It’s Closing Time For This Popular Downtown Rochester Bar

After a five quick years, it's last call for The Doggery.

I had just moved to Fargo in the summer of 2013, but it wasn't long until friends back in Rochester were talking about this fun, new bar that had just opened downtown called The Doggery. A buddy said they served some of the best top-shelf cocktails in town and described it as more of a speakeasy atmosphere than just another "bar", to which that got me even more excited to check it out on my next return to town.

Later that fall I finally got my chance and I couldn't have been more impressed by it's decor and the overall mood of the place. It was so chill, and frankly like nothing Rochester had anywhere else. To my surprise, a friend I had the pleasure of working with at Newts/City Cafe for several years, Ansley Jones, was running The Doggery! Ansley is one of my favorite bartenders in town and I was so excited to see him finally have a place to call his own. But sadly, after an constantly changing landscape downtown, the bar poured it's last drink this past weekend.

According to Jeff Kiger at the Post-Bulletin, the bar will be transformed into a new business as their lease with SEAR LLC has come to an end.

Since I've moved home, I frequently made it a point to visit The Doggery to enjoy an "Old Fool" with friends, which was their version of an Old Fashioned. It is/was my favorite drink in the city, hands down!

While it sounds like Ansley is more relieved than sad to close up his bar, I for one will sincerely miss it. He and his staff were some of the hardest working bartenders in town, and I hope to see Ansley pop up behind a bar again sometime soon!

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