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Tadpole Days
David finally decided that a pub would be the best possible use for the lower level of the West Bank buildings. He hoped to build a restaurant and pub that he would want to hang out in. The pub was given the name “Froggy Bottoms.” Froggy Bottoms Farm, with its mile of lake shore on the north side of Fox Lake, had been the party place for the young and the restless in the 1970s and David wanted to honor those good vibrations. Dave would also have a place to show off the still burgeoning frog collection.
Deconstruction and Reconstruction
The lower floor of the building which was ultimately turned into the pub was “a rat hole” at first, according to Bill Peterson, the chief carpenter of the deconstruction and reconstruction process. The floor was covered with debris left in the wake of flooding. An architectural salvage crew from Peterson Art Furniture, nicknamed the “Demons of Deconstruction,” started to gut the place in December of 1999. It took a month just to take apart and clear out everything that was on the lower floor. Then five months were spent on the stone work, tuck pointing the limestone interior and exterior, before construction began in June of 2000. Building code disputes and a month long flood slowed the construction. But finally Froggy Bottoms Irish River Pub opened on July 4, 2001.
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