We have a restaurant and hotel in Olivia. We opened another restaurant last year in Spicer on Little Crow Golf Course. We started the original Max’s Grill in Olivia 20 years ago. Corey and I both grew up in Olivia and were working for TPI Properties and living in New London when the old Smiley’s, Partners, Coltons, Jimmy’s came up for sale. It was a great opportunity for us to get back to our hometown and raise our kids here. They were 6, 2 and 1 at the time. After operating there for 2 years we had the opportunity to buy the Sheep Shedde Hotel. In 2005, we lost the original Max’s Grill in a fire. Although, it was devastating at the time, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We built a new Max’s Grill attached to the Sheep Shedde Hotel. We have been operating there ever since. We offer casual dining and banquet/meeting room space. We have an extensive menu and full bar services. The hotel has 33 rooms with 2 whirlpool suites. Running three businesses keeps us on our toes!We have a great team of employees and managers. We call it our Max’s Grill family and it truly feels like a family. We have a lot of staff that’s been with us for 10-20 years. We could not do it without them. Operating a business like this requires us to put a lot of trust and faith in our staff. We have been so fortunate to have the people we have. They make us look good.
I think there are different reasons why people do business here. Some are traveling and just see us from the highway. Some come in almost everyday. Some are here for meetings, family reunions or weddings. We appreciate all of our customers and some of them have turned into some of our best friends. It’s the relationships that we’ve built, whether it’s with customers or staff, that make this job so rewarding.
It is our 20 year anniversary of Max’s Grill coming up in April so stay tuned for some specials and promotions and maybe even live entertainment. We are looking forward to this summer and corn capital days and hoping we can get back to normal this year. Right now, we have the band Red Dirt Road booked on Saturday, July 24th. They will be playing outside. We’re looking forward to be able to host some banquets and weddings this summer and hopefully getting back to 100% capacity soon.