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A downtown experience fit to be worn. Get all dressed up with sportswear from St. Croix Provisions. She will love how you look, and maybe get a vintage Old Fashioned cocktail kit complete with aroma and decorative packaging, after a night looking spiffy while clubbing or antiquing. (New insert: The band played on, for when you’re on a boat.)

Downtown Hudson needed a men’s clothing shop, so now you don’t have to go across the river over to Woodbury or past Stillwater, to buy preferably upscale but also accessible sportswear, to go along with all the antique shops and boutiques for women’s wear that abound. A fun, boating-theme place you can go to get a (last minute?) sport coat or such if she requests or you feel the need, before going to the show in the park. Or just stop in whenever there is a requirement, or say a need for some really cool Old Fashioned mix to complete the vibe. Or for whatever reason.

Now we have St. Croix Provisions, boasting gentleman’s dry goods and a premier mens’ shopping experience, like the ladies also like. There are leather chairs, plural, to sit in while you contemplate your clothing decision, with your just purchased — do it first — old fashioned drink mix kit setting on the table in front of you with wooden slices forming its top. It’s in the middle of the 400 block in the middle of the downtown, and nextdoor to Brick’s Pizza, but worth walking just a bit.

— At least she gave me a “virtual” birthday gift. While out on that night, I saw some had-to-be concert-goers belly up to the bar, and there had just been a tour going through Somerset and also a plethora of groups like Pantera in the Cities. One woman had on a barely there, largely see-through black bra, like you’d see at an Old School metal show, and her bud was wearing an Iron Rebel black T-shirt, complete with saying inscribed. After waffling for a bit, and avoiding any possible ass-kicking, he turned around and I made my move to ask. Is that shirt an Iron Maiden reference? Nope, he said, we’re just doin’ power-lifting. Socially awkward.

As I left, I couldn’t wait to tell this Maiden story to a bouncer friend. Intrigued, he checked it out inside. Meanwhile, I saw someone I thought I recognized as an early Maiden fan, with a high sense of decorum, and returned eye contact. Then, my news flash. She pulled up her shirt and flashed her breasts at me. Definitely not my shy friend. After thinking for a few moments, I went back in to have some quick fun with the situation. She inserted in a heartbeat, “is your wife outside?” Ironically, she had been with me a few hours earlier, and I was left wondering if the new woman was flirting about a past event or staging a coming one. But right then I left, stage right without an answer. —

Back to my boat decor. There is everything you want here from summer to fall, to dressy but still casual shorts, to plenty of pants, and shirts button down and otherwise. You can try them out in a pair of dressing rooms — yes we now have them — with great big gray, plaid drapes to cover. Next to them is a large mirror, five-feet square, to see how you look. There are T-shirts, of course, with slogans such as “Sorry for what I said while docking the boat.” Candles can be bought too. Again, motif.

As is the motorcycle racing art, great big pictures and trophies, and since they have roots in South Dakota the token jackalope. That’s from the other half of the business team — Anne along with her side interior design business that’s located on a side wing through a big door — and her family’s flag in the form of a wooden plaque that stems from her partner Thomas Elmer’s law enforcement background in Faribault County, Minn. Some proceeds go to Wisconsin veterans, and drew inspiration from visiting mens’ shops in Des Moines to Omaha, in the form of the Wounded Warriors Project.

And then there are those side projects, not just in the cool music purposefully chosen but what is offered to again, complete the vibe. Grave Before Shave moody-type beard accessories, with the added toned-down brands Uppercut and Guy Lively and more. Whitley’s Peanut Factory, jumbo version too, from Virginia this time, salted and roasted in the shell. You can buy in the bag or can.

And then there is, in different forms, cocktail kits to go with Old Fashioned mix and gin smash, inside its vintage housing, also, and that aroma is to die for.

Annie’s interior design business now covers the Hudson area and even over to Eau Claire, after a 12-year run of doing theater on stages all over the world.  She currently is using her theatrical nature to help people get design homes of their dreams. Everything is a reflection of things like her unique use of color palate. Annie is a graduate of the New York Institute of Art Design.

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