FOND DU LAC (NBC 26) — The idea for Copper Cock Tavern all started in the 80s, when Vince Kuber found a property from 1873. At the time of the discovery, the property was a barbershop owned by a friend, on North Main Street in Fond du Lac.
“I had asked him for decades about purchasing the building. Of course, he didn't want to part with it,” Kuber said.
About a year and a half ago, the owner told Vince and Bekki Kuber that they could purchase the building. But he passed away the weekend after they spoke.
“We thought we lost the building,” Kuber said. “And then a month or so later, his sister contacted me and said, ‘Do you want to buy the building?’ Absolutely I did.”
The Kubers began renovating the building, gutting it completely and virtually starting from scratch. They said the process took about a year.
But they still paid homage to the previous owner with his barber pole displayed on the second floor next to a plaque which reads, “In memory of our friend Joe Miller.”
“The one thing that I asked is that I get his barber pole because he's a friend and owned a barber shop…. he was a good guy,” Kuber said. “The whole town knew him. He had kind of a legacy in Fond du Lac.”
The fine-dining restaurant features upscale food and cocktails in an environment that Kuber describes as "a fusion of 1870s and modern."
"We wanted something that was historic, yet elegant and cozy at the same time," Kuber said.
But the Kubers said renovating a building from 1873 was not easy.
“Modern code does not lend itself to renovating an old building. It just doesn’t,” Kuber said. “I can give you a dozen examples, but to the point where on our drink menu, there's a drink called City Code, specifically meant in honor, we’ll say honor of some of the challenges we faced.”
Some of those challenges included installing fire-safe sprinklers on the ceiling and completely re-working the plumbing system.
“We had to dig all the way up to the middle of Main Street,” Bekki Kuber said. “We had to dig that out because the piping, for example, it was ceramic or lead. So it all had to be replaced all the way.”
But to the Kubers, it was all worth it.
“It's kind of been a vision since we were both kids, about getting a downtown property, and renovating and turning it into something cool,” Vince Kuber said.
A few weeks since opening, the new owners say business is doing well.
“I'm really proud of it because in my opinion, there's just nothing else like it around this area,” Bekki Kuber said. “I wanted to bring people to Fond du Lac versus all of us leaving Fond du Lac to find a place.”
