‘Grill’ opens in Towne Centre

Published 1:06 pm Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Lake Forest Park

A consistent line of 20 people or more waited outside the Lake Forest Bar &Grill at Towne Centre on May 16 to try a number of menu items and drinks.

Inside, people of all ages filtered through a buffet lineup of coconut crusted prawns, Mediterranean salad, grilled chicken club sandwiches, mini burgers, garlic mashed potatoes and flourless chocolate cake. Food sizzled. Drinks were poured. Stomachs were filled. And all before Lake Forest Park’s new restaurant officially opened.

About 500 people took part in the benefit for Friends of Third Place Commons throughout the four-hour event. For $15, customers were encouraged to try the menu items and order drinks. Proceeds were donated to the nonprofit organization.

“We’ve been waiting for this place to open since we moved to the area five years ago,” Lake Forest Park resident Carl Childs said. “We walked here and we’ll walk home.”

A restaurant opening closer to home began generating excitement in the city months before the doors opened for the first time and has only increased leading up to the restaurant’s official opening on May 21.

“What we’re hearing is people are excited to have a restaurant in the area,” Ken Batali of Batali Associates said.

The new restaurant is the fourth neighborhood bar and grill owned by Shoreline resident John Schmidt, who has 30 years of experience in the restaurant business. He worked at Ray’s Boathouse for ten years, he said, and learned a lot about a “casual Northwest style” where people felt comfortable. In the early 1990s, he founded Taco Del Mar with his brother. When the chain expanded he decided to take on another venture and started Greenlake Bar &Grill in October 2000. Four years later, Eastlake Bar &Grill opened and a third restaurant, Southlake Grill, opened in February 2007.

Each of his restaurants may look a little different, Schmidt said, but each offers an “approachable” atmosphere.

“We’re casual, we’re friendly. We’re an American-style bar and grill,” Schmidt said. “We want to be your everyday joint … where you can come in on a date, or where you can come in with your friends, or with a screaming baby and feel like you’re welcome here — and you are.”

Some have asked Schmidt, 43, why “Park” isn’t a part of the restaurant’s name.

“Lake Forest Park Bar &Grill was too much of a mouthful, nothing against Lake Forest Park,” he said. However, he does own a Taco Del Mar in Lake Forest, Mich.

In a few weeks, the restaurant will open for breakfast and in June he plans to add about 30 tables to an outdoor patio. Schmidt also has ideas for the city’s Oktoberfest during the close of the Farmers Market.

“It feels natural here … like it’s going to be a perfect fit,” he said.