Finance + Legal Services

First Western Bank & Trust

Eden Prairie’s Commercial and Industrial Lender Article by David Scheller Vision. Ambition. Drive. A crackerjack of an idea for a new or expanded business. If you have these, then you need just one more thing before you can start changing the world for the better (especially whichever parts of it you happen to occupy). Capital “Commercial and industrial lending has been one of our bank’s main focuses since its foundation 61 years ago,” said David Thompson, market president of First Western...

May 2025

Entertainment

Grease

Now Playing at Chanhassen Dinner Theatres Article by David Scheller It’s been a long time since greasers ruled the earth as its coolest cats. Ask kids to identify James Dean nowadays and they’ll tell you he was breakfast sausage. And yet Grease lives eternal, because it’s about so much more than greasers goosing screamers down the LA River and the beautiful women who love them. It’s about friendship. Rebellion. Finding your identity within the unrelenting pressures of society. It’s also...

May 2025

Home Services

Clear Shores

Eco-Friendly Underwater Weeding and More Article by David Scheller The lake. Your lake. That flat placid sapphire all life revolves around. What a blessing it is, to live by it. But you’re not the only one who wants to be near the water. Your lakefront is under constant invasion by an untiring menace: botanical interlopers, which would reduce any private beach to virgin wilderness in a matter of months. And it only gets worse, because the foliaged vandals aren’t all terrestrial. I’m...

May 2025

Life + Culture

Pet Evolution of Eden Prairie

Foods Just as Special as They Are Article by David Scheller You have enthusiastically volunteered to look after the world’s biggest and most lovable goofball: a creature so pure of heart that they have precisely zero clue how to take care of themself, and who does unpleasant things (and racks up the same kind of bills) when they’re ill. I’m not talking about your spouse. I am talking about your dog – and your cat, too, if you have one – whose well-being is well worth popping by Pet...

May 2025

Home Services

Access Design + Build

Accessible, Adaptive, and Universal Design Article by David Scheller When it comes to reinventing your home, settle for nothing less than the best. In the Twin Cities, that’s Access Design + Build, whose founder and principal designer Jeannine Burnett takes the methodical approach to all things remodeling! Down to the Smallest Detail The bigger picture. The finer details. Jeannine keeps full sight of both and everything in between. “Adding more livable square footage? Your two major options...

May 2025

Style + Beauty

UNRL

The Threads of Success Article by David Scheller Look at these photos of people who are just as attractive as the average Eden Prairie Lifestyle reader. See what they’re wearing? It’s called “athleisure.” Perfect for breaking a sweat in. Equally perfect for not breaking a sweat in. Can therefore be worn at all times. Genius. But athleisure is so much more than the preferred attire of 21st century humans. As the specialty of UNRL – a local independent clothing brand founded in 2013 by a...

May 2025

Life + Culture

Eden Prairie Police Department

Crime Doesn’t Pay (Unless You’re Preventing It) Article by David Scheller Eden Prairie is a wonderful place where nothing bad ever happens … most of the time. But on those rare occasions when reality here falls short of ideal, you can rest assured a true defender of the peace is close at hand. That’s because Eden Prairie is home to the Eden Prairie Police Department! There are 75 sworn officers – plus 35 other civilian staff, and upward of 40 volunteers – led by Chief Matt Sackett, who served...

May 2025

Life + Culture

CHOICE, Inc.

Enriching the Lives of People With Intellectual Disabilities Article by David Scheller “In 1969, there simply weren’t enough programs to meet the needs of people with intellectual disabilities. That’s why our organization was formed,” recounted Michael Kraines, executive director of CHOICE, Inc. “Naturally, it started out small: a handful of volunteers, nine or so children with intellectual disabilities, and a church basement somewhere in Excelsior. “Education. Recreation. Friendship. Speech...

May 2025

Life + Culture

Roy Terwilliger

Give Yourself to Eden Prairie Article and Photography by Born just east of the middle of nowhere in South Dakota. Bachelor’s in business admin. Master’s in public administration. First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Led the South Dakota Chamber of Commerce and South Dakota Bankers Association. Worked for the American Bankers Association in New York City and Washington, D.C. Organized Suburban National Bank, Eden Prairie’s first bank, at the newly built Eden Prairie Center in 1976. Helped...

May 2025

Food + Beverage

Kevin's Italian Bistro

Article by David Scheller All our food: pizza, calzone, buffalo moozarell', olive oil. These [can’t print that word in a family magazine] had nothin'. They ate pootsie before we gave them the gift of our cuisine. – Paulie 'Walnuts' Gualtieri I’ve meditated in the innermost sanctums of Fanjingshan. I once witnessed a meteor shower crackle apart into cosmic ash behind the diaphanous dazzle of aurora borealis – during a lunar eclipse. I’ve even hung out with jazz musicians. But no matter how...

May 2025