A Northwoods Cocktail Lounge Is Going Dark to Can Its Own Dr

Last updated: October 2026

Last updated: October 2026

Quick Answer: Moxi Lodge and Lounge, the lakeside cocktail bar on Connors Lake in Sawyer County, announced it is temporarily closing its lounge to launch a ready-to-drink brand called Dollface Cocktails. In a Facebook post, owners Matt and Roxi Plath said “licensing and regulations” require the hiatus while they get the new company ready. The lounge will be open through this weekend and closes Monday, Oct. 12. The brand’s first post shows three canned martinis: a Salted Caramel Martini, a Coconut Crush Martini and a Midnight Mint Martini, all 12-ounce, vodka-based cans. A reopening date for the lounge has not been set.

What Moxi announced

The announcement landed on the lodge’s Facebook page. Moxi is not opening new locations, the owners wrote, but it is “making it easier for you to enjoy one of our cocktails at home or your favorite local hangout.” That ease comes in a can: Dollface Cocktails, described as a new ready-to-drink beverage company whose release is “just around the corner.”

Then came the trade-off. “Licensing and regulations will require a TEMPORARY hiatus for Moxi Lounge as we get everything ready to rock and roll with Dollface Cocktails,” the post reads. The lounge stays open through this weekend and closes Monday, Oct. 12. The owners said they will post further updates about reopening.

This is worth stating plainly, because it is the part that gets garbled when a story like this travels: the closure is described as temporary, and it is the lounge that is pausing. The lodge’s vacation-rental condos are a separate operation, and the announcement does not say they are closing.

Where Moxi is — and where it isn’t

Moxi sits at W1115 County Road W in Winter, Wisconsin, on the shore of Connors Lake inside the Flambeau River State Forest. That is Sawyer County — an hour or so north and west of the Price County line, not in it. If you are driving up from Phillips or Prentice, plan the trip; this is a destination bar, not a neighbor.

The property is a two-part business: lakefront vacation condos (the Loft, the Birchwood and the Whitetail, all two- and three-bedroom) plus the cocktail lounge that gave the place its current name. The condos were originally “The Condos at Connors Lake.” The rebrand to “moxi Lodge & Lounge” came with the lounge itself.

The setting is the whole point. Six hundred feet of frontage on Connors Lake, a private dock and beach, a public beach and county park a block away, and direct access to the snowmobile and ATV trail networks. The lounge built its reputation on being exactly where you would not expect to find a serious cocktail program. The brand’s own framing says it best: a cocktail bar in the middle of nowhere.

What is in the cans

The brand’s first social post, captioned “Our starting line up,” shows three cans under the Dollface Cocktails by Moxi label. As pictured:

Salted Caramel Martini — a caramel martini made with vodka, warm brown label art.
Coconut Crush Martini, a coconut martini made with vodka, light blue label art.
Midnight Mint Martini, a chocolate mint martini made with vodka, dark blue label art.

All three are 12-ounce (355 ml) cans. The cans are martini-style rather than the spiked-seltzer format that dominates the shelf, which is a deliberate-sounding choice from a bar whose reputation is built on stirred drinks.

What the brand has not released: pricing, alcohol by volume, a launch date, or where the cans will be sold. The post ends with “Stay tuned on where to find us very soon,” and at the time of writing that is all there is. The Dollface page is days old and lists itself under the Wine, Beer & Spirits Store category, carrying the same Winter, Wisconsin address as the lodge.

Why a bar would do this at all

A small rural lounge turning itself into a packaged-beverage brand reads backwards until you look at what the move actually does.

A bar sells drinks by the pour, to whoever walks in, within the hours it is open, at a margin set by labor and rent. A canned cocktail sells by the case, to a distributor, in whatever volume the distributor can move, with no bartender in the loop. For a venue whose whole appeal is a room that is hard to get to, a can is the only version of the product that travels. That is the logic behind the owners’ line about wanting customers to enjoy a cocktail “at home or your favorite local hangout” — it turns a destination bar into something you can buy on a shelf.

It is also a well-worn path in Wisconsin right now. Central Waters Brewing launched a line of bourbon-based canned cocktails in August. Eagle Park Brewing & Distilling acquired SoulBoxer Cocktail Co. in March. The state’s craft-distillery base keeps pushing into ready-to-drink, and a bar with an existing recipe book and a recognizable name is a natural entrant.

The catch is that making and selling packaged alcohol is a different business, legally, from pouring it.

The licensing piece, explained as context

Wisconsin runs a three-tier system for alcohol: producers, wholesalers and retailers are kept in separate lanes. A bar operates on a municipal retail license, a “Class B” license in the state’s parlance, issued by the local governing body under Wisconsin Statutes chapter 125. Producing packaged alcohol falls under an entirely different set of permits, both state (manufacturers’ and rectifiers’ permits under the same chapter) and federal, through the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

That separation is the ordinary reason a venue pauses retail service while a production operation is stood up. The owners have not said which specific permit or requirement forced the timing, and this article will not guess. “Licensing and regulations” is not a vague excuse in this context — it is the expected friction when a bar decides to become a manufacturer.

For anyone weighing a similar move, the practical read is that the paperwork is the project. The recipes already exist. The canning, the labels, the federal approvals and the state permits are the part that takes months and does not care how good the drinks are.

What this means if you are planning a trip

Through this weekend, Moxi Lounge operates as normal — check the lodge’s Facebook page for current hours before you drive, since small Northwoods bars change them by season. After Monday, Oct. 12, the lounge goes dark. The condos are a separate booking and the announcement does not touch them, but confirm directly with the lodge before you build a trip around the bar.

For everyone else, the thing to watch is the can. A bar that trades its dining room for a production line is betting it lands on a shelf as easily as on a lake. Dollface is about to find out.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Moxi Lodge closing for good? No. The owners described the lounge hiatus as temporary, tied to launching the Dollface Cocktails brand. No reopening date has been announced.

Is Moxi in Price County? No. Moxi Lodge and Lounge is in Winter, Wisconsin, in Sawyer County, on Connors Lake inside the Flambeau River State Forest.

When does the Moxi lounge close? The owners said the lounge is open through the weekend and closes Monday, Oct. 12, 2026.

What are the Dollface Cocktails flavors? The launch image shows three: Salted Caramel Martini, Coconut Crush Martini and Midnight Mint Martini, all 12-ounce, vodka-based cans.

Where can I buy Dollface Cocktails? Not announced yet. The brand said to “stay tuned on where to find us very soon.”

What is the alcohol content of Dollface cans? Not yet published by the brand. This article does not state an ABV.

A Northwoods Cocktail Lounge Is Going Dark to Can Its Own Drinks