New spots to eat and drink your way through downtown St. Cloud

ST. CLOUD — Patrons visiting this city's newest downtown bar will be able to sample a few dozen Minnesota-made beers, ciders and wines — all without having to snag a bartender's attention.

Whit's Craft opened Friday in a small space between a Mexican restaurant and a historic bank building along St. Germain Street in the heart of downtown St. Cloud.

It's the city's first tap wall, which is a self-serving system with 40 taps — including three wines, two nitro lines and 35 rotating brews and seltzers.

"Every time you come in, the wall will have something new," said Rob Hartley of Zimmerman, who runs the business with his wife, Jean.

The couple said they considered opening a tap wall in Elk River or Ramsey, or in a space where food trucks could congregate, but they chose downtown St. Cloud because of the proximity to a busy convention center and regional college, as well as the recent push to resuscitate the city's historic core.

"There's a lot of interest for something new and exciting to help revitalize the downtown," said Rob Hartley, "and we're hoping to be part of that."

Whit's Craft is the most recent of a handful of new food and drink establishments that have opened in downtown in the past year, including Thai and Filipino restaurant Arroy in the former Sawatdee space, Iron Street Distillery in the former International Harvester Co. building on the east side, Blue Goose Speakeasy in the basement of the Veranda Lounge on Fifth Avenue, a Starbucks in the former Perkins lot, and Oblivion CoffeeBar & Mercantile in the former Konrad's Wine Bar space.

Also opening in the coming months is Tequilatown, a Mexican and Dominican restaurant in the former D.B. Searle's building, and the former Brick & Bourbon, which is being renovated and rebranded as B Social.

Another restaurant with a new-to-St. Cloud concept is the Boil, which opened in September in the former JL Beers location on St. Germain.

Owners Don and Mimi Vongdara previously worked for similar family restaurants in Brooklyn Park and Shakopee, where Don Vongdara said customers pestered them to open a similar Louisiana-inspired seafood boil restaurant outside the metro.

The most popular menu items are shrimp and crab legs with boil staples, such as mussels, scallops, corn and potatoes — as well as crawfish, which are eaten by first twisting off the head and tail. Vongdara promised the staff will demonstrate the technique for boil newbies.

Staff at Whit's Craft will also be on hand to teach patrons how to use the tap wall: An employee will check a patron's ID and give them a stretchy wrist band with a chip that is scanned at the tap and connected to their credit card. Users can pour about 37 ounces (a bit less for wine, which has a higher alcohol content) before checking in with the host again.

The taps will feature products that might not be available at other downtown establishments because they come straight from breweries or wineries, and not through a distributor, Rob Hartley said.

Across the street from Whit's Craft sits an open gravel lot that once housed the Press Bar and Cowboy Jack's buildings, which were torn down after the February 2020 Press Bar far damaged the buildings.

Austin Ruehle, vice president of real estate at Inventure, said he hopes to find a developer with a master plan for the site that potentially includes housing, office or retail space, which aligns with recent plans to revitalize the downtown.

Ruehle said he's uncertain if Cowboy Jack's will come back or when work on a new project could start.

"We're looking for the right type of deal for the area itself, not necessarily looking for the first thing that comes," he said. "It's such a cornerstone to downtown. It really needs to be the right project to move forward and see how it can positively affect the whole area."