Road Tips

Max's On The Green - Spicer, MN

Traveling through the Spicer/New London area of west central Minnesota not long ago, I wanted to get something to eat at the Goat Ridge Brewing Company in New London.  However, I found that their kitchen wasn't open that evening.  I remembered that there was a restaurant - the Little Crow Tavern - at the Little Crow Golf Resort located between New London and Spicer that my wife and I talked about going to when we were vacationing in the area a couple three years ago, but never did.  I decided to head out there for a bite to eat.  However, from the time when we were originally here and when I pulled into the parking lot, the restaurant had gone through a change in management.  It is now called Max's on the Green.  It wasn't a deal breaker and I went in to check the place out.

The Little Crow Golf Club originally opened in 1969, but in 2017 the golf club was bought by investors who did major renovations to the course, tore down and built a new club house/restaurant/bar, and added a GrandStay hotel and resort along with a small reception/conference center.   The new restaurant - Little Crow Tavern and Grill - opened in the spring of 2018, while the hotel and conference center opened in July of that year.  

After the golf season was over in 2019, Little Crow Tavern shut down and during the winter the facility searched for new management to run the restaurant/bar.  And they found a couple who had experience in running a restaurant - Corey and Traci Buchtel.  

The Buchtels had been involved with running the Sheep Shedde Inn - a small boutique hotel in Olivia, MN about 35 miles south of Spicer - along with an attached restaurant/bar called Max's Grill for nearly 20 years.  They jumped at the opportunity to take over the restaurant at Little Crow Golf Resort.  The Buchtels took over the space and decided to change the name to Max's on the Green to give some continuity to their restaurant in Olivia.  

The pandemic pushed back the official opening of Max's on the Green until June of 2020 when they were finally able to open with restrictions with patio only seating.  Full in-house dining began later in the year.  And whereas the Little Crow Tavern was a seasonal restaurant, Max's on the Green is open year-round.   

It was about 6:30 when I pulled into the complex that houses Max's on the Green.  (see map)  The clubhouse and restaurant are located on the back side of the hotel and I found a parking spot in front of the door to the restaurant.  

The outdoor patio was rather large consisting of all-weather furnishings and great views of the golf course.  It was a tad cool the evening I was there and there were only a handful of people seated on the patio having dinner and/or drinks.  

Max's on the Green features live music on the patio during the summer months.  I figured this had to be a hopping spot during the summertime.  The patio was very nice.  

This is the view of the golf course looking toward the west from the patio.  The putting green is in the foreground with fairways in the background.  The golf course features three 9-hole courses with a lot of water hazards throughout.  If I played golf - I gave it up years ago because I sucked at it - I would have loved to play this course just for the beauty of it alone.  

Inside the restaurant, there's a combination bar/dining area.  Doors on the side take you into a large reception hall that is used for events and meetings.  The dining area was about half filled with people when I got in there.

I contemplated taking a table in the dining room, but decided to sit at the bar.  I was greeted by Traci Buchtel who was the bartender that evening.  She gave me a menu after I sat down.  I ordered up a Kona Big Wave Golden Ale as I immediately noticed the familiar spigot when I sat down at the bar.  

The food choices were fairly basis at Max's on the Green.  They did feature steaks, ribs, jumbo fried shrimp, grilled salmon, and a grilled chicken breast topped with smoked ham, provolone cheese and a pineapple ring served on a bed of wild rice for their main entrees.  They had a number of appetizers - the usual fare such as nachos, chicken wings, and cheese curds.  Max's on the Green also featured burgers, sandwiches, flat breads and a number of salads to choose from.  Interestingly, they also featured three different variations of bratwurst including the Philly brat that was topped with Swiss cheese, onions and peppers.  That sounded quite good, but I knew the onions and peppers would be talking back at me later that evening.  

Max's on the Green also features a special off menu item each day.  That evening they had beef enchiladas with rice for the special.  I didn't even consider that as I continued through the menu.  

Honestly, I really didn't know what to get that evening.  Sandwiches such as the Classic Pastrami and the pulled pork on a hoagie sounded good.  I knew I didn't want a steak, and the BLTA (bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado) caught my eye, but we had our own BBLTA's (basil, bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado) at home over the previous weekend.  

I was beginning to run out of options and I had it down to two different burgers - the Big Max, their signature burger topped with cheddar cheese, sautéed mushrooms and bacon; or the Frisco burger served on sourdough bread topped with Swiss cheese, bacon and mayonnaise.  I ended up getting the Frisco burger, only I asked Traci if I could get sautéed mushrooms on the burger.  She said it was no problem.

I had a choice of fries, kettle chips or steamed veggies with the burger.  For a slight uncharge, I had a choice of either onion rings or a side salad.  I asked Traci if they made the onion rings in house from scratch or if they got them from a food purveyor.  She sort of hesitated for a moment and said, "Yeah, we get them from a food service company.  They're all right."  She didn't sound too convincing in her voice, so I ended up getting the fries instead.  

The burger was on two toasted slices of sourdough bread.  It was a thick beef patty cooked medium with a hint of red in the meat.  The mayo, Swiss cheese, bacon and mushrooms were prominent on the burger that was served cut in half.  

The Frisco burger was actually very good.  I like a good sourdough bread burger from time to time and this was a spot-hitter for me.  The combination of the toppings didn't mask the bold taste of the beef and actually helped enhance the overall taste.  The fries were all right, but I concentrated more on the burger having only a few fries along the way.    

Max's on the Green was fine for what it is.  The menu is basic, the atmosphere of the dining/bar area is laid back, and it's tough to beat the views of the golf course from the patio behind the restaurant.  The owner Traci did a fine job of making sure that I had a full beer glass when I needed it, and the Frisco burger on sourdough bread was very good.  For a golf course restaurant, I'd call it average compared to some other golf course restaurants I've been to over the years.  But there's just something about the New London/Spicer area that makes Max's on the Green a little more appealing that the others. 

