Photograph by Caitlin Abrams
Änna Hagstrom
On some nights this summer, Änna Hagstrom’s kids would ride their bikes by her restaurant and wave good night before heading home to go to bed. Such is the goodness of owning Änna’s Bistro in Marine on St. Croix, the one-street town just north of Stillwater in which she also lives.
Hagstrom was a lawyer who lost her mojo and decided that cooking for others was the way to regain it. She took over the vacant restaurant space that once was Olive’s Pizza and now cooks, serves, and orchestrates dinners for the 25ish guests that the space can hold.
The weekly menu, seasonal and thoughtful, might include a pasta with foraged mushrooms or local pork that has been braised in the wood-fired oven. There’s always something gluten-free and plant-based among the eight or so total plates of the night. It’s a simple space, filled with neighbors and seekers alike, enjoying food that goes just far enough beyond home cooking to make it worth the journey—though it never takes for granted that inviting feeling of home.
11 Judd St., Marine on St. Croix, annasbistromn.com
