pineandlakes.com / BRAINERDDISPATCH.COM ECHO JOURNAL/BRAINERD DISPATCH | Wednesday, January 29, 2025
| Business Traditions | H1
Roll of Honor 2025
Renee Richardson / Brainerd Dispatch
New owners at Sage on Laurel, Matt and Jacquelyn Calos, took over on May 1, 2024, and are transforming the restaurant and changing its name to Passport, focusing on healthy, fresh food featuring a host of flavors.
Building on tradition, new downtown Brainerd restaurant owners are ready for fresh start Sage on Laurel to transform to Passport this spring BY RENEE RICHARDSON Brainerd Dispatch
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Brainerd
att and Jacquelyn Calos, new owners of Sage on Laurel in downtown Brainerd, have a new vision for the restaurant that has been part of the city since 2017. They are transforming the restaurant and changing its name to Passport this spring. The building has a storied history in the city. The exposed brick in the interior
154 Years
and the polished wood floors would have a story or two if walls could talk, from its past as a number of other establishments, including the Blue Ox Bar, a noted stop in the movie “Fargo.” An image of the movie poster is on a wall, linking to that history. The restaurant’s previous owners, the Shaws, brought back the tall, grand ceilings, welcomed natural light and created the popular, expansive patio. Now Matt and Jacquelyn
153 Years
Calos plan to build on the restaurant’s strengths and expand into a new direction. They purchased the restaurant in May. Jacquelyn worked at Sage and, as a couple with experience in the food industry already under their belt, they were looking for a place to buy. Then the sale of Sage presented the opportunity for them to own their own place. Matt, originally from Boston, which is also a nickname many know him by,
143 Years
said he worked at Ernie’s and Dunmire’s previously. When he was younger, he said he never thought of cooking as a career. He liked his machine work, but after he started cooking, he realized he enjoyed it too. The couple moved to the Brainerd area in 2019. Jacquelyn’s father lives here and they came for a visit. Matt liked ice fishing and it seemed a perfect spot to move and leave Massachusetts. “The look of the place fits
138 Years
the direction we wanted to go with,” Matt Calos said. “We had a couple of ideas, but this was one of the ideas.” The new vision for Passport is to offer a core menu and then every month focus on flavors of a different country. The theme of Passport is “taste the world.” “We’ve been doing a couple of themed dinners over this winter just to kind of lean into the Passport theme later, and people are enjoying it.
136 Years
PASSPORT on H2
135 Years
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804 Laurel Street, Brainerd, MN
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