Door County businesses prepare for the off-season, capitalize on seasonal festivals. PC: Fox 11 Online
STURGEON BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — The Mezzanine Rooftop Bar & Restaurant had an unintentional late start to their tourism season.
Construction blocking the storefront made it hard for people to come in and out.
“Where they are a little more dependent on the business coming in, I could see a little bit of a level of stress in them, in like, ‘What is going to happen?’ Is it really the construction that is causing the numbers to be down? Is it the economy?” says Mezzanine General Manager Nathan Vergin.
A majority of their hires are from the J-1 Visa Program. This visa gives students from other countries the opportunity to work here during the summer months.
“When we have these people coming in from different countries, they are here trying to work as hard as they can, as many hours as they can, to try to benefit their future. And it did feel like a little bit of a let down,” Vergin says.
After a slow couple months, right before the 4th of July, construction was finally complete and business was booming.
Shipwrecked Brew Pub and Restaurant also benefits from the J-1 program.
“The ability to know, ‘Okay, they are coming exactly these dates, they’re leaving exactly these dates’. It’s very relaxing in the sense of, I am going to have people,” Shipwrecked Brew Pub and Restaurant Front of House Joseph Mosheim says.
Shipwrecked is open year-round and capitalizes on Door County community events leading into the colder months.
“We end up using the festivals of the town, right? The pumpkin patch, the fall fest. We prep up, rally big for that. We have a bloody Mary and a beer tent up front,” says Mosheim.
Destination Door County says the off-season helps improve the county year to year.
“That seasonality is helpful because it also allows us in the industry to recharge our batteries… and tend to some projects with businesses and facilities that we can’t get to in the summertime and the fall because of the business of the season,” says Chief Communications Officer Jon Jarosh.
Jarosh says they are always working on future events to bring the community to Door County.
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