The Hideaway at the Minnesota State Fair
Are you familiar with the concrete slab in the southwest corner of the Grandstand on the second floor? No? Well, it's too late to familiarize yourself with that slab, because husband and wife Jennie and Bryan Enloe, (who previously ran a pizza stand in the Food Building and currently run the Wishing Tree Play Cafe in White Bear Lake), have transformed that slab with a full kitchen and bar, all along a Prohibition and Gangster theme, and called it Hideaway. It's a good little hideout to know about, for a couple reasons.
Fruit and bread tray at The Hideaway at the Minnesota State Fair
1) Wine on tap, Lift Bridge Hop Dish, and a cheese plate!
Where can you get a solid red wine on tap, and a cheese plate with berries? Nowhere else at the Fair but Hideaway—and they also have Lift Bridge Hop Dish, and Excelsior Bitteschlappe.
Hideaway Swingdancer sandwich
Owner Jennie Enloe is a sweetie pie and strongly believes that normal food—that is, not deep fried candy bars—can have a life at the fair. To prove it she's serving a very nice salmon cream cheese sandwich, and setting out crostini with blue cheese and craisins. Four sorts of wine are on tap, all from Cannon River Wines, the Gunflint Red is particularly nice, peppery and bright. There's also a fun gimmick—Bubble Trouble, in which they put a bit of cotton candy in a glass and pour Edelweiss bubbly from Canon River Wines over the top, it foams and dissolves and is very cute—if pretty darn sweet.
Cotton Candy Bubble champagne
2) Behold the veranda!
The Hideaway is right next to a brand new space for fairgoers who want somewhere to sit away from it all, and use the wifi. There's an elevator for wheelchairs and strollers, and there's also big stairs. There's a great view. It's windy and fresh, and there are picnic tables and a bar-rail counter which wraps around the whole space. The wifi is fantastic. There's a huge, secret bathroom right between the Veranda and the Hideaway.
3) Wine lovers, toddler wranglers, Instagrammers, this one's for you
Have you ever pushed a stroller through the crowded fair till the point you think you might scream? This one's for you: it's safe and quiet and out of the way, toddlers love cheese plates, and oh! that big, clean, easily accessed bathroom. Have you ever found yourself standing on a state fair planter trying to get pictures to upload? There's great wifi up on this Veranda, and good beer, wine, and snacks to make it easier.
