The Chippewa Valley offers tour groups a host of shopping, dining and cultural options. Taste treats include grass-fed beef and prize-winning cheeses and pies.
Sculptures add a touch of whimsy to downtown Eau Claire, Wisconsin. (Randy Mink Photo)
By Randy Mink, Senior Editor
As the largest city in west-central Wisconsin and the region’s cultural hub, Eau Claire—90 minutes east of Minneapolis—has much to offer group travelers.
What began as a sawmill town with a thriving lumber industry in the 1800s is now a center of healthcare, education and technology. As home to the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, the city hums with a youthful vibe.
My recent trip to Eau Claire and surrounding towns in the Chippewa River Valley was full of surprises. For example, the area boasts the nation’s largest rotating sculpture tour, claiming more than 120 original sculptures. Dozens of new installations—eagerly anticipated by locals—join permanent pieces unveiled every spring. Crafted from wire, metal, tire rubber and other materials, artworks making up the Eau Claire Sculpture Tour, selected from over 700 offerings from around the country, beautify streets, parks and riverwalks downtown and throughout the city and in nearby Altoona and Menomonie.
Also enhancing the cultural scene is downtown Eau Claire’s Pablo Center at the Confluence, a magnificent performing arts complex where the Eau Claire and Chippewa rivers meet. Comprising the 1,200-seat RCU Theatre and a smaller theater, it seems so grand for a city of 70,000.
The Pablo Center stages more than 200 performances a year, from Broadway touring shows to productions by students in the university’s music and theater arts programs. Bus groups can combine a show with a catered meal or behind-the-scenes tour that includes the costume shop.
The game of kubb is special to Eau Claire. (Photo courtesy of Visit Eau Claire)
A Sport Eau Claire Calls Its Own
As Eau Claire is the official kubb capital of North America, it made sense for our group to give the Swedish lawn game (pronounced “koob”) a try on the rooftop patio at The Brewery Projekt microbrewery. The object is to knock over wooden blocks by throwing wooden sticks at them. Played with one to six players on each team, kubb is described as a combination of bowling, horseshoes and chess. Kubb events are held in Eau Claire all year long, and the game is part of park recreation programs and school physical education curricula.
Every July the city hosts the U.S. National Kubb Championships, which attracts more up to 125 teams from across the country. The 20th annual tournament will take place July 9-11, 2027.
Exploring Downtown Eau Claire
For a good overview of Eau Claire, the Chippewa River Trolley Company offers a variety of tours, some focusing on food and beverage sampling. Other tours are themed around history, hauntings and holidays. The trolley seats up to 22.
Trolley trips depart from The Local Store, a destination itself. Housed in an 1880s brick-and-timber building that began as a candy factory, this downtown tourist magnet purveys everything Wisconsin—cheeses, wines, beers, spirits, books, board games, puzzles, prints, posters. You’ll find maple syrup, goat milk soap, T-shirts, sweatshirts and Green Bay Packers gear, plus home goods, camping supplies and other items evoking the Northwoods.
Exhibits at Banbury Place, a former tire factory, shed light on Eau Claire’s industrial history.
Just down the street from The Local Store, a former tire factory has been transformed into a mixed-use complex called Banbury Place. Comprising a dozen red-brick buildings, it hosts shops, offices, warehouses, food kitchens, a day care center, restaurant and light manufacturing, plus music, artist and photographer studios. As a fan of industrial history, I was drawn to the little museum that tells the story of the tire plant—which made up to 30,000 tires a day—and its workers. The factory started in 1916 as the Gillette Tire Co., later becoming U.S. Rubber Co. and then Uniroyal Goodrich (acquired by Michelin in 1990). The plant closed in 1992 and sat idle for many years.
Our group’s home for several nights was The Lismore Hotel – A DoubleTree by Hilton, a perfect base for checking out the shops, bars and eateries on and around Barstow Street, downtown’s main drag.
One night we imbibed and listened to live jazz at 2 Roots Art & Wine Gallery, admiring works by local and regional artists in a self-pour taproom featuring more than 100 wines by the glass. Located across from the Lismore, the place also offers 100+ beers and a selection of 60-some whiskeys and bourbons, along with charcuterie and pizza. The Fire House, a fire station turned bar, has 38 taps of craft beer and provided our group with another lively after-dinner outing.
Fried cheese curds with ranch dressing got our dinner off to a tasty start at The Livery Restaurant & Saloon, which occupies a former stable built in 1893. Mounted big-game animal heads from Africa adorn one of the rooms, and there’s an outdoor fire pit open year-round.
