When our family started serving comfort food, it was just called ‘food.’

The genesis of nearly 50 years of family-restaurant tradition most likely started with ketchup sandwiches. You read that right. Ketchup sandwiches.

In the early 1960’s, the Sieve family farm in Long Prairie, Minnesota produced more rocks than crops. With no food in the cupboards, family matriarch Helen ‘Hazel’ Sieve found herself feeding five hungry children with whatever she had on hand: ketchup and bread.

A talented baker and proud mother, enough was enough. Helen took her talents to a local diner where she made pies for 60 cents a piece. The town took notice and demanded the genius behind these amazing pies open a place of her own. A few years later Helen and her husband Ben started the Grille Cafe.

Running a café, tending to the farm, and raising five young children left Helen little time to attend to the fashion and styles of the day. On evenings when the wear and tear of the day left her looking and feeling particularly haggard, she often exclaimed, “I look just like Hazel Mulder!” None of the family new who Hazel Mulder was, but over the years the family joked and fondly refer the days on the farm “the Hazel Years” as a way to honor, remember and celebrate the work ethic and dedication put forth by Ben and Helen to ensure the family would never again survive on ketchup sandwiches alone.

Ben and Hazel eventually sold the restaurant to two of their sons, Kurt and Jon Sieve, who still operate the wildly popular restaurant to this day. Two of Kurt’s sons, Adam and Andrew, continue the family tradition with Hazel’s Northeast.

Rooted in decades old recipes and tradition, Hazel’s Northeast serves American comfort food that is simply prepared, impeccably presented, and consistently delicious. To us, classic comfort food isn’t a trend or fad—it’s a legacy. And we’re happy to share our legacy with you at Hazel’s Northeast at the corner of Johnson Street and 29th Avenue in the Audobon Park neighborhood of Northeast Minneapolis.

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