Sunday, January 13, 2013

A year ago, The Swedish Crown Restaurant in Lindsborg closed. With it went a lot of tourism dollars for the downtown. Now, it's open again. The owners are young….and the town is looking to the future.

"You know it is obviously scary to own your own business and especially a restaurant in a small town." says co-owner Eric Lunstrum. "Again, though, I feel like it is a risk to take."

The young co-owners of the Swedish Crown are Eric Lundstrum out front and Chef Shana Everhart in the Kitchen.

Both Everhart and Lundstrum are Lindsborg natives. He decided to buy the restaurant and was looking for a Chef. On Facebook, Eric saw that Shana was a chef in California and was moving back to Kansas.

"I thought it was quite serendipitous." says Everhart. "It's taken me down a different road than I had planned, but it is a pretty exciting one."

The opening of the Swedish Crown is key to future development in Lindsborg. By October, there will be a new convention center on Main Street and without a major restaurant that caters, it would have been difficult to sell, according to Holly Lofton with Lindsborg Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"So we're looking at this as just perfect timing. We couldn't have asked for anything better."