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Justin Sutherland to open restaurant at Grand View Lodge in Minnesota

Northern Soul Smokehouse is slated to open this summer

Bret Thorn, Senior Food Editor

June 8, 2023

2 Min Read
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Justin Sutherland, the Minnesota chef known nationally for competing on Top Chef and winning Iron Chef America, is opening a restaurant at Grand View Lodge Spa and Golf Resort in Nisswa, Minn., about 150 miles northwest of St. Paul, where he is based.

Northern Soul Smokehouse, which he will be opening with the property’s executive chef, Bill Coyle, will feature Sutherland’s barbecue dishes as well as a high-end bourbon list.

“We are excited and motivated to elevate the culinary programming at Grand View Lodge to bring a completely unique and award-winning offering to our collection of dining experiences,” the property’s general manager, Dennis Wilson, said in a press release announcing the new restaurant, which is slated to open this summer. “We're extremely fortunate to partner with someone as talented as Justin and are confident that both new and legacy guests at our beloved resort will be thrilled to experience his latest culinary concept.”

Sutherland already operates a number of restaurants in the Twin Cities area, including Handsome Hog and Noyes and Cutler in St. Paul and Northern Soul the Restaurant in Minneapolis. He also has two Big E egg sandwich shops, one in St. Paul and one in Portland, Ore.

Additionally, he is the culinary consultant for Allilanz Field, home of the Minnesota United soccer team.

Related:Justin Sutherland shares cooking tips as wild Alaska salmon season opens

According to the Grand View, which is a Cote Family Destinations property, the idea of a partnership with Sutherland was sparked when he was a keynote speaker at the resort’s de’Vine Wine & Culinary Weekend in February of 2020.

The new restaurant will be based on Sutherland’s 2022 cookbook, Northern Soul, and will feature northern influenced Southern cooking including smoked brisket with bourbon barbecues sauce and house-made pickles, a Carolina pulled pork sandwich, an oyster po boy, and chicken fried ribs with Cry Baby Craig’s hot honey from a company based in Faribault, Minn., in the southern part of the state.

“I am absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with Grand View Lodge and Chef Coyle to bring the flavors of Northern Soul even further North,” Sutherland in the release. “A quintessential getaway from the cities, Grand View’s culinary offerings are an integral part of the destination and experience and I’m honored to be a part of it.”

Coyle, who has been with Grand View Lodge since 2021, will oversee the restaurant’s operations. He also is in charge of Italian Gardens, an Italian restaurant that recently opened on the property.

Apart from the Grand View, Cote Family properties include Camp Lincoln and Camp Lake Hubert in Lake Hubert, Minn., and Tanque Verde Ranch outside of Tucson, Ariz.

Related:Jarred Russell brings a new style of leadership to Fruition in Denver

 

Contact Bret Thorn at [email protected] 

 

 

About the Author

Bret Thorn

Senior Food Editor, Nation's Restaurant News

Senior Food & Beverage Editor

Bret Thorn is senior food & beverage editor for Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality for Informa’s Restaurants and Food Group, with responsibility for spotting and reporting on food and beverage trends across the country for both publications as well as guiding overall F&B coverage. 

He is the host of a podcast, In the Kitchen with Bret Thorn, which features interviews with chefs, food & beverage authorities and other experts in foodservice operations.

From 2005 to 2008 he also wrote the Kitchen Dish column for The New York Sun, covering restaurant openings and chefs’ career moves in New York City.

He joined Nation’s Restaurant News in 1999 after spending about five years in Thailand, where he wrote articles about business, banking and finance as well as restaurant reviews and food columns for Manager magazine and Asia Times newspaper. He joined Restaurant Hospitality’s staff in 2016 while retaining his position at NRN. 

A magna cum laude graduate of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., with a bachelor’s degree in history, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Thorn also studied traditional French cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris. He spent his junior year of college in China, studying Chinese language, history and culture for a semester each at Nanjing University and Beijing University. While in Beijing, he also worked for ABC News during the protests and ultimate crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Thorn’s monthly column in Nation’s Restaurant News won the 2006 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award for best staff-written editorial or opinion column.

He served as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council, or IFEC, in 2005.

Thorn wrote the entry on comfort food in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, 2nd edition, published in 2012. He also wrote a history of plated desserts for the Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, published in 2015.

He was inducted into the Disciples d’Escoffier in 2014.

A Colorado native originally from Denver, Thorn lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Bret Thorn’s areas of expertise include food and beverage trends in restaurants, French cuisine, the cuisines of Asia in general and Thailand in particular, restaurant operations and service trends. 

Bret Thorn’s Experience: 

Nation’s Restaurant News, food & beverage editor, 1999-Present
New York Sun, columnist, 2005-2008 
Asia Times, sub editor, 1995-1997
Manager magazine, senior editor and restaurant critic, 1992-1997
ABC News, runner, May-July, 1989

Education:
Tufts University, BA in history, 1990
Peking University, studied Chinese language, spring, 1989
Nanjing University, studied Chinese language and culture, fall, 1988 
Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine, Cértificat Elémentaire, 1986

Email: [email protected]

Social Media:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-thorn-468b663/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.thorn.52
Twitter: @foodwriterdiary
Instagram: @foodwriterdiary

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