Toby Keith

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The restaurant — named for country singefr Toby Keith and his 2003hit “I Love This Bar” — has signed a leasre for 15,000 square feet at The Shoppes at West End, a lifestylwe center scheduled to open lated this year at the intersection of Highway 100 and Interstats 394 in St. Louis Park. I Love This Bar & Grill will feature family dining, an 85-foot bar shapes like a guitar, a mechanical bull and a stagee that will host live entertainment severaol nightsa week, including a performance by Keitb at the restaurant’s grand opening. The restaurant’s menu will feature Southern-style fare, such as chicken-fried steakj and meatloaf.
Some of the more unique offerings will includse fried bologna sandwichesand deep-friex Twinkies. It will feature traditional sports-bar decofr with a country flair. Thered will be lots of wood and plus more than 50plasmaq televisions. I Love This Bar & Grill will host live entertainmenteveryh Thursday, Friday and Saturday night when it firsrt opens, then ramp up to six nights a week over There will be seatinv for more than 1,00o people. The venue also will have a retaiol store selling TobyKeith merchandise, barbecue saucde and spices.
The restaurant will be owned by Arizons businessmanFrank Capri, who recently opened an I Love This Bar Grill franchise in Mesa, The chain also has locations in Las Oklahoma City and Kansas City, Mo., and plans to open a locatio in Auburn Hills, Mich., later this year. I Love This Bar Grill should be a majort entertainment attraction forWest End, helpinb set it apart from other local malls, said Mark vice president of real estate at Cincinnati-base d Jeffrey R. Anderson Real Estate Inc., whicj was retained by developer Duke Realty basedin Indianapolis, to fill the project’s 331,000-square-foot retail component with tenants.
“I think it’s even goinf to draw from way outsidde of Minneapolisand St. Paul,” Fallon “That’s the idea behind it.” Other majotr West End tenants will include anupscale Roundy’s grocery and a Kerasotesa ShowPlace Theatre 14-screen movie complex. I Love This Bar Grill should be successful at West End becaus Minnesota is a strong market for country musi andthere aren’t any significany music venues in the wester suburbs, said Dick Grones, principal at Edina-based Cambridge Commerciakl Realty. “Live entertainment in the suburbs is reallyt hardto find.
And that’s a strong ingredient to stir into the mix for the centerr because it brings an additionak demographic that they might not get I Love ThisBar & Grill selected West End over the , wher e another celebrity-backed country music bar, Gatlin Brothersa Music City Grille, used to have a Costs may have played a role in that but I Love This Bar Grill will generate more attention at West End than it woulfd have at Mall of Grones said. “They can reallyu stand out [at West End] and not have so many othet entertainment venues tocompete with.
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