So many activities - biking, disc golf, golfing, exercising, walking, etc. available…read more Clean space with a cute cafe. Lots of local bread, ice cream, and drinks. Cafe is open later on weekdays, which is so nice after a long activity. 2 ample parking spaces.

What a fantastic community space and outdoor recreation center! Totally makes winter in Minnesota…read moreeven better. I'm new to discovering The Trailhead at Theodore Wirth Regional Park, but believe me when I say I'll be back many more time. In the winter, they offer cross-country skiing and lessons. (You can rent a full set of gear for about $30- no need to have your own to experience skiing! They also have à la carte options for cheaper if you only need poles or boots, etc.) Besides skiing, outdoor winter activities also include snow tubing, snowboarding, snowshoeing.... You name it. (I haven't been in fall or summer yet, but I also hear great things about their mountain biking and trail running options.) Inside The Trailhead, there's food and drink concessions, ample seating, lockers, bathrooms, and even rooms for rent. The last time I was there, a family was hosting a young child's birthday party in the multi-purpose room. Altogether, there is an amazing assortment of services here to come and check out. Can't wait for next ski season!

This is historic Grain Belt Brewery complex in Northeast Minneapolis, designed by Boehme and…read moreCordella who are renowned for designing the American Swedish Institute's mansion. It's beautiful! I visited here today for the first time to attend Craft'za...Craft'za is a free one‑day art market for handmade goods! Whoo! It is is a heated and the the art was wonderful and a free public parking lot attached. Had a wonderful and enjoyable time. What a wonderful use of space!

Grain Belt Bottling House is a diverse venue, used for everything from the Autumn Brew Review to…read morevarious other gatherings and shows throughout the year. Depending on the size of the crowd, parking and entry can be a breeze or really tough. It is a venue that has a lot of potential, with both the inside of the building and the outdoor field where ABR is held available as potential space. I guess I would say that I feel the ABR is too big for this venue and there are parking issues (not to mention the wrap-around-the-block hour-long wait to get through the gate). Other things I've been to at this facility seemed better suited. For the record, I do think that reusing an old building period is awesome. It's way better than just letting it sit there. :-)

Came dancing here on a Thursday evening. There were many cave "rooms" interconnecting. There was a…read morefull orchestra of 10+ live musicians. Lots of folks dancing Swing, fox trot, and salsa. Definitely a family affair with dancers of all ages enjoying themselves. Beginners on the sidelines and couples who obviously dance a lot together heating up the dance floor. It was so fun!! Didn't get a lot of photos- was too busy dancing! Would love to come back and do the tour. And return to dance more.

While looking for things to do while we were in town and this popped up and I'm glad we decided to…read moredo it. It was a little different than what I expected but an interesting experience nonetheless. Our tour guide absolutely made the experience. She was so fun, upbeat, cracking jokes, and so informative. Hearing the stories of what happened in these caves in the past was so much fun.

What a great "first time" experience; I cohosted my vehicle with Brit and Kyle who were gracious…read morehosts. They explained the process and walked me through the cohosting arrangement making me feel I was with a trusted colleague. I left my vehicle with The Slow Club for eight weeks and was very impressed with communication and results, earning hard cash to augment our income while I did not need the vehicle! Kyle and Brit me and the vehicle better than when we began.

From the owner: Premium vehicle storage, full service auto repair and maintenance, social clubhouse, and event…read morespace for the discerning automotive enthusiast.

I've only been a guest here, but after attending my second event in this space, here's deets:…read more I attended a wedding + reception, and the Visit Saint Paul Annual Tourism Celebration event here! The signage is a bit confusing, and I could see others struggling to find it too - you enter at the front of the building and walk down a very long hallway to get to it. The space is conducive to receptions and events: the first space has a bar and open area, and the second area is totally blank so can be transformed into a wedding, seating for a speaker, or a tabling event. At both, the bar and catering were great! One thing that bothered me at the recent event I went to: there's a beautiful glass garage door that's the focal point and backdrop of the space: it's where speakers would stand, or the couple would stand. At the recent event, there was a car parked right there, and it's a concrete slab with a gate. I know some of that is out of their control, but might be worth telling folks not to park there so you're not looking out at someone's Toyota Corolla.

Great wedding venue (from a guests perspective!) with a cocktail / holding space and Ceremony space…read morethat turns into dinner! Bar was nice, and the outdoor "patio" is appreciated! Was well temperature controlled and lots of natural lighting! And a brewery attached, score!

Food was amazing…read more Five stars -- the food here was amazing. Beautiful space too, with the downtown St. Paul views. Would absolutely come back for another event here.

I cannot rave about this venue enough! The staff and food were excellent. Our venue coordinator,…read moreMadi, was so supportive and answered all of our questions throughout the process. Let me say just say, the bridal suite is absolutely amazing. It has a big mirror and great for mirror selfies! The rooftop provided a place for solace when people got overstimulated on the dance floor. Overall, the venue is the perfect balance of elegance and chic and so happy my husband and I chose this A'BULAE!