We enjoyed a cherished Wisconsin tradition, the Friday night fish fry, at The Lakely, the restaurant/music venue at the Oxbow Hotel, a boutique property across from The Local Store. Local singer-songwriter Justin Vernon, front man for the folk indie band Bon Iver, is a part-owner of the music-themed hotel, where every room includes a turntable and curated vinyl selection, with a larger record library in the lobby.
At Olson’s Ice Cream, my favorite spot on Barstow Street, I ordered a “small” dish of Salted Caramel and could barely finish the huge mound of creamy goodness derived from Wisconsin dairy farms. (My first choice was Fat Elvis, banana ice cream swirled with peanut butter, but they were all out.) Other tempting flavors included Black Licorice, Cotton Candy Confetti, Raspberry Truffle and Caramel Apple Pie. For a decadent sundae, I would try the Razzle Dazzle, starring Raspberry Cheesecake ice cream loaded with cheesecake bites and raspberry ribbons, and topped with whipped cream and raspberry drizzle. Olson’s has been scooping up rich, house-made happiness since 1944.
Drifting among the shops on Barstow, I popped into Revival Records (a treasure house of new and used vinyl and CDs) and its next-door neighbor, Silver Feather, a gallery loaded with high-quality Native American arts and crafts. Tangled Up in Hues, a few blocks away, gives off a counterculture feel, selling locally made jewelry, knitwear, pottery, art and home goods.
Perhaps the quirkiest place downtown is Mr. Kitty’s Cat Cafe & Boutique, a home for rescued felines. Besides shopping for cat-themed gifts and artwork, guests who sign a waiver can proceed to mingle with three resident cats and up to 20 adoptable cats in the cat lounge. A party room is available for rent.
Another popular downtown pastime: taking walks across parkland and over bridges on recreation trails along the Chippewa and Eau Claire rivers. The Phoenix Park Bridge, an old railroad bridge spanning the Chippewa, is a pedestrian pathway lit at night by 172 computer-controlled LED lights.
Eau Claire’s Downtown Farmers Market. (Randy Mink Photo)
Downtown Farmers Market: An Eau Claire Tradition
Our last full day in town was a Saturday, the big day for the Eau Claire Downtown Farmers Market at pavilions in Phoenix Park, right along the Chippewa River. Even on a rainy September morning at 7:30, the place was bustling with commerce. Some of the fresh produce vendors were Hmong, one of the city’s leading ethnic groups. They came as refugees from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam after the Vietnam War, and many have taken prominent roles in civic life.
At a farmers’ market, I always zero in on baked goods and found plenty of choices, finally deciding on two items from Raisin Bun Bakery in nearby Eleva. I bought a Skolebolle, a Norwegian pastry topped with coconut and a rich cardamon cream, and a super-moist, frosted pumpkin bar made with olive oil. Cinnamon rolls, croissants, lemon bars, brownies and banana bread also were calling my name, but I resisted.
Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. (Randy Mink Photo)
Eau Claire’s Carson Park
Every Eau Claire itinerary includes Carson Park, if only for a chance to pose with the oversized fiberglass statues of lumberjack Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. They loom outside the Wisconsin Logging Museum, whose re-creation of an 1800s logging camp comes complete with cook shack and bunk house.
Carson Park, situated on a peninsula in Half Moon Lake, also is home to the Chippewa Valley Museum, which has excellent exhibits on fur trading, Native peoples, farming, lumbering, railroading and manufacturing.
Historic Carson Park Stadium, dating from 1915, hosts the Eau Claire Express, a Northwoods League baseball team. A bronze statue outside the ballpark honors Hank Aaron, the Milwaukee Braves/Atlanta Braves superstar who started his career playing for the Eau Claire Bears there in 1952. Hammerin’ Hank made baseball history when in 1974 he broke Babe Ruth’s longstanding record for career home runs.
Side Trips to Small Towns
In Chippewa Falls, our group sampled beers at Leinie Lodge, the taproom/retail store/visitor center of Wisconsin’s famous Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company. Lemonade-flavored Summer Shandy, a wheat beer, is a favorite of mine. The store even sells bars of soap infused with Summer Shandy and two other wheat brews, Honey Weiss and Berry Weiss. Leinenkugel beer is sold in all 50 states.
Leinie Lodge in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. (Photo courtesy of Visit Eau Claire)
The historic brewery, started in 1867 by a German immigrant, is now shuttered, as Leinenkugel brewing operations have moved to the Molson Coors complex in Milwaukee. But the Leinenkugel family is still involved, and Leinie Lodge has a small pilot brewery.
