"This park is not about Dave nor I," Barb Skogen told a La Crosse Tribune reporter back when the whole project was still four purchase agreements and a demolition permit. She and her husband Dave, the couple behind Festival Foods, had just agreed to buy out four properties on Second Avenue South in downtown Onalaska. They could have called the result Skogen Park. They didn't.
Today, the corner of Second Avenue and Main Street has a park and nearby businesses. If you've grabbed a smoothie bowl at NOM, let your kids loose on the new splash pad, or wondered who "David Reay" was on your way into dinner, you've been standing on land bought by a family that chose not to put its name on the park. Eight years later, the corner is still changing.
Four Buildings, One Block, One Family
Before any of this existed, the block between Main and Irvin streets was, in the Skogens' own description, a somewhat blighted stretch. One lot had sat vacant since a restaurant fire in 2003. The old Scoreboard Bar building was still standing but headed for demolition. Apefish & Co. Salvage & Resale occupied 214 Main Street, and the Tapestry store, long known locally as the Sias Building, sat at 200 Main.
Dave and Barb Skogen bought all four properties. The project, they estimated at the time, would run about $2.5 million once land, demolition, construction, and landscaping were added up. For a couple whose grandparents had lived on that same block, it wasn't an investment property play. It was, as Dave Skogen told the La Crosse Tribune, the most excited he'd been about a project since the Skogens opened their first Festival Foods store in Onalaska in 1990.
Why It's Called Dash Park, Not Skogen Park
The name came from a poem, not a family tree. Linda Ellis wrote "The Dash," a piece about the short line on a headstone between a birth year and a death year, and about what a person actually does with that dash. The Skogens leaned into it. When the park opened in 2018, Ellis herself read the poem at the ribbon cutting, alongside remarks from Mayor Joe Chilsen and Matt Boshcka, who would go on to run the restaurant next door.
"Barb and I both prefer to not include the Skogen name as part of the naming," Dave Skogen said in the La Crosse Tribune at the time.
The choice not to use the family name is clear in the park's title: Dash Park honors a poem rather than the family.
The Restaurant Named After a Doctor
Other businesses eventually arrived, though it took a while. David Reay's Modern Diner and Tavern didn't open next to Dash Park until 2024, six years after the park itself. It's run by Matt Boshcka, who also operates La Crosse's Dublin Square and Burger Fusion, and its menu includes pies from AddieCakes and ice cream from The Pearl.
The name is the part most people ask about. David Reay was the Onalaska doctor who delivered Dave Skogen in 1942. Skogen has said he'd been called "David Reay" for most of his life as a kind of nickname, so when it came time to name the restaurant across from the park he'd built, he handed the honor to the man who delivered him instead of putting his own name on the door a second time.
That's twice now. The park skipped the family name for a poem. The restaurant skipped it for a doctor. The pattern is the point.
What Filled In Around It
Once the park and the diner were in place, the rest of the corner started filling in without the Skogens having to buy anything else. Across the street, the city finished Great River Landing, a trailhead that connects to the Great River State Trail and gives Onalaska a hub for biking, running, and paddling along the Black River. The city worked with the Mississippi Valley Conservancy for close to two decades to get the landing built, and once it opened, it gave the block across the street a reason to exist beyond foot traffic from downtown.
NOM Sips & Eats picked one of those Irvin Street storefronts, right next to the trailhead. Its patio sits with a direct view of the Black River, seating both inside and out, close enough that people finishing a trail run can walk straight in for a smoothie bowl. By June 2026, NOM had grown to three locations in the immediate area, a milestone the owners marked with a grand opening that doubled as a two year anniversary celebration for the brand's arrival in the region.
And at 214 Main Street, the exact address that used to house Apefish & Co. Salvage & Resale, one of the four original Skogen purchases, there's now Big Lady, serving American fare on a street that used to have a salvage shop where a restaurant now stands.
Here's the corner's timeline in one place:
| Year | What Happened |
|---|---|
| 2003 | A restaurant on the block burns and the lot sits vacant |
| 2018 | Dash Park opens on land bought from four Second Avenue property owners |
| 2021 | Mayor Joe Chilsen described the corner's redevelopment as "just beginning" in WXOW |
| 2024 | David Reay's Modern Diner and Tavern opens next to the park |
| Spring 2026 | NOM Sips & Eats opens a location on Irvin Street, patio overlooking the Black River |
| June 2026 | Dash Park finishes a year-long expansion with a splash pad, shelter, and restrooms |
| June 2026 | NOM marks two years in the region with its third area location |
Eight Years Later, the Splash Pad
The most recent addition took the longest to plan and the least time to get used. Dash Park's expansion, a splash pad, a large covered shelter, and modern restrooms, wrapped up after a year of construction with a ribbon cutting in June 2026. Dave Skogen was there for that one too, saying it felt right to add something families had clearly been waiting for.
The city isn't treating the splash pad as the finish line. Officials have talked about turning the space into a year-round gathering spot, including winter markets, once the warm-weather crowd moves indoors. Given how long it took the diner to show up after the original park opened, that timeline is probably measured in years rather than months. But the pattern so far suggests the city and the Skogens are willing to wait.
What This Means If You Already Live Here
None of this required a new subdivision or a big-box anchor tenant. One family bought four properties on the block. Dash Park took its name from a poem, David Reay's Modern Diner and Tavern from a doctor, and businesses arrived on the corner over time, one address at a time.
If you're already in Onalaska, the practical version of all this is simple. Second and Main is now a place where you can let kids run through a splash pad, grab food with a river view, and pick up the Great River State Trail without moving your car. It didn't happen overnight, and it didn't happen because anyone planned a "restaurant row." That gradual change is part of what makes the corner useful to residents.
If you're curious about how neighborhoods like this one are shaping up around Onalaska, or just want to talk about what's happening on your own block, Jake Ramey is always glad to connect.
