About Us

Classic, interesting and creative but not trendy.

Our vision at The Good Wives is to serve food that is thoughtful, intentional and delicious. This means we make most everything from scratch, from the herb aioli you’re dipping your French fries in, to the sausages we serve for brunch. The chefs are hand-making pasta, picking herbs grown at local farms and saving vegetable scraps for stock. We don’t waste a thing and take pride in our tiny little freezer because all our food is fresh. We keep a small wine list because we like to change things up. After all, this is where we spend the majority of our time, where we also eat and drink so we like to change the menu, change the wine and keep things interesting.

You’ll notice when you dine at The Good Wives that your food will not be out in 15 minutes. We aren’t throwing a bag into a microwave (we don’t even have one) and making your food hot, we’re butter basting your chicken from raw and making a dish from start to finish. This takes a little time but we believe good things do.

We are two people who had a vision for something real and good so please keep in mind when you dine at The Good Wives there is no corporation behind us, no investors, just two people trying to make a living (along with our staff) and make a space that you can enjoy yourselves in!

Cheers!

E&E

LEAD STAFF

Ella Wesenberg
Owner / Executive Chef

Emily Rieck
Owner / Front of House

RECENT PRESS

Volume One

Leader Telegram

Visit Eau Claire

Credits

Credits ⋆

Mark Wesenberg

Ella’s dad contributed his knowledge, expertise, time and labor to this project. He taught us how to drywall, tile, hang trim, and basically everything carpentry. We are so grateful to have learned from him.

Molly May McMahan

Molly is Ema’s BFF/internet wizard and hustles her own design house called SIX PEAKS. She created our logo, developed our page, menu templates and all that stuff that makes us cry. Check out their ceramic biz too whydon’tcha?

@niceniceceramics

Ross Nordquist

Ross built our bar. More specifically he sourced the wood, crafted it, carved it and made it with his bare hands.

@ross_ko_woodworks

Aidan Kraus

Did you see that rad mural on the back wall? Aidan did that.

@mount.whateverest

Sean & Erikka Curran

These two gave us their brains and we’re not giving them back. Contributing their stellar knowledge of wine, classic service techniques and all things front of house. Next time you’re in Minneapolis check out their new wine shop Violet Wines.

@violetwinempls

Nancy Wesenberg

Those from-scratch delicious desserts are made in- house by Ella’s mom, Nancy Wesenberg. She keeps it fresh and interesting by offering various and unique desserts that will make you want to save room! We love you Nanc!