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This summer, fans of the sunfish sandwich will have a new restaurant to find an old favorite.
Matty’s restaurant is expected to open in late June or early July in the former Villella’s Bada Bing building on Highway 371 North near Brainerd International Raceway.
Bada Bing closed its doors Monday, telling fans there are plans to reopen elsewhere, with speculation that may be nearby. But the building, owned by Steve Meyer, wasn’t vacant long. Earlier this week, a small crew was working to clean up the building to ready it for a significant remodel.
At the helm is Matt Walsh, who owned the Matty’s restaurants in Lake Shore and near the Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport. Walsh is the general manager. He worked with Meyer in the past for a restaurant for him in the Twin Cities.
Walsh was busy inside the building Thursday. Walsh said Meyer asked him to be part of a new restaurant just off Gull Dam Road by Pirate’s Cove.
“It just happens I was looking for a job,” Walsh said.
This winter, in January and February, Walsh closed his three restaurants — Walker, Lake Shore and Brainerd. Stretched by the economy and a decision to expand to Walker, Walsh reached a point where he was unable to pay suppliers and staff. It was a difficult decision to close and begin to work through bankruptcy. At the time, he said it was a tough decision to get to the point where you know you’ve lost it. Walsh said he went from being a millionaire on paper to having no equity left and being upside down on the property he had. It took one year for it all to crash down around him.
“This is my second chance,” Walsh said. “And I want to take full advantage of my second chance.”
Walsh’s name will be above the door and his recipes will be back on the menu. In between, extensive remodeling is planned to the building, which can seat about 200 people. In addition to the main dining area, there is a separate dining area seating 40 with its own bar, bathrooms and entrance at the back of the building. The property includes a deck, open grass area and stage along with outdoor bar. In addition, there is a meeting room upstairs along with four offices.
For Walsh, it’s the largest restaurant space he’s had to date.
And he means to take full advantage of what he’s learned.
Price points on the new menu will reflect the economy. Old favorites will be available along with some new offerings, including made-from-scratch pizzas.
Walsh said his goal is to have everything made from scratch. Plans are for quality ingredients but some smaller portions.
The restaurant will open for breakfast from 7-11 a.m. and the kitchen will remain open until 1 a.m. Special events and DJs are planned. The first major event is a July 10 open jam session for musicians and a pig roast.
The new Matty’s expects to hire 45 people.
The plan is to start slowly with a basic menu, add specials and build from there. Baby steps, Walsh said. But the start, which typically swamps any new eatery, is also timed with the summer rush. For Walsh, the place offers potential — perhaps outdoor weddings, concerts, broomball tournaments.
“The options are limitless here,” Walsh said. “A lot of the dreams I had I can do here.”
The smaller, brighter and separate dining area may be used for overflow and will be aggressively marketed for private parties. Walsh said the back dining room offers a place for people to go for, say, Blues music when the band may be more than they want to compete with for conversation in the main dining area and bar.
Walsh envisions outdoor food staging area on the deck out back. The upstairs meeting room accommodates at least 40 people and could provide a gathering place for luncheons.
While this is an opportunity for a fresh start and an ability to stay in the Brainerd lakes area, Walsh knows people will wonder how he is able to start again when there are still people he owes money. But he said the best way to pay them back is by being employed.
Walsh said he is trying to pay everyone he owes and was able to pay the employees who worked through the last days. There are still other people on the list to repay.
“I’m going to pay them,” Walsh said. “I’m doing my best to make things right and do the right thing.”
Now he said he’s excited for the opportunity, to be employed, to be able to work in one place and see the people he’s missed.
Between now and then, a massive cleanup is planned for the building. When the restaurant opens this summer, Walsh described it as “Matty’s on steroids.” Walsh noted his vendors who worked with him at his own restaurants have stuck with him through it all to be part of the new venture.
“We have a great community,” Walsh said.
The location — on Highway 371 minutes from Baxter and Nisswa, and close to BIR — is the best he’s ever had, Walsh said. The building was home to Mario’s Sports Bar for many years, although ownership changed during that time.
Villella’s Bada Bing opened in 2005 in the former Mario’s.
Brothers Christopher and Jerry Villella, Brainerd, opened Bada Bing backed by bar and restaurant business experience. According to Villella’s Bada Bing Facebook page, the plan is to open another restaurant in the near future. A potential location is near the former Bada Bing site.
A restaurant named Cowboys is opening Monday in the former Matty’s at Lake Shore.
Bites Grill and Bar, Pine River, opened this week.
The restaurant is in the former Trail Break building a mile south of Pine River on Highway 371. Business partners Laura and Kevin Damm and Mary and John Zesbaugh.
The name came as the partners’ translation of tapas, or finger food snacks in Spain. And the menu, with a broad list of appetizers, lets people make a meal of the smaller bites at $2.95 for small appetizers. Shareables are a little bigger. But the menu isn’t limited to that. There are pastas, salads, burgers and sandwiches.
