"The bar breakfast is a smaller menu without a full breakfast menu not to target the cafe in town and take away business from the Hungry Duck." That line is from the February 9, 2026 Blackduck City Council minutes. It explains a lot about how the Pond added breakfast this year.
The Pond belongs to the city, and in 2026 it added a weekend breakfast. The city's own liquor operations director said the menu was designed to stay small so the cafe in town keeps its share of the morning. By the September council meeting, the breakfast had been running for seven months and the plan was to keep it going.
A bar that reports to the council
Blackduck can watch its bar make business decisions in public, because the Pond is a City of Blackduck-owned on-sale and off-sale liquor store and restaurant. It has been operating since 1936.
Because the city owns it, the Pond has a standing slot on the council agenda. Each monthly packet includes a "Liquor Store Report" next to the reports from public works, the fire department, the library, and the Blackduck Golf Course, which the city also runs. At the same September 8 meeting where breakfast came up, the council approved $32,061.43 for a rough mower for the golf course.
So the breakfast story is public. Anyone can follow it month by month in the minutes posted on the city's meeting minutes and agenda page.
Seven months of breakfast in the minutes
Here is the timeline from the council record.
| Meeting | What the liquor report said |
|---|---|
| February 9, 2026 | Weekend breakfast set to roll out "this coming weekend." Bar opens early at 9 a.m., breakfast served until noon. A sample menu to be advertised on social media. |
| March 9, 2026 | A good response to the weekend breakfast, with about $1,750 in food sales since it started. |
| April 6, 2026 | March bar traffic slower. Brunch menu slow with the recent weather. |
| September 8, 2026 | Labor Day weekend sales were good. Breakfast numbers not yet ready for the board, "but the Pond will keep breakfast for a minimum of a year." |
The February 9 meeting was a Monday, so "this coming weekend" means the first breakfasts were February 14 and 15. That timing fits a bar trying to give people a reason to come out on a February morning. In the same report, the director told the council that Chamber Bingo started Sunday, February 15.
The $1,750 in March is the only food-sales figure the minutes give for breakfast. It covers roughly the first month of weekends. That's a modest number, and it was meant to be. The April report blamed a slow stretch on weather. Then, in September, the decision was to keep breakfast going for at least another year, even before the numbers were ready to present.
The menu that was kept short
The February report says the menu would start small, with advertising, "as the staff work on perfecting the items." It was described as a bar breakfast and not a full breakfast menu. The target customer was clear too: "the weekend crowd that wants a bar breakfast with their Bloody Mary's."
The window is 9 a.m. to noon on weekends, and it's aimed at people who want a Bloody Mary with their breakfast. The city's Blackduck dining page lists the Hungry Duck at 72 Main St. N. as a family-owned stop for breakfast or lunch. The Pond's breakfast was planned around that business.
The city had good reason to plan carefully. A municipal bar with a building, a liquor license, and a kitchen could put a lot of pressure on a privately owned cafe a few blocks away. In February, the person who runs that bar told elected officials on the record that she was building the menu to avoid doing that. In a town the size of Blackduck, the breakfast business is small enough that the two places share the same customers.
Pop, Bloody Marys, and a changing bar business
The February minutes also explain why breakfast was on the table at all. The director said "this is the business model changing and it must adjust with the times," and pointed to "the amount of non-alcoholic beverages (pop) being served" as an example.
That gives the breakfast menu a second purpose. A bar that sells more pop than it used to needs other reasons for people to come in. Food at a new time of day brings in revenue that doesn't depend on drink orders, and Bloody Marys keep it tied to what the Pond already does well. The Pond's regular food menu, posted on its website, carries the regular lineup and weekday specials. Breakfast was added on weekend mornings and didn't replace any of it.
You can see the change in the hours too. The posted schedule on the Pond's homepage, dated January 2026, lists an 11 a.m. opening on Sunday and 10 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. The council report moved the weekend opening to 9 a.m. for breakfast.
The building is on the agenda, too
The building itself is on the agenda too. The October 5 council packet includes an estimate from DK Builders to "reside the 2 large gables & front small gable on the Pond," with six siding options. One is LP Dual Blend wood-tone horizontal siding.
The September report also mentioned ongoing humidity problems in the on-sale bar, even with all the air conditioning units working, and a council member suggested looking into a commercial direct-drain humidifier. So the room where the breakfast is served and the outside of the building are both open items in the same year the city committed to a longer breakfast schedule.
Planning a weekend morning around it
The breakfast is meant to be a small extra on the weekend calendar, so here's how to plan around it:
- Check the Pond's social media before you go. The February report said the menu would be advertised there. The 9 a.m. to noon weekend window comes from the council record, and the posted hours on the website predate breakfast.
- Saturday, November 7. Blackduck Public Schools, 156 1st St. NE, has a play performance at 3 p.m. and a second performance at 6 p.m. A late-morning breakfast leaves plenty of time before the matinee.
- Friday, November 6. The same school hosts a dinner theater from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
- Monday, November 9. The city council meets at 6 p.m. at Blackduck City Hall, 8 Summit Ave. East. That's where the next Liquor Store Report will be given.
- Wednesday, November 18. The Blackduck Chamber meets at 3 p.m. at the Blackduck Senior Citizens Center, 24 1st St. SE.
For an afternoon outing after breakfast, our fall weekend guide to Blackduck covers the Lost Forty and Camp Rabideau. Our Blackduck neighborhood page has more about the town.
The September minutes say the Pond "will keep breakfast for a minimum of a year." The breakfast numbers weren't ready that night, so a future Liquor Store Report should show how the menu is doing.
At Team Cermak, we read Blackduck's council packets because changes like new weekend hours and a siding estimate for a downtown landmark affect what a block near downtown feels like to live on. If you own a home in Blackduck and want to know what it's worth right now, get your free home valuation at teamcermak.com/home-valuation, and we'll walk you through the local numbers in plain language.
