Tavern Grill aims to open at Ridgedale Center this fall
A new restaurant is in the works for Ridgedale Center in Minnetonka.
The Tavern Grill is seeking approval from the City of Minnetonka to open in the former Bar Louie (which closed in 2018) and Applebee's (closed in 2012) space near Big Bowl on the west side of the mall.
The restaurant hopes to occupy the entire 7,000 square foot restaurant space with a similar layout to Bar Louie, including a 4,500-square-foot patio with a bar.
The upscale, casual full-service restaurant is the "home of the build-your-owns," offering "endless combinations of pizzas, burgers, salads and bloody marys," as well as seafood, steak and dessert. See the menu here.
If Minnetonka City Council gives the restaurant the OK, Tavern Grill's website says it will open at Ridgedale Center in the fall.
The Minnetonka Planning Commission unanimously voted to recommend that the City Council approve a conditional use permit for the new restaurant at its July 1 meeting. The City Council's next meeting is July 12, at which point it could give final approval to the permit.
Planning Commission members during the July 1 meeting expressed excitement about a new business coming to Minnetonka and to not just be voting on variances and permits for new decks for people's homes.
Tavern Grill opened its first location in Edina in 2009, called Tavern on France, and has since opened four others in the Twin Cities — Arden Hills, Apple Valley, Blaine and Woodbury — as well as a location in Fargo, North Dakota. It also has plans to open another location in Bismarck, North Dakota, in 2022.