The 2026 Bar on ICe Story

How a Dream Three Years in the Making Became Wisconsin's Biggest Winter Story

It started with a simple question Sturgeon Spirits founder and owner Karl Loewenstein couldn't shake: How do we get on the ice?

From the very first day Sturgeon Spirits Craft Distillery opened its doors in Oshkosh back in 2023, Karl had his eye on Lake Winnebago. Not just as the inspiration behind the distillery's name, but as the place where the brand truly belonged — out there among the shanties, the chainsaws, and the centuries-old tradition of sturgeon spearing that makes this corner of Wisconsin unlike anywhere else on earth.

It took three years of regulatory detective work to find the answer. When the Wisconsin Alcohol Modernization Act passed in 2024, Karl discovered that the new law allowed producers to obtain a second retail license — and that it didn't specify where that second location had to be. The frozen surface of Lake Winnebago, it turned out, was fair game.

"From the very minute I started thinking about this, I'm like — how do we sell our product on the lake during sturgeon season," Karl said. And on Cut-In Day, Friday, February 13, 2026, that vision became reality.

Opening Day on the Ice

One mile off the shore of Oshkosh, straight east off Merritt Street, the Sturgeon Spirits crew assembled something nobody in Wisconsin had ever seen: a fully licensed, full-service cocktail bar sitting on two feet of solid ice. Complete with a bar, tables, chairs, heaters, and a menu of seven exclusive cocktails you could only get out there on the frozen lake.

The bar opened at 6:00 AM — right alongside the spearers who were out there cutting their 4x6-foot holes and dropping their decoys. General Manager Todd McLean was behind the bar pouring drinks before sunrise, and free coffee was ready for anyone who wandered over in those dark early-morning hours. By the time the sun was up, a line had formed.

People drove out in their trucks. They biked. They walked a mile from shore. They came from Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, Neenah, Slinger — and at least one visitor made the trip all the way from Los Angeles. One woman from Brazil, visiting with her husband, said she prayed for the ice not to break as they drove out. After the fear wore off, she was taking photos for her family back home.

A Cocktail Menu Made for the Ice

Tanya Schmidt crafted a cocktail lineup that was pure Sturgeon Spirits. The Bottom Feeder — made with blackberry brandy, honey, and a touch of root beer — quickly became a crowd favorite. The Ice Hole, the Sturgeon General, the Bloody Spear: every drink on the menu was designed specifically for this experience, and every one came garnished with a Swedish Fish on a cocktail spear. A small nod to the ancient fish swimming somewhere below everyone's feet.

For the spearers who brought their catch to the bar, Sturgeon Spirits offered a deal that perfectly captured the spirit of the whole event: trade a sturgeon for a bottle of blackberry vodka. Ben Berger of Oshkosh took them up on it with an 86-pound fish he'd speared that Saturday morning — only his third sturgeon in roughly twenty years of trying.

Bottles were available for purchase on the ice, too — spirits chosen especially for spearers heading back to their shanties. "They drive up, they bike up, they drop off their sturgeon and have a drink on their way back in," Karl said. "That was always the vision."

The Story Goes National

What happened next nobody could have predicted. The media didn't just notice Bar on Ice — they couldn't stop talking about it.

It started with the local stations. WBAY was there on opening day, calling it a "uniquely Wisconsin experience." FOX 11 ran a feature that afternoon. WFRV covered it. Spectrum News 1 did a deep dive into the story behind the story — Karl's journey from history professor to distiller, and the law change that made it all possible.

Then the story went national. Wisconsin Public Radio published a full feature that captured the warmth and community of the experience. The original FOX 11 story was picked up by The National Desk and syndicated to FOX affiliates across the country — from Nashville to Beaumont to Montana to the Carolinas. People in Florida, Oregon, and West Virginia were reading about a cocktail bar sitting on a frozen Wisconsin lake. Even the Wall Street Journal sent a reporter to Lake Winnebago for a video feature on sturgeon spearing — and there was Todd, pouring drinks in the middle of the story.

