Beth Cato

This place is an absolute gem. It's small but has a nice variety, with a moderate price.

First of all, the parking: there is no lot immediately adjacent to the museum. There is some parking along the street, including along what is a frontage road for the highway, but museum visitors can also park in the church lot across the street.

We had no line upon entry and the place was fairly empty on a January at midday. The lady at the counter was enthusiastic and friendly as she told us about what was on each floor of the museum. We began wandering on the main floor, through an exhibit of winter traditions in Russia, and continued from there. I especially loved some of their permanent pieces like the Milkmaids (no photograph can do it justice). The museum is forthright about their support of Ukraine, which I much appreciated, and even had an exhibit of pro-Ukraine artwork.

A lot of reviews mention the gift shop, as well they should. It's a charming place. Expensive, yes, but the stuff tends to be higher quality and/or unique. They had a lot of imported foods I hadn't seen before. I bought a pottery take on Baba Yaga's chicken-footed house, which I absolutely adore.

This is definitely a place I'd visit again as exhibits change, and it'd be great to bring company here from out of town (I should note that the museum is not far away from MSP airport).

We came by on a Sunday in late October, probably the last weekend of good weather for the year. Fall colors were at peak on the drive to the cidery, and the orchard looked beautiful as well. We found the place to be busy but not cram-packed; there was seating indoors and out for people to enjoy their drinks.

We had only one person ahead of us in line, so the ordering process went fast. We ordered a cider flight, which included four drinks; at this point in the season, they had five to choose from. We also ordered some cookies and little apple strudels from the bakery case in the adjoining room, which also had different apple bags available for purchase. Several of the apples had a samples available, kept under a dome to keep away the fruit flies that were swirling around.

The ciders and pastries were tasty. I browsed the shop afterward. This would be a good place to gift shop. They had jams and jellies, home decorative items that kept to a wine theme, and of course, their ciders and wines.

We came by about 7:30 on a Saturday. There were just two of us. We had about a 15 minute wait before being taken to a table. It was immediately clear that the wait wasn't for a lack of empty tables, but a lack of staffing. Everyone there was extremely nice and helpful, but they were stretched so thin. We had a long wait to place orders, and for my husband to get his beer (it turned out they'd run out of his first request, but we didn't know for 15 minutes until we inquired), and for our food to arrive. The food was fine, too. We'd come here as part of the Curd Crawl, and Grizzly's has gigantic cheese curds. Really, they were almost too thick! They take several bites to eat. We'd also ordered small salads to balance with the cheese.

I hope they get the staffing issues fixed, as it was apparent that the people there were doing everything they could.

The vineyard is not hard to find, located just south of Highway 61. There is a good bit of parking, but not all of it would be accessible to those with walking disabilities, as there are some gravel-covered slopes. The shop and bar is a beautiful space lined with bottles and décor. We ordered two flights, one red and one white, then walked through the building to the patio. It is a large space, mostly covered, that opens to a deck overlooking the vineyard. It began to rain as we sat there, so we didn't get to explore the grounds. The view was lovely as we sampled the wines and discussed them.

We'd arrived to Red Wing not an hour before, starting the move into our new house, and needed to celebrate our fresh start with some quality local pizza. We went with Red Wing Brewery based on online reviews and pictures. We were able to order right away and sat at a table right near the front of the restaurant. On that Thursday evening, much of their business was take-out, and we soon saw why--the food is freshly-made and that takes time. That was fine by us (though we know to call ahead next time!) as we enjoyed our drinks, chatted, and watched the street outside. My husband had a meat lovers pizza, my son had a custom cheese pizza, while I had the white pizza. They were all hot and tasty, and the cheesy garlic bread was delicious, too. Definitely a pizza place to order from again!