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On the road/A grand hotel in Walker

On Leech Lake, an Arts and Crafts classic rises from ashes.

In northern Minnesota, not every little fishing village had a place like Chase on the Lake.

But Walker did. When the Tudor-style hotel opened in 1922, it was the most luxurious and expensive hotel north of Little Falls. For many years, it was the place to be in this Leech Lake town, named for a lumber baron whose fortune was plowed into a famous Minneapolis art collection.

Eventually, the hotel became ragged around the edges, and it burned in 1997. Until this year, the hillside site on Minnesota's third-largest lake, a block from downtown Walker, sat empty.

Now there's a new Chase on the Lake, and it's a beauty. This one also is gabled and half-timbered in the Tudor style, except its facade is artfully applied concrete. Inside, halls are lighted by stained-glass sconces, floors are laid with William Morris-style floral Arts and Crafts carpet and furniture is dark oak.

At lake level, there's the handsome 502 Restaurant, lined by windows.  In its pub, leather banquettes line the wall, and the tap includes Guinness, Boulevard Pale Ale and Finnegan's Irish amber.

Not bad for little Walker, most famous for its rowdy Eelpout Festival in February.

What's even better than the Chase's good looks is the apparent jollity of its employees.  Though the hotel still is scrambling to get up to speed — it opened June 30, and as of July 10 workers still were swarming around the grounds, planting lilies, installing pipes for a lighted fountain and moving furniture — everyone was grinning ear to ear.

"I'm really grateful it's open; I think everybody is," said Dawn Myhra, who met her husband, Eric, when she was spending the summer in Walker. "I was proposed to right on that corner, and I celebrated my 30th anniversary here. We danced here so many times; it was so fun. When it came down, we went out in a boat to watch and just bawled.''

Myhra, who works at the front desk, showed me one of six rooms with a balcony, which had wicker furniture and  practically hung over the water.

"Look at this view,'' she said reverently.

I brought my sister and daughter to lunch at the 502, and it was nearly as good as Myhra and others had promised. Terri, our server, brought us walleye wild rice cakes, a BLT on cranberry-wild rice bread and a duck quesadilla with mushrooms, onions, Gouda and chipotle sour cream — "You have my three favorite things right there,'' she told us.

The wasabi aioli on my walleye cakes was timid, leaving the cakes a little bland, but my sister loved the Asian slaw that came with it, and we all loved the chunky tomato-Gorgonzola-wild rice soup I also ordered. Everything else was good, too, though we should have quit while we were ahead instead of ordering the chocolate-cake combo.

When I commented on the general air of bonhomie, my sister remarked, "It helps to be in a beautiful place with a beautiful view and delicious food.''

Yes, it does. The long winters will be hard on the new hotel, but in October it plans to open a third building — a second building on a small sand beach houses "condotels'' — that will include an Aveda spa, a bowling alley, a ballroom and more condotels.

Already, the Chase is Walker's new gathering spot. And when I was there last week, its Java Loon Coffee and Gelato Cafe was just about to open. That will be a welcome stop for bicyclists. Happily, a short spur from the Heartland State Trail, which shares 7½ miles up to and through Walker with the Paul Bunyan State Trail, brings them right to the door of Chase on the Lake.

The hotel is managed by Leisure Hotels of Leawood, Kan., co-owned by Chase proprietor Steve Olson. General manager Jamie Tatge comes from Grand View Lodge in Nisswa and chef Ed Harapat from Arthur's Ten Mile Lake Inn near Hackensack.

Hotel suites start at $119 midweek. Reserve at Chase on the Lake, 866-242-7306.

Last updated on July 17, 2008