The Mill District Riverfront Spends This Winter Up the Bank

On a weekday evening this fall, the lights are still on in the Water Works pavilion at 425 West River Parkway. The building stays open until 9 p.m. six nights a week. Its restaurant space has had no tenant since spring. Below the bluff, a construction fence surrounds the falls-side land where the Owámniyomni restoration is underway. A few hundred feet up the bank, on South 2nd Street, Mill City Museum is getting ready to host the farmers market again.

So for the next several months, the riverfront's pull sits higher up than usual. Down at the water, one space is waiting on a tenant and another on a construction crew, while the museum's stone walls and the bridge carry the season week to week. Here is what is open on the Mill District riverfront this winter, what is waiting, and the dates that change your weekend.

The pavilion stays lit while its kitchen waits

Water Works is still a working park. The Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board lists the park as open 6 a.m. to midnight. From October through April, the pavilion building's hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Mondays and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Those are generous hours for a riverside building in a Minnesota winter, so the pavilion is a warm place to stop on a cold loop along West River Parkway.

The restaurant inside is the part that's changing. According to the Star Tribune, Owamni served its final Water Works dinner on April 30, 2026, and moved into the Guthrie's former Sea Change space as Indígena by Owamni. The Star Tribune reported that the new restaurant opened June 23. Owamni didn't go far. It moved up the hill, toward the Guthrie.

The park board picked Arch and River for the pavilion space. It comes from Diane Moukouri, owner of B'beri Desserts, and her husband, executive chef Fritz Ebanda. Moukouri will run operations and Ebanda the kitchen. Mpls.St.Paul Magazine described an all-day plan. It starts with morning coffee and pastries, then lunch, then afternoon tea and goûter, and ends with an evening dessert bar, plus weekend brunch. The couple's early menu previews included filet mignon with roasted foie gras and a savory vegetable mille-feuille.

That plan matters for this stretch of the river. A bistro serving coffee, lunch and tea would bring a weekday crowd to a space best known for dinner reservations. Until it opens, though, the pavilion is a park building with no kitchen running.

The timing is still open. In August, Axios Twin Cities reported that the park board was aiming for a September opening. That month came and went. Racket's Oct. 1 roundup listed Arch and River under "In the Works" and said it "should open later this year." The Star Tribune's Oct. 5 restaurant roll call still listed it as coming soon. The restaurant's own site says "Launching Soon," with no date. For now, the realistic plan is coffee somewhere else and a walk-through of the pavilion.

The river's edge is behind a fence until spring 2027

The construction near the pavilion is a bigger reason the season sits uphill. The Owámniyomni restoration site next to the falls is closed for construction. Its design and construction page says Phase 1 started in June 2026. Over the summer, crews relocated utilities and removed some Army Corps structures. Asphalt removal, grading, site preparation and early planting start this fall and continue into 2027. The project lists excavation and sheet pile installation as recent work. Next up is a new roof for the Central Control Station. The group's May construction announcement says the site will stay closed until spring 2027.

That changes how the lower park works day to day. The park board says Mill Ruins Park stays accessible during construction, with a few rules:

• One way in: the lower Mill Ruins area is reachable only from the trail entrance near the 35W Bridge Remembrance Garden.
• No through route: you can't walk through the lower ruins and come out somewhere else.
• Same way out: you leave by the entrance you came in.
• Questions: the park board directs them to Kjersti Duval with Owámniyomni Okhódayapi at 612-836-8266.

A walk through the lower ruins is now an out-and-back from one entrance. Fall planting has started, but the restored riverbank won't open before the spring 2027 estimate, so this winter is the in-between season for the falls.

Saturday morning moves to 704 South 2nd Street

When the river's edge goes quiet, Mill City Museum becomes the center of the riverfront week. The Mill City Farmers Market runs its indoor winter market inside the museum at 704 S. 2nd St. on the first and third Saturdays of each month, November through April, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The market's winter page lists 35 or more rotating local vendors, with groceries, holiday pastries and handmade art. Shoppers don't pay museum admission. Dogs aren't allowed inside. That last rule affects anyone who combines the morning dog walk with market shopping in summer. In winter, those are two separate trips.

The market also points shoppers to a weekly vendor list, so you can check who is coming before a cold walk over.

The museum's own hours set the rest of the week. Mill City Museum is open Wednesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and it's closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Holiday hours are worth knowing if you're hosting family:

The museum is open on the Friday after Thanksgiving and the weekend after Christmas, the days houseguests are most likely in town. The ruins are fenced and the pavilion restaurant is empty, so this is where the riverfront shows visitors its history this season.

The bridge is the riverfront's one sure thing this winter

Every other part of the riverfront comes with a caveat this winter. The Stone Arch Bridge doesn't. The park board announced on July 21, 2025 that the bridge had fully reopened to pedestrians and cyclists, with rehabilitation finished ahead of schedule. The park board's bridge page records the 2024 to 2025 repairs, lists the address as 100 Portland Ave. and gives hours of 6 a.m. to midnight.

This is the first full winter in a while with the whole bridge open and the lower park under construction. Visitors from out of town can walk the bridge end to end, look down on the Owámniyomni work below and finish at the museum.

Dates that close West River Parkway

Three race mornings this fall close West River Parkway through the Mill District, according to the park board's road closure list.

1. Saturday, Oct. 31: Halloween Half Marathon, Plymouth Avenue to 42nd Street, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
2. Saturday, Nov. 14: Hot Chocolate 5K/15K, Plymouth Avenue to East 27th Street, 7 a.m. to noon.
3. Thursday, Nov. 26: Turkey Day 5K, North 4th Avenue to 13th Avenue South, 7 to 11 a.m. The museum is closed that day too.

None of the three falls on a market Saturday. If you drive to the museum or along the river on Oct. 31 or Nov. 14, plan to arrive from the South 2nd Street side. On Thanksgiving morning the parkway and the museum are both closed, which leaves the bridge.

Roost follows the Mill District the way people who live here do, from the 2nd Street side down to the water. If you're weighing what Owámniyomni's opening and a new Water Works restaurant could mean for your building by spring 2027, Roost Real Estate can go over your options in a Private Consultation.