December 16, 1896 – The highly-successful Iowa City tavern owner – Frank E. McInnerny – opens McInnerny’s Great Wine & Liquor House on S. Clinton Street.

Just as the Iowa City Beer Riots were coming to an end (1884), a second-generation businessman – an Irishman named Frank E. McInnerny – opened a high-brow saloon on South Dubuque Street in Iowa City. By the end of the century, McInnerny had added a wholesale liquor business on the side, featuring two unique products: Iowa First Capitol Whiskey, and a beer called McInnerny’s Special Brew. Purchased by the bottle at his Great Wine & Liquor House on S. Clinton Street, or by the glass at his 150-foot-long bar on Dubuque Street, customers flocked to McInnerny’s until 1916, when seven states, including Iowa, voted in prohibition – four years before the whole nation went “dry” in 1920.

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