Every bachelorette group in Minneapolis eventually asks the same question: where do we go that is not the same rooftop bar everyone else’s group went to? Here is an answer with stone lions at the gate. The Pillsbury Club is a private, members-style club inside the Charles S. Pillsbury Mansion, a 1916 English-style house in the Whittier neighborhood, and it happens to be the departure point for the city’s most bachelorette-friendly trolley. Reservations are required, the drinks are good, and nobody will have the same photos as you. Here is how to plan the night.

Start at the bar in the mansion

A speakeasy-style room under centuries-old oak

The Club’s bar is a dim, wood-panelled, speakeasy-style room in a house whose imported English interiors are older than the United States. That contrast is the whole joke, and the menu leans into it: the dining page lists handcrafted cocktails alongside Minnesota beers like Grain Belt and Surly Furious, wine by the glass, Onward THC seltzers for the friend who does not drink, and a run of unapologetic State Fair food, from cheese curds and pretzel bites to smashburgers and funnel-cake fries. Order for the table. The earlier post on what you can eat and drink at the Pillsbury Club goes through the menu item by item.

Book the Emerald Suite if you want the room to yourselves

Groups of up to ten can reserve the Emerald Suite, a private second-floor club room with lounge seating and rich finishes that the Club describes as a secluded setting for “relaxing, socializing, or celebrating a special occasion.” For a bachelorette party that means a door that closes: gifts, games and the embarrassing slideshow happen in a mansion sitting room rather than a corner of a crowded bar. It is booked online through the Club Rooms page, and if your group is larger than ten, ask about other rooms when you reserve. There is more on how the suite works in where to book a private room for a small group in Minneapolis.

Then board the trolley: Thunder Down Under

This is the part your group will talk about for years. Thunder Down Under is a 21-and-over trolley ride that combines an interactive trivia game with a live male entertainer: every correct answer from your group brings him one layer closer to the finish, and the trolley rolls through the city while it happens. It is loud, silly and, in the words of its own page, “totally naughty,” which is precisely what a bachelorette party is for. Tickets start at $45, there are only a couple of public dates, and the whole trolley can be booked privately for your own celebration. It departs from the Pillsbury Club’s front door, so the walk from the bar to your seat is a few steps.

If that is a little much for the bride’s grandmother, two tamer trolleys leave from the same door. The Murder Mystery Trolley has the group solve clues and crack a case together, which is built for parties, and the Candlelight Ghost Tour visits the city’s most haunted addresses by candlelight, with a drink at the mansion bar before you board. All of the Club’s experiences and the trolleys that depart from it are listed on the Experiences & Tours page.

The practical part: reservations, parking, photos

Three things to know before you send the group text. First, the Club is private and reservations are required in advance; make them on the reservations page, and read the plan-your-visit page for hours and arrival times, because trolley guests are asked to arrive well before departure. Second, parking is complimentary, with a designated lot across the street and rideshare drop-off at the front entrance, so the designated driver question can be settled by not having one; the post on how to get to the Pillsbury Club and where to park has the details. Third, casual photos inside are welcome, but a staged shoot with a photographer needs to be arranged in advance; see can you take photos inside the Pillsbury Club. The stone lions out front make an excellent group-photo backdrop.

Where to sleep afterward

Keep the mansion theme going. 300 Clifton, the Eugene J. Carpenter Mansion bed and breakfast in Loring Park, has a garden hot tub, a speakeasy-style lounge of its own and eight room types, and its guests receive a $20 Pillsbury Club dining voucher per stay when they book direct; its own girls’ weekend guide is worth a read. For a group that wants separate studios with kitchens in the middle of downtown, Oakland’s on 9th is an 1889 brownstone a short ride north. Either way, you are a few minutes from the Club, and the trolley will bring you back to its door at the end of the night.

A little history, for the toast

You are celebrating in a house that hosted its own share of weddings and dances a century ago, and whose oak rooms were shipped across the Atlantic from an English country house. If someone in the group wants the full story for the toast, the History Journal has it, from the family to the fireplaces. The Minneapolis Institute of Art is across the park if the morning-after group wants something quieter.

Reserve the night

Pick your date, decide how naughty the trolley should be, and reserve your table or the Emerald Suite before the rest of the group changes its mind again. The lions will be waiting.

Keep reading: Where Can You Do a Murder Mystery Night in Minneapolis? A 1920s Cocktail Party at the Pillsbury Club That Ends in a Crime