Contact us
Back to All Posts

Wisconsin football, with its pros and cons and college contests as well, is more than just beer, (sorry to the folks at Miller Lite), so here are family-friendly places to watch the games where the volume is not major-concert level. And they don’t end up tolerating, or showcasing, the rowdiness that can follow. So Cheers! — And see the Uncatagorized department on how not to bother with more than just a drink or two on an entire Sunday Funday and still not be a bother to the bartender. (Thanks for the question, kind reader, even though we are not Dear Abby).

Take Me To The River. Or two (wordings intentional and see below) the nearest venue having Minnesconsin pro football games, but without the rowdiness, so it might not be within just blocks of the St. Croix.
So to the Next Door online reader with a two-fold question in that regard, here’s to you. Might want to head up the hill into a newer section of Hudson.
At Green Mill, it is a crowd that evades the 21-year-old, bucket of beer brigade, although they do have Game Day specials are just as inciting. The clientele is a little older and wiser, and more mature and well behaved, and you can even engage them in conversation as the volume of either the jukebox or sports TV channel is not prohibitive, and everyone around the big circular bar rail is within earshot, and you don’t have to yell. Granted, come the fourth quarter some of the regulars might be a bit tipsy, but they typically can handle their liquor well, so this may go unnoticed because they don’t pour it down like at some places downtown catering to the young crowd.
On Friday, a group came in sporting Green and Gold sweatshirts and were led to the dining area. A man at the bar quipped it might as well be Game Day. The response? We’re traveling, on our way over there. Green Mill is known for catering to business travelers, some of them upscale but unpretentious, staying at nearby motels, or just those passing through enroute to a bigger city.

— For three key matchups to view at GM and BWW, and make it your own, see Notes From The Beat. They start with the Pack but don’t turn back when it comes to the rest of the NFL–

Across Carmichael Road is Buffalo Wild Wings, which caters as much to families with children of all ages, spread out around the generous supply of tables in two huge rooms, as those at the front bar. It can be a haven for youth sports teams, both athletes and parents and their coaches and even trainers, and bartenders are more likely to take the time for a bit of well-honed analysis about strategy. A big flyer in the foyer stresses that patrons enjoy the game but be respectful. Forego the Bronx Cheer.
And then there are those specials.
You can load up on more than baked potato during football games. A current offer that takes on a tailgating twist provides 20 wings, amped up on chicken tater tots, and for now a secret item that likely has a secret sauce, like at an old Milwaukee Brewer game at County Stadium.
Another newer offering is a mouthful. It boasts spicy sweet chili sauce on its wings, and Doritos (the name brand not a generic) with you might have guessed, spicy-sweet-chili-sauce-flavored tortillas crumbled and piled on top.
Lastly there — and you have to keep in mind BDubs is a chain with more of a presence in Minnesota — you can get a free appetizer whenever the (up and down) Viking defense produces two snacks — OK again a Freudian slip, as I meant sacks. (You do have to produce a separate $20 purchase, but as far as getting to that point, its still cool on those hot apps because you will bring your legions of friends with you, right?) Just as long as the Viking to Packer ratio among them is not greater then 50/50. Just kidding. After all, this is not Dick’s or Ziggy’s downtown that can cater to the hoards coming over from the Cities to get their football fix.
But if you can’t wait until Sunday, on Saturday there is the marching band competition dubbed Rumble on the River, which is actually held at Hudson High School and is a joint effort with River Falls, where they do have the carefully careening creek that’s called The Kinni for commonality sake. The lingo is lots like a major concert, doors at 11 a.m. and music at noon. There is a $10 entry fee, since after all, the event is a fundraiser.
(Like this post? Consider joining the Next Door online family from whence the question came, or even its 51-and-counting member “group” for my HudsonWiNightlife website, thus joining those who are “bookmarked” for me — and you might even see a joke about Area 51, now that the gov has come clean — on that village of North Hudson alone end of the online offering.)

Share the Post:

