Known as the walleye capital of the world, Lake of the Woods is massive. Straddling the U.S.-Canada border, it’s just a couple hours’ drive north of Bemidji.
And over the past 16 years, the ancient lake has also become known as a winter pilgrimage destination for tourists from around the region and as far away as France — thanks in part to a pop-up ice bar located directly on the lake when it’s frozen over.
Zippel Bay Resort's Igloo Bar is an oasis for ice anglers, snowmobilers and any other outdoorsy winter-types.
To get there, you drive down a long ice road on Lake of the Woods in Williams. About a mile from the shoreline, you see a huge dome-like structure resembling an igloo.
It’s situated amid a desert of white that seems to go on forever as its 1,000-square-foot silhouette rises from the glaciated landscape like a mirage. While it may look like an igloo from a distance up close it’s easy to see that the outline of ice blocks is actually painted on.
Nick Painovich, the owner of the Igloo Bar, wanted to do something that would set them apart from the average resort in Minnesota.
Nick Painovich and his wife Deanna own Zippel Bay Resort. About 16 years ago they got the idea of opening the Igloo Bar every winter to set themselves apart from other Minnesota resorts. Mathew Holding Eagle III | MPR News "We figured, why not bring some entertainment out on the ice closer to where all the fishing is taking place,” he said. “So we said, ‘Well, why not have some food and maybe alcoholic beverages, soft drinks and something people can do out here other than just fish.’"
Each year around Christmastime the Igloo Bar is towed to its location in two parts on skids with one-ton trucks. Then it's winched together and blocked up off the ice. The interior is warmed by a fuel tank.
"We have heated porta-potties, which are a big hit for people out here on the ice,” Painovich said. “So, if they don't come here for all the camaraderie and the drinking, they come here to use the warm bathrooms out here."
Painovich, a former General Motors engineer, designed the bar, which is not made of ice.
Instead, he used a combination of steel tubing for the floor and steel piping for the frame. Then the frame was fitted with a regular screen door material.
And to get the igloo look just right, white spray foam was applied to the inside and outside of the structure.
"It's really light on the top half of it, but the floor is where the strength is because you got to tow it,” Painovich said. “Sometimes you got to jerk it a little bit to get it moving, and it's held up well."
Jenny Johnson works at the Igloo Bar. For the past 14 years she’s done everything from serve food and drinks to fix the generator.
Johnson’s seen the cash-only bar double in size. And she was there when it installed satellite TV and an onsite ATM.
Johnson said the bar is always busy. But she still makes time to fish from one of the many holes that line the interior floor. One year she caught a monster.
“It was a 42-inch pike. And nobody was in here at the time when I caught it. I had to call in for backup, because it had swallowed it [[the lure]] pretty good,” Johnson recalled. “By the time I did get somebody here, a couple guys had come in, and they were just astounded. They couldn't believe that I'd pulled that thing through the ice.”
The Igloo Bar attracts visitors from all over, from YouTubers to a French TV crew. And sometimes the locals initiate visitors into the local customs with a shot that contains a live minnow. Joining those ranks on a recent afternoon, minus the shot of minnow, was Robert Duresky, a retired defense contractor from Colorado.
"This has always been a bucket list of mine to come on up here and see what the Igloo Bar is all about," he said.
Duresky’s obsession with the Igloo Bar began four years earlier ago, when he learned about it through a friend.
"I said, ‘I want to go there. I got to go there. I'm gonna have a beer, I'm gonna get a pitcher, and we're getting a pizza and we're gonna go back,’’ he said. “It's been spectacular. It's been well worth the drive."
For him the Igloo Bar is a state icon. And he thinks everyone should visit at least once.
"It's part of Minnesota. If you're from Minnesota and you like ice fishing or not, come up here and experience the Northwoods,” he said. “The air is crisp, the fishing is good, beer's cold, and the company's phenomenal."
Painovich, who is in his late 70s, said he’s not sure how long he will stay in the resort business because he would like to retire soon. But for now, the Igloo Bar will be open until sometime in March.
The Upper Midwest Newsroom is a public media collaboration between Wisconsin, North and South Dakota, and Minnesota, made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
