There’s no question you can do some great shopping and eating in Woodbury. Nothing beats staying local. With all the options in town, it can feel like you never have to leave.
We’re here to tell you it’s okay to venture a few steps outside our fair city every now and then. In fact, you’ll still be shopping local. Whether you’re searching for specialty cooking oils in Mendota Heights, local treats in St. Paul, flowers in Willernie, or sushi in White Bear Lake, we got the rundown from four business owners who opened shops in neighboring communities but call Woodbury their home.
Elishia Robson
Lakeside Floral
109 Wildwood Road, Willernie
Elishia Robson has been in the flower business since she was in high school. She started working at Lakeside Floral in Willernie as a teenager and fell in love with the business. After working with the original owners, Joanie and Hall Markland, for eight years, the couple talked with Robson about switching things over with the shop. Robson jumped at the opportunity.
“I went home that night and told my husband I’m buying a flower shop,” she says. Robson fell in love with the flower business working for Lakeside Floral, and she had dreams of owning her own shop long before it became a reality.
Now Robson is working to blend the old with the new. The Marklands wanted someone who could stay true to the vision of their classic shop, but also bring it into the future. Robson is excited to be that person, taking the reins in July 2014. “I’m working on not throwing all my ideas out there all at once, but also knowing that people do want something new,” Robson says.
She loves bringing her new ideas to the small town community of Willernie, which is like a second home to her. She and her family live in Woodbury, where her husband owns Robson Construction Services (they teamed up to remodel Lakeside Floral, which now features turf on one wall, reclaimed doors around the cooler and a unique ladder that looks like it’s floating). They love being part of two communities, and came to Woodbury for the education as they raise their almost-two-year-old daughter.
Natalie Jaeger
The Olive Grove
720 Main St., Mendota Heights
Most people don’t jump from the real estate industry to opening their own specialty cooking oil shop. Especially in the middle of a recession. Most people aren’t Natalie Jaeger.
Jaeger moved to Minnesota from Chicago in 2009. The real estate market was floundering, and she had always been interested in the food industry. After she got married, her interest in food grew from making scratch meals for her husband, and she would shop local farmers markets for most of her goods. She started researching market trends and found a need for a specialty cooking oil shop. “There’s a lot of buzz about how what you are getting in the store isn’t real olive oil,” Jaeger says.
There is little regulation in the U.S. when it comes to labeling olive oil. Many companies will mass produce olive oils that are diluted with less expensive oils and call it the real thing. Jaeger wanted to sell people the real thing, and opened The Olive Grove in 2009. She sources oils and vinegars from all over the world, and stocks only the freshest products. “Customers definitely know what's in our food,” Jaeger says. “We are very careful with what we bring in to make sure it has high quality ingredients."
With her shop nestled in the beautiful Village at Mendota Heights at the corner of Highway 110 and Dodd Road, Jaeger and her family moved to Woodbury in 2011 to be close by. With two small children, the Jaegers were looking for great schools and found a perfect community to raise their children.
Laurie Crowell
Golden Fig Fine Foods
790 Grand Ave., St. Paul
Not many small business owners have met President Barack Obama, but Laurie Crowell at the Golden Fig in St. Paul has. He stopped by the gourmet food shop, at Crowell’s invitation, while on a surprise shopping visit along Grand Avenue last summer. It’s a great claim to fame, but her shop, specializing in local artisan goods, speaks for itself.
Crowell has always been in the food industry. She started out working for Ina Garten (of Barefoot Contessa fame) in New York. From there, she spent 19 years making her line of spices, vinegars and cocoa mixes, before being convinced she should go into business for herself. “I’ve never really been a planner,” Crowell says. “I’m definitely a ‘roll with it’ kind of person. I just wanted to stay involved in the food industry, because you can never be bored with it. You get so many new products you can do a different thing every day.”
Built around her philosophy for variety, she opened Golden Fig nine years ago. The shelves are stocked with goods from sweet to savory (and everything in between) that are made in the United States, with a heavy focus on the Midwest, artisan and responsibly sourced. “I always say I would rather have a delicious grass-fed steak once a week than a mass-produced one a few times a week,” Crowell says.
When she first opened the shop, Crowell and her family lived in Prior Lake. Her mom lived in Woodbury, so it already felt like a second home when they went looking for a new house in 2011. Woodbury has proven to be a perfect fit. “I won the lottery,” Crowell says. “It only takes 15 minutes to get to work.”
Wei Wang
Red Lantern Sushi
2125 4th St., White Bear Lake
When Wei Wang’s parents immigrated to Wisconsin from Japan and opened their own restaurant, his destiny seemed to be set. Wang’s family came to America when he was 10 years old, and his parents opened a small sushi shop in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Even as a child, he would help out in the kitchen cutting vegetables or butchering meat. By the time he was 15, he was helping cook full meals.
“After awhile you don’t count the years,” he says of his life working in restaurants. When he took a few years off from the restaurant industry to major in economics at the University of Minnesota, he still worked in sushi shops around Minneapolis. “I think I realized I’m actually good at this,” Wei says. “If I can make a living at it, then why not?”
Wang, who moved to Woodbury when he married his wife, went on to work as a chef at Fujiya in St. Paul and as a corporate chef around the Twin Cities, but he always wanted to open his own restaurant. Wang doesn’t consider himself a true chef, and he’s as much interested in the business side of owning a restaurant as he is the culinary side.
His dream came true in December 2013 when he and a partner opened Red Lantern Sushi in White Bear Lake. The little place only has three employees and serves a variety of Japanese dishes, but focuses on sushi. It’s become one of the most popular restaurants in the area. “It’s our own hidden little sushi spot,” Wang says.
