Great Escapes 2008: Red Wing

Civic leaders were thrilled when Red Wing landed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2008 list of America’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations. Joining the likes of Crested Butte, Colorado, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Red Wing long deserved recognition for its painstaking preservation efforts.

But the national spotlight also underscored what many Minnesotans already knew: Charming Red Wing is perfect for a quick historic-small-town fix—a peek into quaint downtown stores, a nostalgic drive down the Mississippi River to Lake Pepin.

Today’s Red Wing, however, isn’t lost in history. It’s embracing its past with new approaches to the arts, with restaurants balancing comfort and the cutting-edge, with 100-plus-year-old shops selling wares made for modern times. The best place to get your first taste of this is at the Red Wing Visitors & Convention Bureau, housed in the handsomely repurposed 1905 Milwaukee Road Depot. Although Amtrak still makes daily stops here, the ticket window is long gone, replaced with staffers handing out maps and photo guidebooks to historic walking tours and sculpture crawls. Also at the depot is the Red Wing Art Gallery, where you can view and purchase pieces by members of the local arts association, from small ceramics to dramatic canvases. On tap for this summer is an exhibit of plein air art—art painted in the open air instead of a studio.

ART IS IN THE AIR Sightseeing takes to the skies June 20–22 when daily flights of twenty-five hot air balloons kick off Red Wing’s Art Is in the Air festival. Back on the ground, plein air artists will set up easels on streets and parks around town throughout the week in conjunction with the festival, which culminates June 29 with a reception, special exhibit, and sale of plein air paintings at the Red Wing Art Gallery. GETTING THERE Highway 61 traveling southeast from the Twin Cities through Hastings is the most direct and scenic route to Red Wing. For a fresh—or many would say old-fashioned—approach, consider booking a passage on Amtrak’s Empire Builder from St. Paul. Trains depart St. Paul at 7:50 a.m. for a journey of slightly more than an hour, pulling into Red Wing at 8:54 a.m. The return trip leaves Red Wing at 8:52 p.m. and arrives in St. Paul at 10:31 p.m. Tickets cost about $20 per person each way, with discounts for AAA members, military adults, veterans, children, students, and seniors. Amtrak, 800-872-7245 For more information, contact the Red Wing Visitors & Convention Bureau, 420 Levee St., 651-385-5934

Architecture and performing arts fans will appreciate the 1904 Sheldon Theatre two blocks away. The jewel-box Renaissance revival–style interior of gilded plasterwork and plush red velvet seats and draperies is a regal setting for live performances nearly every weekend this summer, including Oklahoma! by Red Wing’s Phoenix Theatre. More unusual must-sees are the retro-cool organ-accompanied silent film shorts occasionally screened here.

To see where artists from around the world join those in Red Wing to study and work, check out the Anderson Center, off Highway 61 just north of town. A cylindrical red-brick water tower dominates the campus of Georgian revival structures originally built by Alexander P. Anderson, the inventor of puffed-wheat and -rice breakfast cereals. Now joined by more contemporary buildings, it’s home to Minnesota’s largest artist retreat (drawing artists, writers, and scholars from May to October) as well as studios, an alternative high school, and the Sheldon Theatre Scene Shop. The center also hosts a slate of special exhibits and boasts a permanent collection that includes works by Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Alexander Calder, and Jasper Johns.

Browsing at a Red Wing art fair.

Red Wing’s most famous art form, of course, is its pottery. Although large clay deposits nearby helped make the town the top producer of pottery in the United States around the turn of the twentieth century, the pottery business has now evolved into small-scale craft. Red Wing Pottery produces pieces with the rough-texture “salt glaze” that characterized crocks from the 1870s to 1900. Its original pottery plant has been transformed into Pottery Place Historic Center, a mall of antiques dealers, specialty shops, and small eateries. A respectable display of historical stoneware remains on display in the building’s Red Wing Pottery Museum, but the potting tradition continues at a newer factory and show room next door. Farther out of town, just off Highway 61, is the Red Wing Stoneware Company, where pieces sport the newer and smoother “Bristol glaze” that graced Red Wing crocks from 1900 to 1930. Here you can take factory tours three times a day or watch potters at work through a window.

