Three Properties For Which I'd Like to Choose Tenants

As I make my way through the South Lake Minnetonka area, I invariably see commercial properties turning over or being developed. It is hard not to wonder what types of businesses would do well in those vacant storefronts. So here, with absolutely no bearing on what will actually happen to these buildings, is what I would do if I could snap my fingers and fill the storefronts:


1. Excelsior, corner of 3rd and Water (old Color Center building): The shop that moved in for just a few months has relocated across the street, leaving this building empty. I'm not sure what drove this decision, but I have an idea for how to refill the building. This location would make the perfect D'Amico and Sons Deli. I love that I can get fine Italian, Sushi, and an Irish entree with a pint in Excelsior, but I need more takeout options. 318 does a splendid job, but I find myself picking up food in Chan or Minnetonka when I'm in the mood for something different. A D'Amico in town would mean I bring more of that business back to Excelsior. (Author's note: I would also be able to snap my fingers and solve the parking ratio issue that could make this type of occupancy difficult under current rules).


2. Shorewood, strip mall along Hwy 7 near Holiday (former Minnetonka Outdoors): The operators of the well-run fishing store that used to inhabit this location were excellent. I just think that the location wasn't right for fishermen. If you think about it, there was no boat launch onto Minnetonka in the area, so they had to mainly rely on locals for all the business. They were onto something, however: Sports. Just change the focus from fishing to more of a sporting goods store -- running shoes, soccer gear, workout gear, hockey and baseball equipment, and you'd have good traffic. Right now, to buy a pair of non-Target workout shorts, I have to go to a mall. I'd rather keep that business in Shorewood. With the number of school-aged atheletes in the immediate area, and how active the area people tend to be, I think it would do well.



3. Deephaven, that brand new building going up at Chowen's Corner (the hard curve on Minnetonka Blvd): This one seems like a no-brainer -- the highly successful and always packed Beanhaven Cafe, in need of about 30 more seats, could be relocated just down the street and use the first floor of this new building. It would be the same neighborhood, so nobody would be put off when they realized their favorite breakfast joint had moved, because it would have only moved 1/2 a block. Some would argue that the smallish nature of the current cafe adds to its ambience. I say it would still have great, independent, single-proprieter ambience if it had 30 more seats.

A new foodie site

A local site worth checking out is www.minnetonkadines.com. It links to the menus of several local restaurants, in addition to the Edible Express, a source for food delivery from places such as Big Bowl (a personal favorite).

MinnetonkaDines is a directory that is not directly affiliated with any of the restaurants it covers, to our knowledge. Check it out.

Best Breakfasts on the South Shore

Lake Minnetonka has several excellent breakfast spots surrounding it, but unfortunately for us on the South Shore they tend to be clustered in Wayzata. Sunsets and the Original Pancake House, just to name two, are reliable and high quality places that are sometimes worth the drive.

But for those of us who prefer to keep our business closer to home, there are a couple smallish breakfast places that have every bit the quality of our neighbors to the north. Here is the South Lake Tonka Blog's first ever breakfast joint honor roll:

1. Beanhaven Cafe, Minnetonka Blvd, Deephaven. This small eatery at near Chowen's Corner offers a creative breakfast menu with high quality food every time. The speciality seems to be omelettes (there are many to choose from) and other egg dishes, but you won't go wrong with something as simple as french toast. If the place has a downfall, it is the limited seating capacity -- there is room for 30-35 max and it is not oncommon to have quite a wait for a table. However, as with many neighborhood places, the small size is also what gives it its charm.

2. 318 Cafe, Water Street, Excelsior. In what was voted the Best Neighborhood Eatery in a recent Twin Cities publication, 318 continues to create tasty and unique dishes for all three meals. Breakfasts are excellent, with high quality and a step-up in thoughtfulness from your basic pancake and sausage menu. The scrambled egg sandwich and breakfast burrito are personal favorites. This author also believes they serve the best coffee in the area. They open a little late for early risers -- 8am Mon-Sat and 11am Sun -- but if that suits your schedule you won't be disappointed in the food.

