Name That Restaurant

The folks at Blue Plate (the people behind the Longfellow Grill, Highland Grill, Edina Grill and Groveland Tap) are opening a new place in Maple Grove (why?) and are casting about for a name. You can win a $500 gift certificate good at any Blue Plate restaurant.

First, although it is probably tempting to want to call it Maple Grove Grill (to associate it with three of their four existing restaurants), I have a hard time believing (a) they haven't thought of it yet (since Nancy Ngo of the PiPress did) and (b) it makes for a good restaurant name. So try something a bit more clever.

Second, I have nothing in particular against Maple Grove (except that the couple of times I've been there, I have only been to that weird Arbor Lakes area that is like the size of downtown Minneapolis but filled with chain restaurants, big box stores and other unremarkable national chain stores, and I got lost each time in the maze of consumerism). But I have read that several restaurants have already come and gone from Maple Grove, and there are still like 50 chains there, so I'm not sure what Blue Plate thinks they're going to be adding (they advertise their other spots as "urban diners," but I'm not sure someone who moves to Maple Grove is looking for any kind of urban experience).

Continuing on that thread, the Maple Grove Wikipedia entry notes that "Arbor Lakes is home to more retail than virtually any city in the state, second only to the Mall of America in Bloomington. Maple Grove itself is likely to have nearly 6 million square feet (600,000 m²) of commercial development at build out, which may soon push the city into the number one spot for retail square-footage."

Finally, here's a link to a 2005 Jeremy Iggers Strib review of the Longfellow Grill in which, among other things, Blue Plate owner David Burley says, "We have no plans to go to Eden Prairie or Maple Grove. We're urban dwellers." Um, whoops.