St. Louis Park
COMMUNITY GUIDE 2025
Dining, shopping, exploring thrive in the Park
St. Louis Park continues to attract new businesses, inviting customers through their doors throughout town for unique bites, beverages and afternoons of play.
Sota Shop, originally a farmer’ s market food truck, quickly exploded in popularity. It expanded to its first shop in Maple Grove, and with lines out the door each day, the dirty soda location expanded to St. Louis Park’ s West End shopping plaza, 5327 West 16th St. this summer.
The shop sells“ dirty sodas,” an internet-viral soft drink trend born in Utah’ s Mormon community. Patrons order from a large menu of dressed-up fountain drinks sporting add-ins like fruit puree, coffee syrups and even heavy cream to turn a regular soda into a dreamy sugar rush in a cup.
Haggard Barrel Brewing Co.’ s taproom is among the newcomers to SLP’ s food and drink scene. Located at 6413 Cambridge St. the brewery was originally a walk-up off-sale beer stand without seating. In 2025, the brewery opened its small taproom, and is now open Wednesday through Sunday with varying hours, and updates are available on the business’ website, haggardbarrel. com.
Boketto Restaurant is an upscale Japanese steakhouse at 1607 West End Boulevard, with a seating capacity of 250 inside a nearly 8,000-square-foot space.
According to a statement from Shea Design, which worked on plans for the restaurant, Boketto is a Japanese word with a meaning similar to daydreaming.
“ Boketto merges the rich traditions of a steakhouse with a whisper of Japanese elegance & a burst of Mediterranean zest,” the restaurant’ s website says.“ From exquisitely marbled A-5 Japanese and Australian wagyu to our signature Japanese milk bread … every dish at Boketto tells a story of tradition meeting creativity.”
In the spring of 2025, the Excelsior and Grand area welcomed Lago Tacos, a Tex-Mex family-friendly restaurant with a patio, bar and arcade. The original location was in Uptown, but due to construction, it was uprooted and landed in St. Louis Park. The menu offers staples like chips and queso alongside lesser-seen menu items like fried avocado and southern fried chicken tacos topped with bourbon cherries and jalapeno ranch.
New sightseeing and shopping experiences have popped up in the Shops at West End. These include Kiddywampus, a unique toy store, and the expansive arcade Game Show Battle Rooms, which moved from Golden Valley.
This winter, a rage-releasing experience called iSmash will also enter the West End. Residents can throw splatter paint, throw axes and enter the Rage Room, a“ mess-free, totally safe space where you can truly let loose without any consequences,” the iSmash website reads. Attendees can break electronics, glassware, porcelain dishes and even car windshields to their heart’ s content – or until there are no objects left unshattered.
The St. Louis Park / Golden Valley tourism collective organization called Westopolis is constantly updating residents on new food, drink and entertainment in the area, as well as comprehensive calendars and visitor information for out-oftown guests. Visit westopolis. org to get updates on all that St. Louis Park’ s business scene has to offer.
ST. LOUIS PARK | COMMUNITY GUIDE | 2025 | 13