Hazellewood Grill

Address:
5635 Manitou Rd., Tonka Bay, 952-401-0066, hazellewoodgrill.com

The Scene
The Hazellewood Grill and Tap Room feels like Vail’s mid-mountain cafeteria at noon on the Saturday of Christmas week. It’s often a veritable madhouse. The crowd is mostly west-side lake country locals, with a sprinkling of the curious types eager to check out every new restaurant that opens. Families pile in between 5 and 6:30, followed at 7 by the silver-haired Coogi sweater contingent. By 8, the cognoscenti mix themselves along the bar with clusters of financial-services dudes, thirsty for a good beer and a hot date. Grayish wood paneling, modern sconces, and gas fireplaces dominate the dining areas. The taproom, which doesn’t seem to know whether it wants to be a sports bar or a chic waiting area for eager diners, features three high-definition flat-screen TVs.

Our Take
Hazellewood is fun and welcoming. It successfully pulls off what so many restaurants long to achieve—it’s a family-friendly restaurant serving good contemporary American comfort food, where everyone can find something to love; at the same time the bar is packed to the gills with DINKS and singles willing to drink early and eat late. The ingredients are fresh, the portions are huge, service is efficient (though the busier the kitchen, the sloppier the plating), and the guest-first philosophy is evident in everything it does. I have yet to hear the word no at Hazellewood.

Like Redstone (chef-partner Scott Foster’s previous stop), Hazellewood’s menu reads like a who’s who of focus-group favorites. Sandwiches are sizeable and tasty, burgers are well made and beefy, the squash ravioli in browned butter was better than almost every other fancy Italian restaurant’s version I have eaten lately. The grilled chicken wings or crispy shrimp appetizers (reminiscent of Foster’s killer Buffalo shrimp at Redstone) are culinary heroin. Grilled pork chops, in trencherman portion, were perfectly moist and mapley, and the Swedish meatballs with homemade lingonberry sauce shouldn’t be missed. Skip the grilled pizzas, the only thing besides a miserable chocolate bread pudding (swimming in cinnamon) I didn’t like.

Tapped In
Every restaurant needs a unique hook. At HG, those looking to recreate their college years can sit in one of the tap booths and pour their very own beer. Each of the three booths offers a brew available nowhere else in the restaurant. It’s not typically earth-shaking stuff—a Summit, a Schell’s—but it’s not commodity brew. The beer is dispensed one glass at a time, using technology developed just for Hazellewood (a server tracks consumption). Thirsty patrons swipe their credit card and start pouring. The beer menu changes regularly, allowing Chugga Chugga Deltas the opportunity to taste different beers on each visit.