True to its name, Pop and Son Grill — tucked in the back of Cheers Pub on the East Side — consists of two people: owner and chef Roscoe Woulard and his father, Kirk Munson.
For Woulard, Pop and Son, which opened in November, is both a return home and a chance to branch out.
Woulard grew up in St. Paul and attended Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts Minneapolis/St. Paul in Mendota Heights in 2009. A few years ago, he opened his first restaurant, called The Salad Bar, at Southdale Mall in Edina. His parents also owned the former Munsons Potato Shack in the Maplewood Mall. But some mall food courts impose menu restrictions to avoid restaurants stepping on each other’s toes, he said.
“I wanted to bring something back to the community where I was raised,” he said. “I took a bit of the Salad Bar menu and the Potato Shack, things I couldn’t do there, and mixed them with things I wanted to do. Here, I’m just a bit more free.”
The Pop and Son menu is expansive, from wings to shrimp to mac and cheese to classic bar appetizers, with specials that rotate daily. One of the menu’s biggest sections — a nod to Munsons Potato Shack — consists of 14 varieties of loaded baked potatoes and fries. Other top sellers include catfish (breaded, blackened or buffalo) and jerk pasta, which has proved so overwhelmingly popular that it’s now only offered Wednesdays and Sundays, Woulard said.
“The experience has been great, and I’m very grateful to the owner (of Cheers Pub) for giving me the opportunity to step in here and let me flourish,” he said. “To be honest with you, I went in a little scared, like ‘What the heck is going to happen,’ but I get a lot of support from the community.”
The restaurant’s hours differ from the bar: Pop and Son Grill is open 3 p.m. to midnight Tuesdays through Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday with a special “Soul Food Sunday” menu.
“Hey Roscoe,” a bar patron called out to Woulard on a recent Tuesday afternoon. “Whatever you did to this potato, it should be illegal. It’s so good.”
Pop and Son Grill: 1067 Hudson Rd.; instagram.com/popandson_grill
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