Abbey Bar celebrates 50 years

DE PERE – The Abbey Bar & Grill — currently located at 303 Reid St., De Pere, across from St. Norbert College — recently celebrated 50 years since its opening.

The Abbey opened in 1974 under the ownership of Alvin Counard.

The bar was originally located at 208 S. Third Street, and being so close to both St. Norbert College and Abbot Pennings High School, the bar quickly gained popularity with both schools as the drinking age at the time was 18.

In 1990, the bar had a few changes, including new ownership and a new location.

After 26 years of owning the place, Alvin Counard passed ownership on to his sons Kip and Kerry Counard.

Kip is no longer in the bar business, but Kerry still is and has been the owner for the past 34 years.

“We were a lot smaller location. We were, like, 2,200-square-feet, and then in 1990, when I took over, we actually renovated the old bar and made it more of a neighborhood grill slash sports bar. Because the drinking age was changing – it had changed in the late ‘80s from 18 to 21 – we had to be more strict with our business model, so we became more of a sports bar,” Kerry stated.

“We had indoor golf for nine years. We had two simulators, [and] for a short stretch, we took down one of the simulators and we had indoor basketball as well.”

Counard said they started building the current location in 1999 and officially moved into the 6,600-square-foot building in January of 2000.

“Every decade I would do something special, some kind of celebration,” Counard stated. “It’s been 10 years since we did any type of big celebration.”
The Abbey is very popular not only amongst college students but also big with the locals. “Homecoming for St. Norbert [is] our busiest weekend of the year.

We peak for anything involving the college really, football games and basketball games, hockey, all that stuff. Plus with the college building The Kress Inn next to us, that helps. Anytime there’s home Packer games now we have hotel [guests] that are right next door to us,” Counard said.

Although there have been many changes throughout its history, The Abbey Bar & Grill is seen as a staple to many in the De Pere community.

They have weekly lunch and dinner specials as well as game day specials.

To find more information about The Abbey, visit www.abbeybar.com.