If you've lived in Onalaska longer than a season, you already know the Great River State Trail as the gravel path that runs past Great River Landing, the place you buy a $5 day pass or a $25 annual one if you're biking north toward Midway and Trempealeau. What's easy to miss, because it happened in pieces over the last two years, is that the same half-mile of crushed limestone has quietly become the reason three new restaurants picked their addresses, the reason a volunteer rescue squad throws a concert every August, and the actual pavement under the town's biggest race every September.
That's not a coincidence dressed up as a theme. It's how this stretch of downtown has been built, on purpose, one decision at a time.
The Newest Places To Eat Didn't Pick Downtown. They Picked The Trailhead.
Start with the address. Great River Landing sits at 101 Irvin Street. This spring, NOM Sips & Eats opened its second location at 100 Irvin Street, one door number away from the trailhead itself. A bright pink sign went up outside the space months before it opened, announcing the spot to anyone walking, biking, or driving past on their way to the trail.
David Reay's Modern Diner and Tavern made a similar bet in 2024, choosing a spot next to Dash-Park on Second Avenue and Main Street, directly across from Great River Landing. The restaurant is named for the Onalaska doctor who delivered Festival Foods co-founder Dave Skogen, and it's part of a broader push by Dave and Barb Skogen to build up the downtown and waterfront area. It's run by the same owner behind La Crosse's Dublin Square and Burger Fusion, and it serves pies from AddieCakes and ice cream from The Pearl alongside its diner menu.
The Big Lady opened at 214 Main Street in late 2025, a block down from the water, describing itself as sitting along Main Street and the Mississippi and offering, in its own words, a taste of the Coulee Region.
Here's the pattern laid out plainly:
| Restaurant | Address | Position relative to the trailhead | Opened |
|---|---|---|---|
| NOM Sips & Eats, second location | 100 Irvin St | Across from Great River Landing at 101 Irvin St | Spring 2026 |
| David Reay's Modern Diner and Tavern | Second Ave and Main St | Next to Dash-Park, across from Great River Landing | 2024 |
| The Big Lady | 214 Main St | One block from the same waterfront strip | Late 2025 |
None of these owners are guessing. They're locating their front doors where the foot and bike traffic already exists, and betting that more of it is coming.
The City Keeps Betting On The Same Half-Mile
That bet has a paper trail. Great River Landing itself was built as the trailhead for the Great River State Trail, a facility with a kayak kiosk, a rocking sunfish sculpture, outdoor musical instruments, and seasonal restrooms open May through October. The trail it anchors runs 24 miles north to Marshland, but its real reach is bigger: it connects into more than 100 miles of linked state trails through the Bike 4 Trails system, and Travel Wisconsin puts annual visits to the trail at nearly 70,000 people a year. A daily trail pass runs $5, or $25 for the year, required for anyone 16 or older who's biking rather than walking.
The city isn't done building around it. A master plan to expand the same waterfront, adding a boardwalk, additional water access, and scenic overlooks, carries an estimated price tag of $15.3 million, a cost high enough that city officials are tackling it in phases rather than all at once. Emily Vance, who owns River Trail Cycles near the trail, put it simply when the expansion was announced:
"I think by developing this waterfront further, it's just going to expand horizons for so many more people doing so many more activities."
The city also approved 98 new housing units just south of Great River Landing in late 2023, part of the Great River Residences project. Whoever ends up living there will have a shorter walk to dinner than almost anyone else in town, because dinner keeps opening closer to them.
The Trail Also Pays For The Ambulance
Here's the part that doesn't show up on a restaurant map. Brice Prairie EMS and Rescue, the all-volunteer group that covers the peninsula northwest of downtown, is the outfit that responds to 911 calls on Brice Prairie and the Great River State Bike and Snowmobile Trail, including water and ice rescue for Lake Onalaska and the Black River Bottoms. That's the same trail everyone's biking to get a smoothie or a slice of pie.
The organization funds a meaningful share of its equipment and training through one event: Rockin' the Prairie, now in its 18th year, set for Saturday, August 22, 2026, at their station on County Road ZN in Brice Prairie. Gates open at 4:30 p.m., Sunshine Drive kicks off the music at 5, and Something Familiar plays from 8:30 until midnight, alongside a silent auction and raffles. It's the kind of fundraiser that only makes sense once you know who's actually on call when something goes wrong on that trail.
And It's The Marathon Course In September
Three weeks after Rockin' the Prairie, the trail becomes the racecourse itself. The Mini Donut Half Marathon and 5K Honor Walk/Run, now in its 11th year, is set for Saturday, September 12, 2026. The half marathon starts at the intersection of 4th Avenue and Riders Club Road, just past the Omni Center and near the Onalaska YMCA, then follows the Great River State Trail north to Lytle's Landing before turning back and finishing at Swarthout Park on Brice's Prairie. The 5K loops out from the same finish line through the Fish and Wildlife trails nearby. Every finisher gets a medal, and the half marathon runners get donuts at the line, which is where the race gets its name.
The same Saturday hosts the 11th Annual Taste of Summer, drawing another crowd to the Green Coulee Road area on the same date. Two of the fall's bigger draws, stacked on one day, both routed through or around the same corridor of trail and river that's been drawing new restaurants for two years running.
A Half-Mile Doing A Lot Of Work
Add it up and the last two years look less like scattered good news and more like one corridor absorbing most of the town's new investment at once. New restaurants keep choosing addresses within sight of the trailhead. The city keeps funding expansions to the same waterfront. A volunteer rescue squad throws its biggest fundraiser because it's the group answering calls on that exact trail. And the marathon that closes out summer runs straight through it. If you've noticed Onalaska feeling more centered around the water than it used to, this is why: it is.
Favre & Co. works and lives in this same stretch of Onalaska, close enough to watch the trailhead fill in one restaurant at a time. If you're ever curious what's changing in a specific pocket of town, or just want a local's read on where things are headed next, we're an easy call away.