Middle Fork Cafe - New London, MN

During our vacation in the Spicer/New London area of West Central Minnesota, the manager at the hotel where we stayed completely oversold the breakfast they had when we checked into the place.  Since my wife has to have three square meals a day, we went out a couple mornings to find someplace to get something to start our day.  We had gone up to New London a couple days prior to check out the town (it was also somewhat oversold by the manager at the hotel), but we found a quaint little place on the main road through the downtown area called The Middle Fork Cafe.  We decided to head there for breakfast one morning.  

Cousins Cindy Finsaas and Suzanne Ziebarth are the owners of The Middle Fork Cafe which is named for the river that runs directly behind the restaurant - the Middle Fork of the Crow River.  The cafe is just downstream from the Mill Pond Dam which helps make a series of connected lakes that meander through the heart of New London.   

Finsaas is the only one of the two who had any previous restaurant experience as she was the original owner of Lulu Beans Coffee Shop in Willmar.  After selling the place in 2006, she was out of the restaurant industry for awhile before she decided it was time to do something.  Suzanne Ziebarth had been out of the country as a missionary for 16 years before moving back to Willmar about 8 years ago.  The two shared a love for locally-raised, natural foods and they started to look into doing their own farm-to-fork restaurant.  

The two found a spot in New London, a small town about 15 miles north of Willmar.  They had the opportunity to take over Jan's Riverside Cafe in downtown New London and the cousins decided to take the plunge in the spring of 2013.  The cousins did a complete renovation of the space with help from friends and family.  Contractors were brought in when needed, but Finsaas and Ziebarth oversaw most of the work.

Pictured right - Cindy Finsaas and Suzanne Ziebarth.  Photo courtesy West Central Tribune.  

After the remodeling was finished, Middle Fork Cafe opened in September of 2013.  At first, the restaurant was just opened for breakfast and lunch six days a week (closed Sunday).  But within a couple of years they began to stay open for dinner Thursday thru Saturday nights.  

The success of the Middle Fork Cafe in New London prompted Finsaas and Ziebarth to open a second location in their hometown of Willmar in July of 2018.  They partnered with local used-book store owner Heather King of the Flyleaf Book Shop to share their space in Willmar.  

It was a bright and sunny morning when we pulled into New London and found parking just down from Middle Fork Cafe on Main Street.  (see map)   Right inside the door was a refrigerated case that contained cakes and baked goods.  The cakes on display were decorated in a very ornate fashion.  We enquired after breakfast about some of the cakes they had and one was a lemon-blueberry cake - they had me at lemon, but blueberries are a wonderful combination with any lemon flavor.  

The inside dining area was a quaint and cozy area which featured a number of heavy wood tables and chairs.  The table tops were made from repurposed and refinished barn boards.  The floor was made from raw wooden planks that were found abandoned in a wooded area, sanded and finished.  Banquette seating along the wall was backed by a soft foam covered in fabric.  

Because it was such a beautiful morning, my wife said she wanted to sit out on the patio.  The patio area had a handful of metal-wire tables and chairs underneath a pergola made from repurposed wood from an old barn.  A trellis lined the back wall that looked out toward the Middle Fork of the Crow River. 

A young man came out with a couple menus for us to look over.  I got a bloody mary and an espresso to start out, while my wife got a glass of orange juice.  

The menu had both breakfast and lunch items listed.  Breakfast is served until 11 a.m. daily and they have pretty much what you'd expect for breakfast items - omelets, pancakes, French toast, a breakfast burrito and a breakfast croissant.   Pastries, muffins and rolls are made in-house.  For lunch, they have a number of sandwiches, salads and wraps to choose from.  A handful of gluten free items are available, as well. Everything Middle Fork Cafe has on their menu is locally-sourced and made-from-scratch.  

They make a quiche each day and my wife asked our server what the flavor of the day was.  It was a spinach quiche and my wife ordered that.  A side of fruit came with the quiche and she also got sourdough toast with her breakfast.  The quiche was big and fluffy with a caramelized cheese topping.  My wife was happy with her order.

I wasn't really all that hungry, but we were going to be out exploring the area and I didn't know if we would be having lunch or not.  I went pretty basic - two eggs over easy with bacon and sourdough toast.   It was fine for what it was, but I thought it was a little expensive - $7 bucks for two eggs, two pieces of bacon and sourdough toast.  

But still, we thought Middle Fork Cafe was a nice place for a good basic breakfast.  It was a quaint little place with a nice patio area.  My wife liked her spinach quiche and my basic eggs-bacon-toast was fine.  I liked that they had both espresso and bloody mary's available.  My only regret is that we never went back to get a piece of the lemon-blueberry cake that is made in-house at Middle Fork Cafe.  It was a nice little place and we were both happy with our meals.  

 

 

Goat Ridge Brewing Co./Model Citizen - New London, MN

During our vacation in the Glacier Lakes region of West Central Minnesota earlier this summer, we found out that there was a brew pub in the small town of New London, the sister city to Spicer which were about five miles apart.  And upon visiting the brew pub, we found out that they had a farm-to-fork restaurant with locally sourced foods attached to the place.  The restaurant happened to be closed the first time we went to the brew pub, but we went back the next day to give it a try.   Here are two of the more memorable places we went to during our vacation - Goat Ridge Brewing Company and Model Citizen - the Restaurant.

Josh Reed grew up on his family's farm outside of Brooten, MN.  Learning about helping and maintaining the environment while working on the farm led Reed to study natural resource management at Western Washington University.  After college, he landed an environmental resource gig with the federal government that kept him the Pacific Northwest.  Reed loved the areas craft beers and in the mid-90's he started to brew his own beer at home, even raising some of the hops he would eventually use in his beers.

