New restaurant joins the Stillwater community

New restaurant joins the Stillwater community

With collectively over 20 years of restaurant experience under their belt, Brad Nordeen and Joe Ehlenz both 2002 graduates from Stillwater will be opening up a new restaurant located in downtown Stillwater. The restaurant will be located directly off of Main Street right next to Marx. The restaurant will be named LOLO American Kitchen and Craft Bar, LOLO’s for short.

LOLO’s will be both Brad and Joe’s first restaurant that they have ownership of.  Brad and Joe both plan on the restaurant opening March 1, 2014.  LOLO’s is an acronym for locally owned, locally operated.

Brad Nordeen received his restaurant experience by working at Phil Tara’s Hideaway as well as 112 Eatery in Minneapolis.

Joe Ehlenz met Nordeen while managing at Phil Tara’s Hideaway. After leaving Phil Tara’s Ehlenz went on to manage at Lake Elmo Inn and Smalley’s Barbeque.

Speaking to a St. Croix Valley journalist Ehlenz said, “When you’re open, time flies… I can’t imagine life at a corporate job, in a cubicle, inputting data… to me that doesn’t seem very fun at all.”

Nordeen will be the head chef while Ehlenz will be the restaurant manager.

Ehlenz explains the restaurant role situation, “I’ve always been more of the front-end guy… I love what I do. I can’t say I’m blind when it comes to skills in the kitchen, but I can’t hold a candle to Brad.”

Local businesses are helping the two entrepreneurs with funding including Eagle Valley Bank and Kurt Kohl the owner of Olive’s Fresh Pizza Bar.

When Nordeen is asked what he is going to do with the money he explained, “Pay everybody back… If we wanted to be rich, we wouldn’t be in the restaurant business.”

Nordeen and Ehlenz are not opening just to beat out the competition or become the number one restaurant in Stillwater, they simply just want to own a business and make a good living doing it.

“I think they look at it as another member of their teams going on to do something grander… We don’t want to step on anyone’s toes, or mimic or copycat,” explained Ehlenz.

LOLO’s will be designed to seat 50-60 guests.  The sample menu that can be seen on their ‘LOLO American Kitchen’ facebook page consists of everything from a nine dollar burger to an $18 steak.  Their facebook page is growing in popularity with already 500 plus likes, LOLO’s has set the stage to be the next big restaurant in downtown.