Not to be overshadowed is world-famous Red Wing Shoe Company and its sprawling series of shops within a downtown block of Italianate buildings, now renovated as Riverfront Centre. Check out the history display documenting footwear through the decades.

For history buffs, Minnesota’s oldest county historical society, the Goodhue County Historical Society, boasts an impressive set of displays. Housed in the former Baptist Old People’s Home, the facility was expanded in 1989 and covers all things Red Wing, from natural history to immigration, sports, and leisure.

Red Wing’s shopping scene offers plenty of options as well. Perhaps the most intriguing is Hobgoblin Music, on the outskirts of town, where Gary Stone and fellow artisans handcraft more than 500 harps each year. You can watch them work from a window on the lower level of a quirky ninety-year-old barn; on the two floors upstairs, a show room and a concert space nestle beneath exposed rafters and roof boards. In the summertime, check out performances, including a bluegrass festival, in the outdoor amphitheater behind the barn.

Inspired Home and Flower Studio

Home-décor and housewares shops dominate the downtown scene. One of the most popular is the Uffda Shop, where a variety of artistic interpretations of the Swedish Dala horse join mod Marimekko table linens imported from Finland. A more extensive range of housewares and kitchen gadgets, including Wüsthof cutlery and Le Creuset cookware, fill shelves at The Galley Room. For home accessories and gifts, check out the pretty Moments on Main and Cut Above Home as well as Red Wing’s newest décor shop, Inspired Home & Flower Studio, where you’ll find elegant designer product lines. Antiques from the city’s rich past (including Red Wing crocks and dinnerware) abound at a number of shops and malls, including two-level Memory Maker Antiques, downtown.

Cards taped to shelves note the staff’s thoughtful picks at the Best of Times Bookstore. The children’s section features a playhouse modeled after Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House in the Big Woods, a tribute to the author, who was born a short distance downriver in Pepin, Wisconsin. And even if you’re not in the market for a new suit, check out the classic men’s shop Josephson’s, which has been in business for 130 years (107 at its current location). Its tin ceilings, pine floors, and oak cases with glass doors—kept closed to protect clothes from smoke and soot in the days of burning coal—are a throwback to the past. So are its helpful salespeople, including owner Tom Withers, who handpicks high-quality lines and oversees careful in-house tailoring.

A few blocks down Old West Main Street, Ruth’s German Haus is worth a peek for its colorful array of German gifts and groceries. German chocolates (including the Kinder Surprise Egg with a toy inside) make sweet souvenirs.

Hanisch Bakery

Red Wing’s cafés and coffeehouses offer sugary snacks you may not be able to wait to take home. Local institution Braschler’s Bakery, recently sold by the Braschler family to longtime employees who have changed the name to Hanisch Bakery, sells beautifully iced cookies, decadent pastries, and loaves of Swedish limpa bread. Icelandic almond rolls, caramel rolls, and other morning snacks are among the choices at the exceptional Jenny Lind Bakery, part of the Smokey Row Cafe, near Red Wing Pottery. Comparable treats come with lattes at the cheery Lily’s Coffee House. For more traditional breakfast fare, including pancakes made with Red Wing’s own Sturdiwheat mix, visit Veranda Cafe at the St. James Hotel. More popular with locals is Bev’s Café, where generous breakfasts and lunches are served in a good greasy-spoon way. New York bagels and coffee, plus sandwiches, salads, and soups, are offered at Blue Moon, where diners stash away at tables and comfy chairs surrounded by an electric mix of antiques, art, and books. Even Red Wing’s Caribou Coffee is inviting: Located in the former Chicago Great Western Depot, its two-level seating area basks in sunlight streaming through tall windows.

English–style teas presented in a pretty 1880 Victorian Italianate home—or on a side porch overlooking an English garden—are the specialty at tea room Tale of Two Sisters, run by Bonnie Tracy (sister Susan retired). Sandwiches, scones, desserts, and tea are served Tuesdays through Saturdays. Tracy also offers lunch and monthly teas, often with holiday themes.

Staghead is a must for lunch or dinner, perhaps with a Maredsous Belgian beer, one of eleven choices on tap. Sandwiches, steaks, seafood, and pasta are served under the watchful eye of the namesake stag, a trophy found years ago at a Minnesota State Fairgrounds antiques sale. Appetizers make up much of the menu at nautically themed Oar d’oeuvre, which serves Rush River microbrews and has one of Red Wing’s best outdoor patios, just off Main Street overlooking a garden. The Port, in the basement of the St. James Hotel, hosts Red Wing’s most elegant dining in an intimate, low-light, wine-cellar atmosphere.

