Chef Andy Shrader. Photo: Chris Emeott
Executive chef Andy Shrader incorporates game meat into lodge dinners at the Minnesota Horse & Hunt Club.
The Bacon Wrapped Pheasant and Bison Butter Burger are two clues that Trigger’s Bar & Restaurant’s menu stretches beyond typical American grill fare. Under the direction of executive chef Andy Shrader, the restaurant located at the Minnesota Horse & Hunt Club in Prior Lake celebrates seasonal food and culinary creativity.
This is especially true of Shrader’s Lodge Dinners, ticketed dinner events, featuring exclusive menus highlighting local ingredients that are often picked from the grounds of the Horse & Hunt Club. “I don’t know if people have ever dined the way that I feed them in these dinners,” Shrader says. “To me, they are the ultimate form of hospitality. There’s no lack in presentation, service, detail, flavor or portion size. It goes back to when I used to watch Andy Bourdain in No Reservations, and I’d see how happy people get when they eat that way.”
Shrader’s lodge dinners feature five hearty courses, including a main course and a decadent dessert—plus, as a bonus, he always sends diners home with a few cookies to-go. Upcoming dinners in October, November and December will highlight the season, as well as whatever is inspiring Shrader in the moment.
Bacon Wrapped Pheasant
“I feel like the Lodge Dinners are a reward for people who opt to come and experience everything that I’ve learned,” Shrader says. “And for me, it’s a reward because it’s a creative outlet. Everything in my head goes onto a plate, which makes more room for ideas.”
After 26 years in the restaurant industry, Shrader has a lot of experience translating his ideas into tasty plates of food. It’s fitting that he gets to put his experience to use at the place where it all got started.
“It’s kind of a funny story,” he says. “I’m a Prior Lake kid, and when I was 12 or 13, I used to watch Minnesota Bound on Sunday nights with John Schumacher, who was a wild game chef. I wrote him a letter about how to be like him. He said to start at the bottom, work hard and eventually go to culinary school. So I started out here, and Trigger’s was my first job.”
After doing just about every job in the restaurant industry, Shrader got his full-circle moment. When David Penn took over ownership of the club in 2020, he asked Shrader to come on board. Since then, Shrader has brought his lifelong love of fishing, foraging, hunting and wild game to the kitchen at Trigger’s.
“When I came out here, I made the effort to do everything from scratch,” he says. “We make our own bread, stocks, soups, dressings and desserts. We have a good 600 acres here that I can forage on, and we have a garden right by our restaurant. Come the summer months, we grow vegetables and herbs ourselves.”
Bison Butter Burger
Shrader has a bounty of enthusiasm for innovative thinking when it comes to his menus, and the Trigger’s menu changes a handful of times each year.
Got Game?
As for cooking wild game, Trigger’s Bar & Restaurant executive chef Andy Shrader says it’s important to keep an eye on the cook time. “The biggest thing that I’ve learned is that we overcook everything, thinking we have to to make it food safe,” he says. “There’s a sandhill crane, the ribeye of the sky. It’s one of those birds that you cook to medium, like a wild duck. The longer you cook wild game, because there’s no natural fat in its diet, the tougher and more livery it’s gonna get.”
Minnesota Horse and Hunt Club
Facebook: Minnesota Horse and Hunt Club