Reed married a young lady from Brooten by the name of Christa Otteson and the couple lived in the Seattle area for a handful of years, but had a hankering to move back to Minnesota at some point to raise a family.  After much conversation and planning, Reed and Otteson moved back to the Brooten area in 2010 and lived on a homestead that had been in Otteson's family for years.  The acreage sat on a glacial ridge they nicknamed Goat Ridge and it was there where Reed - who was working for a non-profit organization upon his return to Minnesota - started to grow hops that he would sell to various brewpubs around Minnesota.  But his dream was to one day have his own brewpub where he could share his beers with the public.  

Reed started working on a business plan and found that it was sort of difficult to come up with the proper paperwork for the plan.  Then fate intervened where at a gathering in Brooten, Reed met Kelly Asche, a community and economic development director whose wife also grew up in Brooten.  Reed and Asche found that they both had a love for homebrewing and when Reed told Asche that he was trying to come up with a business plan to one day present to the bank for a business loan, but he was having some difficulty with it.  Asche agreed to look at the business plan and after some tweaks here and there, he told Reed he could help with the financing in the venture with his community development contacts.  The two formed a partnership with Reed as the head brewer in the new project with Asche as his assistant brewer. 

After quitting his job at the non-profit in October of 2014, Reed found a building along the bank of the Middle Fork of the Crow River that ran through New London, MN.  It was an 1800 square foot building that had been a variety of businesses in the past including a car repair shop.   Reed, Asche and Otteson renovated the building using reclaimed barn boards and using repurposed furniture for tables and chairs.  With the brew tanks up and running in early 2015, Goat Ridge Brewing Co. opened their doors in April of that year.

The nano-brewery is located on Central Ave. W. in New London, just west of State Highway 9 that is the main north-south road through New London.  (see map)  Head-in parking is available on the street next to Goat Ridge, but a municipal lot is just across the street.  The bar is to the left as you come into the place.   We took a seat at the bar and a young lady greeted us.  We took a look at the beers they had to offer that day - Goat Ridge changes beers pretty regularly - and I ended up getting their Kolsch, a great summertime beer.  (Actually, I think a Kolsch is a good beer at any time of the year.)  My wife tried a couple of their beers in a sampler size - a New England IPA that was a little too fruity for her taste, but she ended up liking the Smash Mosaic, a forward hopped flavored IPA that was actually pretty good.  In fact, for my second beer I went with the Smash Mosaic.  And I thought it was a pretty good deal, too, as a 20 ounce pour of Goat Ridge's beers were $6 bucks.

Out back is a pretty good sized beer garden that featured picnic tables and Adirondack chairs that looked out onto the Middle Fork of the Crow River.  The water rushes past the beer garden coming from the Mill Pond Dam which holds water from the Middle Crow for some nice little connected lakes and ponds around the very picturesque town of New London.  At one end of the beer garden was a small stage for live music at Goat's Ridge.  I was somewhat amazed to see that they were going to have Chris Duarte - a very good blues guitarist who I've seen a handful of times in the past, primarily at Summerfest in Milwaukee - playing there.  Unfortunately, it was going to be on that Saturday night and we would be making our way back home when he was there.  But I was impressed that they could get talent like Chris Duarte to play there.  

There's an addition off to the side of the tap room and just behind the outdoor stage.   A small local political group was having a meeting in there when we were there that evening.  Later on, after they left, we saw a family in there playing one of the  board games that Goat Ridge keeps in or near the room.  It was kind of a whimsical space with mismatched chairs, old drapes and even an old church pew on which to sit.  

Directly behind the bar is the brew room.  Glistening brew tanks stood tall in the very clean facility.  The room had that sort of malty and hoppy fragrance to it.  

Seated at the bar, we were befriended by a young couple who had a lake home on Green Lake in Spicer, but their primary home was in Willmar, about 15 miles away.  They had sent their kids off to church camp and were having their own vacation at their lake home.  My wife recognized them from the night before when we were sitting out by the dock at Zorbaz in Spicer and they pulled up in their pontoon boat.  My wife made small talk with them as they were leaving later on - I don't remember because I was on my 4th mai tai at that point.  But the woman told us, "We had just pulled out of the dock at Zorbaz and I told him (her husband), 'You know, those people look like they would be fun on a boat ride.'  We came back to see if you wanted a boat ride, but you were already walking away."  I told her that it was probably a good idea that we didn't go on the boat ride as I was pretty popped from all the mai tais I had.  They were really fun to talk to and gave us some good recommendations on places to go and do and see - as well as some other bars and restaurants - in the area

They had actually come in to have dinner that night at Model Citizen, the farm-to-fork restaurant attached to Goat Ridge Brewing Co.  We had looked the place up on line before we got up there and the web site said they would be closed that evening as they were extending some days off after the Fourth of July holiday.  But Model Citizen was open the next day and we went there for a late lunch/early dinner.

Josh Reed wanted to expand his taproom and possibly put in a restaurant.  But he didn't have any experience running a restaurant, nor did his wife.  At the same time, it turned out that a couple of young chefs in the Twin Cities, Mateo Mackbee and Erin Lucas, were looking for a change of scenery, a more simpler way of making food rather than the high-end cuisine they had been involved with for years.  Once again, it was divine intervention - this time helped out by a man of the cloth from the New London area - that brought Reed and Otteson together with Mackbee and Lucas.  

Mateo Mackbee had a long resume of working as a chef for some of the finest restaurants in the Twin Cities.  Erin Lucas was a Culinary Institute of America-trained pastry chef who met Mackbee when they were both working at Mozza Mia, an upscale wood-fired pizza place in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina.  Lucas and Mackbee both liked to prepare and eat naturally-raised foods and they harbored a dream of one day owning their own small place that made and served locally grown foods to patrons, while also teaching young teens the ins-and-outs of a farm-to-fork restaurant.   A chef with Mackbee's background usually finds someone who likes what he does and backs him in a restaurant.  But that wasn't happening with him - Mackbee was a black man in the culinary world of predominantly white males.  

