James Beard-nominated chef, former Vikings player among those featured in new Minnesota food hall

In the restaurant world, the concept often comes before the search for real estate. But for Craig and Brianne Hern, it was the other way around.

Brianne, who was born in St. Joseph, Minn., and graduated from the College of St. Benedict, had just retired from a career in education. The former middle school teacher, principal and administrator and her husband fell in love with a vacant lot on the edge of downtown that once held a car repair shop.

“We jumped at the opportunity because of the location right at the entrance of St. Joe,” Craig said. “We’ve always talked about wanting to do a business but we didn’t know what it was; we just wanted to do something to impact our community.”

They purchased the lot and put up a sign with a QR code, their version of a suggestion box, asking others to chime in with ideas on what they should do with the property. The couple received hundreds of responses and called everybody who left a phone number. Some keywords started to emerge: restaurant, food, coffee, drink, family, gather.

“The feedback we were getting was to create a community gathering space, and the food hall concept hits that mark,” Craig said.

And that’s how the House Food and Tap, featuring four restaurant concepts and a beer, wine and soda tap wall, was born. The food hall was launched last weekend with a soft opening, followed by the official grand opening this week.

When searching for restaurant tenants, the Herns first reached out to Josh Kaeter of Eminent Coffee Roasters, one of the survey respondents, to open a coffee counter. Next, they signed on chefs Mateo Mackbee and Erin Lucas, who run Krewe restaurant and Flour & Flower bakery/floral shop, respectively, in downtown St. Joseph after hearing they were looking for a space to spotlight their popular smashburgers. The Herns also asked Mackbee to play a larger role developing the food hall, and Lucas to feature her pastries.

“I think Mateo, being in the industry, he understood the power of being in a collaborative space, so we asked him to be our chef consultant. The layout, the flow, the front cooking area, the rear galley — he was pivotal to that,” Craig said. “Then with Erin, knowing we had the coffee part of it, we felt that her Flour and Flower providing the pastries was the perfect harmony.”

As the food hall came together, they were introduced to former Vikings player-turned-chef Esera Tuaolo, who was looking for a place to offer his native Hawaiian fare. “With Esera, he had a restaurant in P-Town [Provincetown], Massachusetts ... and he was interested in reopening in Minnesota and a mutual friend connected us,” Craig said. “It was exactly what we were looking for — we wanted to add to St. Joe and not compete with anything that was here. And he had just one of those unique food cuisines that nobody has really experienced in this area.”

Also key to their philosophy was to bring up-and-comers into the mix, so they tapped a duo with a passion for pizzas fresh to the industry but not new to serving them for large gatherings. The Herns said it’s a way to give startups an opportunity to open a restaurant and showcase their talents with less overhead. The final component was the drink program, which features 30 taps on a self-pour wall (beers, wines, ciders and seltzers) as well as nonalcoholic options like sodas.

Two years after purchasing the property and now with the doors open, the Herns hope they’re hitting all the right notes with residents, college students at nearby St. Ben’s and St. John’s University, as well as those passing through town.

“The idea is that it’s really family-friendly and there’s something for everybody from kids, to parents to grandparents to students,” Craig said. “We just really wanted to create a gathering space for our community, we wanted an inclusive space for everybody.”

Here’s a look at the four concepts behind the House Food and Tap:

Since hanging up his football helmet, former Vikings defensive tackle Esera Tuaolo has put on a chef’s hat. “I’ve been catering for the last 25 years I’ve been part of a Taste of NFL for five years and I was the executive chef for a restaurant in P-town,” said Tuaolo, who’s also an author, singer and anti-bullying advocate.

Now he has a place in Minnesota to call his own, where he can spotlight the flavors of his native Hawaii, as well as pay tribute to his mom, who passed away five months ago. “All the sauces are my mom’s recipes,” he said. “This is my culture, my food growing up, and I wanted to bring it here to the mainland.”

Menu: Island favorites such as poke bowls, seaweed salads, musubi as well as plate lunches with proteins such as grilled pineapple barbecue chicken, kalbi short ribs and teriyaki beef share space on the menu.

