BIG FALLS — The Corner Bar in Big Falls has gone through several owners in recent years and Nita Peterson closed it down last March.
But Tim and Tammy Streed, new area residents, saw an opportunity with the place and reopened it in July.
As the third owner in three years, Tim says there are good days and bad ones, but adds that the couple is cut out for this kind of work and pleased with the overall progress. This is their first business, but Tim has worked in the restaurant business for many years.
Tim was raised near Fargo, N.D., and Tammy is from St. Cloud, where the couple was living for the past 11 years. They were in the process of helping Tammy’s father remodel and manage another bar when they visited Big Falls on vacation with their two children, now 14 and 12.
“We came here camping with the kids two summers ago and thought that it would be nice to live up north,” said Tim. “We decided to move here a year later, and then a year after that we started the bar.”
Streed is an experienced chef and has worked at Sha~Sha Resort, Chocolate Moose and Thunderbird Lodge. Now settled in Big Falls, he spends his days cooking at JC’s in Littlefork. Tammy works part time for the Big Falls Post Office. They open the bar together in the late afternoon.
The bar had gone through a renovation and the couple said liked the idea of opening without much additional updating needed. The building dates back 100 years and was originally located on the opposite end of town. It was moved to its present location in the 1930s to open as bar and has served that purpose ever since.
“It was there and we thought to try to make a go of it,” he said.
Starting a bar in a small town in a rural area is quite a challenge, and Tim Streed says he is working to attract locals with extended daily happy hour and other specials. He said it also helps to serve 14-ounce frosty mugs.
Streed said the seasonal business is pretty good with motorcycle riders, deer and bear hunters, four-wheeler and snowmobile riding families, and campers and anglers from the nearby campground. The couple has also been thinking up some games for fall football season.
Tim says that as a beer bar, they can offer set ups and that the keg service helps to compete with the Big Falls Community Liquor Store across the street. He said Sunday is the busiest day, in part for the televised sporting events, but also because the community liquor store is closed.
The Corner Bar opens at 4 p.m. on Wednesday through Friday, at 11 a.m. on Saturday and noon on Sunday.
