Two summers ago, the corner at 200 Water Street sat dark. The old Irish pub had closed, the space above and below it went quiet, and the busiest intersection in downtown Excelsior looked like it belonged to a different, sleepier town. If you live here, you remember walking past that building on a July night and feeling the drop in energy.
That corner now holds three restaurants. Across the street, a fourth. If your mental map of a summer evening in Excelsior still routes through the same three places it did in 2023, this post is for you. The rhythm of a week in town has changed, and most of the change happened in the last twelve months.
The Corner That Rebuilt Itself
Jester Concepts now runs three restaurants inside the sprawling former Irish pub at that corner: Mirabelle, a supper club with a coastal theme; Shiki, a ramen shop; and a lower-level outpost of Parlour, the cocktail bar and burger destination from Minneapolis. Parlour Excelsior opened in the basement in late 2024. Shiki and Mirabelle arrived above it in summer 2025.
Each concept was built for the room it sits in rather than dropped in from a template. Mirabelle takes 2,700 square feet, offering steaks, seafood, pastas, salads, and sides including popovers and shrimp cocktail, for dinner and weekend brunch. The space leans coastal, and many of the building's historic details have been kept, including a cast iron fireplace. Shiki is the opposite in scale: a 630-square-foot noodle bar open daily for lunch and dinner, focused on dumplings and ramen, with a 30-seat room built around an open kitchen where guests can watch the chefs work.
Across the street, in the former Red Sauce Rebellion space, chef David Fhima of Minneapolis opened Vagabondo, a Sicilian restaurant by night, and by day a cafe serving coffee, pastries and spritzes on a sidewalk patio with a peek-a-boo view of the lake. Fhima brought a pedigree from Fhima's and Maison Margaux with him. If you're used to driving into Minneapolis for a pastry and espresso before a workday, Vagabondo's daytime counter cuts that trip down to a walk.
The scale of the change is easy to miss when you see one restaurant at a time. Two prominent Minneapolis restaurateurs opened within days of each other this summer, just steps apart, on top of a wave of recent openings backed by new apartments, a parking garage, and plans for more development. Mayor Gary Ringate has been direct that even with the boom, more is being asked for.
The honest question for anyone who lives here isn't whether Water Street has more restaurants. It's whether the week has more anchors than it used to. It does.
The Wednesday-Thursday Rhythm
Summer in Excelsior has always had a Fourth of July peak and a slow taper into August. The last two years quietly filled in the middle of the week.
Wednesday nights belong to Concerts in the Commons, seven Wednesdays between June and August, on the banks of Lake Minnetonka in Excelsior Commons Park, with food trucks and beer or wine open at 5 pm and music from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Free, all ages, run by the Excelsior Morning Rotary Club in cooperation with the City. The 2026 lineup still has two nights left as of early August:
- August 12 — The Suburbs
- August 26 — Rumours & Dreams, a Fleetwood Mac tribute
Both are the kind of bookings that pull people who've lived here twenty years out of the house. If you haven't gone in a couple of summers, the crowd has grown. Bring a chair. A blanket on the grass at the Commons is not always the neutral surface you remember from childhood.
Thursdays now have their own shape. Between June 18 and August 27, the historic streetcar is at the Water Street Platform between 2 and 5 pm for rides and carbarn tours. The Thursday farmers market runs in the same window, which means you can hit fruit, flowers, and a streetcar ride in a single afternoon loop before dinner on Water Street. That combination didn't reliably exist as a routine five years ago. It exists now, and it ends the last Thursday of August. If you've been meaning to take a niece or nephew on the streetcar this summer, the window closes August 27.
The Old Guard Is Still There
None of this displaced the places you already knew. It stacked on top of them.
Haskell's Port of Excelsior, the bar and grill attached to the liquor store, still holds what regulars call the prime patio seat for a view of Lake Minnetonka. Maynard's still owns the best waterfront table in the state, depending on who you ask. Layline, from the InnerBloom Hospitality group behind Wayzata's Josefina and Macanda, opened in 2023 with a splashy dining room, bold wallpaper, surprising cocktails, and fresh oysters. Red Bench Bakery keeps turning out pastries and its salmon sandwich, plus scratch cooking and music nights that make it more of a neighborhood living room than a cafe. Excelsior Brewing is next door to a barbecue counter run by James, son of the Famous Dave's family and an award-winning pitmaster in his own right, with a takeout window aimed at people grabbing a beer next door.
If you want the short version of what to hand to an out-of-town guest this weekend: coffee and a pastry at Vagabondo, streetcar ride from the Water Street platform, farmers market, an early dinner at Shiki if the guest likes ramen or Mirabelle if they want something quieter, and a drink downstairs at Parlour to finish. That itinerary was not possible in 2023.
The Winter Question, Honestly
Locals who watched Water Street go dark after the pandemic are right to be a little skeptical of the boom. As the leaves change and foot traffic slows, the open question is whether Excelsior can sustain the restaurant boom year-round. The restaurateurs themselves are candid about it. Regulars, as Maynard's ownership put it, are the thing that everyone survives from.
Translation for anyone who lives here: the choices you make in October, February, and March determine which of these places is still on Water Street in 2028. That is not a guilt trip. It is the mechanism. A supper club with an out-of-town chef and a lakefront patio is easy to fill on August 15. The math is different on February 15. The operators know that, and they're building for it. The residents who show up in the shoulder months are the ones who get to keep the corner they want.
What's Next on the Calendar
August rolls into a short calendar lull, then the fall anchors arrive. Apple Days on September 19 and 20 runs 10 am to 4 pm both days, celebrating the first apple harvest in Excelsior, with a non-stop streetcar shuttle running between Water Street and the carbarn. If you've only ever gone on Saturday, Sunday morning is quieter and the shuttle line moves faster.
The Witches' Night streetcar ride runs Thursday, October 22 from 5 to 8 pm, with a check-in at Pique Travel, a photo op, and half-off fares for costumes. Mark it now. It sells the streetcar out most years.
Between now and Apple Days, the best move most weeks is the boring one: pick a Wednesday for the Commons, a Thursday for the market and a walk down to the Water Street patios, and a Saturday morning for coffee at Vagabondo or Red Bench before the parking gets tight. The town has done the work of giving you more to do. The residents' job is to actually do it.
When You Need a Real Estate Read on Excelsior
The Ryan Johnson Group works this corner of the lake year-round, not just in the six weeks when the patios are full. If you're weighing what a Water Street walk-to lifestyle actually costs in this market, what the new development around the corner means for your block, or how a lakeside address in Excelsior compares to Wayzata or Victoria for what you're trying to do next, we're happy to talk. Contact us when you're ready for an honest conversation about the numbers behind the neighborhood you already love.
