Today, it celebrates its 10th anniversary with Oktoberfest, starting at 3 p.m. with live music, drink and food specials, giveaways, and a lot of memories to look back on as they plan for at least another 10 years of friends, food, and fun.

Now with 15 taps that alternate a wide variety of craft brews, The Black Sheep, 113 S. 2nd Ave., has become a popular hangout for locals and tourists alike.

On Friday, owner Kris Conger poured a glass of wine for the lady and a beer for the gentleman, a recently engaged pair visiting from downstate, where they make their home in Milan. The couple, Alyssa Harden and Kevin Maury, said they heard from friends that The Black Sheep was a great place to stop on their visit to Alpena.

“We’re kind of like the ‘Cheers’ of Alpena,” Conger said, noting that many locals congregate at the English-style pub, and they are a lot like a family.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Paul and Kris Conger own The Black Sheep, celebrating its 10th anniversary today with Oktoberfest, starting at 3 p.m. with live music, drink and food specials, and giveaways.

Her eyes welled up with tears as she talked about how supportive the Alpena community has been this year, especially during the government-mandated shutdown at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in spring.

“We have a lot of people that support us, and have been supporting us, and helped us during the shutdown,” she said. “I don’t think there’s anything we really can say but thank you. I was just amazed at how Alpena came through for everybody.”

The Black Sheep offered carryout meals during the shutdown, and many people told her they were alternating restaurants to continue to support them all while restaurants were forced to close all but curbside service.

“There was only a handful of us restaurants that remained open,” she said. “We were fortunate, because we served food that we could still do the takeout and delivery.”

She and her husband, Paul Conger, own the pub, which they named The Black Sheep because “we were always kind of the black sheep of our families,” Paul Conger said. “It was pretty fitting. Plus, black sheeps never go with the grain. They always go against.”

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Paul and Kris Conger own The Black Sheep, celebrating its 10th anniversary today with Oktoberfest, starting at 3 p.m. with live music, drink and food specials, and giveaways.

The Black Sheep is open seven days a week at 11 a.m. Best known for its fish and chips, the pub serves a full food menu, including burgers, prime rib, fire-braised turkey, and Scotch eggs.

“We always say it’s an English pub with an American twist,” Kris Conger said.

They recalled how some people were taken aback when they opened right after the Great Recession.

“When we opened up, we knew that we wanted to put craft beers and a different selection of beers on tap than what everybody else had in town,” Paul Conger said. “Before we opened up, if you went anywhere, you had Bud Light, Miller Light, maybe if you’re lucky they had Amber Bock on tap. And I knew that I wanted to put more stuff on tap. I could see the trend, and that’s what I wanted to do was put craft beers on tap, and everybody thought I was crazy.”

Now, most bars in Alpena have a selection of craft beers on tap.

“That was our niche,” he recalled of 10 years ago. “If you wanted those kinds of beers, you came here. But then, soon after that, everybody else was starting to catch on and starting to do the same thing.”

“So, the last 10 years, we’ve always had to be creative and rethink things,” Kris Conger added.

In the first several years, they only offered appetizers, she said, but they expanded that into a full menu, which they are always changing and reinventing. They also offer Sangria by Susan, which has a new flavor each season. They serve homemade breakfast on Sundays, along with a bloody mary bar with Kris Conger’s well-loved recipes.

Paul Conger noted that being a small business owner has its challenges.

“Everybody thinks it’s cool to open a business, until you find out that you don’t own the business, the business ends up owning you,” he said. “And what you thought was going to give you freedom is actually an anchor.”

He said they have an excellent staff, a huge asset to any business.

“It’s gone by fast now that we sit back and say, ‘Wow, we’ve been open for 10 years,'” Kris Conger said. “It hasn’t been easy, but we’ve had some really good times in here and we’ve made a lot of good friends.”

After a decade of success and challenges, and the difficulties of the pandemic, there’s nowhere to go but up.

Literally.

“This is a three-story building,” Kris Conger explained. “We have two apartments on the second floor, and we have a third floor. So, we’re hoping to put an elevator in there and work our way up top.”

Paul Conger added it’s an expensive project, and it will take time, but those are the future plans for The Black Sheep.

“For us, I think that’s the way that we can keep moving forward in Alpena,” Kris Conger said. “You have to keep reinventing yourself. You have to keep moving forward … one decade at a time.”

Darby Hinkley is Lifestyles editor. She can be reached at 989-358-5691 or dhinkley@thealpenanews.com.