Bravo! My new motto is to bring trains back. My family visits Union Depot regularly for local…read moreevents such as the Saint Paul Art Crawl, local craft shows, to get steps in the winter and last year took the North Pole Express for the experience. I'm proud to announce that this year we finally booked a 6-hour train ride from Saint Paul to Sturtevant which is near Milwaukee, WI. We had a wedding to attend and rather than drive 5-hours, we decided to add another hour on the train and be hands free and comfortable. It was the best decision ever! Showing up to the depot 30 minutes before departure vs. 2-hours at an airport was the biggest flex. The depot is also very sanitary and has great security. There's even security in the women's bathroom so big kudos there. Depending on the time of your departure, shops and coffee might not be open but again, this is not a travel spot you need to be at hours in advance so that wasn't a knock for us. The Borealis Amtrak was the train we took and adored it. Was it super updated and high end? No. Did it have an upper and lower deck? Yes. Was the leg room out of this world with feet resters and chairs that reclined basically all the way down? Yes. Was there great overhead space for luggage and only 2 seats per aisle with no middle row ever? Yes. Was there a snack cafe? Yes. Did we see fall foliage out the windows? Yes. Did we play on electronics the entire ride? No. We looked out the window for 6-hours watching nature, seeing tons of deer, bodies of water, etc. If you're even considering a short trip to Rochester, etc. DO IT! This is the greatest adventure ever and it's affordable. Staff is beyond friendly and helpful especially for us as first timers. As I am pregnant, they even let us move into the family line and board first. We also saw a huge catering service towards the elderly population where they escort those who need extra time before the family line and encourage them to sit downstairs to avoid the stairs as there is no elevator. My husband and I look to book a longer trip in the near future in one of the sleeper trains going to see the mountains. I cannot vote for this more. Enjoy!! Toot toot!!!

Union Depot is a hub for transportation. Gateway to the Twin Cities where you can get on Amtrak,…read moreand several bus lines. The building itself is historic and beautiful well worth the visit just for the art and architectur. You can visit some truly unique business, grab hot snacks from the fun vending machines, or get a great meal at 1881 Eating House. Start you skywalk here and come back for cocktails.

We hosted our cocktail style Wedding Reception here in June and felt it was woefully mismanaged…read morefrom start to finish. We booked all three rooms back in Fall of '23 and paid our deposit and were excited to get planning come May this year. We got to a month before the event and hadn't heard anything from the Event Coordinator regarding current menu, bar, timing, anything. Three weeks prior to the event we reached out and heard nothing for a week. Two weeks out we followed up and found out the Event Coordinator had changed from the one we booked with and the new one was out for an indeterminate period of time with a family emergency. We worked as best we could with the Event Captain but ended up with incorrect menus and pricing and were finally told the Event Coordinator would be back the Monday of our event week and it would be handled then. We got finalized menus and pricing 36 hours before our event. This was extremely stressful, however, we empathized with the Event Coordinator and were assured the event itself would be great. On the day, we arrived and the staff setting up was unsure how many chairs we wanted. They didn't know which equipment we had paid for to use that needed to be set up. They didn't know what the event was for. They were all very nice and let us know they had extremely limited information about our event which was very concerning for us. The Event Coordinator was present for about 5 mins to ask us about a backup wine if ours ran out and that was it (it did run out because there was only one bottle). There was no Event Captain, and the Coordinator was not on hand and (according to staff) unreachable during the event. We had agreed upon several things including a finite amount to pay for "open bar" and then switching to card after that point and we found out only AFTER we met our minimum that they were never told/weren't prepared to take cards. At that point, our options were no drinks (N/A or otherwise) for the last 3 hours or so of our event or we could just keep paying. So we ended up paying much more than was quoted/agreed upon due to lack of communication/oversight. We were told that guests could visit the attached Blue Stem bar, but it closed two hours before our event ended. We also had guests with dietary preferences/restrictions and had ordered vegan options and gluten free cake. We had asked if these could be explicitly labeled to avoid confusion and were told "yes" and on the day it did not happen so many of our guests were unaware there was anything they could eat at our reception. We were also told we could take our leftovers home and we only got cake when there was a lot of food left when they took it away. The sternos were out for some period of time and we couldn't find someone to help with that. The bar was left unattended. The bartenders were serving and refilling alcohol table to table (which we did not want or ask for), and did not pass appetizers as agreed upon. We reached out to the owner, twice, following our event to discuss our concerns to no avail. We LOVE French Meadow and are just heartbroken to have had this experience with them. Posting this (very lengthy) review in hopes no one else goes through this expensive disappointment.

