Rustic wooden beams. Farm-inspired design. Booze-filled sweets. Those components will remain constant. But otherwise, the Copper Cow (5445 Eden Prairie Road, Minnetonka) — brother restaurant to Eat Street's Copper Hen (copperhenkitchen.com) — will be largely distinct from its sibling when it debuts in Minnetonka this summer.
The follow-up eatery, from couple Chris and Danielle Bjorling, will venture to the more casual side of the upscale comfort food-style dishes served at Copper Hen. Burgers, fries and shakes — boozy shakes that is, a play on the boozy cakes that Danielle creates at the original — will rule the menu, Chris said, though the focus on quality meat and ingredients won't change.
And the aura will be decidedly bolder at Copper Cow, where they'll keep the overall homespun vibe, but with additions like a mounted Spanish highland cow's head.
"Some of the elements we're trying to keep," Chris said. "And all of the tenants of making everything from scratch and sourcing locally will stay. But we want to make it a more masculine space."
Burger patties will be ground in house from whole Peterson Limousin Beef cows. The menu will also likely include at least one steak, along with chicken sandwiches and salads. Beyond the shakes, Copper Cow will offer a craft cocktail program at a bar that will be partly indoors, partly outdoors in the summer time. When the weather heats up, windows on one side of the bar will fold down and some seats outside will be lined up along that gap to create a new bar space. In the winter, that area will simply function as the back bar.
And though the Bjorlings are completely gutting the building — a former Dairy Queen — they are making good use of one of its built-in assets: the drive-through window. Patrons will be able to order takeout by calling ahead, and then can pick it up on the move.
"When it's 20 below out, you won't even have to get out of your car," Chris said.
