By KEVYN BURGER | April 2021

Last year might have been the best of times and the worst of times for Joe Ehlenz, or in a further twist on the Charles Dickens classic, A Tale of Two Restaurants. Both restaurants are called LoLo American Kitchen, and both are anchors of a lively food scene, with innovative cocktails, trendy small plates and entrees.

Both are owned by Ehlenz, one in Hudson, Wisconsin, where he lives, and the other eight miles farther up the St. Croix River, in Stillwater, Minnesota.

In the St. Croix Valley, Hudson and Stillwater have long done business with their common interest in mind. Operators of hotels, marinas, restaurants and boutiques in the two communities have been known to refer tourists to their counterparts on the other side of the river that the communities share.

But twice in 2020, the two LoLos operated under different sets of rules for the hospitality industry set by their states — stoking a community rivalry, a game with a winner and a loser.

After an initial shutdown as COVID-19 hit last year, a mid-May ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court quashed Gov. Tony Evers’ stay-at-home order, allowing bars and restaurants like LoLo in Hudson to reopen for in-person dining and drinking.

At the same time, bars and restaurants in Minnesota, like LoLo in Stillwater, offered curbside pickup and takeout but remained closed to guests by order of Gov. Tim Walz. In June, restaurants were allowed to reopen to diners at reduced capacity.

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This article first appeared in the Spring 2021 issue of Diggings. Click here to read the whole issue.

Permission to reprint is granted as long as the author and Badger Institute are properly cited.