The Blog

Posted in Minnesota Monthly in August, 2012.

An hour wait at 8 p.m. on a Wednesday? Welcome to George and the Dragon, which literally rose from the ashes of Heidi’s and Blackbird at 50th and Bryant in south Minneapolis. Clearly the neighborhood was lacking a place where grown-ups could gather for post-game pub fare and pints—with their uniform-clad offspring in tow.

George is a public house with a familiar formula: big bar, big booths, and big portions of food that tend toward the meaty, starchy, and fried. Owners Fred and Stacy Navarro met during their 17-year tenure working for Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants (most recently, Fred oversaw Tucci Benucch, Twin City Grill, and The Magic Pan), so George has the consistency of a corporate operation, yet retains the personal feel of eating at the owners’ home, which happens to be four blocks away.