More than 3,000 fishing shanties dotted the lake that first Saturday. Over 770 sturgeon were speared on opening weekend alone. And over the three days Bar on Ice was open, more than 1,000 people made the trek out to a small pop-up bar that had somehow become the most talked-about watering hole in America.

The Team That Made It Happen

None of this happens without the people who showed up before sunrise, hauled equipment onto the ice, and kept the drinks flowing in below-freezing temperatures.

Karl's vision drove the idea, but it was the daily execution — the early mornings, the logistics of running a bar on a frozen lake, the relentless attention to detail — that turned a concept into an experience people will be talking about for years. Tanya designed the cocktail menu that gave Bar on Ice its identity. General Manager Todd McLean was the face of the operation for countless visitors, pouring drinks and welcoming strangers with the kind of warmth that makes Sturgeon Spirits what it is. Erika Joyce and Sophia Norenburg held it all together — keeping things running on the ice and back in the tasting room, making sure no detail was missed whether they were serving guests a mile out on the lake or back on Oregon Street. Every member of the team worked in conditions that most bartenders would never sign up for, and they did it with smiles on their faces, six o'clock in the morning, standing on ice.

The warm weather during the second weekend forced some tough calls — Bar on Ice was closed for the entire second weekend when ice conditions deteriorated, putting safety first. That's the reality of running a business on a living, breathing lake. But when the ice was good, the team was out there, and the people kept coming.

More Than a Bar

Visitors said it over and over, in different words but always the same idea: This is the most Wisconsin thing I've ever seen.

"It's a combination of two great Wisconsin traditions," one visitor told WPR. "Wisconsinites kind of take pride in their drinking. And what is more Wisconsin than Lake Winnebago and sturgeon spearing?"

Another put it more directly: "Lot of people have always talked about someone should put a bar and sell drinks out here. Now someone's doing it."

But for Karl, Bar on Ice was never just about selling cocktails. It was about honoring a tradition — the 94-year-old calendar of sturgeon spearing season that inspired Sturgeon Spirits from the very beginning. It was about community, about the camaraderie that draws people out onto a frozen lake year after year, about giving folks a reason to linger a little longer and share a drink with someone they just met.

"I think a minority of people are actually spearers," Karl reflected. "They needed an excuse to get together, get out on the lake, enjoy a beautiful day, have a cocktail with friends. And that's really what Sturgeon Spirits is about."

Looking Ahead

Bar on Ice 2026 was the first chapter, not the last. A dream that was born alongside the distillery itself became Wisconsin's first legal cocktail bar on frozen water, drew visitors from across the country, and generated national media attention that money simply cannot buy.

To everyone who made the drive, walked the mile, braved the ice, ordered a Bottom Feeder, traded a sturgeon for a bottle, or just stopped by to say hello — thank you. You made this what it was.

And to Karl, Todd, Tanya, Erika, Sophia, and the entire Sturgeon Spirits team who poured their hearts into every frozen morning out there: this was just the beginning.

See you on the ice.

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Sturgeon Spirits Craft Distillery is located at 2663 Oregon Street in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Visit [sturgeonspirits.com](https://sturgeonspirits.com) for tasting room hours, events, and more.

As Seen In

- Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) — "'Only in Wisconsin': Lake Winnebago's first legal bar opens for sturgeon spearing season"

- WBAY — "Cocktail bar on frozen Lake Winnebago is a uniquely Wisconsin experience"

- FOX 11 / WLUK — "The first 'ice bar' opens on Lake Winnebago for sturgeon spearing season"

- Spectrum News 1 — "Oshkosh craft distillery serves it up on ice for sturgeon season weekends"

- WFRV Local 5 — "Wisconsin's first legal & full service cocktail bar on ice opens in Oshkosh"

- The Wall Street Journal — Video feature on Lake Winnebago sturgeon spearing

- The National Desk / FOX Affiliates Nationwide — Syndicated coast to coast

- Oshkosh Herald — Print coverage

- Oshkosh Northwestern — Print coverage

- Neenah News — Print coverage

- Discover Oshkosh / Visit Oshkosh — Featured event listing