The Lobby of Excelsior

Begin your small town getaway.

The town has been a buzz trying to guess the new tenant in the empty Water Street retail space next to the Faribault Woolen Mill boutique. Will it match the small town charm, or shake it up a bit? Some guesses included a new Caribou Coffee, Nautical Bowls, even a 2nd Joey Nova's location.

But the reality is, the business upstairs owns this spot too! Hotel Excelsior's phase 2 build is a coffee bar and café featuring an outdoor patio fit for lake days and autumn mornings. Not to mention, our frigid MN winters. A street level coffee shop will be especially beneficial to guests staying at Hotel Excelsior when it's simply too cold to make that 1 block hike over to Dunn Bros.

With the bump-out front windows and grand doorway, the space has so much character already, though we don't know the planned aesthetic (perhaps modern lake-life?). What a lovely experience it would be to warm up or wake up via the warmth of a classic, old-school, Hallmark Movie-esk café. Think high ceilings, brick walls and dark wood. But also the kind of place where the baristas display, and reuse, the drink mugs of their regular customers. Could you imagine?