Restaurants are really the big entertainment almost any time of the year.  You go out to eat as a way to connect with others, get a bite to eat before another activity.  Celebrations, first dates, hang with someone you haven't seen in a long time- restaurants are a very important part of people's daily lives.

During the pandemic and the shut downs, those restaurants were hit pretty hard.  Most survived, but there were some... smaller businesses that wound up having to close.  This is a real and tragic shame.  So we asked the question- if we were to add some other restaurants to the St. Cloud area, what would you like to see?  I was surprised at some of the results.  I feel like we have cornered the market on fast food restaurants.  There are so many of them here.  I'm not saying there isn't a place for those- we all need a quick bite from time to time and some of those "fast food" restaurants are pretty good!

What we are lacking is some bistro type fine dining restaurants that are locally owned.  Other places that I've lived, which are similar in size to St. Cloud, have those types of restaurants and they are amazing!

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Check out some of the comments yourself:

If you look at the comments there is an overwhelming request for Sonic, Denny's and In and Out Burger.  The first two could happen.  The In and Out Burger isn't going to.  I believe that is location bases- like mostly just on the West coast and surrounding area.  But there were several comments with people wanting a Cracker Barrell.  I love their general store that is attached to the restaurant.  Fun, and unique gift type trinkets there.  PF Changs was mentioned a few times.  I'm on board with that too.  And then there were some people who wants more "all you can eat" buffet type restaurants.  Yikes!!!  But that's just my opinion.  But I love the idea of more "locally owned" restaurants with some quality chefs (not just cooks).  They usually have the best food, and also unique options that aren't available everywhere.  We do have a few of those here, and I'm so grateful for those restaurants.

A few people are missing Ciatti's.  I agree with this as well.

One or more people did say "we have enough places to eat- we don't need any more".  Well, we do have a lot of places to "eat". We don't have a lot of places to "dine".

Hopefully there will be more "quality" restaurants added in the area.  We are in the Midwest- we like steakhouses.  Why aren't there more of those?

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