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