Laura Damm said they want to create a gathering place with reasonable prices for home-cooked comfort foods. Specialties include Rotisserie chicken, pulled pork and daily lunch specials. An emphasis is on consistently good food that provide an option people can afford in this economy.
The restaurant has a full bar with extensive wine list.
Some of the meals include Cajun pasta, mahi-mahi fish and portabella mushrooms, steak and roma tomato pasta. Pasta dinners range from $14.95 to $17.95. Dinners range from $11.95 to $21.95 for the 14 ounce ribeye steak. Salads range from $3.50 to $8.95 and sandwiches — including burgers — are $7.95 to $8.95. Sides like tater tots, wild rice jambalaya, macaroni and cheese, roasted onion mashed potatoes are $2.95 to $4. In addition, the restaurant has a children’s menu.
The full menu and more information is expected to be online soon.
Olive Garden appears to be progressing with possible activity on that front soon as developers and those behind the property come to an agreement.
Something is in the wind for the former Motor City site at the corner of Highway 210 and Highway 371 in Baxter as surveyors were reportedly on the site recently and stakes are now seen on the barren land by Home Depot. A number of area residents have been told while shopping at a Costco in Maple Grove that one is moving into the lakes area.
A memorandum of property purchase agreement was filed with the Crow Wing County recorder’s office. The agreement was filed in April between Michael Holdings of Baxter and JRMINN, a Kentucky limited liability company and CostCo Wholesale Corporation of Washington state.
JRMINN is the current fee owner of the property. Michael Givens, chief manager of Michael Holdings of Baxter signed the agreement as did Gordon Thomas, corporate counsel of CostCo Wholesale Corp. and Ulysses Bridgeman Jr. of JRMINN.
The agreement includes five parcel property descriptions.
The inventory at the membership warehouse wholesale store is definitely extensive from diamond rings for nearly $40,000 to exercise bikes, paddleboards to laptops, golf clubs to office chairs, world globes to Halogen spotlights, sugar to hair spray, recliners to robotic pool cleaners.
The Costco website lists six locations in Minnesota. Earlier this month, Bloomberg Businessweek reported a Costco key revenue figure — revenue at stores open at least a year — climbed 12 percent in April. Analysts predicted an increase of 8.9 percent.
Bloomberg reported “in the U.S., revenue at stores open at least a year increased 11 percent. The figure climbed 16 percent overseas.”
Costco’s website has a listing for future locations. Neither Brainerd nor Baxter are among the list at the present time, although there are three sites opening in Japan later this year. During an inquiry as to the potential to open a store here, Costco earlier reported it takes about 90 days to have a store up and running.
Royal Expressions Boutique, the women’s clothing shop by Starbucks in Baxter, is closing at the end of the month after nine years.
Business partners Jenny Cluff and Chanel Schilling decided to close the store.
Royal Expressions moved from a narrow shop packed with inventory on Aitkin’s main street to the airy showroom in the Baxter shopping center just off Woida Road in October of 2007.
The boutique featured denim and a variety of jean brands. At the time, Cluff described it as a shop that could appeal to mothers and daughters.
This week, Cluff said she and Schilling have decided to pursue other interests.
Vibe Hypnosis owner Jennifer Mergen is expanding her business in Brainerd to include personal transformation workshops. She said the workshops combine guided imagery, visualization, workbook exercises and discussion. She plans to lead two workshops this summer in June and July at the Super 8 in Baxter. The workshops are “Appreciate the Ride to the Life you Desire” and “Get your Happy Back.”
Panache Salons & Day Spas announced it acquired Sorella’s Salon and Spa in Perham. The Perham salon, which has been in the city since 2004, will be the third Panache Aveda Concept salon and spa. Panache opened in 1994 in St. Cloud. Panache expanded to the Brainerd area in 2001.
Northern Image Landscaping, 17748 Heron Road, Little Falls, is the new name for Environmental Care, which was recently purchased by Willie Isder and Joan Kempenich, the Little Falls Area Chamber of Commerce reported. Isder and Kempenich were employed at Environmental Care before becoming the business owners.
The business offers shrubs, plants, statuary items and carry bulk supplies of rock, dirt and mulch, along with grass seed and sod among other items. Beyond the retail, the business offers landscape design, installation and maintenance.
Stout Brothers Inc. opened at 15396 183rd St., Little Falls, and is owned by Fort Ripley natives Paul and Darryl Stout. The Stouts are Nachur’s Liquid Fertilizer dealers and do soil and plant testing. They spent 14 years at Tri-City Paving.
Stephanie’s Thrift & Consignment opened at 62 E. Broadway in Little Falls. The business is owned by Stephanie Knoebel, who attended college in Wadena and has been a Crisis Line volunteer.
The West Side Bar, 115 E. Broadway, Little Falls, has new owners in Jeff Tschida and Deb Boelz.
RENEE RICHARDSON, senior reporter, may be reached atrenee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5852.
