A year ago, Excelsior's mayor gave the Minnesota Star Tribune a blunt description of how his town's restaurants make their money.
"We're a Thursday-through-Sunday community that is really Thursday-through-Sunday from Memorial Day to Labor Day."
Gary Ringate said that in September 2025, in a feature about Water Street becoming a suburban restaurant row. The paper's subhead asked whether the new row could survive winter. In the same article he recalled the Mai Tai, a 1980s tiki-style restaurant, and said a big reason places like it failed was that "in the winter, business completely died."
Now it is October 2026, the start of that row's second off-season, and two things are different. Water Street has a calendar that runs from early October to mid-December. And the corner the Star Tribune opened that story on, the lake-view patio at Haskell's Port of Excelsior, has been closed since May.
A Supper Set on the Street
The first event on that calendar takes over the street itself. Gathered on Water Street runs Thursday, October 8. It opens with a 5 p.m. cocktail hour at Water Street and 3rd, followed by a 6 p.m. family-style supper laid out along Water Street for guests 21 and older. Fromage Co., the shop at 356 Water Street, is organizing it. Co-owner Jennifer Brisson told Lake Minnetonka Magazine how the idea started: "this image I couldn't get out of my head of one really long table running right down the middle of Water Street."
No single restaurant is catering it. Each participating Water Street restaurant cooks a different part of one shared meal. About 250 people are expected. Tickets went on sale September 4 and sold out soon after, and Brisson said that left "a very large waiting list." The ticket page still shows the event as sold out.
Guests are asked to bring a favorite family recipe. Those recipes start the Gathered Community Recipe Collection, an archive the organizers plan to add to each year. Brisson has said she hopes Gathered becomes "something people look forward to every fall." Proceeds go to Christmas in Excelsior, so the October supper helps pay for the December celebration.
That link between the two events is how the whole calendar works. Gathered isn't a one-off. It starts a run of events that keeps people on Water Street through the weeks Ringate described as slow.
Water Street's Calendar, October Through December
The Excelsior-Lake Minnetonka Chamber's 2026 listings fill in the rest.
| Date | Event | Where and when |
|---|---|---|
| Thu., Oct. 8 | Gathered on Water Street | Water Street and 3rd, 5 p.m. cocktails, 6 p.m. supper; sold out |
| Sat., Oct. 10 | Spooky Sprint | Excelsior Commons, 2:30 to 7 p.m., with a gathering after the race |
| Thu., Oct. 22 | Witches Night Out | Downtown shops, 4 to 8 p.m., with specials, prizes and activities |
| Sat., Oct. 24 | Trick or Treat the Street | Water Street, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with treats and a scavenger hunt |
| Fri.–Sat., Nov. 27–28 | Christmas in Excelsior | 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. |
| Sat., Nov. 28 | Tree lighting | Excelsior Veterans Memorial at Lake Street and Excelsior Boulevard, 6:30 p.m. |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Santa photos and free chili dinner | Excelsior Masonic Lodge No. 113, 249 Water Street; chili dinner 5 to 7 p.m. |
Three of the four October events fall on a Thursday or a Saturday, and every one falls after Labor Day. The Excelsior Lions Club presents Christmas in Excelsior. The event's own site promotes a two-day holiday market with Santa visits, carolers, live reindeer, llamas and huskies, children's activities and seasonal food. At the November 28 tree lighting, Santa appears with the Minnetonka High School Choir. Santa photos at the Masonic Lodge run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on November 27, 28 and 29 and on December 5 and 12, and the Chamber says donations from those sessions support ICA Food Shelf.
The Chamber's schedule doesn't list a holiday parade or a date for lighting Water Street. That's a gap in the published calendar. It doesn't mean those things won't happen.
The Corner Without Its Patio
The Star Tribune's 2025 feature opened with a regular who sat on the corner patio at Haskell's Port of Excelsior, the bar and grill attached to Haskell's liquor store. She called the seat "prime realty" and liked it for the view of Lake Minnetonka.
That patio has been closed all of this summer and fall. A fire broke out at about 1:30 a.m. on May 6, 2026, and Haskell's said the Port would be "closed for the foreseeable future." The Port is one of 10 Haskell's locations in the Twin Cities. The company traces its start to a downtown Minneapolis liquor store that Fritzi Haskell opened in 1934.
At the Excelsior City Council meeting on August 3, interim fire chief Nate Basinger walked the council through the response. Crews had water on the fire in under eight minutes, and the Excelsior Fire Department and 13 other agencies kept it from reaching the liquor store behind Haskell's or the Dunn Bros. Coffee shop next door. The cause is still officially undetermined. The Sun Sailor reported that owner Ted Farrell plans to rebuild.
The latest public updates describe repair work, not a reopening. Restorations by Highmark's project page from August says work is in progress "to restore the historic building," and lists content removal, smoke mitigation, and demolition and cleaning as steps in the project. Haskell's own restaurant site says "Haskell's will be back soon!" The company's locations page still lists the Excelsior liquor store as temporarily closed. Neither page gives a reopening date. The City Council packet for September 21 and the Heritage Preservation Commission packet for September 22 don't include a rebuild application for the site.
So Water Street heads into this off-season with one fewer year-round anchor at the foot of the street, where it meets the lake.
Restaurants Built for Cold Weather
Some of the newer restaurants planned for winter from the start. Mike DeCamp, co-owner and chef at Jester Concepts, runs three restaurants inside the former Irish pub at 200 Water Street: Mirabelle, a coastal-themed supper club; Shiki, a ramen shop; and a lower-level Parlour. In 2025 he told the Star Tribune the menus were written with cold weather in mind. That meant big portions of prime rib and pasta at Mirabelle and cocktails and cheeseburgers downstairs at Parlour. "Shiki is also a bit more of a wintertime thing," he said. "Not a lot of people want to eat soup in 90-degree weather." Mirabelle's events page lists a bookable Princess & Superhero Brunch on October 10, the same day as the Spooky Sprint. Shiki lists daily hours from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Down the shore at 685 Excelsior Boulevard, Maynards posted an update on September 8 announcing "Wharf Now Open," along with a wharf menu dated May 2026. The site doesn't say when the wharf will close for the season. In 2025, Jack Stevens, whose family has owned Maynards for 27 years, said he hoped the new restaurants would "drive some energy to this area, especially in winter," and called the moment "a turning point."
On Highway 7, the lake's own season is winding down. Minnesota Inboard Water Sports holds a ribbon cutting for its new space at 19765 Highway 7 on Saturday, October 10, from 11 to 11:30 a.m. Its listing covers boat sales, service, storage and winterization. October 10 also brings Mirabelle's brunch and the Spooky Sprint at the Commons, so on that one Saturday the boat business is packing up for winter while Water Street is still holding events.
The 2025 predictions about winter were just that. No published account of how the restaurant row actually did last winter has surfaced. What's on the record for fall 2026 is a sold-out supper on October 8, a Chamber calendar that runs to December 12, and a lakefront corner waiting on a rebuild with no announced date. On November 28 at 6:30 p.m., the Minnetonka High School Choir will sing at the Excelsior Veterans Memorial at Lake Street and Excelsior Boulevard.
The Debbie McNally Group follows what happens along the Lake Minnetonka shoreline in every season, including the stretch after the boats come out. If you're weighing a move on the south shore and want to know what a Water Street off-season really looks like up close, schedule a private consultation.
