New Carlisle residents Karen and Dave Klein, along with son Nathan, are working hard to establish Ivy Alley Social House as one of Downtown South Bend’s most unique and entertaining gathering places.
For New Carlisle residents Karen and Dave Klein, hospitality plays a significant role in their professional nursing careers. In 2023, when the couple—along with son Nathan—started working on business plans to open South Bend’s Ivy Alley Social House, they figured they were just getting into a different aspect of the hospitality industry.
“Nursing and owning and operating a brewpub are at two different ends of the hospitality spectrum,” said Karen Klein. “My husband and I had never done anything like this before, and neither of us has any background at all in business, but we started working on the plans for Ivy Alley in 2023. We wanted to do this because there isn’t anything like this in South Bend, and we felt it could add to the overall downtown experience. The location, near Four Winds Field, is so great, and we wanted to open something that could potentially become a gathering place.”
Off to a good start!
Located at 321 W. Wayne Street, the renovated Spenner Garage—a nearly 100-year-old building— represents years of planning by the Kleins. Ivy Alley finally opened in December 2025 and debuted the first beer from their in-house microbrewery on Feb. 12, 2026.
Pizza, prepared in classic Italian style inside a stone oven at more than 700 degrees, is the signature dish at Ivy Alley, and fun and games are always on tap. The venue, which also regularly features live music and entertainment, boasts more than 70 board games, free arcade games, and eight lanes of duckpin bowling.
“Weekends have been really good,” said Klein of their progress since Ivy Alley’s December 2025 launch. “It was tough at first because when the gates finally opened, it was right around the holidays. We also had a fair amount of rough weather this winter, and we had some ups and downs. Things seem to be settling in now, and with everything we’re offering—live music, good food, trivia, venue rental, beer tastings, fun and inclusive duckpin bowling lanes—we’re gathering some good momentum and feeling good going into the spring and summer.”
Early challenges, and the value of trusted guidance
In their early days of planning, it did not take the Kleins long to realize that—although technically related to nursing, in the ‘hospitality’ sense—the restaurant and brewpub business poses its own unique set of challenges.
“It can feel pretty treacherous, because you never really know what’s coming around the corner,” said Klein. “It can be a hard process, and it can be especially challenging to find legal guidance you can trust. There are just so many details to keep track of. As you work toward becoming a business owner, you don’t always have a lot of legal resources at your disposal, and we spent some time trying to figure things out on the fly.”
Following up on a recommendation, the Kleins began working with Warrick & Boyn in 2024. Almost immediately, they felt the benefits of having dependable legal counsel.
“Working with Warrick and Boyn really helped us to better manage some of the moving parts, of which there are many, and better understand some of the legal concerns one has when opening a business,” said Klein. “We primarily worked with Rachel (Schnetzler), and she was so insightful in how to form our LLC and with getting our riverfront liquor license and brewing permit squared away.”
According to Klein, working with Warrick & Boyn has allowed her, Dave, and Nathan—the latter of whom serves as General Manager—to focus more on operating Ivy Alley and less on dealing with peripheral concerns.
“We’ve had situations where we had a dispute with a contractor who was on a timeline that would not work for us,” said Klein, “and we’ve had some operational and human resources hurdles to overcome. Knowing now that we have access to trusted legal guidance, and knowing how responsive Warrick and Boyn is, that definitely takes some of the pressure off and allows us to focus more on our day-to-day aspects. For us, having never done anything like this before, it makes Warrick and Boyn’s services that much more valuable.”
Klein recalled one day in particular, in dealing with a contractor dispute, when she reached out to Warrick & Boyn partner Rachel Schnetzler for advice.
“It was an intense situation,” said Klein, “so I reached out to Rachel. I didn’t really expect her to get back to me right away, but I heard back from her that very same day, and then we spoke on the phone the very next day. To know you have that type of support reduces the mental strain and provides a lot of reassurance. It just seems like whenever I need Rachel, she’s there. That’s one of the many reasons I would definitely recommend Warrick and Boyn to anyone with a business, or getting ready to start one. They are incredibly responsive, and I only have good things to say about them.”
And we keep hearing great things about Ivy Alley! Thanks, Karen, Dave, and Nathan, for working with us and for putting in so much time and effort to open one of Downtown South Bend’s most unique gathering spots. Cheers!