Fall Back Shandy in fall and barrel-aged beer when available.
“We’ve [made] some crazier beers from time to time, but we’re not always chasing the next craziest trend,” he said.
Per the website, the brewery also produces several hard seltzers.
To further accommodate guests’ preferences, Hart said Swinging Bridge carries what he believes is, for a serving establishment, “the largest selection of liquor in West Central Wisconsin.”
Premium as well as local spirits, he said, are plentifully stocked and available for Swinging Bridge’s “full set of signature cocktails.”
Hart said the taproom also carries wine, as well as Delta-9 THC drinks, “which are legal in Wisconsin.”
Mocktails and non-alcoholic beers are also featured on the drink menu, he said, in addition to Swinging Bridge’s own sodas – such as cream soda, root beer and ginger beer.
For the most part, Hart said those looking to enjoy the brewery’s beers and sodas will need to visit the taproom, where the beverages can be purchased in 25-ounce cans or 64-ounce growlers.
“We’re in a limited number of local liquor stores that we self-distribute to,” he said, “but [we’re]
mostly just pushing the taproom sales.”
‘Elevated street food’
Hart said the popularity of Swinging Bridge’s cuisine – referred to on its menu as “street food” – came as a pleasant surprise.
“We sell a lot of food,” he said. “I don’t know percentagewise how much more we sell than we had planned on selling, but I know we had thought we’d be more of ‘a bar that has food’ than a restaurant. But we have people who come just to get food and get water or soda.”
Popular food items, Hart said, include sandwiches (especially the cheesesteak); nachos and street tacos with mix-and-matchable choices of smoked chicken and pork carnitas; and a “giant,” locally made pub pretzel served with signature hatch pepper queso.
Though the kumpirs are “the thing that’s probably the craziest” of the menu items, Hart said these uniquely flavored potatoes are nonetheless a top seller.
“We roast them for 90 minutes, we hold them hot and then when somebody orders one, we cut it open, take salt, butter, pepper and mash up the insides, and then you get all the toppings,” he said.
Kumpir toppings, Hart said, are where Swinging Bridge veers from traditional Turkish street vendors.
“I’ve talked to two different people living in Turkey [and they told me] a lot of times, the [original kumpir] toppings themselves are less exciting than ours,” he said. “We do full, meal-type toppings, where a lot of the ones I’ve seen from food trucks and on menus [only include] cheese, baked beans and corn. Ours [include, for example], pork carnitas with pico, queso, queso fresco, cilantro, jalapeno and sour cream – a full, giant potato.”
Six different styles of kumpir are typically available, Hart said, with current options including Carolina brisket, blackened shrimp and roasted gyro.
Such cuisine, he said, though perhaps unexpected in West Central Wisconsin, fits well with Swinging Bridge’s culinary style of “elevated street food.”
“Our owner’s son was scrolling through social media, and [kumpirs] kept popping up when we were looking for a new category of food items to add,” he said.
Cultivating a diverse menu, Hart said, has led to a lack of more traditional bar food.
“We do get people who come in and want burgers and fries – that’s not our menu,” he said. “That’s about the only time somebody will walk in and walk out.”
Keeping it fresh
The vast majority of Swinging Bridge’s customers, Hart said, keep coming back to support the establishment.
“[Our customer base is] a very good mix of 30-somethings, a lot of professors from the University (of Wisconsin-River Falls) during the school year, teachers, local business professionals, retired folks – it’s a pretty nice blend,” he said.
The loyalty, Hart said, can be attributed to reliably quality food and beverages, friendly staff and a “usually pretty mellow” atmosphere, as well as its ever-updating event calendar, menus and local artist features.
Events, he said, include weekly themed trivia nights, holiday parties, tastings, fundraisers and more.
Hart also said Swinging Bridge’s beers, cocktails and food options change throughout the year.
“We’ll do some crazy sours,” he said regarding some of the “funkier” beers offered. “We’ve done some more fun, fruited IPAs, like right now we have a pale ale [brewed] with sage, called Saged by the Bell.”
Though there’s not an official Oktoberfest event at the brewery, Hart said the annual Märzen-style lager – called Swingerfest – will be released in the coming weeks, sans some of the urgency of other breweries.
“[With Swinging Bridge] not being super heavy on [beer] distribution, we don’t have to get ahead of that curve, because people are coming here for it, not going elsewhere to buy it,” he said. “We aren’t trying to beat out everybody and be the first one on the shelf. We want you to come here and enjoy some good food and some good drinks.”
The brewery’s spin on Oktoberfest food, Hart said, includes beer brats, giant pretzels and German-themed kumpirs topped with sausage, cheese, sauerkraut and caraway.
A more recently added feature at the establishment, he said, is Swinging Bridge’s Artist Spotlight series, which repeatedly updates the brewery’s decor with original artwork.
To be selected, Hart said regional artists, such as painters and photographers, are encouraged to email samples of their work to cory@swingingbridgebrewing.com.
“Once a month, we’ll switch [things] up and get a new artist, and they’re allowed to either [just] display their art or sell it,” he said. “So far, everybody’s sold it, but we don’t take a commission or anything, we just have it up for sale.”
Hart said the first Sunday of each month, artists participate in a featured event to introduce themselves and their works.
From standby brews to ever-changing artistic décor, Hart said maintaining an appealing mix of reliability and novelty is the primary goal for Swinging Bridge.
“At this point, we just want to keep building our clientele and building the tourism coming to downtown [River Falls],” he said. “More people coming to town – that’s better for all the businesses.”
Expanding the brewery’s clientele, Hart said, is much more of a focus than expanding its footprint, mindful of overextension as “the craft beer bubble is getting pretty full.”
“We’ve done a good job of building this location, and I think it would be hard to try and be bigger than we are,” he said. “It’d be great to have a few more tanks if we could find room for them, but I don’t ever foresee us opening multiple locations.”
Aiming to please new visitors and tourists is part of the equation, but Hart said it’s just as important to continue to earn the business of Swinging Bridge’s long-time customers and Mug Club members.
“We’ve had an incredibly loyal group of clientele over the last few years, and we’re very grateful for the support and patronage,” he said. “We love seeing everybody here on a regular basis.”
