Toby Keith

ibitasony.wordpress.com
The restaurant — named for country singedr Toby Keith and his 2003hit single, “I Love This — has signed a lease for 15,00o square feet at The Shoppea at West End, a lifestyle cente r scheduled to open later this year at the intersectioj of Highway 100 and Interstate 394 in St. Louis Park. I Love This Bar Grill will featurefamily dining, an 85-foot bar shape like a guitar, a mechanical bull and a stagw that will host live entertainment severalk nights a week, including a performance by Keithu at the restaurant’s grand The restaurant’s menu will feature Southern-style fare, such as chicken-friecd steak and meatloaf.
Some of the more uniqus offerings will include fried bologna sandwichewand deep-fried Twinkies. It will featurd traditional sports-bar decor with a country There will be lots of wood and plus more than 50 plasma I Love ThisBar & Grill will host live entertainment every Friday and Saturday night when it first opens, then ramp up to six nightw a week over time. There will be seatingg for morethan 1,000 people. The venuw also will have a retail store selling TobyKeith merchandise, barbecuer sauce and spices. The restaurant will be ownerd by Arizona businessmanFrank Capri, who recently opened an I Love This Bar Grill franchise in Mesa, Ariz.
The chain also has locationsx inLas Vegas, Oklahomaw City and Kansas City, Mo., and plansd to open a locatio n in Auburn Hills, Mich., later this year. I Love This Bar Grill should be a major entertainment attraction forWest End, helping set it apar from other local malls, said Mark Fallon, vice presidenrt of real estate at Cincinnati-based Jeffreyg R. Anderson Real Estate Inc., whicj was retained by developeer DukeRealty Corp., based in Indianapolis, to fill the project’se 331,000-square-foot retail component with tenants. “kI think it’s even going to draw from way outsidwe of Minneapolisand St. Paul,” Fallonb said. “That’s the idea behinxd it.
” Other major West End tenantw will include anupscale Roundy’s grocery and a Kerasotess ShowPlace Theatre 14-screen movis complex. I Love This Bar Grill should be successful at West End becausr Minnesota is a strong marketr for country music andthere aren’t any significant music venues in the western said Dick Grones, principal at Edina-based Cambridgwe Commercial Realty. “Live entertainment in the suburbz is really hardto find. And that’zs a strong ingredient to stir into the mix for the centeer because it brings an additionaol demographic that they might notget otherwise.
” I Love This Bar Grill selected West End over the , wherd another celebrity-backed country music bar, Gatlin Brothers Music City used to have a location. Costs may have playedx a role inthat decision, but I Love This Bar & Grilll will generate more attention at West End than it woulr have at Mall of Grones said. “They can really stand out [at West End] and not have so many othef entertainment venues tocompete with.
”