It was one evening when Mackbee was sitting at a bar in the Twin Cities when a man came in and sat down next to him.  It turned out that the man was a Lutheran minister - Pastor Mark Kopka from the Nordland Lutheran Church which is located between Paynesville, MN and Spicer, MN, not far from New London.  Mackbee and Kopka talked at length that evening about their hopes and dreams.  Kopka and Mackbee kept in touch with one another over the next four years and it was Pastor Kopka who became the intermediary in getting Mackbee and Lucas in touch with Josh Reed.  

Pictured at right - Josh Reed, Erin Lucas and Mateo Mackbee.  Photo courtesy West Central Tribune.

Pastor Kopka knew that Reed wanted to expand and add a space for a restaurant, but he didn't have anyone available to run it.  But he also knew that Mackbee and Lucas were looking for an opportunity.  Finally, Kopka went to the couple and told them that he had an offer - he was able to procure some land near New London that the two of them could use to raise their own organic produce, and that there was a chance to run the restaurant of their dreams in New London, as well.

Mackbee and Lucas drove out to New London to meet with Josh Reed and Christa Otteson.  The couples hit it off immediately, and after subsequent visits it was determined that Mackbee and Lucas would be the perfect fit to run the restaurant space they wanted to build.  Work on an 1800-square foot expansion of Goat Ridge began in late 2017 with Reed and Otteson financing the build-out of the restaurant space and kitchen.  In the meantime, Mackbee and Lucas began to network with a number of local farmers who could supply them with the organic produce, meats and dairy products.  Mackbee would be the main chef while Lucas would be the kitchen supervisor/coordinator and also bake bread and pies.  Once everything was in place, Mackbee and Lucas opened Model Citizen in June of 2018.  

Model Citizen is counter service only with no wait staff.  Patrons are asked to bus their dishes after they've finished.  The restaurant furniture is similar to what we saw in the small area off to the side of the tap room at Goat Ridge including a church pew that is used for banquette seating along one wall.  The chairs and tables can be easily moved to make the expanded room a dance floor if needed.  

The food counter is opposite the bar area in the expanded tap room at Goat Ridge.  They have a chalkboard above and to the right of the window that shows daily specials, as well as a list of farms they're working with - all within a 100-mile radius of New London - and what food or produce that farm provided.  Sometimes local people with backyard gardens will come in with vegetables that they just give to Model Citizen because they would go to waste because they had too many tomatoes, peppers or beans.  

They have printed menus at the counter, but many of the items are subject to availability since they source all the food at Model Citizen locally.  For example, my wife saw that they had an asparagus salad on the menu, but it was crossed off that day as they were out of asparagus.  (As we were having our lunch, a lady came in with tubs of asparagus to drop off.  "I guess the asparagus salad is back on the menu," my wife quipped.)  It's not an extensive menu at Model Citizen, but they had entrees such as a baked mac & cheese with blue cheese, muenster, and cheddar cheese, as well as a ratatouille pasta dish.   Sandwiches such as chicken parm, a roast beef sandwich, and a BLT (that I almost got considering they sourced everything locally) were available as was a grass-fed burger.  Shared plates such as a meat and cheese board, tempura battered veggies, and a sautéed kale with a garlic pesto on toasted rye bread were also available.  After 4:30 p.m., Modern Citizen fires up their wood-fired grill for beef, pork or chicken specials of the evening.  

We stepped up to the counter to order our food and Mateo Mackbee took our order directly.  My wife went with the steak salad - a heaping helping of arugula mixed with roasted red potatoes and onions all mixed in with chunks of steak, topped with fresh shaved parmesan cheese and a house dressing.  It was a huge salad and my wife couldn't help but remark how fresh the arugula tasted.  "This is definitely farm fresh," she said between bites.  "I've never gotten arugula like this in a store."  

Since everything at Modern Citizen is made from scratch, it takes awhile for some orders to make it to the table.  That was no problem as I we were enjoying the Smash Mosaic from the bar at Goat Ridge while we waited for our food to show up.  It turned out the hold-up was my fault - I ordered the jambalaya.  Mateo Mackbee's family on his mother's side hails from New Orleans and this was obviously one of the recipes he has taken from the family.  This was true jambalaya with big chunks of andouille sausage, shrimp, chicken, the "holy trinity" of onions, bell peppers and celery, with a rich and fresh tomato broth on a bed of jasmine rice.   A lot of times if I'm having jambalaya in a restaurant, I'll get some Tabasco to help give it a kick.  This jambalaya didn't need any help as it had a kick of its own.  It was simply outstanding, some of the best and most authentic jambalaya I've ever had.

My wife and I loved everything about both Goat Ridge Brewing Company and Model Citizen - The Restaurant.  The beer was very good, the food we had was excellent, the vibe of the place was laid-back and the staff and patrons were extremely friendly, and we felt that it was one of the better brew pub experiences we've ever had.  Having something like Goat Ridge and Model Citizen in a small town like New London was very unique.  We were there no less than three times because we liked the place so very much.  It's an hour drive down from St. Cloud and I may have to go back to New London at some point when I get back up that way when the weather gets better in the Spring of 2020.  

Update Spring 2021 - Mateo Mackbee and Erin Lucas gave up their lease to the kitchen and moved on to open a new New Orleans-inspired restaurant in St. Joseph, MN by the name of Krewe.  Look for an upcoming Road Tips entry on Krewe.  The owners of Goat Ridge now run the kitchen and primarily make pizzas in the kitchen.

