Notes From Behind the Counter

The Ledger.

Every bank keeps a ledger. Ours records better things: new drinks, town news, and the occasional story worth telling twice.

August 2, 2026

The Greatest Show on Earth started down the street.

On November 27, 1882, five brothers from Baraboo staged their first show in Mazomanie, a few blocks from our counter. Two years later they had a circus. In 1907 they bought Barnum & Bailey.

Read the entry →
August 1, 2026

The Britins played the pavilion. Mazo showed up.

A Beatles tribute, a lawn packed edge to edge, and a Mazomanie summer night done right. Next up at Mazo Live: Sharp Dressed Men on August 22, and the Birddog Blues Band closes the season September 26.

Read the entry →
July 29, 2026

The year the magazines called us cool.

A folder of 2008 clippings from the Wall Street Gallery, a village that reawakened, and the people who did the waking. Also: a chief named Walking Iron, and the first show the Ringling Brothers ever gave.

Read the entry →
July 13, 2026

Game six. The line is the game now.

Every coffee adds a regular to the line behind you, and the line follows exactly where you walked. That is the problem. The back office computer has been waiting since 1997.

Read the entry →
July 13, 2026

The fifth game is a locked door.

Five locks, one watchman, and a needle that whispers when you are close. What waits behind the big door does not go in the newspaper. Ask the tellers.

Read the entry →
July 12, 2026

A third game moved in. The tellers approve.

Four teller windows, one espresso machine, and the morning line forming the way it always has. Downstream of the creek, as usual. Read the fine print.

Read the entry →
July 9, 2026

The bank has games now. We will not say where.

One runs the town in 1855. One floats the creek. Finding them is the first level. The ducks are friends.

Read the entry →
July 7, 2026

The new 1855coffeehouse.com is open. The vault is, too.

We rebuilt our website from scratch, and we may have hidden a few things in it. A word of advice: old bank buildings reward the curious.

Read the entry →