Molly Yeh’s case for visiting East Grand Forks, Minnesota, starts with food rooted in place: regional ingredients, local producers and traditions shared around the table. In a November 15, 2022, interview, the cookbook author and Bernie’s co-owner discussed Home Is Where the Eggs Are, the café she opened with her husband, Nick Hagen, and the small-town food culture behind both. Her visitor suggestions date to that conversation; check current details before making plans.
What Molly Yeh said about East Grand Forks
Yeh’s interview presents East Grand Forks as a place to explore through locally owned food businesses and shops, alongside outdoor activities that reflect the region’s seasons. Asked what visitors could do, she named locally owned restaurants and boutiques, including Harry’s Steakhouse and Toasted Frog, as well as pizza parlors and tacos at a mall food court. Those are leads from November 2022, not confirmation that every business or option remains open or unchanged.
She also described a community that embraces winter, mentioning a holiday festival, outdoor ice rinks, ice fishing and snowmobiling. The interview does not establish current dates, conditions, access or schedules for those activities, so check with local organizers and venues before visiting.
Bernie’s: a café shaped by regional food
Yeh said Bernie’s began with a mission to celebrate Midwestern food, its community, farmers, butchers, history and ingredients. “I wanted to make it about the community, make it about the farmers and the butchers in the region, and celebrate the history and the ingredients that we get here,” she told Midwest Living. She described local and seasonal ingredients as the menu’s anchor, with occasional specials drawing on other flavor traditions.
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Bernie’s current About page describes an East Grand Forks café celebrating local cuisine through Scandinavian flavors and church-cookbook traditions. Its offerings include rustic sourdough, knoephla soup, ham sandwiches, hotdishes, baked goods, salads and toasts; a market is part of the business, too. The site says wheat for fresh bread is milled from the Hagen farm. Bernie’s homepage likewise describes it as a café, bakery and market focused on Midwestern cuisine and ingredients.
Planning a visit
Bernie’s currently lists its address as 121 Demers Ave, East Grand Forks, MN 56721, and hours as Tuesday through Sunday, 7 a.m.–3 p.m., with coffee and baked goods only from 7–8 a.m.; it is closed Monday. Because hours can change, confirm them with Bernie’s before traveling. Its menu page notes that bakery selections vary daily and lists café, drinks, kids, vegan, gluten-free, catering and events menu categories.
How the cookbook brings heritage into everyday meals
Yeh wrote Home Is Where the Eggs Are during the pandemic, as she reflected on how food carries stories about family and heritage while her daughter was beginning to eat solid food. In the interview, she described wanting to make treasured recipes manageable for ordinary life rather than overly complicated. Memories of eating pot stickers with her father informed her thoughts about carrying traditions into holidays, special occasions and weeknight meals.
Her official cookbook page confirms that William Morrow published Home Is Where the Eggs Are in 2022, after Yeh had her first child. It describes recipes she likes to cook regularly for her family and highlights turkey spinach meatballs, hot dog chopped salad and family sugar cookies among her favorites. The book’s personal and family context offers a useful companion for readers interested in the food traditions behind Yeh’s cooking.
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Cookie salad: a side dish or a dessert?
One of the interview’s lighter debates centers on cookie salad, a creamy, cookie-based dish that Yeh likens to a trifle. Her husband, Nick Hagen, wanted it on Bernie’s main menu with the vegetable salads; Yeh said she would rather eat hers after the main course. “The only weird thing about cookie salad is that it’s called a salad,” she said, adding, “If you get past that, it’s really just a trifle.” She compared the combination of cookies and cream to tiramisu. The name, she joked, is a conversation piece.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the interview captures about the region
The connection between Yeh’s cookbook and Bernie’s is not that every restaurant dish is a personal family recipe. Rather, both conversations point toward food as a way to hold memory and reflect a place. Yeh’s Chinese and Jewish background, Hagen’s Norwegian heritage and the region’s ingredients all inform the interview’s picture of food traditions. At Bernie’s, she emphasized the wider community and regional producers; in her cookbook, she spoke about making family traditions part of daily cooking.
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The Midwest Living conversation was published November 15, 2022, when Yeh had completed her second cookbook, Bernie’s had opened, and she was preparing for season 13 of Girl Meets Farm. The interview was edited for length and clarity. Its restaurant recommendations and seasonal activity ideas should be read in that time context.
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