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Steve George remembers when seven bars lined the short main street of Soldiers Grove. Now village president, George presides over a very different town from the one he grew up in. It’s even in a different location.

Because of perpetual flooding from the Kickapoo River, the heart of Soldiers Grove was moved upland in the late 1970s. The line up of storefronts has been replaced with clusters of wooden buildings with southern exposures. The new town was started during the first big solar energy boom.

One of the seven bars remains, The Wonder Bar, but otherwise the village hasn’t gotten back to the days of a packed, crowded downtown. A new drinking establishment is on its way and its presence in Soldiers Grove speaks to many changes since the village’s seven bar heyday.

Driftless Brewery comes out of the growing ‘slow food’ movement with its emphasis on local ag products and craftsperson approaches to food and drink making. Driftless takes its name from the geological term for the region that was untouched by glacial drifts, leaving valleys and ridges unscarred. And the brewers are banking on that local association by trying to get an expansion and public taproom built that will appeal to growing numbers of touring beer connoisseurs.