EAST SIDE OF LAKE SHETEK AND WHAT THEY HAVE TO OFFER TRAIL’S EDGE & BREEZY BARN

With the summer season kickstarting recently, the local venues of Breezy Barn and Trail’s Edge have become busy, go-to places on Lake Shetek’s west side. Once the bridge work is completed and the detour lifted, both businesses anticipate even more traffic.

Breezy Barn is owned by Terry and Nancy Carlson and includes a wedding/event space and a restaurant/bar located at 52 Teepeeotah Road in rural Tracy in addition to more than 20 camping sites. “We’ve been blessed with a really good staff for 12 years,” Breezy Barn manager Thresa Carlson said. “They treat it like home. And they are much appreciated. We’re all pretty much a family.”

Trail’s Edge, owned by Dede Kelly and Pete Jaros since June 2021, includes a general store and a restaurant that primarily caters to locals and nearby campers. “Pete and I moved to this area in 2020 from Sioux Falls,” Kelly said.

“We’d been camping up here with some friends and really liked it. We decided to sell our house there and buy a house on the lake (Shetek). In 2021, we decided to buy Trail’s Edge. Now, a lot of our customers are our friends and family. We’ve gotten really close to them.”

Breezy Barn looks to have a full lineup of events and activities taking place out there this summer. “Our upstairs event space is where we do weddings and parties,” Carlson said. “We have a capacity of between 200 and 250 people. It’s the most beautiful part of our place. We try to have as many events as possible up there, like pool tournaments in the winter, but I wish we could utilize it even more.”

Breezy Barn also has patio space and a much-larger outdoor space for a variety of entertainment opportunities.

“We have a good lineup of bands and stuff out there this summer,” Carlson said. “We’ll have some of the bigger bands, but we’ll also have the one-man patio shows as well. We have the outdoor stage and the outdoor bar. We also have a patio bar.”

Trail’s Edge doesn’t typically host its own entertainment, but it does offer a great gathering place for various events. “We have a side-by-side memorial ride that comes through, generally in September,” Kelly said. “It’s not our run, but we’re one of their stops. They enjoy coming out here. And we always try to do something big for them. We’ll have games out there for them when they come riding in.

We’ll also have food and beverages out there for them.

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Beginning June 1, Breezy Barn (507-763-3631) is open 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Wednesday through Sunday. It is closed on Mondays. On Tuesdays, Breezy is open from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m. “We’ve been very busy, even during the winter, which was surprising,” Carlson said. “So, we are extending our hours to be open during the daytime. We’ve never done that. But we’re pretty excited, especially with people at the campgrounds, now. There are so many people out there who wanted to have it open for lunch, too.” Breezy Barnyard Campground includes 22 sites.

The menu at the Breezy Barn restaurant consists of mainstays like burgers and pizza but also includes a wide variety of appetizers, other offerings and weekly specials. “The weekly specials change every week,” Carlson said. “We have a few excellent cooks, but we have one excellent cook who tries to bring new stuff in all the time.”

During the past 12 years, Carlson said a lot of work had gone into developing Breezy Barn and the area around it. Eventually, she hopes to be a part owner. “A lot has been put into it,” she said. “It turned out really nice.”

Trail’s Edge, which opens in April and closes in November, is open all summer from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday. The kitchen closes at 7:30 p.m. For holidays, including the Fourth of July, there will be extended hours. “We have a full menu, with breakfast, lunch and supper,” Kelly said. “We try to do a lot of homecooked meals, but we also have regular menu items like our beef commercial. People just love those. We try to mix it up a little bit every week with the specials, but it’s not always easy. Generally, Saturday night, we usually do an all-you-can-eat shrimp special along with a steak special.” To-go orders, as well as bulk and special orders, are fairly common at Trail’s Edge. “We do a lot of to-go stuff, especially for the farmers,” Kelly said. “Probably, what we’re most known for is our potato salad, macaroni salad and cabbage salad. That is all homemade. People flock from all over to come get that.”

Kelly noted that she and Pete were grateful when they purchased Trail’s Edge from Roger and Deanna Hamann, who owned and operated the business for more than 25 years, that Deanna stayed on with them. “She didn’t want to retire,” Kelly said. “Deanna is who does all the salads and the pies. And Roger will come in and help us out with any concern or issue. They’ve been absolutely a Godsend for us.”

A variety of cream pies and fruit pies are also sold, whole and by the slice. People wishing to purchase a whole pie are asked to call (507-763-3322) a day or two ahead of time. One of the most popular pies is their sour cream and raisin. Trail’s Edge also makes its own malts and root beer floats. “There’s been families coming out to the (Murray County) State Park for 30 years, and they are still coming out here to get their malts,” Kelly said. “We’re right on the bike trail, so we also get all these people out doing family bike rides who stop in and get ice cream. We make shakes and malts along with ice cream cones and dishes. It’s amazing how many people get ‘pup cups’ for their dogs nowadays, too.”

Trail’s Edge also stocks a lot of items that campers might want or need, including water, pop and other beverages in addition to candy, chips, milk, bread, marshmallows, wood and bait (minnows, leeches and crawlers). Campers can also get their propane tanks filled. “People who are going to the State Park have to drive by our place, so we get a lot of them stopping in,” Kelly said. “We also get campers from Schreier’s and the other campgrounds. We have an on/off sale liquor license, so we can sell alcohol — beer, wine and hard liquor — out the door. We can serve drinks, but it’s rare that I do. We’re really a family-friendly establishment.”