 

Zorbaz - Spicer, MN

During our summer vacation in the Glacier Lakes region of West Central Minnesota, we stayed in the small town of Spicer located on Green Lake, a 5400 acre lake that was clear and pristine.  There weren't a lot of food options in the area for us, but there was one place that I was somewhat familiar with.  They had a Zorbaz in Spicer on the lakefront that was walking distance from our hotel.  One evening, my wife and I walked over there for drinks and dinner.  

I had been to the original Zorbaz in Detroit Lakes, MN a number of years ago with one of my accounts from Fargo.  (Click here to see that Road Tips entry.  It's from over 11 years ago before I had a camera on my phone to take pictures of the place.  Plus it's sort of a cheesy post as I replaced all the "s" letters in the text to "z's" as Zorbaz does pretty much the same in all of their literature and menus.)  The one in Detroit Lakes was the first one of what ended up to eventually be 11 Zorbaz locations around Minnesota.  

Tom Hanson grew up in Detroit Lakes and graduated from high school there in 1963.  After graduating with honors from the University of Minnesota-Moorhead, he ended up back in Detroit Lakes as  a drama teacher and debate coach.  During the summers, he played a lot of golf, but decided that he needed a little side income, too.  Newly married in 1969, Hanson bought a little candy shop on the shore of Detroit Lake and turned it into Zorbaz at the Beach, named after one of Hanson's favorite movies Zorba the Greek.  

Pictured right - Tom Hanson.  Picture courtesy Forum News Service.

At first, Hanson and his wife, Terri Jo, had Zorbaz open only in the summer months selling frozen pizzas with Grain Belt beer on tap.  But Zorbaz at the Beach caught on enough that he quit his teaching and coaching jobs in 1973 to concentrate on Zorbaz in the summer, while going out to Southern California to work in restaurants there in the winter months.

It was in California where he met Rick Jansen who was a cook at one of the seasonal restaurants Hanson had in the mid-70's.  Jansen showed Hanson how to properly make pizzas from scratch using only fresh ingredients.  And Jansen learned how to cook some Mexican foods from some of the Hispanic cooks who worked with him in the kitchen.  It also turned out that Jansen and Hanson had a mutual interest in cars, especially antique and performance vehicles.  Hanson was so impressed with Jansen that he made him a partner in Zorbaz back in Detroit Lakes. 

It was in the late 70's when Zorbaz started with the whimsical "z" replacing the "s" in everything they published.  Now a year round venture, Zorbaz at the Beach became a popular place.  Hanson and Jansen knew they had to expand and that opportunity came up in 1983 when they bought the former Babe's Resort on Little Pine Lake in Perham, MN and opened the second Zorbaz.  As Zorbaz added more locations, they focused on areas that were in smaller towns that had a high tourist count in Northern Minnesota, mainly on or near lakefronts.  The number of Zorbaz eventually grew to 14, but not all of them were successful.  Actually, three of the Zorbaz locations - each of which were not on lake shores - closed down due to the lack of business.  

The Zorbaz in Spicer came on line in the spring of 2012.  It was housed in the former Melvin's on the Lake, a supper club owned by Dave and Mary Baker who ran the place for nine years.  Melvin's had a sort of up and down existence with the Baker's who were having problems making a profit with the restaurant before they instituted a series of measures - including cutting down on winter hours and coming up with a series of operation efficiencies - that brought the restaurant back into the black.  However, they were looking to sell Melvin's so they could concentrate on their other properties that included a hotel, an office building and other restaurants.  Zorbaz made them an offer and the deal was struck in late 2011.  The Zorbaz-Green Lake would be the 10th one with the 11th Zorbaz opening in Alexandria, MN in 2014.

Tom Hanson continued to be the center of all the Zorbaz locations, affectionately known as "Jumbo" to his friends and employees, not only because he was 6'6" in height, but because of the large fun times he always had.  Unfortunately, Tom Hanson - a man who never smoked in his life - was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2006.  He fought the battle for nine years before finally passing in 2015 at the age of 70.  Once he was diagnosed with cancer, Hanson gave up the day-to-day operations of the Zorbaz locations - along with four other lakeside restaurant/supper clubs his Lake Life Hospitality Group had purchased over the years - to his son Cole who continues to run Zorbaz which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.  

It was a short walk from our hotel to Zorbaz on Green Lake in Spicer.  (see map)  The large parking lot in front was, maybe, 25% full when we walked up to the place around 6:30 p.m.  Since it was the middle of the week - and Spicer isn't really a tourist destination until the weekend - there were a handful of locals in the place and at least two vacationers.  The dining room was an open area with a number of tables that would seat as many as 12 or as few as 4.  

The bar area featured some flat screen televisions behind the bar.  We were greeted by one of the bartenders, a young lady whose attitude was about as neutral as can be - no outgoing effervescence, nor was she surly.   I would have to say she was pretty impersonal.  I asked her if she could make a mai tai and she sort of said, "Yeah, sure.  OK."  My wife got a margarita made with top shelf tequila.  Even though she had the personality of a wet rag, the young lady could sure make a good mai tai and margarita.   They also had a pretty extensive beer list that featured craft beers, domestics and imports.   They had Kona Big Wave on the beer menu, but as long as she kept making the mai tais the same way as the first one I had, I knew I wouldn't be ordering a beer that evening.  

The menu at Zorbaz featured the two things they're famous for - pizza and Mexican food.  They also had wings and salads on the menu, but that was about it.  They had a number of different varieties of pizzas and Mexican food items including enchiladas, tacos and burritos.  We weren't exactly certain what we wanted to eat - we sort of went in there with pizza on our minds, but my wife decided that she wanted some chips and salsa with a side of guacamole.  The chips were pretty basic and the guac and salsa came in small plastic cups.  It wasn't outstanding, but it wasn't all that bad, either.

