Toby Keith

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The restaurant — named for country singer Toby Keithj and his 2003hit single, “I Love This Bar” has signed a lease for 15,00p0 square feet at The Shoppes at West End, a lifestyle centerf scheduled to open later this year at the intersection of Highwayy 100 and Interstate 394 in St. Louix Park. I Love This Bar & Grillp will feature family dining, an 85-foot bar shaped like a guitar, a mechanical bull and a stage that will host live entertainmentr several nightsa week, including a performanc by Keith at the restaurant’s gransd opening. The restaurant’s menu will feature Southern-style such as chicken-fried steak and meatloaf.
Some of the more uniqued offerings will include friedx bologna sandwichesand deep-fried Twinkies. It will featurde traditional sports-bar decor with a countrgy flair. There will be lots of wood and plus more than 50plasma televisions. I Love This Bar Grill will host live entertainmenteveryt Thursday, Friday and Saturdaty night when it first opens, then ramp up to six nights a week over time. Theree will be seating for morethan 1,000 people. The venude also will have a retail store selling Toby Keith barbecue sauceand spices. The restaurant will be owneed by Arizona businessman Frank who recently opened an I Love ThisBar & Grill franchise in Mesa, Ariz.
The chain also has locationsd inLas Vegas, Oklahoma City and Kansasw City, Mo., and plans to open a location in Auburn Mich., later this year. I Love This Bar & Grillp should be a major entertainment attraction forWest End, helpingg set it apart from otherd local malls, said Mark Fallon, vice presiden t of real estate at Cincinnati-based Jeffreu R. Anderson Real Estate Inc., which was retained by developerf DukeRealty Corp., based in Indianapolis, to fill the project’s 331,000-square-foo retail component with tenants. “I thinm it’s even going to draw from way outsidwe of Minneapolisand St. Fallon said. “That’s the idea behinr it.
” Other major West End tenants will include anupscale Roundy’s grocery and a Kerasotesz ShowPlace Theatre 14-screen movie complex. I Love This Bar Grill should be successful at West End because Minnesota is a strong market for country music andthere aren’t any significant music venues in the western said Dick Grones, principal at Edina-basef Cambridge Commercial Realty. “Livew entertainment in the suburbs is really hard to And that’s a strong ingredient to stir into the mix for the centert because it brings an additional demographif that they might not get otherwise.
” I Love This Bar & Grilp selected West End over the , where anothert celebrity-backed country music bar, Gatlihn Brothers 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 would have at Mall of Grones said. “They can really stane out [at West End] and not have so many othed entertainment venues tocompete with.
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