About Us

About the Wild Hare

It happened virtually overnight. One of those opportunities that presents itself and cannot be denied, as if the forces of the universe came together to ignite a spark, which has been blazing like a wild fire ever since! We owe this adventure in part to our friend Carolyn, who saw in us a potential for her business that none of us could have imagined at the time. And so, in what seemed like the blink of an eye, we began to transform her quaint Coffee shop into our buzzing Bistro. And what a wild ride it’s been!

With the confidence of a cumulative 40 years of incredibly diverse cooking experiences behind us, we set out to surmount the challenge of building our dream restaurant without an actual kitchen. (Luckily, we didn’t have the time to consider it too thoroughly at the time!) No CLV summer camp or make-shift tent kitchen in the tundra could have prepared us for the amount of patience it would take to suppress our grand culinary ambitions in such a simple kitchen. Alas (sigh…), you will not find deep-fried or even boiled foods at the Wild Hare, but we do our best with what we have, to offer you deliciously fresh, nourishing and creative fare, prepared with lots of love and care. We believe in cutting your veggies to order, building soups from scratch and growing our own vegetables. We believe in traveling the world through your taste buds, exploring new flavors and bringing people together through the sharing of food. We believe in purchasing fair-trade coffee and using locally-raised products whenever possible, which is no small feat in this Northern Paradise! We believe that food is to be experienced, and we offer you our best artistic expressions to that end.

Your response has been overwhelming, and we are lucky and blessed to be supported by a truly awesome cast of customers! You have embraced not just us and our spontaneous creations, but all of our partners in crime. You have appreciated the fresh produce of many local farmers, especially our CSA farmers extraordinaire, Mike & Marina. You have supported many local and regional artists, including our house ceramist Cyrus Swann, Terry Leinbach & Mary Tangeman, "the hat lady."

Mostly we believe in you, for inspiring us to excel in our endeavor, and assisting us in the important business of preserving Bemidji’s unique, local flavor. If you haven’t already, we invite you to join us, and hope that your palate will be inspired to return often.