Road Trip Post #10 - Bernie's Grill - Faribault, MN

After our long night in Faribault watching the northern lights we had to fuel up for breakfast in the morning. When it comes to breakfast in Faribault, there is one particular place that we hold near and dear to our hearts - Bernies Grill.  This place is special to us not only because it's a great diner with home cooking, but also because we had our wedding reception right upstairs from Bernie's Grill in the Vintage Ballroom and Suites - with the same owners as Bernie's Grill.  Without boasting, we feel that we had one of the most fun weddings ever, with Bernie's and the Vintage Ballroom and Suites playing a significant roll in that.

Flashback to our wedding reception and getting audience input on where to hack into the cake

Our reception at the Vintage Ballroom and Suites was fun - complete with hats for the "YMCA"!

Bernie's is the quintessential small town diner, offering simple all-American fare at great prices with friendly service.  Ever since joining the Army, Tim is a sucker for biscuits and gravy, which can be found at Bernie's.  With the Big Biscuit Combo, he got two biscuits with creamy gravy, hash browns, and eggs.  The combo was big enough that it had to be served on two plates!  What Tim liked about his breakfast was that Bernie's does not skimp on the gravy.  There was plenty of gravy available for him to also coat his eggs and potatoes.  Needless to say, Tim was stuffed when we walked out, and didn't eat again until dinner that night.

Kyla was feeling nostalgic being in the same building as our wedding reception and ordered the chocolate chip pancakes, which were the same menu item offered for children at our wedding ten years ago.  The pancakes were fluffy and large, with just the right mixture of chocolate chips to cake batter.  The pancakes come by themselves, and with three of them are big enough for an entire breakfast.  If you are hungry enough for something on the side with your pancakes, Bernie's does offer a significant offering of sides with reasonable prices, especially considering the pancakes are less than $6.00.  With a bottomless pot of coffee, we were sufficiently fueled to continue our adventures with family in Southern Minnesota.

One of the highlights from our visits to Bernie's is always chatting with the co-owner, Janna.  We were one of the first wedding receptions in the Vintage Ballrooms and are sure to say hi to Janna whenever we are in town.  Despite being super busy with managing a restaurant, catering business, event hall, and suites, Janna always carves out a couple of minutes to say hi and chat, commenting on how our family and grown and that she's glad to see former wedding reception clients still together and still happy year after year. We are happy too - not only for the phenomenal party hosted by Janna, but for the continual celebration our life has been since then. 

Oh yeah, we are also happy for full bellies at great prices too.

The happy couple almost a decade later!