(lively rhythmic music) - We love being in Willmar.

We all grew up here, we have family here, and we're trying to do something that, you know, brings new breath to what's going on in town.

- To me, I considered Willmar a big city almost, growing up, and Paynesville's only 2,000, Willmar being a little over 20 now.

There's a ton of people that are so friendly and, like, outgoing, and honestly interested in making sure that businesses survive and prosper in this town.

- Foxhole Brewhouse was located downtown Willmar for the past eight years, taking our location from downtown into this new venue that we have, adding food and cocktails to the menu to kinda broaden the horizon of where we can expand our beer to get to new people.

(lively rhythmic music) I'm not good at the beer part, that's all Ryan, so (laughs).

- And no, brewers don't get to drink beer all day while they brew (laughs).

So getting started brewing, I actually met a guy on our bowling team who started getting me into drinking craft beer, and then my wife, Liv, had a friend, and he told me, "Well, you can make your own beer," and I was, like, "Excuse me?"

Get 'em all good and clean.

I think, when I'm making beer, I lean a little more towards the scientific side.

I really enjoy the water chemistry, the biology of all the yeast.

Designing recipes, I love doing that.

You get to do a little research on styles, you know, potential hops that you're gonna put in beers.

If you're doing any of the beers with the hops, I'm, like, yeah, that's good to smell.

And then even making little one-off kegs, so maybe adding some fruit to a certain style of beer and just trying to experiment with those, and, I don't know, I love it.

I didn't think, when I was younger, that I was going to wanna to be, like, a business owner, but I don't think you could understand it when you're younger, how it's great.

Like it's more pressure, don't get me wrong, but I kinda enjoy that.

So you kinda have to, like, budget your time and plan on two, three different projects in a day, what you're gonna get done.

If not, maybe we'll cut out a little early and head to the lake.

(lively rhythmic music) - Liv and Ryan are the husband and wife team, so they originally started Foxhole Brewhouse, and then my wife, Cari, and I joined on.

- Expanding just from a small little microbrewery downtown and then moving out here, I don't even know the size difference.

I think our downtown space was only about 1,800 square feet, and I think our patio is bigger than that, and now we're in this huge, two-story building.

I had no vision of this whatsoever (laughs).

I think I was actually probably the one who said I didn't wanna really ever get into food in that combination, but it was necessary.

- In the COVID era, we were able to sit down with Liv and Ryan and have time to figure out like, what do we wanna to do next?

We always wanna make sure that we're relevant and doing things that people can count on us.

- People kinda were losing that luster of going to a microbrewery and just sitting down, and just always having a beer, with no food.

It's Minnesota, you need your patio.

This was about one of the only properties we could find that had a beautiful lake view.

- We're the only restaurant in Willmar, in a city of lakes, that has a view of the lake.

The sunsets are absolutely fantastic.

- Yeah, it was probably our smartest move we ever made.

(lively rhythmic music) - We wanted to bring the old brewery into the new era, and part of that is, you know, having music, having events, and then trying to bridge that gap of we're a restaurant, but we still wanna to have a brewery vibe so that people feel like they can come and relax and hang out.

Artwork was done by Eva Margaret, she is Liv's sister.

She's done the murals, she did our original logo, and then she also has other artwork throughout the building, so been nice to have her, and use her talents as part of our decor, and gallery for her.

(upbeat music) This is kinda my hobby.

I love this, I love this industry, I love doing what I'm doing.

- Working in this industry and this business is pretty much like working in a tight family.

Grant and Cari, we've known them for years, then you know, hiring Chef Charlie, that was a huge addition.

- I was working across the lake at the golf course, and there was a post on Facebook that said that they were looking for someone to run their kitchen at the new location.

End cuts of our prime rib from the weekend.

I had worked at the old Sheep Shedde restaurant in Olivia for years and years, and I moved to the Twin Cities and went to the Le Cordon Bleu program of Culinary Arts at Brown College.

I think what brought me to the culinary arts is just that every day's different.

There's a sense of urgency, there's a sense of pride, and doing that through food is just, that's my language.

These are Colorado peaches.

These'll be a peach and brie melt, so it's the grilled peaches with brie cheese, arugula, and prosciutto.

- What I'm really proud of is the way that we designed the menu.

We have a core menu that has a lot of staples on it, so buffalo wings, burgers, some unique stuff, like our deep-fried deviled eggs, short rib egg rolls.

We also have a chef menu that we change out quite often, every four to six weeks, putting my head and Grant's head together and we just kinda bounce ideas back and forth so we can keep people that are in the community coming back.

There's always something they can count on, but something that's intriguing and new that they might wanna try.

(gentle rhythmic music) - Two years into this, we've had servers and other workers in the kitchen that you really start to get to know a little bit more about them, and I think that's one of the reasons so many customers enjoy it is they see a lot of the banter and the joking around, like all our employees are very upbeat, fun.

- Exciting, different, challenging, it's rewarding in your own eyes, it's rewarding in people telling you, "Oh, this is so amazing!"

That definitely makes it all worth it.

- It really boils down to wanting to make people happy, and food's an easy way to do that, because everybody needs it, everybody loves it, and when you can give them the food and sustenance, their bellies are full, get a couple of beers in 'em, they're having a blast, like, there's no better feeling.

(lively rhythmic music)