The first new hotel to open on Lake Minnetonka in 100 years, The Shoreline, is open for business.
Chef Josh Brown and owner Kelly Olsen went to Blaine High School together. Brown knew Olsen had a major project in the works, but he had no idea she was offering him a job when they met onsite.
"As we're looking out over Lake Minnetonka, she looks at me and she says, 'well, chef, what do you think?' And I said, 'I think you are gonna be wildly successful here, Kelly.' And she said, 'no chef, what do you think?' I was like, OK, well that's - that's quite a different conversation that we need to have," Brown explained about their first meeting.
Of course, Brown accepted. How couldn't he? He was going to run the kitchen which overlooks one of the state's most famous watery landmarks.
"I can't even imagine what the holidays are going to be on the lake, as we get boaters coming up on Lake Minnetonka during those fun seasons," Brown adds.
Although there were still some last minute tweaks to the 27 room hotel, Brown says visitors are impressed with the transformation of what used to be just an ordinary office building.
"A lot of people that come in here have been coming in this building for a long, long time and they're like, 'wow, this is spectacular.' Not only are they like blown away with the transformation of what it is now, it's also bringing them back to this, what I would assume was, a pretty cool place in their life or a pretty cool time in their life," Brown said. "So it's been a really, really fun morning."
One of the unique amenities of the 27 room hotel is that the kitchen patio overlooks 15-feet of groomed beach along the lake.
The dining is at Cabana Anna's (named thoughtfully after Olsen’s grandmother, Anna), where Brown and company are combining Floridian coastal cuisine with the comfort foods of Minnesota.
The new hotel is located in Spring Park, along Shoreline Drive.