Both are excellent choices!

While Beanhaven and 318 are the only two that make our honor roll as true breakfast places, there are a few places that serve good Sunday breakfast or brunch. Hazellewood Grill on Hwy 19 in Tonka Bay and Maynard's on Minnetonka Blvd. in Excelsior are both worth a Sunday try. Additionally, the Cottagewood General Store serves excellent cinnamon rolls on summer weekends, but can't be classified as a true breakfast place.

For those who prefer an economical if not exciting breakfast, Hilltop Restaurant just off Hwy 7 in Excelsior offers quick, basic, and cheap eats in the morning. In the same category is Perkins in nearby Chanhassen. These places are nowhere near the two that made our honor roll in terms of food quality, but will provide your breakfast fix in a pinch.

The bottom line? Beanhaven and 318 are excellent neighborhood places, but one has to believe there is also room for another choice in the South Lake area without taking business away from the established eateries. It might be a new entrant, or it might be a place like Hazellewood expanding their hours to become a daily breakfast place.

Excelsior: Destination or Community? (editorial)

Let me take a moment to editorialize. I try to keep the information on this blog very balanced and factual, but on occasion I like to interject some opinion, always trying to give you fair warning for when I do so.

With the recent proposal to redevelop the Port of Excelsior and another block in downtown, I'm hearing a mantra that has also been used several times in past years when discussing the vision of Excelsior. That mantra is usually something along the lines of "Excelsior can become a premier destination" in the metro area or the Lake Minnetonka area.

If I could change just one word in that phrase, I would then be able to embrace the mantra wholeheartedly. I'd like to change the word "destination" to "community".

I'm not entirely sure that Excelsior needs to prove itself as a destination. Lake Minnetonka is a natural resource that sells itself. It is rare to have a downtown and public area on a 14,000 acre lake so close to a major city. Places like Excelsior and Wayzata, and to a lesser extent Mound, are able to take advantage of prime placement on one of the largest lakes in the state. Excelsior gets a healthy amount of traffic, and one could describe it as vibrant during most business days, weekend evenings, and summer festivals.

Where Excelsior needs to improve, in my opinion, is not in becoming more of a destination, but in becoming a more livable community. We can buy antiques in Excelsior, but we can't buy meat or fresh vegetables. I can buy artwork to my heart's desire, but I can't find a high quality sandwich to-go from a good deli. We have 7 places to have a beer and 2 more to buy offsale, but we have to venture out on a state highway to find cough syrup. I'm all for new development: Development that will make Excelsior a great place to live, 365 days a year.

This is not to discredit the businesses who have set up shop on Water Street. I want any business in town to thrive. If the free markets suggest that Excelsior should supply the nightlife for the Western suburbs, or become the premier concentration of art for the area, I won't stand in the way.

This is just to say that while becoming a "destination" and a livable "community" might share some commonalities, such as good neighborhood nightlife options, the two ideas diverge at some point. We have biking trails, a beautiful lakefront park, 2 coffeeshops, a movie theater, schools and churches that serve the community. What comes next? More bars, nightlife, and a hotel? Or a market, a drug store, and a gourmet deli supported by a critical mass of tasteful residential development like the Promenade?

My vote is for the latter. Yours?

South Tonka Restaurant Scene, revisited

Last month, on this very blog, I commented on how the restaurant scene in the area seemed very healthy. There were plenty of new establishments in the area, and by my layperson's standards they all seemed to be doing OK.

Then I drove by Big Buck's Roadhouse, or at least what used to be Big Buck's Roadhouse. My first thought was that I jinxed them. I wrote that I had been hearing good things about them, and then they promptly went out of business. But then I realized that they had seemingly changed restaurants overnight... you see, they are already open again with the name of Prima Minnetonka. When a business closes, goes through the process of liquidation, the landlord finds a new tenant, they renovate the building, and then open, it is certainly not an overnight affair.

