Tavern owner ready for last call

Ron Buelow got into the bar business on an impulse, and he is getting out the same way.

The owner of Double Vision tavern near Cecil has decided to retire, and is welcoming new owners to the establishment he has operated for the past 27 years.

Situated about halfway between Cecil and Bonduel, this has been a place to stop for drinks or a game of pool for as long as anyone can remember. Although the tavern has changed owners and changed names many times, it has been a fixture in eastern Shawano County for decades.

Buelow has marveled at the loyalty of his customers, many of whom have been frequenting Double Vision ever since they reached the legal drinking age. He attributes the steady success to the friendly small-town atmosphere that patrons find inside.

“Everybody gets along with everybody,” he said. “It’s a place to meet.”

The new owners have their own personal connection to Double Vision.

Back in 2001, the cozy tavern was where Bret and Terri Hughes met, with Terri working as a bartender. Four years later, it was where Bret proposed marriage to Terri on Christmas Eve.

So when the couple heard recently that Buelow was discussing selling the bar, they felt a sense of destiny. The establishment soon will go by the name Hughes’ Double Vision.

“It’s got sentimental value,” Terri Hughes said. “It’s a place we always hang out at.”

That is sort of how Buelow ended up buying the place, too.

Back in 1990, Buelow was a Green Bay paper mill worker who enjoyed spending time at the tavern, then known as Mitch’s II. On one Friday night, he overheard the owner talking about trying to sell the business. So without giving it much thought, Buelow made an offer.

Before long, he quit his paper mill job and was working 18-hour days at the tavern. He also lived in an apartment behind Double Vision — a name he picked for the place because he thought it sounded good.

“I do a lot of things on the spur of the moment,” he said. “That’s how it is.”

Now 63 years old, Buelow had not really given much thought to retirement. But it seemed like a good idea at the time the Hugheses made him an offer.

He is confident the new owners will do well, considering the tavern’s high-profile location at N5296 State Highway 117 in the town of Washington.

“It’s a perfect location,” he said.

Jim Mitchell thought the same thing in 1964 when he purchased what was then known as Bishop’s Bar. Mitchell said he believes the tavern was built in the 1940s and that he was the third owner.

Mitchell renamed the place “Mitch’s” and added the living quarters. When his son, Mike Mitchell, took over the business in 1978, the son installed air-conditioning in the barroom — a luxury at the time.

It was his son who decided in 1990 to sell the tavern to Buelow.

Mitchell has been impressed at how well the bar has survived all these years. He still drops in every once in a while to visit. He still recognizes some faces in the crowd.

“There’s a lot of history there,” he said. “There’s quite a lot of memories there.”