Shortridge plan: A spill-over site for convention activities from the proposed levee hotel. Also a new home for the Heirloom Seasonal Bistro. The microbrew oub at the far, far end of the awkwardly narrow block-long building will stay. Image: Steve Lunde
Future linked to success of new levee hotel
WINONA, Minn. – Real estate developer and historic preservationist Peter Shortridge sees the old Winona & St. Peter Railroad freighthouse being reborn as a restaurant and also an event center for a proposed hotel across the street. In an interview with the Winona Post, Shortridge said the restaurant may be open by December. He listed these principals:
> Kristi and Gavin Keeling, who curently operate Heirloom Seasonal Bistro on East Third Street.
> Amy Jo Marks, owner of Blooming Grounds coffeehouses and the Muddled Thyme wine bar, who will coordinate events.
> Graham Kaczmarek and Brook Merkwan, who recently acquired Island City Brewing Company in the far end of the freighthouse and who are rebranding it as a taproom and entertainment venue.
Shortdge himself has been involved at various points in developing the proposed riverfront hotel on the levee between Center and Main streets. All along the hotel concept has had old 9,000-squar foot W&StP freighthouse as an auxiliary facility for conventions at the hotel.
Shortridge. His legacy has been downtown preservation. His showcase projects include 111 riverfront 102 Walnut, the Latsch Building, and the still in progress Exchange Building.
Historically significant
The Winona & St. Peter Railroad built the freighthouse in1882 for transferring merchandise from other railroads to its trains on its pioneer tracks up the bluffs and and west to the Minnesota River Valley. The freigthouse remained in a railroad facility until 1971. In 1984 the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places for spurring Winona’s industry and growth by developing markets along its rail lines across Minnesota into Dakota Territory.
Latter-day eatery site
The freighthouse has been home to restaurants in the past. Frank and Cindi Zacher moved their classy dining place Zachary’s from the old Schlitz Hotel at Second and Johnson streets to the freighthouse in 1983. Their renovation was the freighthouse’s first rebirth as a restaurant. They called it Zach’ s on the Tracks and maintained the railroad feel with a couple of rusty and truckless old box cars on the backside. The Zacher’s struggled to maintain the upscale restaurant in a town that leaned to blue plate specials. Zach’s closed in the mid-1990s. Mike Peeler bought the building and named it the Riverfront Restaurant. A year later Cindi’s brother Kent took it back and made it into Jefferson Pub and Grill as lunch place and with a mid-price evening menu mid-price albeit not elegan menu. Jefferson closed in 2020 when business collapsed due the CoVid pandemic. Real estate developer Chase Hoffman announced plans to convert the two-story section of the building short-stay apartments. Those plans fell through.