Steve Cahalan: The Groovy Grind opens in downtown Galesville

Steve Cahalan For the La Crosse Tribune

A recent flurry of new women-owned businesses in downtown Galesville continued this week with Thursday's opening of The Groovy Grind cafe at 19873 W. Gale Ave.

Carley Green-Easterday owns the new cafe, in the former location of Jungle Juice, a smoothie, boba tea and hot tea bar that closed in May.

Green-Easterday also owns the Green Girl Co., which started in 2020 and provides a full bartending service (as well as glassware rental and party planning) for parties and other events from a cocktail camper -- a 1964 Trailblazer camper.

The Groovy Grind serves "all things coffee, smoothies and sandwiches," Green-Easterday explained in a post on the cafe's Facebook page.

"We do sandwiches, scones, cookies, things like that, and not just coffee" she said in an interview Tuesday. The Groovy Grind will always have a sandwich with meat, a vegetarian sandwich and a breakfast sandwich. Vegan cheese and gluten-free items also are available.

Besides a variety of coffee drinks and smoothies, beverages include such things as cold "refreshers" drinks and soda pop, and Green-Easterday hopes to be brewing her own kombucha tea by late summer. She uses Wonderstate Coffee from Viroqua and her cafe also sells bags of Wonderstate Coffee, as well as such things as coffee accessories, mugs, cocktail kits, earrings, charcuterie boards and other handcrafted products.

Hours are 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and closed Sunday and Monday. For more information, call the cafe at 608-863-8186 or visit www.thegroovygrindcafe.square.site (which Green-Easterday hoped would be operating by this weekend) or the cafe's Facebook page. For more information about Green Girl Co., call Green-Easterday at 715-419-3640.

After operating her full-service travel agency from her rural Blair home for two years, Lisa Bourget opened her Quiet Meadow Travel office on June 6 at 16935 N. Main St. in downtown Galesville.

It's in part of a building that houses a State Farm Insurance agency, and is across the street from the Express Mart convenience store/gas station.

Summer walk-in hours at the travel agency's downtown office are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and at other times by appointment. Quiet Meadow Travel also is available by telephone or Zoom from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. And it's available to help with client travel emergencies at all times.

"I wanted to have a place where people could walk in and speak in person," Bourget said of her decision to open the Galesville office. "My goal is to be flexible and meet in the manner that the client is most comfortable with."

Bourget said she probably will expand walk-in hours at the office to five days a week this fall because of the busy November-to-March travel months, for clients who want to go someplace warm.

Her agency handles domestic as well as international travel. For more information, call 715-340-4004 or visit the agency's Facebook page.

Rich Evans opened Northside Ink Tattoo & Art Studio on June 16 in the former Salon Zeyta location at 1824 George St. in La Crosse, next to Neuie's Vogue Bar and Grill.

Besides being a tattoo studio, the new business displays and sells artwork created by local artists, including Evans.

"I've been tattooing since I was 16," said Evans, who now is 40 years old. He had been working at other area tattoo studios since he returned to the La Crosse area from Florida three years ago. "It's been a lifelong dream to have my own shop," Evans said.

Evans was born in La Crosse and his family moved to Florida when he was 2 years old.

"Right now I'm by appointment only," Evans said. Appointments are available for Monday through Saturday.

Evans plans to celebrate the grand opening of his business as part of a small block party July 8.

For more information, call 608-881-6003 or visit Northside Ink's Facebook page and other social media pages, which Evans hoped would be operating by this weekend.

A new McDonald's restaurant that replaced the previous one will open Thursday at 2015 N. Superior Ave. in Tomah.

March 5 was the old restaurant's last day open, said Rick Lommen, president of Courtesy Corp., the Onalaska-based franchisee that owns and operates 64 McDonald's restaurants in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. That building was razed to make way for the new McDonald's.

The old McDonald's had opened in January 1985, was the first McDonald's at that location, and it was time to replace it, Lommen said.

Lommen said the new building has an updated drive-thru, kiosks, mobile ordering, curbside pickup and new decor.

Hours at the new McDonald's are 5 a.m. to midnight daily.