Our Chippewa Falls stop made time for lunch at Market on River (MOR), a 1906 downtown building that in 2024 was repurposed as a home for shops, a food hall and Wisconsin Farmers Union headquarters. MOR’s House of Gouda by Marieke offers samples of its premium aged gouda cheese, which has won hundreds of awards. Marieke Penterman, who grew up on a dairy farm in the Netherlands, uses traditional Dutch cheesemaking methods. She is one of only four women certified under Wisconsin’s Master Cheesemaker program, the only such program outside of Switzerland. Milk from Marieke’s farm in Thorp, just steps from the creamery, is made into gouda within hours of milking. Groups can tour the farm and plant, shop at the store and have lunch at Cafe Dutchess. Among the 29 varieties of gouda are bacon, cumin, onion garlic and cranberry chipotle.
Some in our group got their Wisconsin cheese fix at Ellsworth Creamery in Menomonie, stocking up on blocks of cheddar and bags of freshly made cheese curds after watching cheesemakers through the viewing windows. (Wisconsin makes a quarter of America’s cheese.)
The Mabel Tainter, crown jewel of Menomonie, Wisconsin. (Randy Mink Photo)
What really wowed me in Menomonie, a 30-minute drive west of Eau Claire via Interstate 94, was The Mabel Tainter, a gilded jewel box of a theater built as part of a community center in 1889 by a lumber baron who named it for his deceased daughter. Moorish-style arches and geometric designs, intricate stenciling, stained glass, tasseled draperies and hand-carved white pine woodwork adorn the theater’s palatial interior, a symphony in bronze and golden tones. The pipe organ, a rare mahogany antique, is still playable. On our tour of the building and its ornate auditorium, I couldn’t stop taking pictures. The place is absolutely stunning—no expense was spared.
The 2026-2027 playbill includes “Guys on Ice: An Ice Fishing Musical,” a Dave Matthews Band tribute and singer Judy Collins on her farewell tour.
The Yard Container Park in Altoona, Wisconsin. (Photo courtesy of Visit Eau Claire)
Meal Options Outside of Eau Claire
A fun spot for lunch is The Yard Container Park in Altoona, a town of 10,000 just south of Eau Claire. Operating out of colorfully painted shipping containers by the railroad tracks, vendors dish up ethnic specialties in a food court-style setting. At Borsch House, I opted for Ukrainian pelmeni (small, meat-filled dumplings served with sour cream and garlic sauce for dipping) and cabbage salad. Other choices: Ne-Ne Tacos and Beast & Bonito, a rice and noodle stall.
Dessert lovers make their way to Norske Nook in Osseo, 25 miles southeast of Eau Claire on I-94. The restaurant-bakery, with two other Wisconsin locations, has won more pie awards than any other place on the planet, winning blue ribbons in national championships on a regular basis. At a banquet in Eau Claire, we had a chance to try Norske Nook apple, cherry and blueberry pies, but if I ever stopped in Osseo, I would have a slice of coconut cream or lemon meringue. The restaurant menu features some authentic Norwegian dishes.
Rural Hotspots in the Eau Claire Area
Agritourism possibilities include farm-to-table dining at Together Farms in Mondovi, known for burgers made of 100% grass-fed beef. I ordered the Trust Us Burger and found that a beef patty with bacon, peanut butter and strawberry sriracha on a pretzel bun did indeed earn my trust—not only creative but tasty, too. The Good Fat Burger is served with avocado, bacon-onion jam and bacon aioli on a brioche bun.
The farm was bought in 2009 by Andy and Stephanie Schneider, a young Green Bay-area couple with no previous farming or restaurant experience. The family offers Trivia Nights, Burger Nights, live music on weekends, bingo on Sundays and other programming to entice customers to their pasture-to-plate experience. Their farm store is stocked with beef, lamb and pork from livestock raised on the farm.
At harvest time in September and October, apple orchards are the places to be. At Eau Claire’s Maple Harvest Apple Orchard, guests can go apple and pumpkin picking, get lost in a 10-acre corn maze and treat themselves to fresh-pressed cider, apple pie and apple cider donuts. A wheelchair-accessible deck for apple picking makes it easy to reach 16 specially pruned Cortland apple trees. Fall fun also abounds at The Glass Orchard, where a glassblowing studio offers live demonstrations.
For a look at Amish culture around Augusta, Trekked Travel can provide a step-on guide for motorcoach groups. Shopping stops are included.
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Lead photo – Eau Claire’s 22-passenger trolley offers a variety of themed tours. (Randy Mink Photo)
