Daniel’s Restaurant sold, closing on Saturday
A longtime Kasson restaurant will be closing its doors Saturday and reopening sometime in September under new ownership.
Danielle Schmitz announced the closing of Daniel’s and the adjacent 504 Tavern, on the restaurant’s Facebook page last week.
“It’s definitely bittersweet,” Schmitz said this week of the closing. “It’s been my whole life.”
Her parents opened the restaurant in 1977, originally located on Main Street in downtown Kasson next to the mini-mall. In 2001 the restaurant moved to the mall on Highway 57 at the intersection with Highway 14.
Schmitz is not exaggerating when she says she grew up in the restaurant. As a baby, she said, her parents sat her in a car seat on the ice machine while they were working at the restaurant.
Several years ago, she said, she and her husband Matt bought the restaurant from her parents, Dan and MargAnn Gadient, and she has continued to run the business while Matt runs his construction business.
This year has been difficult, she said, because of the COVID-19 pandemic but both Daniel’s and the 504 Tavern were able to survive.
“Business has been very hard the last six months,” she said. “A lot of restaurants are closing. We were not one of them. We are very fortunate and proud.”
Creativity is part of the restaurant business, she said, and creativity is what helped them survive during the business shutdowns.
One of the features of Daniel’s is the fish and chips trailer that has made its appearance every summer at county fairs and other events in the area. When the pandemic shutdown began the mobile unit was set up in the parking lot and offered its specialty fish and chips and dessert every Friday night.
The event proved to be a big success with cars often lined up through the parking lot and out onto the street to the intersection with Highway 57. Since June the restaurant has been able to reopen to inside dining although at reduced occupancy.
“COVID-19 has been interesting,” she said.
The restaurant was actually for sale before the events of 2020, Schmitz said, but the shutdown did give her time to think about what the next steps should be. She said when they first put the restaurant up for sale she tried to think of what she would do next but found that then she could not focus on the restaurant. So she decided she would not think about future plans until it happened. And then came the shutdowns.
“We’re very strong Christians,” Schmitz said, “and believe God has a plan for us.” The feeling she was getting, she said, was that continuing to run the restaurant wasn’t the right thing.
She said she still doesn’t know what the future will hold but feels that for now she wants to be present for her family.
“I just need time to be a mom and wife,” she said.
In the next few weeks, she said, she is hoping to turn off that part of her that is always on call at the restaurant and focus instead on what works for the family.
Danielle and Matt have three children, 11, 8 and 5, who were home and doing distance learning during the shutdown.
“They (the children) have liked the change of pace,” she said. “It was fun to spend more time with the kids.”
The kids also helped out at the fish and chips trailer on Friday nights, she said. For 11 weeks the kids were there, she said, helping out where they could. “They were such little troopers,” she said.
With school soon to start again, Schmitz said she still thinks about how the new school year will evolve and whether there will again be a switch to distance learning.
Both Daniel’s and the 504 Tavern will be open through Saturday. On Friday, she said, they hope to have the fish and chips trailer open for one last time.
Still, Schmitz said, she will miss the community that has been so supportive of the restaurant and also the employees who over the years have been like family. There have been up to 45 employees, she said, although currently the number is down to 12.
The closing on the sale is scheduled for Sept. 1, she said. The buyers are area residents who own two El Patron restaurants, one in Austin and one in Winona.
“They know what they are doing,” she said. “They have done it successfully.”
They will be doing some work in the restaurant “to make it their own,” she said. The new owners have not announced an opening date for their restaurant but Schmitz said she anticipates in will be sometime in September.
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