Twin Cities Day Trips is a summer series with tips on where to eat, shop and explore. Make sure to check out our other stops: , , , | | |
The Vibe
If ever a town looked like the set of a Christmas movie about a plucky heroine searching for love and gingerbread, it’s Hudson, Wis.
At least two holiday movies have been set here, including “A Christmas Wish in Hudson,” featuring a Twin Cities woman who drives east through a mountain range (wait, what?) to discover Hudson and a hunky firefighter who loves to bake.
Hudson is waiting. You don’t even have to climb a mountain; just cross a river.
“We’re six miles closer than Stillwater,” said Pete Foster, laughing on the shady patio of the San Pedro Cafe, one of three restaurants he and his wife Laura own in downtown Hudson.
When Foster makes the 30-minute drive to St. Paul to catch a Minnesota United game, fellow fans sometimes ask if he had to book a hotel for his stay. “You came in from Minnetonka,” he tells them. “You had a longer drive than I did.”
Eat
Start the day with a little coffee delight courtesy of Ember & Bean. Roasted on site, the carefully-sourced beans have all the complex tasting notes that are gorgeously expressed in a fresh cup of pour-over, but the rotating flavors of lattes are just too good to resist.
Across the patio from the coffee shop is Dipsy, an ice cream shop that’s serving up a sundae twist on the internet’s obsession, dot cake. It’s an adorable sweet to beat the heat.
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Choose your own adventure for a midday meal, with the crowd-pleasing burgers at LoLo American Kitchen. Or head to North Hudson for the 501 Tavern. It’s a historic Wisconsin bar experience, inside a rustic log cabin setting, perfect for enjoying a fish and chips basket.
Wind down the day inside one of the city’s best watering holes. Nova Bar is the kind of bar built by a longtime hospitality worker who spent years dreaming of how they’d build their own place. Cocktails are top notch, and the ice cold beers are served with welcome speed. Plus, popular sandwich pop-up Kinsey’s Deli is working out of the kitchen, and the menu sports a glorious Reuben. (It doesn’t hurt that the bluff-side patio overlooks Dairy Queen.) Or dip into the High Dive, a newer bar with craft cocktails that lean into the day-on-the-river vibes of the town.
Shop
Hudson was built for browsing. Shoppers stroll between redbrick storefronts, lovingly preserved from the lumber boomtown days in the 1800s. Your next find is rarely more than a block or two away in this walkable city of 15,000.
Pick up a gift at the Bees Knees, browse fair-trade gifts and fashion at the Purple Tree or the women-owned Mainstream Boutique or the menswear at St. Croix Provisions. Follow your nose to Knoke’s Chocolates & Nuts to load up on truffles or cool off with an ice cream cone.
Or maybe enjoy a slice of Oprah Winfrey’s favorite coconut cake. Many cakes claim to be Oprah’s fave, but at the St. Croix Baking Co., chef Charles Froke watched the star breeze through his kitchen at the Four Seasons in Washington, D.C., to pick up dessert for the Obamas at the White House.
Sometimes two Hudson businesses are better than one. When Chapter2Books invites an author to town, the Black Rooster Bistro around the corner hosts the party and whips up signature cocktails for a literary evening they call “The Bookish Buzz.”
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Explore
After shopping, adventure awaits. There are more than a dozen state, county and local parks, miles of hiking and bike trails and a national scenic river to explore by kayak or river cruise.
Just northeast of Hudson, hike through restored prairie at Willow River State Park to the breathtaking Willow Falls; a waterfall that splashes down a triple cascade before plunging 45 feet into the river gorge.
History buffs can take one of the free historic walking tours to find treasures like the Octagon House Museum, where staffers explain why this storied house has twice as many walls as you would expect. Ask them about the ghost cats.
If ghost cats don’t appeal, meet the alpacas at Eagle Eye Farm, home to a menagerie of critters, from llamas to porcupines to kangaroos.
Why Hudson?
If you’re looking for Hudson’s heart, come to the banks of the St. Croix on warm summer evenings when the town unfolds lawn chairs and settles in to listen to live music and watch the sun set over Minnesota.
The Minnesota Orchestra was tuning up in the Lakefront Park Bandshell recently, filling the humid air with the music of Dvo?ák, Sousa and the “Imperial March” from “The Empire Strikes Back.” Sailboats bobbed on the waterfront. One block inland, downtown Hudson beckoned.
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Hudson’s calendar is crowded with live music, festivals and carnivals. Because the only thing people here like more than their town is showing it off to someone else.