5000 Odessa Ave NE · St. Michael, MN 55376
People hear St. Michael and figure an hour. It is not an hour. We sit right on I‑94, which means the whole metro is closer than it looks on a map — and when you would rather not take the freeway at all, there is a better way to go.
Ten minutes, and you have everything
- 6 minCostcoAlbertville
- 6 minClive’s RoadhouseRogers
- 7 minPremium OutletsAlbertville
Parts run, lunch, a cart full of shop towels — none of it is a project. You are back before the coffee goes cold.
Into the cities, on the freeway
- 16 minRedstoneMaple Grove
- 18 minCowboy JacksPlymouth
- 22 minLoretto ChophouseLoretto
- 24 minBacioRidgedale
- 28 minCOVWayzata
- 30 minYard HouseRidgedale
- 30 minTarget FieldDowntown Minneapolis
- 33 minSheratonBloomington
Bacio at Ridgedale in twenty-four minutes. A Twins game in thirty. The Sheraton in Bloomington is clean across the cities and out the other side, and that is thirty-three. If you have been telling yourself we are way out there, those are the numbers that end the argument.
Or take the long way, on purpose
- 13 minBig Bore BarbecueHanover — 42nd St NE out to Labeaux, no freeway
- 49 minLola’s LakehouseWaconia — County Rd 92 the whole way
Thirteen minutes to Big Bore in Hanover without touching a freeway — 42nd Street out to Labeaux and down into the river town. Worth going early, before the brisket runs out.
Forty‑nine minutes to Lola’s on Lake Waconia, almost all of it on County Road 92. Take the freeway instead and it is fifty‑two minutes and ten more miles. The pretty way is also the quick way, which is not something you get to say very often.
Same story to Wayzata. County Road 101 is the shorter run at 21 miles, the freeway is 23 — but 101 takes about six minutes longer. Six minutes is nothing when the point was to drive it.
That is the part people miss. You are buying a place to keep the car and a place to leave from. On a Tuesday the freeway has you at Ridgedale in twenty-four minutes. On a Saturday there is a county road to a lake town and no reason to hurry. Not many addresses give you both.