The Art Cafe

About

The Art Café — Art, Culture, and Hospitality in Downtown Red Wing

The Art Café, located at 219 Bush Street in historic downtown Red Wing, Minnesota, is a two-part art and dining destination: La Dolce Vita, a European-inspired café and kitchen on the first floor, and M.E.T. Projects, a contemporary art gallery on the second.

The concept is simple: bring art, food, culture, hospitality, and community together under one roof.

La Dolce Vita — First Floor

La Dolce Vita — “The Good Life” in Italian — is more than a name; it represents a way of being. Inspired by Federico Fellini’s legendary film La Dolce Vita and the café culture of postwar Rome, the café celebrates good food, conversation, art, and the pleasure of spending time together.

Drawing inspiration from historic European institutions such as Café Landtmann in Vienna, Café de Flore in Paris, and Antico Caffè Greco in Rome, La Dolce Vita brings that tradition to Red Wing in its own contemporary way. The café offers coffee, pastries, breakfast, lunch and dinner selections, along with beer and wine, in a relaxed setting designed for conversation and connection.

In 2026, KAAL-TV / ABC 6 News in Rochester featured The Art Café on its Spotlight on Business program, introducing the café-and-gallery concept to a wider regional audience.

M.E.T. Projects — Second Floor

Upstairs, M.E.T. Projects is a dedicated contemporary art gallery presenting exhibitions, artists, and cultural programming.

Its inaugural exhibition, Impermanence, brought together 14 artists exploring time, change, memory, and mortality. The exhibition received coverage from Minnesota Monthly and the Republican Eagle, helping introduce the new gallery to audiences across Minnesota.

The gallery's first solo exhibition, Tom Lane: On Relationship: What Connects, What Divides, runs October 4–November 1, 2026. Lane, a sculptor and University of Minnesota professor for 44 years, presents works spanning more than three decades that explore relationships, connection, division, repetition, and form.

The next exhibition features internationally recognized painter and master printmaker Steven Sorman, November 8–December 20, 2026. Sorman's work is held in major museum collections including MoMA, the Tate, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Walker Art Center.

Together, La Dolce Vita and M.E.T. Projects create one destination with two complementary experiences—European café culture downstairs and contemporary art upstairs, bringing food, art, conversation, and community together in the heart of Red Wing.