Dean Baillie and the Kro Bar Still Going Strong After 50 Years
Not many restaurants stay open for 50 years – if you look up the average lifespan of a bar and grill, the “average” varies anywhere from six to eight, even 10 years.
But Dean Baillie has watched the world change through the Kro Bar & Grill in Brule, Wis., for 50 years. Kro Bar will celebrate the anniversary July 24-25 with food and drink specials, family and friends, and reuniting with the bands who have graced the bar and restaurant’s stage through the years.
Instead of talking about what leads to 50 years of success, or dwelling on what used to be, he talks about the changes in trends and habits with unique precision – and how he’s acted on all of it.
Born and raised in Brule, Baillie came from a family of business owners. His grandpa owned a gas station and turned it over to Baillie’s father and uncle. His dad and uncle ran it and other businesses, including more gas stations, a restaurant, cabins and an inflatable tube outfitter for the nearby Brule River – a successful venture until inflatables were banned on the river in 1981.
Baillie was 20 when he bought the Kro Bar in 1976, the year of USA’s bicentennial.
“That was one of the reasons I could always remember why I bought the place,” he said.
In January, he celebrated his 70th birthday.
Baillie inherited the bar’s name– he still doesn’t know where it came from, other than the fact that the former owners had once owned a tavern in Superior called The Kro Bar, so the Brule location was called “the Little Kro Bar,” until the Superior location closed. He’s looked up the term “Kro” before, only to find something Danish, “that didn’t make any sense.”
You could say that 50 years later, everything from people to their habits to the world itself is different. The secret isn’t to wallow in the changes, but to act on them.
“It changes a lot,” he said. “But you’ve got to keep changing with it.”
Indeed, Kro Bar has seen its many eras: It started only serving drinks, until Baillie eventually added a food menu circa 1985.
In the 1980s and ’90s, softball “was huge,” with the Kro Bar sponsoring several tournaments, leagues and helping build a local ball field. The craze died out sometime in the 2010s.
Kro Bar & Grill sponsored pool teams, and their annual pool tournaments still bring “some of the biggest (pool players) in the area,” he said.
Today, Baillie said people still love golfing, playing pool and the like, but fewer want to commit to the weekly or regular nights out of the home that leagues require.
One of the biggest attractions Kro Bar and Grill was known for was live music. Bands would start playing at 9 p.m. and play into the night until 1:30 or 2 a.m.
Today, “people have changed their drinking habits,” Baillie said, adding that they drink less. “Everyone starts to leave at 10 and by midnight they’re gone.”
Kro Bar and Grill still hosts live music “on occasion,” starting at 7:30 or 8 p.m. so as not to bother diners, and playing until about 10. Bands often consist of fewer musicians, or even a solo musician, to reduce costs.
Not all changes mean dialing back. The restaurant has seen five to six additions in space, and Baillie pointed each one out from a table in the far back of the two-room, sprawling space.
About five years ago, Kro Bar and Grill began their own karaoke system, though some regulars had sung karaoke there “forever.”
One of Baillie’s friends got into karaoke first, and “I thought it was the stupidest thing ever,” Baillie said. “It turns out, it was a successful thing.”
Then there’s investments like Kro Bar’s two party buses. Each bus is known as the Kro Bus, each seats 15 people and each is “decked out” with perimeter seating, lights and music. People rent out the buses for nearby weddings, bachelor and bachelorette parties, and activities as far away as Duluth, Bayfield, Ashland and Hayward. Recently, each Kro Bus shuttled people to the Apostle Island Sea Caves during a brief wintertime opening that brought large crowds.
About 10 years ago, Baillie bought the duplex next door. He first put it on the rental market, but as short-term rentals became popular, he made it into the Kros Nest Lodge, available to rent year-round on Air BnB as two apartments or together as one house. The listing photos show modern space. One unit even has its own fireplace den.
At 70 years old and with 50 years of business ownership, Baillie hasn’t even opened his latest addition yet.
With his significant other, Cindy Colby, and her daughter, Taylor Routley, who both manage the restaurant and bar, plans are in the works to open the Kro Bar Event Center one block away. The new space was once the Lyon’s Den as well as several other bars and restaurant names. The three envision parties, meetings, weddings and other events at their new venue, plus catering with baked goods courtesy of Colby and Routley, who “have a family history of baking.” They hope to open during Memorial Day weekend, Baillie said.
Of course, several things haven’t changed at Kro Bar and Grill. It’s the venue for several events, from birthdays and anniversaries to meetings. It hosts a Halloween carnival and welcomes Santa every Christmas Eve. In addition to its three major pool tournaments, it hosts an annual golf tournament and Kro Bar Canoe Fest.
And on a recent Saturday at 2:30 p.m., just two days after a major snowstorm, the parking lot was full – of snowmobiles. The restaurant has always been known for snowmobiling, though that wanes when there’s not enough snow, not to mention machines are expensive and it can be a tough hobby to get into, Baillie said
The bar and restaurant also see UTVs and ATVs in warmer weather with countless nearby trails.
“The bar is blessed with the perfect location,” Baillie said.
Kro Bar is located right on Highway 2, which runs from Seattle, Wash., to Maine. Via numerous highways, Kro Bar and Grill is located 30 minutes to Superior, 35 minutes to Ashland, 40 minutes to Hayward and 50 minutes to Bayfield.
“We’re right in the middle.”
In the spring and fall Kro Bar and Grill will serve people who fish on the Brule River, with customers who fish, hike, canoe and kayak through the summer.
While bars further east see more city tourists from Chicago and Milwaukee, the majority of Kro Bar and Grill’s city tourists come here from the Minneapolis and Saint Paul area. They are often shellshocked at the prices – because Kro Bar and Grill’s prices are much lower than in the Twin Cities. It’s great for tips to Baillie’s staff members, he said.
Staffing can be tough, especially cooks, but Baillie has learned the best way to retain good staff is to pay well – well above mandatory minimum wage.
He’s watched the economy boom and weaken, including during Covid-19, though it always comes back stronger than ever.
“We are now serving the grandkids of the original customers,” he said.
His own three kids, now adults, worked here as teens instead of collecting an allowance.
“One thing about raising kids in a bar, they know the realities of alcohol,” he said.
He’s proud of his now-adult children and the paths they’ve taken in life, and a proud grandpa to boot. But his kids chose different paths than running the family restaurant.
Baillie cautioned that owning a restaurant can “be a struggle” for a young family, especially on marriages.
And the restaurants themselves don’t often see longevity. When talking about his new property a block away, Baillie listed its numerous names over the years as it changed hands.
“They think,” he said of some new restaurant owners, “that just because it’s a business you can do it,” adding that advertising, taxes, payroll and human resources are all other components.
“The thing about the bar business is you throw in alcohol and that complicates everything.”
Baillie can still remember sweeping the floor and guessing, with almost perfect accuracy, how much money was in the till based on the amount of dirt on the floor. He doesn’t have to bartend or clean as much these days.
“I’m the old guy who comes down and counts the money.”
Still, he still finds himself at his longtime establishment a couple of hours each day. Fifty years later, every time Baillie thinks he’s seen it all, something else surprises him
“You meet a lot of good people,” he said, “and you meet a lot of bad people.”
With its location and customer base, Baillie doesn’t see Kro Bar and Grill going anywhere – and neither is he.
“I’ll always be here.”
Tamara Jansen is a Duluth-based communications professional and freelance writer.
