BEMIDJI — Thirty years after it opened, indeed, “everything is well” at Tutto Bene.
Founders Lori Forshee-Donnay, Jon Cameron and Dennis Bartz chose that name when they launched their Italian eatery in downtown Bemidji on May 9, 1995. Two ownership changes later, Tutto Bene is still thriving.
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“I think it’s amazing that it’s still there,” Forshee-Donnay said. “I think it speaks to the community support of local businesses.”
The original owners operated Tutto Bene for 11 years. The late Tom Allen bought the restaurant in 2006 and sold it to current owners Justin Frederick and Jerusa Ricke in 2012.
“You’ve got to be proud of the fact that it’s gone through three owners … and it’s still there and thriving,” said Bartz. “That means the original concept was a good thing.”
How it began
Forshee-Donnay and Cameron were working together in 1994 at Stats Sports Bar on the top floor of what is now the Mayflower Building. Both were experienced in the restaurant business and had the ambition to open their own establishment.
Lori and her husband, Pat Donnay, had moved here in 1981 when Pat joined the faculty at Bemidji State University. They met when both worked at a pizzeria in St. Cloud, where they attended college.
“When we moved here, I had a degree in mass communications, specifically television production,” Lori said. “I wasn’t finding anything to do with that.”
So she went back to what she knew, taking the job at Stats and meeting Cameron, who was building a reputation as a creative chef.
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“I had started in fast food,” she said, “I did cocktail waitressing, worked in bars, worked in family restaurants. “I knew about working the front of the house,” Lori said, “but I didn’t know how to run a kitchen.”
She told her husband about Cameron, “I work with this guy who’s incredibly talented and really should have his own restaurant.”
They teamed with Bartz, a local teacher who also had been Cameron’s cross country and track coach at Bemidji High , and purchased the former Luigi’s Pizza building. Bartz spearheaded an effort to sell shares in the restaurant to community members, and Tutto Bene was on its way to becoming a reality.
“I put together the team of people to basically contribute to getting the place started,” Bartz said. “I was sort of a behind-the-scenes kind of guy.”
Forshee-Donnay said, “My focus and interest was in Italian food because my mother is Italian.
Jon wanted food made to order. That was really important to both of us. All of the sauces were made from scratch. All the bread was baked there. His mom (Nellie Cameron) was our baker. She made the best focaccia, and her desserts were so decadent. She really had a following. Jon would love to experiment. I didn’t want him to be constricted with what he could do with the menu. He was fearless.”
Tutto Bene had only 66 seats for the first five years. The capacity nearly doubled in 2000 when the bar and secondary seating area was added, designed after a building Forshee-Donnay spotted on a trip to Italy.
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Cameron said he rode his bicycle past the restaurant earlier this week and reflected on the 30-year legacy he and his partners started.
“I'm still proud that I was part of that,” said Cameron, who stayed on after the 2006 sale and remained through Allen’s six years. “I met a lot of great people there. I’m still in contact with some of them. I had three of my cooks leave to go to chef school, so I think I might have been doing something right.”
After Allen became owner, he told Cameron, “I don't know a damn thing about cooking or the kitchen, so it's all yours. Just keep doing what you're doing.”
A place of their own
Justin Frederick was entrenched in the Twin Cities restaurant scene. He had never visited the Bemidji area, even though he was dating his future spouse, Bagley native Jerusa Ricke. Both worked for several restaurants in the Minneapolis area. In 2012, Justin was chef at Le Meridien Chambers, and Jerusa was a chef at Masa, a Mexican restaurant. But they had dreams of owning their own place.
Frederick heard about a restaurant that was for sale in Bemidji in the summer of 2012.
“We had always talked about breaking away and working for ourselves,” Jerusa said. “Justin had never been home with me. He was telling me some restaurant is for sale up there.”
When she found out it was Tutto Bene, Jerusa told Justin, “We have to go. You have to see this building.”
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It didn’t take long for the couple to turn their careers northward.
“I remember we pulled around the corner and I saw the color of this building,” Justin recalled. “I looked at her and asked, ‘Is that it?’ Something just kind of resonated with us.”
That was in June. They got the keys to Tutto Bene on Aug. 1. While maintaining the Italian flavor, Justin began creating dishes that featured seasonal ingredients, and added things like oysters and grilled octopus to the menu. Jerusa stayed on full-time for the first few years before taking a position with her family’s business, TEAM Industries in Bagley. She continues to curate the restaurant’s wine list.
She said a loyal workforce has helped keep Tutto Bene running smoothly.
“I’ve worked in a lot of restaurants,” she said, “and we’ve had very low turnover here. We have two people who’ve been here since the beginning.”
They also credited the Bemidji community for helping the restaurant weather the Covid pandemic.
“This community has been very good at supporting us through the tough times,” Justin said. “Without that we wouldn’t have been able to punch through to the other side.”
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The owners have been able to use lessons learned in their Twin Cities food careers to help them at their own restaurant.
“You have to get into this for the right reasons,” Justin said. “If you’re getting into this to get rich and make a lot of money you’re a fool. I always told myself when I owned a restaurant that I wanted to be the boss that I always wished that I had. This is it for me in the restaurant industry. I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. I love Bemidji. ”
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