Clarissa Kell | Daily Press Dean and Annette Bettiga stand with their youngest daughter, Kendra Hayward, inside the Perronville Pub, W629 G-30 Rd., Bark River. The Bettigas are the new owners of the Perronville Pub and Hayward works at the pub for her parents.

Editor’s note: The Daily Press features a profile of an area business each week. This week’s featured business is the Perronville Pub, located in the Bark River area.

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BARK RIVER — The future looks bright for the Perronville Pub since the establishment got new owners. Annette and Dean Bettiga bought the pub and store, located at W629 G-30 Rd., Bark River, last year.

“We signed papers Nov. 28, 2017, so we are coming up on our one-year anniversary,” Annette Bettiga said. “We opened our doors to the public on Dec. 1.”

The local community has expressed many times to the Bettigas how much they love what has been done with the place. The Bettigas have added more lighting, brightened the walls with new paint, completely remodeled the kitchen, created a beer box in the store, added more items on the shelves, added home-style cooking to the menu, and added many more additions and improvements.

“The first thing we did was mega LED lights outside to brighten up the parking lot,” Dean Bettiga said.

The Perronville Pub is technically located in Bark River, but it’s very close to Schaffer and Perronville, so different communities in the area are finding out that the Perronville Pub is running much differently than before.

“When we bought this place, (the community) was so happy,” he said. “All the hunters coming now are like it’s nice and relaxing. They love the bartenders that we have right now — they can joke with them and the bartenders all joke right back.”

The Bettigas explained how amazing the local community has been for them — with some members even providing an extra set of hands with the updating.

“We couldn’t have asked for a area to purchase a business,” Annette Bettiga said.

She said this all started when she cooked for Dean’s mom’s funeral and posted on Facebook about how much she missed cooking. One of her friends who sells real estate sparked the idea about Annette buying her own business.

“It started out she wanted a bed and breakfast,” Dean Bettiga said. “For some odd reason we kept getting lead back to this place.”

Annette Bettiga said she is a firm believer that this is where they were meant to be.

“What started to be a different job ended up being a whole different lifestyle,” she said.

She explained how the goal for the establishment is to make it a one-stop shop.

“The plans in the future include a beer garden outback,” Dean Bettiga said. His hope is to have bands be able to play there in the summer.

Other plans for the future are to add a propane filling station, add air conditioning units and to expand the parking lot. Bettiga laughed when he explained the dire need of an expanded parking lot. He said when the place is full, parking will spill over to the Senior Center’s parking lot.

Something the Bettigas said is a huge hit with the locals is the pub’s homemade fries. One order is equivalent to one pound of homemade fries, which is why they said they always get a kick out of people when they order a double batch.

Dean Bettiga said other things that have gotten a positive review from visitors are their pizzas, wet burritos and the chicken quesadilla.

There are different daily specials every day at the Perronville Pub. The kitchen opens at 6 a.m. and closes at 9 p.m. but the Perronville Pub does offer an after hours food menu. The store opens at 6 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 9:30 a.m. Sunday.