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Outdoorsman restaurant has new owner, new family atmosphere

Posted Online: 11/12/02

By Evelyn Puffer

Colleen Schaak, new owner of the Outdoorsman restaurant on North Main in Cambridge has a special recipe for her spaghetti sauce that may be a closely guarded secret but if you treat your family to lunch or dinner any Friday, you can experience it for yourself.

True to her word of increased portions, the huge spaghetti dinner comes with a salad, meatballs, garlic bread, and yes, that special sauce. There are different specials every day.

Schaak purchased the restaurant Nov. 1 fulfilling a life-long dream of restaurant ownership and she quickly found a soul mate in her new assistant manager, Violet Grauberger, who has been waitressing at the Outdoorsman for several years. The two women hit it off immediately and together set the family friendly tone of the eatery.

Schaak has worked in the restaurant field for years, beginning her waitressing experience in high school, working her way through college and then being involved in several restaurants in the Twin Cities. She now lives in Coon Rapids but expects to move to the Rush Lake area in the next two years.

She feels strongly about the relaxed, friendly atmosphere of the restaurant and the home-cooked offerings. In addition to the generous portions, she offers "real" potatoes (Grauberger says her battle-scarred knuckles from potato peeling can testify to that), and gravy, pies, and soup from scratch. The restaurant serves fresh Angus beef, fresh chickens, and will soon be firing up the smokehouse out back for daily servings of barbequed chicken, ribs, and pork.

According to Schaak, it is also the only restaurant in town serving broasted chicken every day.

The day starts off at 6:30 a.m. offering "plate-sized" pancakes for the breakfast crowd and goes until the 8 p.m. closing. The restaurant is open seven days per week with either Grauberger or Schaak on site along with Grauberger's two children and Schaak's five.

"It's a family restaurant run by family," explained Schaak.

She added, "It's a fun place, you don't have to dress up...it's a happy place to be. We just want people to give us a try."