Arguably the area’s most widely acclaimed restaurant, now located a few miles away in the Wisconsin woods in Bay City and called The Norton’s, is set to move into a Main Street storefront in Red Wing come June. Owners and chefs Greg and Sarah Norton will continue to use fresh local ingredients at Norton’s Downtown & Lucky Cat Lounge and plan to open a wine shop next door.

Burger and sandwich basics are good choices at Liberty’s Restaurant & Lounge, which has one of Red Wing’s latest kitchen closing times. For weekend evening entertainment, visit Jimmy’s Pub on the fifth floor of the St. James Hotel, with its rich woodwork and clubby warmth.

If roadhouse excitement better suits your style, hop on the Highway 63 bridge to the Harbor Restaurant, Bar & Marina, on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi facing downtown Red Wing. A summertime outdoor bar offers respite from the smoke-filled interior (Wisconsin has not yet banned smoking in restaurants) and hosts blues, country, rock, and reggae festivals.

Although Red Wing’s Falconer Vineyards offers a relaxed spot for enjoying a bottle of wine and a low-key picnic, the vineyards at Vino in the Valley in nearby Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, provide the setting for chef-prepared, white-tablecloth pasta dinners. Served only on Thurs- day and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons, the meals have proven to be hugely popular with locals and offer a beautiful opportunity to take in lush views of the Rush River Valley. A similar concept plays out on Tuesday evenings at Pizza on the Farm, a few miles beyond in Stockholm, Wisconsin, where A to Z Produce & Bakery’s Robbi Bannen and Ted Fisher use ingredients from their eighty-acre organic farm and prepare delicious pizzas in a wood-fired brick oven. Call for directions and bring your own picnic supplies.

The pastoral scene beckons closer to Red Wing as well and is best appreciated from Bay Point and Colvill Parks, both with short trails on the river, as well as Barn Bluff and Sorin’s Bluff, where steep hikes access stunning overlooks. Cycling the Cannon Valley Trail takes in more mileage (up to 19.7 miles to Cannon Falls) as it parallels the beautiful Cannon River on the former Chicago Great Western Railroad line. Bike rentals are available at The Route, where Trek cross/hybrid bikes can be rented for $25 a day.

Although many visitors treat Red Wing as a day trip from the Twin Cities, staying over in town is the best way to experience the charm from morning till night. Poised at a perfect spot downtown is the 1875 St. James Hotel. Its sixty-one rooms—many named after Mississippi River steamboats—are furnished with period antiques and bright carpets and wall coverings. The Victoriana even extends to the halls, where old photos, letters, newspaper articles, and lacy decorative items chronicle the city’s history.

Round Barn Farm Bed & Breakfast & Bread

Bed-and-breakfasts offer additional charm-filled options. Overlooking Red Wing is the 1874 Moondance Inn, which invites guests inside and up its sweeping staircase. At the 1877 Candlelight Inn, which is known for its elegant Victorian breakfasts, exquisite cherry cabinets outfit the library. The 1930s Tudor revival Golden Lantern Inn—the 7,000-square-foot former home of J. R. Sweasy, a former president of the Red Wing Shoe Company—offers a rich but more tailored style that breaks away from Victorian florals. Another less conventional option, four miles from downtown, is the Round Barn Farm Bed & Breakfast & Bread. Here, a 1914 Dammon round barn, listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings, anchors the landscape.

Reasonably priced motel options, including the AmericInn, Best Western Quiet House & Suites, and Nichols Inn & Suites, line Highway 61. Country Inn & Suites joins the lineup in early summer. Farther out at the Prairie Island Indian Community, 230 rooms will nearly double the capacity at the Treasure Island Resort & Casino, come August.

A more kickback overnight experience awaits at Hay Creek Valley Campground and Old Western Saloon, six miles outside of Red Wing. The lost-in-time saloon boasts a long bar, house-specialty buffalo burgers, and a billiards/game room. Trout fishing, horseback riding, and other family activities abound at the campground and in the adjacent 1,000-acre Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood State Forest.