One thing that I noticed they had on the menu was Southwestern-style green pork chili.  I thought I wanted to give that a try along with getting a small pizza.  Food orders are taken at the bar and the same emotionless and disinterested young lady who was making the killer mai tais and margaritas for us took our order.  Well, our pizza made it out to us, but the green pork chili did not.  I went up to the girl at the bar and told her that I didn't get the chili.  "You've got to be kidding me," she replied in a caustic manner.  She went over to the order screen and said, "I put it in!"  I said, well, I never got it.  I went back to sit down and it was about three minutes later when a young guy from back in the kitchen brought the chili out to me.  

It was sort of worth the wait as the green pork chili was very good.  It featured melted shredded cheese on top with chunks of pork and green chiles in a nice peppery base.  It was as good as any green pork chili that I've had in my travels to Colorado.  

We got a small sausage, pepperoni, mushroom and jalapeño pizza.  (My wife likes a little bit of a spicy bite on her pizza.)  The pizzas at Zorbaz are thin crust with a sturdy crust.  The pizza sauce was a bit too sweet for my taste, but it was still a pretty good pizza.  I remembered the pizza as being pretty good from my first visit to the Zorbaz in Detroit Lakes over 10 years prior.

After dinner, we both grabbed a couple more drinks and headed out to the patio area that overlooks Green Lake.   The patio area featured a number of picnic tables, as well as a like number of regular tables and chairs.  It was a beautiful evening and we headed out to a bench near the dock area next to Zorbaz to enjoy the scenery and laid back atmosphere on the patio.

Zorbaz is also known for their merchandise and they had a large area off the dining area that featured t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, coozies, and other different types of tchotchkes that were available. My wife was interested in getting one of the t-shirts, but there wasn't anyone in the merchandise area.  She went up to the disinterested bartender and asked her if anyone was available to sell her a shirt.  The girl just sort of sneered and said, "I can take care of you up here.  Just go get what you want and bring it up to me."  

She was very cold in her tone toward my wife, so much so that my wife turned back to me and said, "Forget it.  I don't need a shirt that bad."  I offered to take her back a day or two later during the day to get a shirt and she declined.  "I just have a bad taste in my mouth the way that bartender acted toward us when we were there," she said.  My wife usually tries to see the best in people, but she didn't see anything good with our bartender that day.  

The somewhat indifferent and impersonal bartender notwithstanding, I think we enjoyed most of our visit to Zorbaz.  The food is fine - we thought the pizza was good, but the chips with salsa and guacamole were pretty basic.  The green pork chili was actually very good - as good as some of the ones I've had out in Colorado.  And even though she didn't have much of a personality, our bartender made some very good mai tais and margaritas.  I had four mai tais that evening, but since all I had to do was stumble and zig-zag back to our hotel, that was fine with my wife.  Don't expect fine dining at any one of the 11 Zorbaz in Northern Minnesota.   But do expect to have some fun - even if your bartender isn't having any fun.

American Legion Post 537 - New London, MN

During our trip to West Central Minnesota earlier this year, our options for restaurants in the Spicer/New London area where we were staying were pretty limited.  We had heard from a couple locals that the American Legion posts in both Spicer and New London had pretty good food.  We had gone into the American Legion in Spicer one rainy afternoon to get a drink and an appetizer and it looked pretty nice in there.  We were up at a small brew pub in New London one evening, but their kitchen was closed.  A couple seated at the bar next to us was telling us about the American Legion Post 537 a couple blocks away.  "I know it sounds strange," the lady told us.  "But they have pretty good food over there."   We decided to be like the locals that evening and we went over to the American Legion for dinner.  

American Legion posts like the one in Spicer and New London are the backbone of small communities in the Upper Midwest.  They're membership driven, but their restaurants (if they have one) and lounges are usually open to the public.  Quite actually, we found the two American Legion posts in Spicer and New London to be clean, spacious and well kept.  They were two of the nicer places we were in during our vacation.  

We could have walked from the brew pub to the American Legion in New London as it was just a couple blocks away.  (see map)  We found parking on the street in front of the place which looked like it had been added onto over the years to expand their dining area.  

Going inside, we found a nice lounge area with a spacious dining room off to the side.  We realized that we came in the lounge door, but there was a entry way that took you into the dining room on the north side of the building.  Nevertheless, we went into the dining room and were greeted by a woman by the name of Kathy who ended up seating us at a table and giving us a couple menus to look over.  Kathy had a very pronounced Minnesota accent, but was cheery and welcoming.  She asked if we wanted a drink and my wife got a cranberry juice and vodka.  I wondered what they had for craft beers available and Kathy said they really just had the regular domestics.   I got a Budweiser and called it good.  

It turned out that it was Steak Night at the American Legion that evening - an 8 ounce sirloin with a baked potato for $5.95.  How's that for a small town deal?  Except Kathy informed us that they had already sold out of potatoes by 7:30 p.m.  "We get a big crowd in early for the steak nights," she said almost apologetically.   

The menu at the American Legion in New London featured a little bit of everything for the family - appetizers like egg rolls, chicken wings and mini tacos; sandwiches and "build-your-own" burgers, wraps, and a number of entrees including an herb and butter-stuffed chicken breast, a classic fettuccine alfredo, a 14-ounce ribeye, and a honey-glazed grilled ham steak.  A kids menu is also available.  

My wife did the steak special that evening.  And since they were out of baked potatoes, my wife went with the staple of Minnesota side dishes - tater tots.  My wife ordered her steak medium and a couple quick cuts into the meat saw that it had a hint of pink throughout.  She said it was very tender and had a great flavor to it.  For $5.95, it was one helluva deal.

