The Lunds and Byerly's Kitchen in Wayzata is like nothing the grocery company has done before.
About a third of the size of a conventional grocery store, Lunds and Byerly's Kitchen focuses on prepared foods and features a large restaurant complete with beer and wine. The hybrid store opened last month, and more are likely if it succeeds.
The "kitchen" is part of a growth story at Edina-based Lund Food Holdings that has run counter to the relative hard times in recent years at Twin Cities' other traditional grocery chains, Cub Foods and Rainbow Foods.
Lunds has opened new stores and increased market share, thriving in a higher-income niche. Cub and Rainbow have been caught in the middle, losing business to low-price chains like Wal-Mart and Target.
"Lunds has been executing well," said David Livingston, a Wisconsin-based supermarket industry analyst. "They have differentiated themselves and given people a compelling reason to come to their stores."
The company plans to open a new Lunds supermarket — its 13th — next month in downtown St. Paul. But perhaps its most interesting project right now is Lunds and Byerly's Kitchen, which combines the names of Lunds' two Twin Cities chains.
It's got some grocery basics, but beverages and produce stand out. There's a cheese shop and butcher's counter too. But much of its 17,000 square feet is devoted to prepared food, from sandwiches to sushi to scads of hot dishes and salads, all made on site.
"This is a chance to push the food service envelope, " said CEO Tres Lund, whose grandfather founded Lunds 75 years ago. "Everything here is geared toward packaged food to go, " he said as he walked through Lunds and Byerly's Kitchen. "It's really geared toward dine in and takeout."