Destination Up North UpNorth-Spring_20_030920_B | Page 21

“I helped my husband, Randy, grow his rodeo to one of the largest in the
country,” Denese says.
But a significant turning point in her life came when she went to a
cooking school in Italy, Denese says. “I fell in love with Italy,” she says.
“They talked about food all day.”
Once she and Randy moved to Park Rapids permanently, Denese
became interested in a yogurt/soup shop in Park Rapids called Jack Pine
Café.
“I told them their soup wasn’t very good,” Denese says. “I told them I
could do better, so I started making soup for them.”
It wasn’t long before the owners of the café decided to move back to
California, and they asked Denese to take over the restaurant. “I’d never
worked in a restaurant before,” she says. “I had a big learning curve. There
was a lot of education involved, but they helped me so much. I did it on
a shoestring.”
From the time she opened the doors to her restaurant in 2012, Denese
says, it’s been a hit. “The lines were out the door,” she says. “We were open
just for lunch at first. I made things from scratch. I served the same food I
made for my family and friends.”
Then a friend asked her why she was only open for lunch. “I thought, ‘I’ve
been to Italy. Let’s do Italian,’” Denese says. “I was a success right off the
bat. I bought the best ingredients I could buy and let them shine. People
love having a place where we care about the ingredients.”
Since 2013, she has returned to Italy every year to take more cooking
classes.
“I make my own dough and salad dressing,” Denese says. “I work a lot. I do
all the baking, starting at 5:30 a.m. I don’t take a lot of time off.”
She has a lot of help from family members, she says, including a nephew
who is her business partner, a sister who runs the front of the restaurant
and a good friend who also works there. Her staff numbers 25 people in
the summer and 12 employees during the off-season.
And what are the most requested menu items? “Chicken piccata is very
popular, and we serve a lot of seafood and scallops,” Denese says. “Our
walleye cakes are delicious. We make them by hand.”
Two years ago, Denese became a wine sommelier. “I love the pairing of
wine and food,” she says. “Last March I went to San Francisco to further
my education.”
The restaurant caters to the local community, but it also draws plenty of
tourists.
“We’ve got a great clientele who keep coming back,” Denese says.
“Last year I went to Florida to cook food at a big dinner for one of my
customers.”
A few years after Amy Thielen, a chef from New York, moved to Park
Rapids, the two teamed up and now do a number of benefit dinners
together.
Thielen, a chef, food writer, and television personality, focuses on
Midwestern cooking and food culture. She is the author of the James
Beard award-winning cookbook The New Midwestern Table and Give a
Girl a Knife. She was also the host of Heartland Table, which debuted in
September 2013 on Food Network.
Thielen grew up in rural northern Minnesota and graduated from
Macalester College in 1997 with a degree in English. In 1999, she moved
to New York City to attend cooking school and cooked professionally for
seven years.
Denese continues to find ways to enhance the food experience she has
created in downtown Park Rapids. Her space has expanded enough that
she was able to take over space next door and add a bar. “I talked a friend
into building me a bar,” she says. “He made all the tables. I wanted it to
feel like Italy, like it had been there for centuries.”
She has purchased additional space that is intended for a bakery and
outdoor patio.
Aside from being the restaurant’s chef, helping her husband with rodeos,
and traveling to Italy, Denese says, “I still dance every chance I get. I have
a lot of energy.”
Necce’s Italiano Ristorante is at 311 Main Avenue South in Park Rapids.
destinationupnorth.com 21