MUSKEGO, WI — On a normal Thursday this summer, all the tables at Bass Bay Beer Garden would be full of people enjoying live music and sipping a drink. This Thursday, smoke reaching hazardous levels forced the Muskego business to close, marking another rough day in an already tough year.
This summer, Bass Bay Brewhouse opened the Bass Bay Beer Garden, trying to continue business after a devastating December fire. On Thursday, another fire hundreds of miles away in Minnesota and Ontario, Canada, caused smoke to reach hazardous levels, forcing the beer garden to close over safety concerns for customers.
"Can't seem to get away from the fires," Oschmann said.
The beer garden runs five days a week, with live music, drinks and food trucks. While Thursday is only one day, Oschmann says the closure will impact all the food vendors, servers and bartenders who work there.
"Every day is important," Oschmann said. "We only have a limited time to really operate without a building until it gets too cold to keep operating, so every day for us really counts."
Watch: Wildfire smoke forces closures, hits Wisconsin small businesses
Nearly 20 miles away in Milwaukee's Riverwest neighborhood, the smoke is still dense, and Joel Lichosik is still working.
"We can definitely smell it, and we're keeping slow days for sure because we don't want to overextend with the smoke," Lichosik said.
He and his brother run Crops on Top, an urban farm. While the smoke doesn't impact the plants much, it's hard to work in. Their farm stand is only available on Thursdays.
"Surprisingly, the business has been really good; I'm noticing a lot of people are wearing masks," Lichosik said.
They decided they couldn't afford a missed week.
"If we would close down, all our sales for the week right there would be gone. We definitely have to be out here if we can…" Lichosik said.
Both businesses are hoping the smoke pushes out of the area as soon as possible.
This story was reported on-air by Brendyn Jones and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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