I went with the broiled walleye that evening.  Kathy said that for 75 cents more they could put Cajun seasonings on it.  I took her up on that offer.  The walleye was a little mushy - I figured that the walleye was probably frozen after it was caught and filleted.  But it was still very good.  It was still light and flaky with that great walleye taste.  I also got tater tots to go along with the walleye.  Adding some Tabasco to the potatoes gave them a little more of a zip in taste.  

The American Legion posts in small towns across the Upper Midwest are the community gathering place and many of them have restaurants that are open to the public.  And the American Legion Post in New London was typical of many of those places.  It was a very nice place to dine and the service we had was very thorough and friendly.  I thought my walleye was a bit expensive - $21.75 with the Cajun seasonings added.  But you couldn't beat the $5.95 8-ounce sirloin steak special my wife had that evening.   The meal we had at the American Legion post in New London was a pleasant surprise and I would have no problem recommending this place if you're in the area. 

Johnny O'Neil's - Spicer, MN

During our mid-summer vacation up in Spicer, MN, the places to eat dinner in the area were pretty limited.  We could have driven a few miles into Willmar for dinner, but we found that our choices there were pretty limited as well.  Just down the street from our hotel and across from a little park that featured a deck that looked out onto Green Lake, there was a pretty nice restaurant called Johnny O'Neil's.  We went there for drinks a couple times and stayed for dinner one evening.  

Actually, the official name of the place is Johnny O'Neil's Green Lake Social, and with the 1950's-style logo they have I'm always somewhat dubious of places named after a fictitious figure.  But I was told by one of the bartenders in the place one day that Johnny O'Neil was a real person, the original owner of O'Neil's Food and Spirits in Spicer.  The original building dated back to the turn of the 20th century and had been added on to a couple of times.  Jon Olson and a partner bought the business in 2000, and a few years after Jon Olson bought out his partner, he and his wife, Michelle, decided to renovate the restaurant in 2013.  One of the original buildings was razed and the main building had been gutted and completely re-done into a modern bar with a dining room.  They added an events center for parties and receptions, and also added an outdoor patio for dining and live event.  The renovation more than doubled the number of patrons they could serve.  

It was a short walk from our hotel down Lake Ave. to Johnny O'Neil's.  (see map)  As I said, we liked to go there because my wife really liked their "perfect" margarita that was seasoned with a filbert (hazel) nut, while I was happy to see that they had Kona Big Wave on tap along with a number of other good craft beers from not only in Minnesota, but from around the U.S.  And Johnny O'Neil's was just across the street from Pirotta Park which had a great composite deck with sliding rocking chairs in which we would sit for long stretches of time at various points during our stay just to look out onto Green Lake.  It was really one of the more relaxing vacations I've had in a long time.  

That evening, we decided to head into the dining room to have dinner.  The dining room featured a number of booths along the south wall, large wooden tables in the center for larger groups, and smaller tables along the other side of the room.  The hostess who sat us asked if we wanted to sit outside, but we decided to stay inside - and away from the clamor of the bar area that was filled with locals and vacationeers alike.  

After we were given menus, our server for the evening, a young lady by the name of Hunter, came by to say hello.  "I notice that you already have your drinks," she said.  "Can I get you started out with any appetizers?"  We hadn't even opened our menus yet and my wife was kind of taken aback by her question.  She asked Hunter to give us a minute to look through the menu.  My wife immediately had a problem with her that sort of escalated through the dinner.  

While most of the main items on the menu were your typical lake country fare - burgers and sandwiches, soups and salads, flat breads and pizzas - they also had some pretty interesting appetizers to choose from.  The habanero jack cheese sticks where actually the cheese folded into a wonton and deep fried.  They also had those with provolone cheese, as well.  They had fish tacos on the menu, albeit breaded and deep-fried (not to my liking for fish tacos), and they had steak tips with pearl onions and wild mushrooms.   They also had "wet or dry" chicken rings, and beer-battered onion rings.  Some of the items on the appetizer part of the menu sounded like they could be main entrees rather than appetizers.

I saw something in the appetizers that quickly caught my attention - the Minnesota poutine.  It was Johnny O'Neil's take on the Quebec-diet staple with crinkle-cut fries topped with mozzarella instead of cheese curds, and with real bacon bits added along with a thick and zesty au jus gravy.  Chopped green onions were added to the poutine to give it an added kick in taste.  It was a gooey and decadent mess - and it was excellent.  We both shared in the poutine, me much more so than my wife.

For dinner that evening, I wasn't really certain that I wanted a burger or a sandwich.  They were short of entrees on the menu - they had a 6 ounce sirloin steak that I thought was unreasonably priced.  They had a pork loin dinner available, as well as a parmesan garlic pasta alfredo with a choice of either chicken or shrimp.  I thought for a moment about their prime rib dip sandwich and their reuben.  And I considered getting their rendition of the Juicy Lucy - the Twin Cities-style stuffed cheese burger.  But there was one thing that I saw on the appetizer portion of the menu that really caught my eye.  Actually, after eating a good portion of the poutine, I wasn't certain that I needed anything else. 

But I did...

I ended up getting the sea salt and pepper ahi tuna appetizer.  Like I said, there were some things on the appetizer menu that could have easily been entrees.  It was a good sized yellowfin tuna steak that was grilled rare and "dusted" with sea salt and cracked black pepper.  It came with a tub of wasabi - a lot more wasabi than you'll ever be served at a sushi restaurant - along with a mirin sake sauce that was both sweet and sour, similar to a teriyaki sauce, and some pickled ginger.  Flatbread crackers came on the side.   The tuna was - in a word - fabulous.  It was not fishy in taste, it was seared perfectly and the tuna had a deep red color to it.  The wasabi was potent, too.  It cleared my head a couple of times.  They didn't need to bring a nearly full tub of wasabi, but there it was.  But the tuna was surprisingly outstanding.  

