Dual Concept Restaurant Opens in Maple Grove: Village Inn in Granite City Brewery
Maple Grove’s Granite City Brewery Turns Into Dual Concept Restaurant
When you visit any restaurant, one thing that people appreciate are options.
On March 1, Maple Grove’s Granite City Brewery entered into a new phase that gives customers a wide variety of breakfast choices.
“The menu is really extensive,” said Donna Jones, a customer. “I had Eggs Benedict, which was very good.”
Yet Granite City Brewery didn’t just all of a sudden extend their hours and start serving breakfast food.
Rather, the ownership group brought in the national chain, Village Inn, and housed it under the same roof.
“We have spaces that are 6,000 to 7,000 square feet for dining rooms that don’t get used for four or five hours in the morning before lunch,” said Chris Erickson, the general manager of this new dual concept restaurant. “That’s how this whole idea started is, how do we get more out of these buildings that we have and make it profitable, and make it a better experience for our guests that can come in and get two different styles of menus.”
Some of the breakfast items offered at the Maple Grove Village Inn.
Maple Grove ‘Needed a breakfast place’
The idea not only utilizes space that otherwise wasn’t being used. The Village Inn also fulfills a need in Maple Grove.
“We definitely needed a breakfast place around this area,” Jones said. “I think it’ll be really appreciated.”
The plan to add the Village Inn was more than a year in the making and required extensive training.
“Cooking eggs is a little bit different than cooking a steak, it takes a little bit of finesse,” Erickson said. “So the training was imperative there. People love breakfast, which is why we saw the need in the community, and you have to make sure you do it right.”
Visitors to the Village Inn — which opens at 8:30 a.m. Sunday-Thurs. and at 7 a.m. Friday and Saturday — can either satisfy their sweet tooth with a meal like banana cream pancakes, or they can choose a more savory meal to kickstart their day, like the Denver omelette.
At 3 p.m., they switch over to the Granite City dinner menu, where customers can enjoy a good burger, or sip on one of the many beers that are brewed in-house.
From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Village Inn breakfast menu, and the Granite City lunch menu, overlap.
The early returns seem to indicate that the dual concept restaurant is here to stay.
“They’ve got a great menu, good food, that’s all it takes,” said Jones. “So I think it’ll be very successful.”