To make a long story short, Big Buck's Roadhouse "changed" to a new Italian-themed restaurant. It is operated by the same owners, who also operate Three Fish and Prima Minneapolis, two establishments that seem to be standing the test of time. One can only speculate that with Maynards, Fletchers, and Haskells already in the area, and the standard suburban Applebee/Houlihan/Timber Lodge genre along the Hwy 5 corridor, there wasn't room for another bar and grill in the area.

Prima Minnetonka looks like it will fill a niche between Joey Nova and Biella. The menu looks a bit Macaroni Grill-ish, which I think could do pretty well in the area.

http://www.primamn.com/menus.php

South Lake Minnetonka Restaurant Scene: Healthy from a layman's perspective

When you look at the South Lake Minnetonka business climate, a sector that seems to be doing well is the restaurant industry. Just to let you know how un-qualified I am to comment on this, I am purely an observer / customer like most of you. I don't know alot about the innards of the restaurant industry, nor do I have access to any financials of local eateries.

According to The Ohio State University, the failure rate for independent restaurants after 3 years is 57%, and for franchises is 61%. That tells me that the odds are slightly against any restaurant who tries to make a go of it. And I would assume that you can look at how busy an establishment is, and assuming that more customers and a packed house are generally good, anecdotally estimate how a place is doing. I of course don't know the operating costs and other profit / loss factors, but I'm just assuming that busy = good.

That brings me to the South Lake restaurant scene. This is very unscientific and I will undoubtedly leave some good restaurants out, but I see the following restaurants that have opened in the past few years:
- Jake O'Connor's -- appears to be busy, was really packing them in during the winter
- Hazellewood Tap and Grille - has been busy most times I've been there, appears to have captured the neighborhood crowd
- Joey Nova's - seems to be a great addition to the area at its price point, not always packed but appears to do a robust takeout and delivery business
- Biella - for how pricey it is, I've been impressed with how full it seems to be. Can't argue with the food creativity and quality -- top notch.
- Big Bucks Roadhouse - haven't personally been there, but have heard good things
- 318 Cafe - not a new restaurant, but new ownership in recent years. There are always people in there, and getting named Best Neighborhood Eatery by Twin Cities Magazine was quite an honor

Then you have the ones that have left the area recently, which by my count are:
- Pizza Hut - A victim of (eventual) redevelopment, and not a huge loss
- Lakeshore Deli - Another victim of the same redevelopment, and I'd love to see them open up again. Very underrated place for a sandwich.
- Sidney's - Getting a little ways away from Lake Minnetonka, but I'm guessing lots of Deephaven / Greenwood / Excelsior / Tonka Bay / Shorewooders frequented it. By all accounts I've heard, it was more a factor of legal problems than lack of business, but that is all I know.

Of course, we don't want to slight the old standbys that seem to be doing just fine, like Maynards, Snuffys, and Beanhaven. But this post is more about which places have come and gone recently.

In a nutshell, I see a score of 6-3: 6 recent successes vs. 3 closures, and 2 of those were due to real estate redevelopment. Overall, I think there is a pretty healthy restaurant scene in the area.

I'm interested in readers thoughts on what else we need in the area. I have my running list of places that I think would do very well in Deephaven, Excelsior, Shorewood, or Tonka Bay -- I think they would be popular from the moment they opened their doors:
1. A good breakfast place. Sorry Hilltop, but I'd like to see an Original Pancake style place move in nearby. I think they would thrive. Beanhaven has great quality breakfasts, but is small and can fill up in an instant.
2. A good D'Amico-style deli. Rumor has it that a deli might open that would be run by and affiliated with Jake O'Connor's. Lets only hope. They seem to be a good restaurant and would probably do a nice job with a deli.
3. A comfort-food place like the Edina Grill or Highland Park Grill. I think they would pack them in. The niche would be a slight step down in cost and class from a Hazellewood but a step up from my envisioned D'Amico.

For the record, I'm not only endorsing the aforementioned chains expanding to our area. I'd love for an independent, unique place to open up as well. I list the chain examples above since people are familiar with them and can picture them easily.

Other thoughts? What other types of places do you think our area would support? I realize that in the case of Excelsior, parking is a limiting factor, but lets save that divisive topic for another post.