We were married and hosted a reception for twenty two guests in the Nord Room/French Meadow Bakery…read more& Cafe. It was so fabulous and we cannot say enough positive things about our experience! All of French Meadow's staff were so lovely to work with. Briana and the entire catering group were so helpful from Day 1. As most wedding couples do, we had a lot of questions about logistics and planning. They answered every one of our questions in a timely manner and were thorough in coordinating all of the details of our special day. The day of our wedding, everyone there was immensely helpful and went out of their way to make us feel comfortable. We truly owe them the world for making our wedding day so special! The room is perfect. We added floral centerpieces, but the room itself was setup exactly how we wanted, the chairs outside were moved once for our ceremony and then again for our first dance. The lighting both inside and out was more than we could have imagined. We were able to play our own music (a friend just had to manage the playlist), which was super easy! The FOOD, OH MY GOSH THE FOOD! So superb, we got so many compliments from our friends and family about how wonderful the food was. We got to choose 4 food options for our guests and only heard wonderful things about each entree. The cake was also super wonderful and delicious. We would recommend the Nord Room to anyone looking for an intimate wedding location. It was such an easy day (seriously, nothing went wrong!) and we couldn't have asked for a better staff or location. We had a beautiful day and we owe much of that to the wonderful folks at French Meadow!

We hosted Thanksgiving here with 30 people and it was FANTASTIC! All my guests said how beautiful…read morethe space was....how spacious yet cozy. We watched the game....no problem. Setting up the food was easy...plenty of space for people to sit and eat but room for the kids to play and chill. Def will rent the space again. For sure a community gem!

Attending the venue as a guest…read more Overall clean, great functional kitchen, some lightning, and nice decor. There is parking, but it is shared with the other businesses in the strip. Therefore you have to plan to carpool or use the park & ride. There isn't really any street parking alternative nearby. Ideally then, this place would be for smaller groups. It looked like the renters have to do all the cleaning including taking the trash out, replacing the bags, & disposing it themselves (having to put it in their car). Thought that was odd.

My wife and I hit a new pub in St. Paul called the Blue Door before touring this cool old Victorian…read morehouse of one of the first governors of Minnesota. We had some awesome burgers and beer before our free tour the Historical Museum was giving of its properties this weekend. We entered the house feeling full and happy from a couple of Surly Furious pints and signed up for our tour. We entered the house with a great guide dressed in a top hat and suit of the 1800's when Ramsey would have lived in the house. The house was one of the few in old time Minnesota with gas lighting and running water. There was a bathtub and even an indoor water closet. It was interesting that there were chamber pots around the house because women did not like to remove all the bussels and stuff. They showed the bells and talking tubes for the servants to be called upon. They showed the kitchen and offered baked cookies from the oven. The children's' rooms were well adorned and Ramsey had a play room for the children up in the attic along with the servants' rooms. The whole layout was perfect, great character actors as guides and pretend servants. Even though they had a lot of people taking the tour, they kept it well run and you quickly became envious of such a large, cool house. Highly recommended for a crummy day outside when you're looking for something to do. Hey, and it's educational!

I had a bizarre experience here today. I walked into the Gift Shop and hung out looking at stuff…read morefor 20 minutes while people were talking in the back. I wanted to pay admission and walk around the house. Finally, I peeked in the back and some lady said, "are you Dustin?" Huh? When she saw I was just a member of the public she hurriedly hustled me out the door and told me they were closed for staff interviews and did I not see the sign, etc. I did see a small, handwritten sign on a dry erase board, but I was confused about why the gift shop would be wide open, lights on and merchandise unattended if the entire place was closed down. All the sign said was that there were no tours, not that the entire building was closed. I thought it was possible to take a self-guided tour even if staff were "busy." Honestly I haven't been to very many historical sites where self-guided tours are forbidden. Basically, the point of this weird experience is that whatever non-profit is running this place is extremely disorganized and unable to communicate something as basic as being closed to the general public, not to mention the fact it can't even secure its premises. It's pretty irresponsible to leave the front door open and an entire gift shop unattended. I could have walked off with half of their stuff and no one would have been the wiser. On her way to rushing me out the door, the lady acted very annoyed and mumbled something about what they can't do because of budget cuts, even as she was discouraging me from making a purchase from their gift store. To me, this illustrates exactly why non-profits are in dire straights. They want charitable donations from everyone even while turning down opportunities to become more self sufficient. A similar thing happened a week or so ago when I attended an evening lecture on 19th century spiritualism with a friend at the Ramsey House. We arrived late and didn't have the chance to pay for our tickets until it was over. I had to ask three people how and where to pay. No one made any effort to bother us for money, and had I not been extremely proactive, it would have been free for my friend and I, but not for the taxpayers. This is ridiculous, and perfectly illustrates why non-profits do not deserve financial support. This place can't even manage to collect money from people attending an event. It isn't like we slipped in quietly or secretly either. To many organizations, "non-profit" doesn't simply mean they don't make any money, but that they actively throw it away.