News
Take & Baked aims to fill gap in market
Matthew Semisch
06/24/2014
For the past 20 years, Monte Flanders has made a living importing and selling massage pillows.
His latest business venture, though, is centered around making people comfortable while they’re upright.
Take & Baked at the Lake is a month-old restaurant on East Lake Loop Road. Situated next to the Quilt Inn, Take & Baked is the newest dining establishment in Lake Metigoshe’s commercial district up the hill from the lake’s east bank.
Flanders, who with cook Johnny Sarlo make up the restaurant’s full-time staff, is looking to fill a gap in the market in that area.
Something, Flanders felt, had been missing from what the established restaurants in the area were offering.
That thing, he decided, was pizza.
When asked where the inspiration to open such a restaurant came from, Flanders said it dawned on him during a recent trip to Arizona.
“I was in Quartzsite, Ariz., for an RV show this last January,” Flanders said, “And they’re a small town of about 3,000 people, just like Bottineau is.
“The thing is, though, Quartzsite gets about 400,000 people in RVs (per year) that descend upon that area in the wintertime. The restaurants are at a premium there, and one of the restaurants I went to was a pizza place that was just seasonal and were very busy, and I said, ‘Hey, I know a seasonal place that doesn’t have pizza.’
“I thought about it for a while, and Johnny told me he knows how to make pizzas and he’s a great cook, and so we took the idea and ran with it.”
A native of Robinson, N.D., who has been living at Lake Metigoshe for the past 10 years, Flanders said that there is and will continue to be more to the restaurant than just pizza.
Take & Baked opens at 6 a.m. on weekdays for patrons to take advantage of the establishment’s breakfast buffet. Breakfast pizzas, breakfast casseroles, eggs, ham, bacon, sausage and a full fruit bar are among the breakfast buffet’s offerings.
On Monday through Saturday of every week, Take & Baked offers pizza from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
On the weekends, the restaurant is also open during the day for those looking to go out to brunch. Take & Baked is open during the day from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays.
On Sundays, the restaurant also offers a salad bar. Customers are also invited in any morning on any day of the week, Flanders said, to enjoy a free cup of coffee.
Flanders says the Sunday buffets have been a big hit with lakegoers.
“I’ve been pleasantly surprised about the Sunday buffets,” he said. “The first Sunday we were here, that Memorial Day weekend, we got a large crowd in here and a little less than that the following week but picked up again the week after that.
“This last weekend was even better, and we hope to see that continue.”
Take & Baked also plans to start offering lasagnas in the near future. Also in the works, Flanders said, are specialty nights for upcoming Saturday and Sunday evenings.
What’s more, two of the most important aspects of the restaurant Flanders puts emphasis on are speed of service and price.
“We’re trying to be very reasonable in terms of our prices and very speedy in terms of our service,” he said. “What we do is we give people good food with a quick turnaround.”
Flanders feels that what Take & Baked strives to do will help the restaurant carve out its own niche in the Lake Metigoshe area.
“There’s just not that many restaurants up here, or certainly at least not for the amount of people that get up here in the summertime,” Flanders said.
“In the winter, it’s a completely different story, but for the three months or so here in the summer, it’s such a great location for what we’re doing in offering something that’s unique in this area.”
Take-out orders can also be phoned in ahead of time by calling (701) 263-3287.