Charlie's Main Street Cafe, a longtime restaurant on Main Street in Minot, has new owners and a new look.
Becky Lee, who formerly lived near Anchorage, Alaska, and Geewon Anderson, of Anchorage, and Simon and Hennah Lee, of South Korea, are the new owners.
The change of ownership was official May 17.
Article Photos
Eloise Ogden/MDN
Charlie’s Main Street Cafe in Minot has a new look following a complete renovation of the restaurant. The menu remains American cuisine.
Former owners Randy and Michelle Brown, of Minot, have remained with the business, with Randy as the manager and Michelle waits tables. The Browns owned Charlie's for 14 years.
Charlie's also has undergone a complete renovation throughout the facility. The renovations include new booths and tables, flooring, lighting and ceiling tiles. They also expanded and renovated the bathrooms.
The restaurant purchase included upstairs apartments. "They're remodeling the apartments upstairs. There's 10 of them," Randy Brown said.
Brown said the restaurant doesn't look at all like it was. "They renovated pretty much from scratch," he said.
He said there's a couple finishing touches left but otherwise the restaurant renovation has been completed.
Virturally all former staff of Charlie's about a dozen people have remained with the new ownership, he said.
He also said new menus will be coming out in a couple months, but the menu will remain American cuisine.
The restaurant's hours are from 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.
"If we can find some more employees, they want to expand into the evening shift Monday through Saturday," Brown said. But, he said, like other businesses they're hard to find," Brown said.
The restaurant is a longtime mainstay in downtown Minot.
Charlie's was named for Charles G. "Charlie" DeMakis, a well-known chef and restaurateur in the city of Minot who, along with his wife, Catherine, opened Charlie's Fine Food, now Charlie's Main Street Cafe, in 1957, according to the files of The Minot Daily News. Prior, the restaurant was operated as the Victory Cafe from 1945 until 1957. There were several other owners before the Browns bought the restaurant.
The restaurant's name was Charlie's when the Browns bought it, they retained the name and the new owners also plan to retain the name, Randy Brown said.
"It will stay Charlie's," he added.