Business in Crosslake singing a happy song
CROSSLAKE - A revamped business in Crosslake will likely strike a chord with those familiar with famous cross-country routes and Americana.
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Food & Flix on Route 66, along County Highway 66, recently reinvented itself, using fresh signs, a new name and a menu change. Vintage signs were added to the exterior. Inside the restaurant seating expanded. The business rents movies, offers cold beverages, frozen pizza, ice cream, candy and a dine-in or take-out restaurant, which also delivers in a 12-mile radius from the store.
"We're the best kept secret in town," said Nessa Frink, store manager, noting that's what customers tell her.
Service comes with a smile and sometimes a song, as Frink picked up a tune while she prepared the store and the kitchen for the lunch business. She said changes at the store provided customers with more options and changing from subs to sandwiches, including a popular marble rye or wheat berry bread or sourdough.
Store Manager Nessa Frink (left) and staff member Lisa Moonen worked on a lunch order at the Food & Flix on Route 66. The business has gone through a makeover and name change and includes a revamped menu.
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Brainerd Dispatch/Renee Richardson
"Business has picked up a lot," Frink said.
She said the business has gone from a lunch time when there were no customers seated inside to having such a good response that seating is being expanded. She credited a new pizza sauce and crust, picked after sessions of taste-testing and Broaster chicken.
Sandwiches include ham, turkey, roast beef, BLTs and a mojo pork with lemon garlic, cilantro and citrus.
"I love this stuff," Frink said of the mojo pork. "It's so good."
With the cool summer, Frink said even the tanning business has picked up.
One of the most challenging parts of Frink's work may come when she's out delivering a Launch Box Lunch on the Whitefish lake chain from noon to dusk - with its choice of sandwich, chips, salad and dessert - to customers who can call in their lunch orders from their boats or pontoons. The business states "summer is too short to waste even a minute inside." So Frink delivers to boat landings on Big Trout and Cross Lake. During the Fourth of July, one of the boat landings was so busy with people launching their watercraft, she had to meet her lunch customers on the other side of the lake.
The Food & Flix in Crosslake includes movies for rent, candy, frozen pizza and ice cream, cold beverages and tanning.
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Brainerd Dispatch/Renee Richardson
"It's a hoot in here, let me tell you," Frink said.
For Frink, the most enjoyable moments of the job may come from catering for events, including weddings. "I love to do that kind of stuff."
Pauline and Dave Ketcher own the business. Frink said working for Pauline Ketcher is like having a big sister.
Lisa Moonen started working at the business in March. Frink said Moonen is her right hand on the job.
"I love it," Moonen said of the work. "I love people."
RENEE RICHARDSON may be reached at renee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5852