For these tiny Minnesota towns with big restaurant crowds, the draw is more than a meal [View all]

ESSIG, Minn. - On busy nights, the three streets of this unincorporated town of 35 people in southwest Minnesota overflow with rows of parked cars and trucks extending past the old grain elevator and toward the baseball field.

Some 400 to 500 people from across the state drive to Carl’s Corner for the restaurant’s famous broasted chicken.

Like many small rural Minnesota communities, Essig has shrunk over the decades, as the garage, post office and other businesses closed one by one. But Carl’s Corner remains.

The restaurant is one of those rural Minnesotan eateries with a peculiar distinction: They draw in far more customers than their tiny towns have residents. These cafes and bar-and-grills aren’t just businesses, but the beating hearts of their communities, in some cases keeping their towns on the map.

Having a regionally known restaurant can drive community pride.



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I hope that candidates will stop there, too