A pair of bars currently under development in downtown Dublin will have some local flavor as two brothers and Delaware natives continue their work on bringing a bourbon and cigar bar along with a wine bar to the old Dublin scene.

Todd and Mark Corwin, along with Todd’s wife, Jen Kuo, are constructing The Apothecary Bourbon and Cigar Lounge and Uncorked Wine Tastings in adjacent buildings located at 30 and 32 S. High St. in Dublin. The Apothecary is being constructed in an existing cabin that has stood in Dublin since at least 1830 and once served as its namesake, and the building being rehabbed to serve as Uncorked also dates back to the early 1800s.

The inside of the cabin will be exposed so patrons can see the original building, and it will serve as the humidor for the cigars. An addition is being constructed to the rear of the cabin that will serve as the bourbon bar, and there will be outside space with a deck that will serve as the smoking pavilion.

At Uncorked, patrons will be able to enjoy self-dispensing wine machines with 48 bottles on tap. Once settled on a preference, bottles will be available for purchase. The rear of Uncorked will also feature green space to offer outdoor seating.

“We’ve lived (in old Dublin) for about seven years now, and my wife and I walk downtown a lot,” Todd Corwin told The Gazette of how the idea began to materialize. “We always walked past those buildings, and they’re one of the last buildings that need fixed up. I love my projects, so as we’d walk by, we always talked about what we might do with it.”

Corwin said they didn’t originally have their eye on the cabin building, and his wife had the idea of possibly doing a general store or wine bar for the building next door. When that building went up for sale, and they found they’d have to buy the adjacent building as well, Corwin believed adding a cigar and bourbon lounge next to the wine shop would be “the perfect match.”

The addition on the back of The Apothecary is now finished, and Corwin said he hopes to begin siding the building and adding doors and windows in the coming weeks. “It’s coming along pretty well,” he said.

Next door at Uncorked, Corwin noted there’s “not much keeping that building standing.” This week, the building is going to be jacked up to pour a concrete foundation. The hope, he said, is for all renovations to be done by April, with an additional month likely needed to furnish and stock the two bars.

For now, Corwin said he’s simply enjoying the process, which he noted has gone as smoothly as he could have hoped for given the age of the buildings. That he gets to do it with his brother and wife, building another family business, has only furthered the enjoyment he’s getting from the project.

Their father, Dan, started his own carpet business in Delaware in 1970, and Todd Corwin still runs the family business today. Mark Corwin worked there through school and still assists when needed. Now, the two brothers are together every weekend at the bars, working toward what they hope will become another piece of the Corwin family legacy.

“We’ve always been kind of handy and just want to do stuff as a family,” Todd Corwin said. “And my brother and I talked about it for years as we got a little bit older, that it would be cool to do another family business together. We got into rental properties that my brother and I did together. And again, we just loved working together as a family. And then we decided to sell those properties in 2020 and started focusing on doing something different like a restaurant or a bar.”

He added, “It’s something we always dreamed about and joked about but never thought we would be able to do, especially in a place like old Dublin. It just so happens we were walking by in 2020, right after selling our properties, and saw a ‘for sale’ sign go up. So we bought the buildings.”

Equally gratifying for Todd Corwin is having something to show his parents, who worked so hard when he was younger to give him and his brother what little they had, to let them know they’re going to be fine while also building something for their own children to someday carry forward.

“It’s something to leave the kids also,” Corwin said. “My dad worked very hard to give us what we had. … My mom, she babysat to try to make ends meet. They worked their butts off for us, so we want to do something bigger. You always try to do what your parents did, and if you can do a little better, that’s even better. So that’s what we’re doing, trying to leave a legacy for our kids. And that all started with mom and dad.”

In the community, Corwin said he hopes that by being present in the buildings often, people will feel like “part of the family” while enjoying a new place to hang out and enjoy the history of the structures.

He added, “It’s probably my favorite project we’ve ever done, to bring something back to life that has been sitting there for 200 years.”

Reach Dillon Davis at 740-413-0904. Follow him on X @DillonDavis56.