Feb. 25, 2021

After spending enough weekends watching football – and patronizing restaurants in his neighborhood all day while doing so – Jason Walsh half-joked he should just own a place.

That was several years ago, but now he will have his own game-time bar and restaurant.

Walsh, whose background is in banking technology, is partnering with several friends and co-workers to open Roundhouse Brew Pub on 69th Street just east of Cliff Avenue.

“Our goal is to be a little neighborhood place,” he said. “We’re not trying to be Tinner’s or The Barrel House. We’re not going to try to attract people from the east and west side of town. We just want our neighborhood in there, and we’re going to be family-friendly.”

There will be plenty of TVs, said Walsh, who bases all sports watching off the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, which requires multiple televisions.

“There are always four games on at once, so hopefully every seat will have a visual line to four different TVs,” he said.

The 2,500-square-foot restaurant will share a building with Moda Stone and The Sauna Haus.

It will seat about 70 people plus have a patio.

The name is connected to Roundhouse Brewery in Nisswa, Minn., which Walsh also co-owns. The brewery was started in nearby Brainerd on the site of an old roundhouse for fixing trains.

“So it will be a train theme in there, because that’s what Roundhouse is,” Walsh said. “We’ll have at least five tap lines dedicated to Roundhouse beer.”

The menu will specialize in salads, wraps, burgers and pizzas.

“That’s the focus we want to be really good at,” Walsh said.

The plan is to open sometime in June.