You may have noticed; there’s a new place in town. Bode Gray’s opened in early February in what used to be the VFW in downtown Waconia. Owned by Greg and Bria James (owners of Iron Tap, the Main Scoop, and Bakery on Main), Jared and Trisha DeWolf, and Jon Boetel, the restaurant offers a unique new dining option in Waconia.
Jared DeWolf was a visual arts teacher at Bayview Elementary School for 15 years before taking a leap of faith and becoming a restaurateur. The idea of the restaurant never seemed to go away and when the time and location were right, the pieces fell into place.
“This community is growing at a rapid pace,” Jared says. “There have been new fast food restaurants, but the number of sit-down establishments is very limited.”
Jared says he and Trisha would often go out for a date night in Excelsior, Wayzata, or Minneapolis. He wanted to offer something in Waconia, so people didn’t have to leave the city for a night out. “We wanted to bring another restaurant for families or for date nights and we feel we accomplished that with the restaurant and speakeasy.”
The menu features a mouth-watering variety of Italian food, including rigatoni Bolognese, pomegranate salad, and the VFW’s namesake, the VFW meat raffle pizza complete with fennel sausage, pepperoni, Canadian bacon, and grande mozzarella, to name a few. The classy bar and dining area on the main level are above The Brass Hat, a swanky New York 1920s-era speakeasy on the lower level. The speakeasy is adorned with octopi and has a beautiful black and teal blue color scheme that’s influenced by the ocean. The design and branding also pay homage to the VFW as a “brass hat” is a high-ranking officer in the armed forces.
The speakeasy honors Waconia’s Sunset Inn, located on Coney Island 100 years ago, which secretly offered alcohol to the residents of Waconia. Although no password, special knock, or code is required, a limited number of memberships, which offer special benefits and discounts, were available; they sold out quickly. No reservations are required for the speakeasy, and it’s a great spot to meet with friends for a drink. Every Thursday night you can hear Jazz DJ Lance perform from your cozy, dimly lit seat, adding even more ambiance to the experience.
Bringing the building from its former VFW look to the warm and artistic style it is now was not an easy transition. “This is basically an entirely new build with the exception of the foundation and frame,” Jared says. “Everything inside is new.”
The building was added onto several times over the years, so layers of construction materials needed to be peeled to get to the bones of the building. “As we were taking down two levels of ceilings on the upper level, we discovered there had been a fire in 1893,” Jared says. The owners paid homage to that fire by naming a cocktail the ‘1893’ and repurposing the burned beams as a backdrop on the wall in the waiting area on the main level.
The transformation that DeWolf has made from teacher to restaurateur is now part of the rich history of the space that Bode Gray’s and The Brass Hat now occupy. This new experience of dining and gathering in Waconia, and how it came to be, is one that will undoubtedly have an impact on our local community and bring people together, far and wide, for years to come.
Jared DeWolf, a former visual arts teacher at Waconia's Bayview Elementary, decided to leave teaching to start a new Waconia restaurant and speakeasy with his wife Trisha, partners Greg and Bria James, and Jon Boetel.