New Eagan Restaurant Plans to Put New Twists on Classic Bar Fare

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What happens when you add teriyaki-grilled pineapple and wasabi mayonnaise to an ordinary hamburger?

Dining enthusiasts can find out on July 30, when the Eagan's newest restaurant, the Lone Oak Grill, opens at 3010 Eagandale Place—the former site of the .

The 9,800-square-foot building is currently undergoing a floor-to-ceiling renovation designed to strip away the last vestiges of Joe Senser's and create an entirely new atmosphere, according to owner Joel Lehman. Once complete, the new restaurant will have roughly 300 seats, 36 craft beers on tap and bocce ball courts, among other features, Lehman said.

Lehman, who owns Trattoria da Vinci, an Italian restaurant in Lowertown in St. Paul, is no newcomer to the restaurant business. Lehman opened Trattoria 13 years ago, when the Minnesota Twins were eyeing a stadium site in St. Paul. While the stadium never materialized, Trattoria benefitted from a boom of restaurants and bars that turned Lowertown into a trendier neighborhood, he said.

While Trattoria is Lehman's only previous restaurant venture, he has owned the building at 3010 Eagandale for more than a decade, and leased it to Cracker Barrel and Joe Senser's prior to the closure of both eateries.

Lehman plans to bring a new twist to many of the standbys diners have come to expect from a sports bar. In addition to the teriyaki pineapple and wasabi mayonnaise burger, the grill will have cheese curds with a multi-berry dipping sauce, onion rings battered with a beer of the customer's choice and other culinary eccentricities.

"It’s not freezer-to-fryer food," Lehman said. "None of it is going to be average, everything's got a twist to it, everything's going to be kicked up a little bit."

Lehman is pumping more than $1 million into the restaurant renovations, and anticipates employing as many as 120 full- and part-time workers. He is also expanding the patio and installing a new audio-visual system in the restaurant. Eventually, Lehman also plans to roll out Saturday and Sunday brunch at the grill.

A Cottage Grove resident, Lehman grew up in Burnsville. The site of the new restaurant is ideal, he said, because of the location's proximity to several hotels, large businesses and residential areas.

“We are defintely excited to get this place open and get our product out to the people," Lehman said.