If your hotel or B & B doesn’t have a fitness facility or pool, check out the Red Wing Family YMCA, where exercise equipment faces windows with Mississippi River views. Cards from Twin Cities YMCAs work here, and daily passes ($7 individual, $12 family) are available as well.

RESOURCES Food & Drink A to Z Produce & Bakery (Pizza on the Farm), N. 2956 Anker Ln., Stockholm, Wisconsin, 715-448-4802. Bev’s Café, 221 Bush St., 651-388-5227 Blue Moon, 427 W. 3rd St., 651-385-5799 Caribou Coffee, 726 Main St., 651-388-1910 Falconer Vineyards, 3572 Old Tyler Rd., 651-388-8849 Hanisch Bakery, 410 W. 3rd St., 651-388-1589 Harbor Restaurant, Bar & Marina, N673 825th St. (Island Rd.), Hager City, Wisconsin, 715-792-2417 Jenny Lind Bakery/Smokey Row Cafe, 1926 Old West Main St., 651-388-6025 Jimmy’s Pub, 406 Main St., 651-388-2846 Liberty’s Restaurant & Lounge, 303 W. 3rd St., 651-388-8877 Lily’s Coffee House, 419 W. 3rd St., 651-388-8797 Norton’s Downtown & Lucky Cat Lounge Opens in June at 307 Main St. Until then, Norton’s Restaurant in Wisconsin will remain open. 715-792-2464 Oar d’oeuvre, 433 Main St., 651-388-2155 The Port, 406 Main St., 651-388-2846 Staghead, 219 Bush St., 651-388-6581 Tale of Two Sisters, 204 W. 7th St., 651-388-2250 Veranda Cafe, 406 Main St., 651-388-2846 Vino in the Valley, W3826 450th Ave., Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, 715-639-6677 Shops Best of Times Bookstore, 425 W. 3rd St., 651-388-1003 Cut Above Home, 320 W. 3rd St., 651-388-2307 The Galley Room, 323 Main St., 651-388-7313 Hobgoblin Music, 920 Hwy. 19, 877-866-3936 Inspired Home & Flower Studio, 415 W. 3rd St., 651-388-8743 Josephson’s Clothing, 215 Bush St., 651-388-4261 Memory Maker Antiques, 415 Main St., 651-385-5914 Moments on Main, 329 Main St., 651-388-2343 Pottery Place Historic Center, 2000 W. Main St., 612-822-0367 Red Wing Pottery, 1920 W. Main St., 651-388-3562 Red Wing Shoe Company, 314 Main St., 651-388-8211 Red Wing Stoneware Company, 4909 Moundview Dr., 651-388-4610 Ruth’s German Haus, 1811 Old West Main St., 651-388-0516 Uffda Shop, 202 Bush St., 651-388-8436 Arts & Venues Anderson Center, 163 Tower View Dr. (Hwys. 61 and 19), 651-388-2009 Goodhue County Historical Society, 1166 Oak St., 615-388-6024 Red Wing Arts Association, 418 Levee St., 651-388-7569 Red Wing Pottery Museum, 2000 W. Main St., 612-822-0367 The Sheldon Theatre, 443 W. 3rd St., 651-388-8700 Recreation Red Wing Family YMCA, 434 Main St., 651-388-4724 The Route, 1932 Old West Main St., 651-388-1082 Lodging AmericInn, Old W. Main St., 866-385-0018 Best Western Quiet House & Suites, Hwy. 61 and Withers Harbor Dr., 651-388-1577 Candlelight Inn, 818 W. 3rd St., 651-388-8034 Country Inn & Suites, 4275 Hwy. 61 W., 952-467-2414 Golden Lantern Inn, 721 East Ave., 651-388-3315 Hay Creek Valley Campground and Old Western Saloon, 31655 Hwy. 58, 651-388-3998 Moondance Inn, 1105 W. 4th St., 651-388-8145 Nichols Inn & Suites, 1750 Hwy. 61, 651-388-6633 Round Barn Farm Bed & Breakfast & Bread, 28650 Wildwood Ln., 651-385-9250 St. James Hotel, 406 Main St., 651-388-2846 Treasure Island Resort & Casino, 5734 Sturgeon Lake Rd., 800-222-7077