Grand Forks’ Crooked Pint Ale House hopes to reopen

GRAND FORKS — Despite speculation to the contrary, the Crooked Pint Ale House on South Columbia Road does plan to reopen after an electrical fire forced a temporary closure in late July.

Josh Wretling, restaurant general manager, said a post on Google accidentally labeled Crooked Pint as being permanently closed. Wretling said he called and disputed the report, and it has since been removed from Google.

Still, the Google post led to at least one social media post that said the business was closing.

Paul Dzubnar, owner of the Grand Forks Crooked Pint Ale House and Green Mill to Go, says plans are to reopen.

“We’ve got quite a bit of stuff to do,” the Twin Cities-based Dzubnar said. “We finally just got cleared to do all the maintenance, so we were in a holding pattern for a while.

“Right now it’s day by day while we get the construction completed and figure out where it’s at (and) get everything wrapped up.”

Dzubnar stopped short of guaranteeing the business will reopen.

“At this point, as of today, yes I am reopening,” he said. “But I’m not committing to the fact that I’m open for sure because it’s a lot of money. There are a lot more pieces that are unknown at this point.

“We are running into a bunch of construction issues that popped up, not only with the HVAC systems but the plumbing, the coolers, the bathrooms, the ceiling tile. We had a lot of smoke damage to the front of the house and smoke damage to the back of the house. As they get into it, they keep finding more stuff.”

Beer lines, beer coolers, food coolers and food freezers need to be replaced.

Wretling said he hopes the restaurant can reopen by the end of October.

The closure came at a time in which the restaurant doesn’t see its highest volume of customers. Wretling said he wants to open the doors as soon as possible as the restaurant benefits from an influx of UND hockey and football fans.

The fire started after an electrical malfunction in the freezer equipment produced excessive heat, which transferred to nearby combustibles, the Grand Forks Fire Department said in a release.

Interestingly, this is the second time the business has been affected by fire. In 2017, just weeks before Crooked Pint Ale House’s grand opening and during a renovation to convert from Green Mill to Crooked Pint, electrical wires for signs in the building caused a roof fire.

That fire resulted in about $12,000 in damage. Dzubnar declined to give an estimate on the recent fire damage.

Wretling says he hasn’t lost many employees with the most recent setback.

“The managers are all coming back and the main core of cooks as well,” he said.

Crooked Pint has 32 taps, craft beers and 13 TVs for sports viewing. In addition to its specialty of Juicy Lucys and a full menu, the restaurant sells Green Mill pizza for carryout and third-party delivery.

Dzubnar, an entrepreneur from the Twin Cities, is the CEO of Hightop Hospitality in St. Paul and is a partner in Crooked Pint and Town Hall Brewery. Crooked Pint has locations in five states.

Green Mill opened in Grand Forks in the late 1990s.

Kevin Fee is a freelance reporter for the Herald.