NORFOLK - Residents of Norfolk have a new choice when it comes to deciding what bar they want to go to as District Table and Tap officially opened its doors Saturday morning.

The bar may be just celebrating day one, but the building its in has been there for a century.

"It's housed a lot of business over the years," owner Andrew McCarthy said. "At one point [the east] side had been a bar before, we believe in the 1940s. [The west] side was Skinny's Tattoo Parlor for many, many years. It was built in 1919 so this is the 100-year anniversary of the building." 

McCarthy has been working with his partner, staff and contractors over 13 months to renovate the space. He says they overcame plenty of obstacles along the way.

"Bringing back the bricks, laying concrete, we had to completely gut everything," McCarthy said. "The plumbing was bad and had to be redone. There was a lot of challenges, but its very rewarding bringing back the beautiful, you know, the brick is one thing, but just with the history that's been in the building, its cool to bring it back." 

All the hard work paid off. McCarthy says he couldn’t be happier with the results. He gives most of the credit to his contractor I and P Construction as well as the city.

"Getting a patio onto the sidewalk, getting that permit, we're the first ones in the city, I believe, to do something like that sort of thing," McCarthy said. "That was really cool that [the city] gave us eight feet, and they made it easy. Sometimes its not always easy, but they made it easy and we got the patio done so that's a big aspect of our business."  

District Table and Tap has 23 beers on tap 18 of which are Nebraska-based brews. The bar also has a small-plate menu, live music every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night and, of course, a place to catch the Husker game on Saturdays in the Fall.

"I just wanna be known as a place to come, hang out with your friends and have a good time," McCarthy said.