Olives restaurant receives prestigious STARR Award from the Minnesota Shopping Center Association

MANKATO, Minn. (January 14, 2009) — The Minnesota Shopping Center Association (MSCA) recently announced their 2008 Shopping Center Tribute Awards for Retail Real Estate. Olives restaurant received the prestigious interior design award in the restaurant/food service category. Located in Mankato’s Hilton Garden Inn, Olives was designed by Paulsen Architects--a full-service architecture, engineering, interior design and planning firm based in Mankato. The awards were presented at the MSCA STARR Award Ceremony on December 2, 2008 at the Golden Valley Country Club and are featured on the MSCA website at www.msca-online.com.

Family-owned and operated by the Massad Group, Olives opened in the fall of 2007. It was selected from a group of 40 nominees for the STARR Awards. Entries were reviewed and judged by a group of industry specialists, professionals and peers closely involved with retail real estate. The interior design judging criteria includes innovative use of materials, functionality of layout, successful concept implementation, construction issues, interior lighting and overall image.

Paulsen Architects worked closely with the Massad Group and developers of the Hilton Garden Inn to integrate the upscale restaurant into the hotel’s main lobby. With a vision to be a restaurant of high energy, Olives features an open kitchen that is visible upon entering, providing a view into the chef's world and deepening the connection for the guest and their dining experience. By design, the seating is a mix of private booths and tables with views into the open kitchen and overlooking City Center Mankato. The design team scaled the restaurant to create an intimate evening dining experience for the public and hotel guests, but also to accommodate the more functional side of being the exclusive restaurant in a busy hotel that provides catering for meetings, hotel guest breakfast buffets and room service.

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