My wife got the battered redfish sandwich.  Real hashbrowns came on the side with the sandwich.  She didn't use the top piece of bread and gave it to me to have along side my seared tuna.  The redfish was lightly breaded and fried to a golden brown color.  It was flaky with big chunks of the fish slicing off easily with a fork.  My wife said the redfish was delicious.

As I said, my wife was having problems with Hunter through the course of our meal.  She had run out of her "perfect" margarita and wanted a second one, but Hunter was nowhere to be found.  The dining room was a little busy, but it wasn't packed.  Finally, Hunter rushed by the table, saying as she ran by, "How's the food, folks?"  She continued past before we could even answer or to get her attention to get my wife another margarita and another cold Big Wave for me.  Actually, she did come back and get our drink order, but it was a long time before we got our drinks.  I literally stopped eating until she brought me my beer - well more than five minutes after we had ordered our second round of drinks.  Then later on, she did the same thing as she breezed by the table - "How's the food, folks?" - not stopping to inquire, but as she was rushing past.  My wife guessed that this was Hunter's first job as a server.  "She's not going to last long if she keeps this up," my wife said between bites of her redfish.  

Other than the problems we had with our server - who may or may not have been all that experienced - I can't complain about much of anything with our meal at Johnny O'Neil's.  The seared tuna appetizer that I had as my main dinner that evening was top-notch.  My wife really enjoyed her battered redfish and the Minnesota-style poutine was a great start to the meal.  We had chances to go back to Johnny O'Neil's for dinner again during our stay in Spicer, but we ended up just going for drinks in the nice bar area.  Within Spicer, Johnny O'Neil's is the best bet for a more upscale meal, even though it really isn't upscale food.  

 

Westwood Cafe - Spicer, MN

A few years ago, I got a message from Deb West, the owner of the Westwood Cafe in Spicer, MN, inviting me to stop by and try out their burgers at some point.  She had evidently found the blog somewhere and thought I might like their place since I wrote a lot about finding good burgers.  I looked up to see where Spicer was on the map and determined that even though it was an hour outside of St. Cloud - where I travel to from time to time - it didn't really warrant a special trip there.  Lo and behold, my wife and I found ourselves vacationing along Green Lake and staying in Spicer earlier this summer, and just down the street from our hotel was the Westwood Cafe.  One somewhat rainy morning when we couldn't really do much outside, we took a quick walk down the street to the Westwood Cafe for breakfast.  

The Westwood Cafe is a breakfast and lunch only establishment, opening at 6 a.m. seven days a week and closing at 2 p.m. (1:30 p.m. on Sunday).  Deb and Scott West opened the restaurant in 2000, but the restaurant blood was in the West family for years before.  Scott's parents, Bob and Joan, owned the popular Fireside Inn supper club just north of Willmar for a number of years.  In the mid-60's, the West's moved to Spicer and bought an old lodge along the shores of Green Lake.  They razed the lodge and put up a new supper club, the Westwood Inn.  It turned out to be one of the more popular places to eat in west central Minnesota with a spaghetti night and a Sunday brunch being two of their biggest weekly events.

After the Westwood Inn closed, Scott West found a small restaurant along Lake Street in Spicer by the name of the Safari that was up for sale.  The West's bought the restaurant, refurbished it and opened the Westwood Cafe at the start of the century.  Next year will mark 20 years in business for the restaurant.  

The Westwood Cafe was located just a couple minute walk from our hotel up N. Lake Street.  (see map)  Spicer is one of those towns where the locals all know each other and we found that most evident at the Westwood Cafe where good-natured ribbing and banter went back and forth between patrons and the wait staff at the restaurant.  

The restaurant is a small place - it had a main dining area that had room for a little less than 30 people.  There were a couple of small rooms off to the side that had tables in there, as well.  Behind a half wall was a small counter area that sat six additional diners.  There was a lot of lake-type decorations and pictures on the walls. We were seated in one of the small dining rooms and given a couple breakfast menus to look over.  Our server for our visit was a young lady by the name of Megan who was cheery and down-home.  

The "anytime" breakfast menu at Westwood Cafe consists of your normal morning favorites - omelets, pancakes, skillet dishes, French toast, steak and eggs, and a breakfast burrito.  They also had something called the Kitchen Sink - it consisted of a base of hash browns or American fries with mushrooms, onions, jalapeños, green peppers and two eggs mixed in.  You had a choice of meat to add to the mess - bacon, sausage, ham, Canadian bacon, wild rice sausage, smoked sausage or taco-flavored beef.  You could add up to three different types of meat to the Kitchen Sink for a price of $12.95.  That sounded like a lot of food.  

My wife went pretty basic - she got the No. 1 breakfast with two eggs over easy, sourdough toast and a side of thick cut bacon.  She gave me a piece of the bacon to try and it was excellent.  

I went with the corned beef hash breakfast.  It featured a liberal portion of corned beef, with fresh hash browns, and two eggs over easy.  I also got sourdough toast on the side with my meal.  I wanted to believe that the corned beef was made in-house as it didn't taste like the canned variety, but the corned beef was chopped finely.  The hash browns were very good - you could tell they grated their potatoes in-house.  The sourdough bread was a nice touch to go with the farm fresh eggs on the plate.  It was a very good breakfast.  

We never did make it back to the Westwood Cafe for one of their burgers, but we did enjoy the breakfast we had during our visit to Spicer.  The Westwood Cafe is a nice little place that caters to both the locals and tourists alike - although there seemed to be a lot more locals than tourists during our time there.  While it was nothing special in terms of the food, we found to place to be homey and welcoming with a little bit of fun sass thrown in by the servers toward some of the locals.  If you're looking for breakfast or a typical lunch while you're in Spicer, the Westwood Cafe is basically your only choice.  But I don't think you'll be disappointed.