Tough and sooty train crew. With the Winona & St. Peter’s first locomotives. Theirs was a proud calling with the high-tech transportation on of the era. Which locomotive was Old Tiger? Hard to tell. The railroad began operations in 1862. The freight house was built 20 years later. Now on the National Register of Historic Places.
Poached salmon, anyone? Check out the menu
WINONA, Minn. – The slim upscale-dining Winona scene, occupied by Nosh Scratch Kitchen and Signatures, has a new entry. Veteran restaurateurs Peter Beard and Zoa Ryan have opened the Old Tiger in he old Winona & St. Peter railroad freight house in from the new 44 Degrees North hotel. For years before the CoVid pandemic was home to Jeferson’s and before that to Zach’s on the Tracks. The place bears the name of the early Winona & St. Peter steam locomotive that pulled freight — passengers too — up Garvin Brook to Stockton, then up the grade to Lewiston and onto the rich grainlands of the Minnesota River valley. Beard and Ryyan have themed their Old Tiger with railroad memorabilia from the latter 1800s0s. For thir menu Beard and Ryan said they rely as much as possible on local farms. They also have a pair of companion enterprises in the old freight house — a breakfast coffee and pastry shop called Café Zorya and a conference facility called the Raven Room. Remaining at the far end of the building is the Two Fathoms brewhouse.
Alfresco service. Full-length deck where boxcars were once loaded and unloaded. Now a haute-cuisine start-up.
Previous home of Jefferson. A pre-Covid bar and restaurant that succeeded with the Winona burger crowd with mid-price entrees while also catering to the late-night college partiers. No tracks but a couple of rusting box cars, without their trucks, remained as reminder of once-bustling riverside rail commerce.
Old Tiger menu
> Shrimp cocktail: $16
> Burgers: $15 to $18
> Poached salom: $24
> Steaks: $38 to $65
Opens 4 p.m. except Tuesday
Café Zorya
Breakfast and lunch
Open 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
44 Latitude North hotel
Continental breakfast: Free for guests. Otherwise $6.