Walk down 6th Street on a Saturday morning and you can hear a server shout "Pannekoeken!" from what used to be a Wells Fargo drive through. Two blocks over on State Street, a construction crew is finishing counters where Schuby's deli case used to sit. Down at Valley View Mall, the Macy's footprint has been leveled and a Raising Cane's is hiring a hundred people to open by late August. Downtown La Crosse is not adding restaurants so much as re-skinning the buildings that already anchored the block.
That is the story of 2026 here, and it is worth paying attention to if you already live within a short drive of the river. The openings are not scattered new-builds on the edge of town. They are chef-driven or family-run concepts moving into inherited addresses, most of them within a ten minute walk of each other.
The pattern nobody is saying out loud
Almost every notable opening this year has taken over a building the neighborhood already knew by name. That matters because it changes how you plan a night out. The old landmarks are still your landmarks. The menu behind the door is what changed.
Flatiron Cafe & Bar opened in the former Schuby's location at 321 State Street, and the owners have leaned into that inheritance. When a customer asked online whether the Nashville hot chicken sandwich tied to a former Schuby's chef would return, the restaurant answered "very high possibility." The kitchen is also going regional in a way the deli never did. Flatiron plans to source from producers such as Pasture Pride Cheese in Cashton and St. Brigid's Meadow in Coon Valley.
A few blocks away, Hollandberry Pannekoeken is now open in the former Wells Fargo drive through on 6th Street and is running seven days a week. The namesake is an oven baked soufflé pancake, stuffed or topped savory or sweet, and servers shout "Pannekoeken!" as it arrives at the table. A converted bank lobby is not where most cities put brunch, but that is exactly the point of what is happening here.
Here is the shorthand for the shift, laid out by address:
| Former tenant | Now open as | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Wells Fargo drive through | Hollandberry Pannekoeken | 200 Sixth Street S |
| Schuby's deli | Flatiron Cafe & Bar | 321 State Street |
| Dublin Square | The Rustic | Downtown |
| LAX Grille | JAC's Signature Steakhouse (second location) | Downtown |
| Sushi Pirate | Tokyo Fusion | 212 Main Street |
| Macy's at Valley View | Raising Cane's, Mr. Car Wash, and more | Valley View Mall |
If you have lived here for even a few years, that table is your mental map of the last decade of downtown closings. It is now also your list of places to try in the next three months.
The bakery and brunch layer got deeper
Downtown's morning options used to be a short list. That list expanded quickly in 2026, and it expanded with owners who already had a following in the region.
Onalaska's OPUS Bakehouse expanded its sourdough business into a new La Crosse location that opened in early June, with a more consistent menu built around seasonal eats, pastries, breads, sandwiches, and coffee, and extended Wednesday through Sunday hours. The grand opening drew a large crowd that sold out most pastries in the first hour. If you have been the person driving to Onalaska for a loaf on a Sunday morning, the calculation just changed.
Hollandberry occupies the sit down brunch slot. OPUS covers pastry and grab-and-go. And for households that want their groceries and their dinner in the same stop, Priya's Spice Bazaar has opened in La Crosse as a grocery store paired with a restaurant serving a range of Indian meals. Owners Priya and Kalyan Kolouju expanded from a weekend-only operation at the Coulee Region Business Center into what Priya describes as "a full-scale restaurant." Emplify Health officials worked with the Koloujus to open the location specifically because it helps fill a food desert, meaning an area that lacks businesses with healthy produce and food.
That last piece is worth sitting with. A brunch spot, a sourdough bakery, and a full grocery-plus-restaurant all opened downtown in the same twelve month window. None of them existed here two years ago.
Where locals are drinking now
The bar scene reshuffled at the same time. The Rustic, a new bar in downtown La Crosse, opened the weekend before St. Patrick's Day in the former Dublin Square space, with co-owners Matt Boshcka, Tim Larsen, and Brian Wellendorf reviving the legacy of the Rustic Inn, a popular bar that closed in the 1980s. If you had a parent or grandparent who talked about the Rustic Inn, that is the reference the new owners are working from.
For a full sit down dinner, Jennifer and Chris Popp, owners of JAC's Signature Steakhouse in Tomah, are expanding into the former LAX Grille space in downtown La Crosse. A Tomah steakhouse crossing into La Crosse is not a common move. It is the kind of expansion an owner makes when they think the downtown dinner crowd has grown enough to support a second location.
Two more openings round out the shift. Sisters Sandra Stalsberg and Hilda Quintero opened Cielito Lindo Paleteria & Snacks in La Crosse-Onalaska, bringing authentic Mexican snacks and treats to the area. And Christos Taverna is relocating and expanding to a new location on 6th Street, with an anticipated opening in June.
Six blocks. A Greek relocation, a Mexican paleteria, a revived legacy bar, a Tomah steakhouse crossover, a Dutch brunch house, and a European-comfort cafe. None of these read as chain rollouts.
The Valley View reset changes the east side calculation
The other half of 2026's food news is not downtown at all. It is out at Valley View Mall, and it changes how households on the north and east sides plan a quick weeknight dinner.
A banner inviting job applications for a new Raising Cane's chicken fingers restaurant went up at the construction site, part of the redevelopment of the former Macy's department store site at Valley View Mall, with a company spokesman saying the restaurant will open in July or August. The Raising Cane's La Crosse location is set to open on Aug. 19, with hiring underway for 100 new staff and a grand opening featuring giveaways. A Mr. Car Wash is being built on the same pad. Two more tenants, a Panda Express and a Starbucks, have surfaced at public city committee meetings for the Macy's redevelopment, though a Starbucks spokesperson has not confirmed a new store for La Crosse.
Downtown does not have a Raising Cane's or a Panda Express, and it will not get one. The Valley View pad is capturing the fast-casual traffic that used to leak out to Onalaska. If your household has been driving north to Highway 16 for a quick chicken run, the drive is about to get shorter.
Downtown, meanwhile, gets Tokyo Fusion. A Tokyo Fusion restaurant is planned for the former Sushi Pirate space at 212 Main Street in downtown La Crosse. The city's sushi slot changes hands without leaving the block.
What this means for a Friday night in August
Put the calendar together and the practical picture is this. On a Saturday, you can pick up a sourdough loaf at OPUS in the morning, walk to Hollandberry for pannekoeken, stop by Priya's Spice Bazaar for cardamom and a curry to reheat later, then split dinner between JAC's for a steak or Flatiron for the European comfort menu, then finish the night at The Rustic. That itinerary did not exist in August 2024.
For a household weighing whether to keep driving to Onalaska for weekend errands, the answer is starting to tilt back toward downtown. For an executive with clients in town, the reservation options at the upper end just doubled. For a first time buyer touring a condo on 3rd or 4th Street, the walkable radius of interesting food is meaningfully larger than the same tour would have been last summer.
That last point is not incidental. When a neighborhood's food scene reshapes this quickly, the case for living downtown reshapes with it. The restaurants are proof that the ground floor of downtown La Crosse is being invested in by owners who expect the residential demand to keep coming.
If you own a home downtown or in one of the surrounding La Crosse neighborhoods and you have been curious what these changes mean for the value of your address, the team at Favre & Co. tracks the block-by-block story behind the market and can tell you what your home is worth in the La Crosse of August 2026, not the La Crosse of two years ago. Reach out when you are ready for a straight answer.
