The Lone Girl Brewing Company, a long-awaited nearly 7,000 square foot brew pub, opened in Waunakee Monday.

Lone Girl is serving lunch and dinner daily in its newly built-out space at 114 E. Main St., with lots of wood paneling and high ceilings. A spacious patio on the roof serves an abbreviated menu of what's downstairs, snacks and shared plates like wings, nachos, pretzels and poutine.

The full menu includes tavern-style favorites: burgers, chicken kabobs, broiled cod, ribeye and pasta, with salads and soups as well.

Co-owner Kevin Abercrombie, who also owns Matilda in Chicago and has lived in Waunakee for five years, is quick to point out that Lone Girl is a brewery with food, not a restaurant with good beer.

That's a business decision, based on the growth of the craft beer industry.

"A lot of the people I was buying beer from, like Ale Asylum, O'so and Karben4, would tell me 'You know how to run a bar/restaurant,'" Abercrombie said. "'We make beer because we don't know how to run a bar/restaurant. If you can do both, you'll do very well.'"

Kevin and Kerry Abercrombie have three children, an 8-year-old daughter and 6-year-old twins, while co-owners Paul and Tammi Kozlowski have four boys between the ages of 4 and 10. The lone girl, Avary Abercrombie, inspired the brewery's name.

David Luecht is Lone Girl's kitchen manager and chef, and John Russell serves as head brewer.

At the start, Lone Girl is serving outside beers, but the first three brews made in house are set to be available by the end of the month. They are a cream ale called Speakeasy Ale, an as-yet unnamed IPA and a sweet stout.

Kevin Abercrombie said these beers may be sold in area bars and grocery stores, but primarily as a way of getting people into Lone Girl itself.

"It becomes a reminder," he said. "'Oh, that's the new place in Waunakee, maybe I should go check it out.' That's our distribution plan."

Ultimately, Lone Girl aims to brew 2,000 barrels a year, the equivalent of 4,000 kegs.

"Whether we follow the Great Dane (Pub) model and have three or four more of these, that would be one way to look at it," Abercrombie said. "If we make something that is coveted as much as Spotted Cow, maybe we're talking about getting a brewery in a warehouse district."

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