New Eatery: The Livery

    Explore the first floor further and you’ll meet an old wooden phone booth installed near the restrooms. “We’re hoping people will step in there to make cell phone calls,” Mogenson explains, indicating another merger of past and present. A large, separate “game room” also exists on the first floor, where you can play everything from traditional pool to virtual bag toss.

    The building’s 116-year-old skeleton is mostly intact. On the second floor, rough beams rise diagonally from a restored wooden floor. The space has the presence of a hayloft. This was, after all, where the horses were kept.  In the corner, a crank-and-pulley platform elevator still stands. 

    Even after an eyeful of antiquities, you may find the menu a bit of a curiosity.

    “It’s not another restaurant with burgers, and that’s the point. We’ve had people come in every night and try something new,” says Aspenson.

    The kitchen whips up a variety of dinner plates, sandwiches, appetizers, and desserts. Calamari, mussels, quail, quinoa salad, funnel cakes, and rabbit caught my eye. “Braised Rabbit on a Raft” stacks up avocado and grilled peppers and onions atop a “raft” of polenta. 

    Mogenson praises the Friday special, which is posted on the blackboard as “Friday’s Flippin’ Frenzy Feeds Famished Fish and Chicken Fanatics.” Quite a mouthful. You can choose from beer-battered grouper or beer-battered chicken. Mogenson also says they cut their own French fries daily.

    The Livery will be serving lunch starting June 7, according to Aspenson. In the fall, the upstairs section will open, likely for private parties or extra seating. 

    The Livery (aka Cowtown Saloon) • 316 Wisconsin St., Eau Claire • entrees $8-$20 • outdoor seating, open late, and free Wi-Fi.