“Just turn by the Dairy Queen” are the official directions for Historic Casanova Liquor in the border town of Hudson, Wisconsin, a half-hour from downtown Minneapolis. That’s all you need to know—along with the fact that it’s not just a liquor store, but a bottle shop with a craft beer legacy.
The building, carved into the side of a bluff near downtown Hudson, was home to the Casanova Brewing Company from 1896 to 1947. The interior doesn’t feel like a brewery or a liquor store—it is distinctly decorated with stained glass fixtures and breweriana. Its history is intertwined with the vestiges of Minnesota’s Blue Laws: It wasn’t until July 2017 that the neighboring state’s liquor stores could open on Sundays, yet we didn’t go thirsty. After church and before kickoff, Casanova’s parking lot would fill with border-hopping Minnesotans, snow or shine.
Brian Hayes, former secretary of the consumer advocacy group Minnesota Beer Activists—which worked from 2011 to 2017 to repeal the Blue Laws—recalls counting Minnesota license plates at Casanova one Sunday. It was almost every car. “We planned to use [the data] with legislators to show what was happening,” he says.
Practicality was typically the reason for any given Minnesotan’s maiden voyage to Casanova, but one visit and you’d be hooked. The cave-like beer department contained an unmatched wall of single bottles hailing from across the Midwest, Southeast, and New England, more than half of which, as a laminated sign pinned to the singles wall described, were “Beers Not Available in Minnesota.” Until the adjoining restaurant, the Nova Wine Bar, closed due to COVID in 2020, liquor store patrons could get growler fills of anything it had on draft (yet another novelty for beer lovers from Minnesota, where only breweries can fill growlers).
I first visited while working for one of the most forward-thinking beer specialty stores in the Twin Cities, The Four Firkins. Despite our own massive singles wall and weighty position in the craft beer scene, I still ventured to Casanova frequently to broaden my horizons. It’s where I first fell in love with Anderson Valley Gose and The Bruery. Today, Twin Cities beer drinkers like me pop over the St. Croix River not because they need to, but because Casanova is a honey hole of brands still not available in Minnesota—notably Allagash White, as well as Wisconsin-exclusive releases from New Glarus Brewing Company.
“They work very hard for beer drinkers. It used to be sort of easy, but now they have to draw people in,” explains Hayes, who specifically buys Three Floyds on his visits. Today, the singles wall is almost entirely cans, and the sign is gone, but not much else has changed. I still have a hard time narrowing down what to buy as I scan the novel labels—The Veil! Angry Chair!—and weigh novelty and impulse with my enjoyment of the style listed on each can. Casanova hosts festivals including Cave Beer Fest in its adjoining historic lagering caves, and the attached space is now Nova Bar, owned by beer industry vet Brett Splinter and the owner of Casanova Liquors, Tyrrell Gaffer.
The legacy of Casanova is as a gateway to new beer for residents of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and beyond. Just this week, I overheard a woman listing aloud which beers she would be purchasing that she could not get in her home state of Iowa. While some liquor stores have become less personal in the face of increased choice, there is no way to be greeted by a full suit of armor and authentic Tiffany glass lamps and think you’ve arrived at Total Wine. Legislation aside, Casanova will continue to be a launching pad for the Midwestern palate.
Words by Paige Latham Didora