From an afternoon bridge club to a wedding reception, Dehn’s Country Manor can handle it.

The longtime Maple Grove family restaurant has been open since 1958, serving thoughtful homestyle fare to generations of locals. Open for lunch and dinner, with breakfast on the weekends, Dehn’s can fill you up with signature items like homemade hash browns, ribs, walleye, prime rib and steaks.

On a recent visit, chef and co-owner Shawne McCarthy recommended a terrific lunch of pulled-pork sandwich, cole slaw and hash browns, the latter being a highlight that McCarthy makes from scratch daily.

“Our hashbrowns have become a signature item,” he said. “We make our hashbrowns homemade. I boil off the potatoes and we fresh-grind what we need for the day. They’re fresh-ground, not the kind that come frozen in a brown paper bag. A lot of the stuff we have is homemade."

“I make a couple gallons homemade salsa every week, fresh. We’re like that here.”

Another cool aspect of Dehn’s is the solid wine and beer selection. Co-owner Mike Dehn and his staff have picked a respectable selection of beers, including local favorites Surly and Summit, and a small but thoughtful wine list. It’s worth noting that a restaurant based on tradition isn’t afraid to innovate.

McCarthy experiments with the menu, too, offering daily specials and his own flavor in dining standards. The cole slaw, for example, was tangy and slightly sweet thanks to McCarthy’s secret: pureed pineapple. Sounds strange, but the pineapple kick gave his cole slaw something extra that made it noteworthy alone and really helped perk up the savory pulled pork. It was a dynamite combo, and the slaw is a perfect side for a restaurant that prides itself on ribs.  

Breakfasts at Dehn’s include prime rib hash, which McCarthy said was an inventive way to extend Dehn’s well-known prime rib to breakfast. The dish includes potatoes, scallions and seasonings, topped with two poached eggs, and McCarthy said it was a favorite.

Other creative breakfast dishes include the Cajun, which is hashbrowns, veggies and cheese topped with eggs and cajun hollandaise; and the Witch Doctor, or scrambled eggs mixed with veggies and habanero pepper and lightly topped with hollandaise. The 10-ounce sirloin with eggs tops the breakfast menu at $15.95, but most dishes hover in the $7-$9 range.

For lunch, McCarthy has some Dehn’s favorites like ribs and hash browns, accompanied by soups, salads, a few entrees and 13 sandwiches, all in the $6-$10 range.

At dinner, the menu is vast and includes the aforementioned stalwarts as well as fried chicken, pork chops, several seafood dishes and combination platters. Pair, say, those ribs with a Summit Extra Pale Ale and finishing with a dessert like Mike Dehn’s rhubarb crisp, and you’ll sleep well.

Chef McCarthy and Mike Dehn had an easy rapport during a recent interview, and it was clear that sort of demeanor spills over into the entire restaurant. Dehn’s is a place to bring grandma or the kids, or even take a date for a special night out, and Mike Dehn said that atmosphere coupled with good food and drink was a formula that keeps ‘em coming back.

“People willl have their rehearsal dinner here and they’re back five, 10, 20 years later having their anniversary party here,” he said. “We’re a place they can count on. I think people want to know what they’re getting when they make the choice to go out. With the economy not so great, you’re maybe willing to take fewer risks when dining out.”