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DeRusha Eats: Marianne's Kitchen In Shoreview

SHOREVIEW (WCCO) -- In a part of town where many restaurants are named after Arby or Wendy, it's easy to miss Marianne tucked away in a Shoreview strip mall. But Marianne's Kitchen is trying to bring something to this northern Twin Cities suburb that's been lacking.

"Our hope is that we show people it's possible to have fast food that's better than most of the fast food they're eating right now," Linda Grohoski, co-owner of Marianne's Kitchen, said.

Linda Grohoski and her daughter Anne Leeper run the restaurant at the corner of Lexington Avenue and County Road E.

"This is really a family business. There are three of us. Well, there's two of us, and my husband does work -- sometimes," Grohoski said, laughing.

Marianne's Kitchen is inspired by memories of eating farm-fresh food at Linda's aunt, Marian's kitchen.

"We opened this because there just wasn't anywhere to eat in Shoreview," Grohoski said.

Mostly everything is from scratch, including the homemade vegetables, pickles and jams. If it looks like a farmers market in here -- that's because of Linda Grohoski and John Grohoski's background.

"I'm actually a research methodologist and my husband was a CIO at a corporation. But we started doing farmer's markets in about 1998 because he's a beekeeper," Linda Grohoski explained.

After more than a decade under a tent, they traded up to a roof. John's beekeeping hobby is still on display in the restaurant, with beautiful Shoreview Honey.

"Our corn chowder is made from potatoes from our farm - lots of good farmers from around here like the Heidel Farm in Little Canada we do a lot of business with," Linda Grohoski said.

Anne Leeper spent 11 years cooking at chain restaurants, she's designed the menu to be fresh, healthy and still fast.

She said she never imagined she'd be working with her mom every day.

"No, unless it was a nightmare," said laughed.

Everything's affordably priced too: sandwiches around $8 or $9. They make a great Cubano, with honey ham and roast pork.

But more than great food, Marianne's Kitchen is a throwback to Aunt Marian's kitchen: where you're surrounded by love of food and love of family.

"We have a couple who now has two children, they bring their kids in and say 'I want our kids to know about places like this, that places like this exist,'" Linda Grohoski said.

Marianne's Kitchen is open Monday-Wednesday from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m., and Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. It's located at 3600 Lexington Avenue N in Shoreview.

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