Bayside Tavern

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  You can ask people who have lived in Red Wing for 20 years to meet you "at Bayside" for lunch and they will have no idea what or where it is. Bayside is located just above the bay on old west main street and has to be one of the oldest taverns in Red Wing.
  
  Bayside was, just a few years ago, a place that should or could have been purchased by the Smithsonian for inclusion in an authentic 1960s decor display. Even today stepping into Bayside is like making footsteps into another era. Back when Red Wing was a factory town and everybody owned a snowmobile, and belonged to a snowmobile club and went out riding on the weekends with one sled loaded down with beer. Afterward they went to Bayside and kept the buzz running with a few Windsor Cokes while the children ran around at their feet KIDS GET THE HELL OFF THE POOL TABLE.
  
  Bayside is the ultimate escape in Red Wing because the owners are full on old Red Wing and don't bring any attention to themselves by advertising, or talking about themselves or anything as outlandish as that so if you do chance there for lunch you'll probably eat it alone--as in no one else in the place.
  
  Bayside has been updated to at least early 1980s decor now, and they shagged the great old wooden pay phone booth and the booths, the latter of which were as lived in as a blues harp. Still the bar and stools are there and some small tables. The immortal illustration of a lusty rooster chasing a hen, with the words "It's not old business we're interested in, it's new business!" emblazoned upon it still hangs over the cash register, just like it did 20 years ago. Or 40, perhaps.
  
  Food is cooked, as it was in most places in Red Wing--in 1965--on a small grill in the back or in a deep fryer. It's good food but you won't get any kind of salad or green beans there. It's tavern food, which is like bar food only slightly better.
  
  Bayside is an artifact from another time. From when Red Wing wasn't just one town but a collection of little burgs and sections (Dutch Town, Burnside, The Island, East End, Hay Creek, etc). The owners are very quiet and keep to themselves, they'll happily ask you how you're doing but the moment you ask something somewhat personal they clam up like any good Red Wing person should. Modesty isn't just a virtue with these kind of old Red Wing people, it's a hard and fast rule.
  
  Burgers are good at Bayside, as is the root beer or tap beer.

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  Posted on 09.18.09 Mike H.

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