DeRusha Eats: Broder Restaurant Family
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A family-run restaurant just feels different. You can certainly feel that difference on one Twin Cities corner, with three restaurants run by one family.
Thursday morning, DeRusha Eats with restaurant power family: Molly Broder and her sons.
When Thomas Broder creates a new dish or his brother Charlie pours a cool Italian red, it's not just food -- it's family.
"In the early days, it was just the two of us and a couple employees," Molly Broder said.
Molly and Tom Broder started Broder's Cucina -- an Italian deli and grocery at 50th and Penn -- as a young couple in 1982. They traveled to Bologna, Italy, learning pasta from the best in the world.
Funny thing is, they aren't even Italian.
"Neither one of us are! French-Canadian and Irish," Molly said, laughing.
Then, in 1994, the family opened Broder's Pasta bar across the street. It's won every award in town.
But in 2007, a tragedy struck: The death of the patriarch, Tom Broder. The sons rallied.
"Once Tom died, it was such a family business. If they weren't in it, it would have lost its soul. And I would have felt like I would have wanted to get out," Molly said.
So, Charlie took over the front of the house, training staff and learning wine. Thomas became the executive chef, running the kitchens.
Now, the sons have opened their restaurant on a third corner at 50th and Penn: Terzo.
"Mom really gave us a gift here to give us the creative freedom to really do what we want and she really feels that Terzo is an expression of the second generation, of our work," Thomas said.
The quality of these restaurants, the food and the love from the Broder family makes this corner of south Minneapolis something special.
"I love it. It's like having a little Italy here," Molly said.
"She's our boss, she's our friend, she referees between the three of us, but at the end of the day, she's our mother."
Molly just won huge awards from the Minnesota Restaurant Association and a Lifetime Achievement from the Charlie Award.