We’ve tried several Spam musubi wraps in our day, but this one — with quality fresh seaweed wrap that softens when it hits the warm sushi rice drizzled in seasoning — is among the best in class. So is the pineapple chicken that’s nicely charred on the outside, tender in the middle and dressed with a flavorful and bright sauce. Like the other Hawaiian lunchbox specials, accompaniments such as traditional macaroni salad and rice are among the choices for sides. The plate lunches are “kahuna size,” and judging from the large portions, it’s no understatement. Prices: $16-$22.

It’s been a banner year for Mateo Mackbee and fiancée Erin Lucas. First, the New York Times named Flour & Flower helmed by Lucas among the 22 top U.S. bakeries. A month later, Mackbee was named a 2025 semifinalist for the Best Chef: Midwest James Beard Awards for Krewe, their restaurant next door that’s become a destination for New Orleans fare and more. That includes the smash burger (with buns from Flour & Flower) available on the lunch menu that now gets star status day and night at the new food hall. “We’ve had the burger for almost eight years now and it has kind of a cult following. People are continuing to ask if they can have it at night and we have to say no, because we don’t want to have 14 of them on the flat top,” Mackbee said. “This is a very logical extension.”

Menu: Burgers are available with your choice of a single, double, triple or even quadruple patty. Anyway you stack it, the burgers get topped with classic white American cheese, house pickles and diced onions and then are wrapped in foil to steam-meld those ingredients together before making their way onto your plate. Waffle fries are available as a side. Eventually, milkshakes will be added. Prices: Burgers $8 to $16, fries $4-$8.

Friends Tyler Thieschafer and Michael Gauthier have been making pizzas out of one of their garages for years. Now, they’re taking the show on the road with their Neapolitan-style pizzas. “Even though I love all sorts of pizzas, when I was in Italy I had a Margherita pizza for lunch one day and I said, ‘I want to eat that every day of my life,’” Gauthier said of his love for the Naples staple, which features a thin crust cooked at high temperatures in a brick oven to meld ingredients and create blistering, crisp edges.

Menu: Garlic cheese bread, salads and build-your-own pizzas. Or, choose from eight original varieties, including our pick, the Loaded Jay with a house tomato sauce, shredded pepperoni, sausage, ham and mozzarella. Among the vegetarian options, there’s a tangy Lemon Ricotta pizza with a creamy herb lemon ricotta, mozzarella and arugula drizzled with a balsamic glaze and lemon vinaigrette that’s a true original. Prices: starters and salads $6-$12, pizzas $12-$18.

Josh Kaeter, a Marine Corps veteran, is behind the food hall’s coffee operation that emphasizes locally roasted, single-origin beans. His time in college working for a company in South Carolina was formative in nurturing his love for coffee. “When I got there I said I wanted to learn how to roast coffee and will you teach me. They said yes, but you have to learn all of this stuff first – the brewing, the extraction, every part,” said Kaeter, whose mobile espresso carts can be spotted at the St. Joseph and St. Cloud farmers' markets as well as pop-up events. “When I moved back home to Sauk Rapids, I sold everything I owned, bought a coffee roaster and three years later, here we are.”

Menu: Drip coffees, cappuccinos, lattes and more. In addition to coffee, teas and smoothies are also available. We enjoyed the matcha latte; neighboring food hall tenant Esera Tuaolo chimed in that the chai and macchiato lattes were also wonderful. In addition to java, Flour & Flower pastries are available. Items rotate daily, but if the fruit and cream cheese-laced cherry and apricot Danish or the savory spinach artichoke and feta croissant happen to be available, be sure to make that part of your order. Prices $4-$7.

Where: 13 2nd Av. NW., St. Joseph, Minn., 320-271-3133, thehousefoodandtap.com.

Hours: Tue.-Fri 7 a.m.-10 p.m., Sat. 8 a.m.-10 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. It’s worth noting that the coffee counter is up and running when doors open, while main food service runs 11 a.m.-8 p.m. (until 4 p.m. on Sundays).

Parking: A dedicated parking lot across the street has about 40 spaces, including ADA-friendly.

Accessibility: One-story; ADA-friendly.