Related Posts

  • Full metal jacket? Hey, I wasn’t exactly to the point of going Rob Halford. But tastes aside, there must be some reason why after 26 years I was shunned, like going Bob Daisley by Ozzy at his reunion? OK, I know, my style may not have fit with the packed crowd. And the last couple of times for this, I tried to do too much with ad-libbing. So yeah, I get that this time around, I was the somewhat unusual choice to be the one left off the set list, with singers clamoring to get up there. But seriously, just being analytical of strengths and weaknesses as a singer here, no hard feelings. I’m not Dio. (Or Traveling Wilburys, a when jumping inside, inside joke.)
It was clear to me at the most recent Jeff Loven music show in Hudson, for Memorial Day weekend, that there has been a changing of the guard. The sword has been passed. New blood, like Yungblud, has been brought in. And, I must say, loyalty — amongst the devotees who travel frequently and all across the two-state area to virtually all of Jeff’s shows — has been rewarded. They are the royalty, in what just makes good business sense that I can appreciate. In a significant but not unprecedented altering of course, I was not one of those asked...
Read More
  • Songs by Napalm Death? A fire swept down my very street today, where the babies were burned. (But alas, a new A/C unit is on its way up the freeway.) The Stones did not leave these themes unturned, either, or should I say unrolled. Oh wait, this all was my cooker of an apartment, and we are not talking the kitchen. But all these matters will become more pressing, a pressure point, as the new normal especially in southern climes is temp well into the triple digits. It is these people, the third world, and their heat stroke not mine, that most concern me. (Another example of hellfire temps just added. Sin after Sin.)
Trial by fire. My broiling heart in my efficiency flat still beats a bit, in concern over those boiling over in worse apartments in a Chicago tenancy, or on an ocean island instantly-burn-your-feet beach or dessert, or forced to endure ice baths just to keep cool — or simply be offered no way to maintain an ice-dripping body other than also read a non-cookbook at the library, or select not a big steak you can’t afford but a 73/27 burger from a freezer and slap it on your forehead. Just not too hard. All these things are ones where you especially today either burn or...
Read More
  • I had a dream … And out of it (re)sprouted an ancient spring fertility rite to save the world, or at least my apartment building, or at least my second story window, from a giant lizard peering in, out at T-Rex days of yore. This ritual requires copious amounts of consumption and goes from there to hobbits and lords who are not yet a-leaping, for reasons to be retold in this fanciful, twisted tale (of fiction?) Just watch the use of Why! The letter, that is. And try to catch on to the inside jokes. (Psst. Another tale inside. Or two.)
This is a truly awfuI, twisted tale of villains and heroes, powerful ale if used carefully, giant beasties and smaller hobbyts, but also renewal and redemption. I will ascrybe to an ancient rytual, back to when the tyme gyant lyzyrds peered into second story wyndows of apartment byldings and no amount of walls could keep them out of such urban non-placated places, save this practice that annually, about this tyme of three-day holiday, would save humanity for another year.  So in this spryng fertility ryte, go consume copious quantities of hunhy grhym cr’krz and jinjer biyr, deprived of its alcohol as worshippers need to be sober-headed...
Read More
  • And musings moreover —– A full list of the trios of triumph. The power of threes. A full dozen of these triads, oh make that 13 as we linger, that you will see listed as shopping promptings in three long blocks of store windows of downtown Hudson. Three’s company? Get it? Third time’s the charm. And this is a truism, the words, some of them three letters, chosen to depict their offerings show the diversity of, dare I say it, a Super WalMart.
Here goes the ultimate list of lingo, even if it languishes, in no particular long order, as we go at length into the different kinds of businesses you will find in this locale, starting the list and at its last, two of the many art galleries in our downtown: — Feminist power, love and generosity, and to double your fun, framing, art tchotchkes and earrings, all at the biggest little art and collectables gallery you will see mid-block. — Community, commerce and tourism, touted at the Hudson Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau, in a blatant suck up to...
Read More
  • And musings moreover —– To skate or not to skate? Not on most Hudson streets and sidewalks, you don’t. Even though most users I’ve encountered have been courteous and safe — saying ‘on right’ as they go by on a fairly busy sidewalk, and not just barely edging past you — the city council in essance banned the usage last fall. I think this goes too far in what amounts to dare I say it, big brother-type stringency. I prefer a more ‘urban’ style ambiance, with a Twin Cities type of bustle. (For what of that is to be found, come Friday, ‘jump’ inside. That post now updated, for more weekend options.) I now start with a joke.
As far as, for starters, the old announcement, “passing on the right,” this was said to me just now by a beautifully tanked woman in a bikini, owning the downtown sidewalk. She was slightly gasping and moaning as she almost carressed my side going by. I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to read anything into that … Spring has past sprung, we’ve finally had some really hotter weather, and a young man’s heart turns to thoughts of … e-cycling and skateboarders going past. In the last couple of weeks, you can see them again all around our sidewalks and byways, busy and not...
Read More
  • And musings moreover —– Shoes and shirt are welcome, to be purchased along with other keepsakes at a new shop or worn in. At least soon while dining at new downtown Hudson eating opps. You don’t need an app, read on, as doors are flipped open … There are still other options and opportunities, after the Wild opted out as flipping goalies, with Filip, only worked for so long. (Not so big shoes to fill. Just flip-flops. See below and under The Headliner for posts on such sports bar shenanigans.) So for now, in a new post, we Rally In The Valley, with eight bands.
A door on the side of a downtown conglomerate of stores, the front not back door, has a sign telling delivery drivers to deposit items in back — but the sign is flipped upside down since the tape slipped. A blipped language I don’t speak. But that’s not the only thing that’s flipped in the downtown. Lots of stores are either open as we speak, or will be soon. We’re talking still in May, maybe, and mostly earlier than later. While we wait with baited breath for the full opening of Max’s Social House. And a pub or another hub...
Read More
Scroll to Top