For more than 30 years, we've been traveling to my wife's hometown of Alexandria, Minnesota to…read morevisit family. "Alex", as it is known to the local community, is in the heart of Minnesota's beautiful Lake Region two hours northwest of the Twin Cities. This area serves as a very popular summer vacation destination as Midwesterners flock to the area for recreation on the state's 10,000 beautiful freshwater lakes. As a city-kid, I affectionately call this area the "boonies" as I ponder it's location less than 90 miles from the border of North Dakota! One of the simple summer pleasures in life up here in the northern plains is what I consider the world's best sweet corn. It is picked fresh daily at the local farms and is sold out of the beds of mid-century, medium-duty pickup trucks. Hoffman's sells their sweet corn out of a green, late 1940s REO truck at the corner of Nokomis and 3rd Ave. You can't miss it! The stand was managed today by an affable 20-something female college student who personified this state's "Minnesota-nice" reputation. I purchased two dozen ears and qualified for a 3rd dozen free...so we'll be happily enjoying sweet corn all week! When vacationing in the area, Hoffman's can't be beat for some of the very best sun-sweetened Minnesota corn-on-the-cob that I've ever had. Five stars down to the last kernel.

My wife and I were in Alexandria and we decided to get some meat to grill up at the lake cabin…read more This place is really big and actually had a sandwich shop in the back and I saw a plaque on the wall that said they had the best sandwiches in the area. I decided to get a pastrami and a pulled pork sandwich to go. The kid behind the counter actually heated up the two meats in a pan, I thought that was a nice touch. The lady was very nice and served it to me with a smile. I got 4 elk burgers to grill and I have had two. They are kind of gamey in a nice way and super lean. I will add some salt and pepper to it when I grill it up tonight. I might even add a slice of pepper jack to add a little fat to the meal. It went well with a nice side salad and some zucchini sticks. This place was a great small town meat market and there was a vegetable stand in the parking lot and I got some great cherry tomatoes.

What a gem of a meat shop! These types of places used to be on the corner of every country mile…read morewhen I was a child growing up in PA. Unfortunately many of those have gone away. This was like a blast from the past. Fantastic variety and quality walk hand in hand with perfect customer service at this establishment. I get to the area only once a year. I can guarantee that I'll be walking through those doors again in August of 2024.

The floral dept in this store is horrible.. my son ordered flowers for me for Mothers Day, which…read moreI'm sure he paid an expensive price, and when they were delivered, the flowers and leaves were falling out of the vase as the lady picks them up and pushes them back in the vase. I stood there and witnessed this myself! The sunflowers looked like they just took them and shoved them in the vase and put leaves around the sides. Nothing was arranged properly. Absolutely horrible quality and i will be sure to tell my kids to never use them again! Save your money because the florists at this place have no idea on what they're doing!

On the most part I like Eldens. Good selection of fresh vegetables and fruits. But the last few…read moretimes we have been there, they have a very rude, short tempered lady that works as the self service area. She is of no help to anyone except throwing out nasty barbs at the customers. The staff at Cub Foods in the self check out are very helpful and always cheerful and have wonderful customer relations skills. Perhaps she needs some customer relations training. Most of the staff at Elden's are pretty helpful. I always say if you work in a customer relations service and you don't like your job, perhaps you should find a different one where you don't have to work with people.

Great variety of products of all kinds of food. Wonderful, helpful people in the aisles and at…read morecash registers. All very helpful and friendly. Everyone, including other customers are always courteous and friendly.

Eldens produce is fresh and it is a nice store, however I will not be going back. Their…read moreemployees/owners don't care enough about their customers to wear a mask. I wrote a review the other day, but yelp deleted it. Makes me realize it is a phony review site.

This is a lovely place that serves food and has beautiful decor. Everyone works so hard here to…read moremake the place a fun place for children and families alike. The bakery serves up delicious fresh donuts, and baked items. I love the apple slushy in the summer and the apple cider in the winter and fresh hot coffee.. the fresh pies and also frozen pies and entrées are wonderful.

Great way to spend a day with kids! Huge Jumping Inflatable pillow, tire mountain, spider web,…read moreslides, corn pit, swings, giant corn maze (never have found it all the way through and changes every year) there's more that I'm forgetting. But every kid from 5-12 that I've brought loves it! Also if your in the area they have a great bakery and a ton of different frozen pies: Carmel apple pie to Mac and cheese pie. The gift shop has an impressive selection to Christmas decorations, kid stuff cooking items and more. If I don't have any kids while traveling though I stop anyway for the gift shop/bakery/frozen section!