Horace, N.D. - A 30-year-old local rifle range has added a new target: restaurant dining.
In April, Jamestown, N.D., native John Kennedy and his California-born wife, Annie, opened Home on the Range Restaurant at Adventure Shooting Sports of Fargo, 4333 167th Ave. S.E., Horace.
Last May, the couple purchased The Shooting Park, a trap, skeet, rifle range and clubhouse that has been in existence since 1978.
It's now a full-fledged restaurant and National Rifle Association-certified shooting park offering league and non-competitive trap, skeet, sporting clays, pistol, rifle and archery, and 3D indoor target simulator shooting.
"We gutted the place and put in a commercial kitchen," John Kennedy said. "We call it range dining. It tastes like home."
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The restaurant menu includes appetizers, salads, pasta, steaks, walleye, sandwiches, desserts, a kids menu, wine and beer.
"Everything is homemade. The soups are all made here," Annie Kennedy said.
Plans are to expand the menu to include Italian and Indian dishes, and others that the Kennedys were fond of while living in California, John Kennedy said.
"We want to introduce these things slowly," said chef Scott Motschenbacher, a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Minneapolis.
The restaurant, which plans to host private events and offer on-site catering, will be open from 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays.
The shooting park is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. seven days a week for members. It's available to the public after 3 p.m.
The Kennedys met while attending Marin Bible College near San Francisco, after he was discharged from the U.S. Navy in 1990.
While there, he delivered furniture for an auction company before starting his own business that grew to 35 employees and 10 delivery trucks.
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In November 2006, John Kennedy and his daughter, Rachel, returned to North Dakota to attend a funeral.
"She liked it and said she wanted to come back here," Kennedy said. "I'd been wanting to come back here."
In March 2007, an opportunity arose to purchase the shooting range.
"My California wife suggested that we buy the business and move back," he said.
"The club has been here since 1978, but it was not a well-known fact," Kennedy said. "We took it over with two weeks' notice, uprooted our family and came back."
The former shooting park operated as a pay-as-you-go facility, he said.
Adventure Shooting Sports will offer $50 annual memberships and $70 family memberships that include unlimited use of the pistol and rifle range, and discounts at the trap and field range and restaurant, he said.
"We have token-operated machines. They just drop in a token and shoot clays (pigeons) and skeet," John Kennedy said.
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Summer trap and skeet leagues will be offered. "You don't have to be a member to join a league. That's open to the public as well," he said.
A youth program will also be offered starting June 2. Youths under age 12 must be accompanied by a parent, he said.
"This is my first time out of California," Annie Kennedy said. "I like it here. It feels like home. It's grown on me very quickly."
Business profile
- Name: Adventure Shooting Sports of Fargo and Home on the Range Restaurant
- Location: 4333 167th Ave. S.E., Horace, N.D.
- Owners: John and Ann Kennedy
- Phone: (701) 282-3805 or (701) 212-4349
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- Web site: www.advshoot.com
Readers can reach Forum Business Editor Craig McEwen at (701) 241-5502
