Operator Snapshot
Business: Lost Apostle Brewing
Footprint: Washburn, Wisconsin, on the shore of Lake Superior
Hospitality model: Brewpub with bar and counter service, an upstairs bar with lake views, an outdoor patio with QR ordering, a stage and fire pit and online takeout ordering
Technology selected: GoTab POS and kitchen display system (KDS), with QR ordering, online ordering, TipHaus and 7shifts
What the Team Needed
- A point-of-sale system new staff could learn quickly, even in the middle of peak tourist season.
- Clean, reliable reporting, with accurate comps and cash drawers that balance at the end of the night.
- Kitchen tickets that flow smoothly from the bar, the counter, the patio and online orders.
- A support team like GoTab that answers fast and is willing to show up in person.
- Integrations that handle scheduling and a tip-share structure that sends a portion of front-of-house tips to the kitchen.
Lost Apostle Brewing at a Glance
Badger Colish wrote the business plan for Lost Apostle Brewing after the pandemic grounded his travel as a brewing consultant.
“I knew it was time to start moving forward with my dream. That’s when I began putting the business plan together.”
The build took three years and included tearing down a big brick building that dated to the early 1900s. When the doors finally opened, guests found a brewpub at the edge of the map.
“We’re on the shore of Lake Superior on the Bayfield Peninsula,” Colish said. “If you go any farther north, you’re either in the lake or you’re in Canada.”
Colish had spent years integrating brewery equipment and managing facilities, so the brewhouse was familiar ground. The front of the house was another story. Within months of opening, he knew the point-of-sale system had to go.
“I handed our choice of POS system to the first manager I hired, and that was the biggest mistake I’ve made so far,” Colish said. “The first system we started with was a nightmare. It was clunky, not user-friendly and not at all intuitive. It felt like it had just been added on to for 20 years without ever really adapting or changing.”
Fellow brewers pointed him to GoTab. What won him over right away was how closely the company listened to his needs.
“The customer service floors me,” Colish said. “We send a text, and someone gets back to us within 15 minutes. You don’t find that anywhere else. Other places, you’re a ticket and they’ll get to you when they get to you. When I call GoTab, I have someone’s attention. It’s really like no other system.”
That level of service mattered, because Colish made the switch at the hardest possible time of year.
Why Lost Apostle Switched to GoTab
The Apostle Islands rise just offshore, and the brewpub takes its name from the chain’s missing 23rd island, Little Steamboat, which washed away in a 1901 storm. Its two-headed seagull logo nods to a 19th-century writer who claimed the local gulls were bigger than any he had ever seen.
Washburn has about 2,000 residents, and the busy season winds down in early October. Lost Apostle seats 80 to 90 guests inside and 30 or more outside, where a patio, a stage, a fire pit and a lawn for games fill the grounds.
In a market that small, every summer sale counts. The previous provider made those sales hard to track, so Colish chose not to wait for the slow months.
“Our old system was that bad,” he said. “Even pulling information out of it was a struggle. I lost so much from the start that I don’t have a real track record to look back on, and I can’t spend a lifetime digging for it. You do what you have to do.”
The recommendation for GoTab came from friends at Pryes Brewing in Minneapolis; Colish said it also surfaced through Performance Foodservice. In the brewing world, Colish trusts his peers first.
“Brewers are a tight-knit community,” he said. “When you reach out to the folks at Pryes, you find out they’re GoTab’s biggest fans. Well, maybe second biggest now. I’m the biggest.”
Lost Apostle went live on GoTab in mid-July. GoTab sent a team to Washburn for an in-person handoff and staff training, right in the middle of the rush.
“That’s something other companies are reluctant to do, and GoTab was completely willing,” Colish said.
How GoTab Simplified Training & Reporting
Colish holds a degree in outdoor education, so he pays close attention to how people learn. GoTab met him where he was.
“It was ridiculously easy to learn,” Colish said. “It’s intuitive for multiple learning styles. If you learn by reading, the information is there. If you’re a visual learner, it’s there visually too. You click a button and see things displayed one way or another, and that shows up all over GoTab. Somehow, it just works its way into your brain.”
The setup follows guests through the building. Two stationary iPad stations anchor service, including one in the main bar that lifts off its stand. A downstairs counter takes walk-up orders with customer-facing displays, patio tables use QR code ordering and takeout orders come in online. Every ticket lands on the kitchen display system.
“I love our kitchen KDS,” Colish said. “We’ve had very few glitches, and the small ones we’ve had were sorted out almost instantly.”
The biggest relief showed up in the reports. “After we made the switch, I looked at the reports and thought, ‘Wow, no comps today,’” he said. “And guess what? The drawer balances.”
GoTab also connects to the tools Lost Apostle uses to run its team. The brewpub schedules staff through 7shifts and handles tips through TipHaus using the GoTab integration.
Building for the Long Term
Colish has spent more than three decades in this corner of Wisconsin. He came north for college in 1989, left for six months after graduation and came right back. Lost Apostle is his way of giving the community a place to gather.
He sees Washburn differently than the visitors who pass through on their way to Bayfield, about 10 minutes north.
“Bayfield is where everybody has a second home, and it rolls up its streets after Apple Fest,” Colish said. “Washburn is where you want to be when you want to raise a family. We’re the hidden gem. We’re the spot where everybody settles down.”
His pride in the place shows. Midway through the interview, he turned his camera from behind the upstairs bar toward the lake to show off what he calls the best view in town.
That same care extends to the people who work there. Lost Apostle keeps a year-round staff, and Colish designed a tip share in which a portion of bartender and counter tips goes to the kitchen, where it is pooled and split among the back-of-house team.
“We pay people very well, especially for our area, and that’s because of tips,” Colish said. “The way I look at it, it’s not my money. It passes through us.”
The beer still starts with a small crew. Lost Apostle just received its can proofs and plans to start canning within weeks.
“It’s me and Justin Bohn in the brewhouse. He’s a friend, former chef and fellow brewer of more than 20 years, and we’ve both been at this a long time,” Colish said.
Winter on Lake Superior will test any small business. Colish plans to keep the doors open every day of the week anyway, with GoTab running the front of the house and his team sharing in what comes through it.
“The goal is to stay open seven days a week, and that’s difficult,” he said. “With any new business, you’re prepared to bleed for a while. We just don’t want to hemorrhage.”
To learn more about Lost Apostle Brewing, visit lostapostlebrewing.com.
See how GoTab’s brewery point of sale helps breweries and brewpubs connect bar, counter, patio and online ordering with the kitchen, payments and reporting.
