South Long Lake feature | Paradise Resort

Paradise Resort has 200 feet of sandy beach on Upper South Long Lake.

Submitted photo

FEATURE South Long Lake business is a hidden gem

BY PETE MOHS

Just after traveling on County Road 23 Southeast between South Long Lake and Upper South Long Lake there’s a left turn on Leisure Lane Southeast that heads to one of the few businesses around that area southeast of Brainerd.

That business, somewhat hidden down the wooded road, is Paradise Resort Bar & Grill.

“Most everyone says this is a hidden gem,” said Susie Hoheisel, who along with her husband, Chad, and son, Cody, owns the business. “It’s a quiet place to relax that’s tucked in the woods. We’re a small ma and pa resort, and our goal is to keep it that way.”

The resort, located on the east side of Upper South Long Lake, first opened in the 1940s. It has attracted many regular guests from around Minnesota and other states over the decades.

“We have a lot of families from the Twin Cities and Duluth who return here every year,” Susie said. “We also have some people from Arizona. We do get some locals, especially in the past year with COVID-19 where people didn’t want to travel too far.”

Paradise Resort has seven cabins, including two year-round, with full kitchens and decks overlooking the lake. The resort boasts 200 feet of sandy beach.

“We just refurbished all of the cabins last summer,” Susie said. “We also have an event center for weddings and other social gatherings.”

Besides the resort, Paradise is a popular dining and relaxation spot for locals at the bar and grill. Guests can sit inside or outside on a patio built in 2020 while the business was closed for more than four months because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People really like being outside on our new deck,” said Cody, who serves as manager of the year-round bar and grill. “We feature a full menu, but we’re known for our pizza and burgers. We also have daily and weekend dinner specials.”

The business does host events during the year - like a bass fishing tournament in July and winter activities that include a Crappie Flop tournament and Golf on Ice fundraiser for the Local Pink Ribbon Foundation.

Paradise is definitely a family business as Cody also helps with cabin registrations; Susie does cabin bookings, accounting and marketing; Chad helps with lawn care and maintenance; and their daughter, Danielle, bartends a few nights a week.

“Plus we have a great staff,” Susie said. “Most of them have been with us since we purchased the business.”

RESORT HISTORY

Paradise was originally built in 1938 as a logging business. The Kloster family later purchased it with six seasonal cabins, and it eventually became Flanigan’s Resort. Larry and Kathy Erickson added a seventh cabin and owned the business until 1998, when they sold it to the Radtke family, who added the full-service bar and grill, built the event center and remodeled the cabins.

The Hoheisels purchased the business from the Radtke family in 2016.

Paradise Point, also a resort/bar business on Lower South Long Lake, was destroyed by fire in 1998, and was never rebuilt. There are not many businesses around the South Long lakes, but there has been plenty of residential growth around both lakes.

“We’ve seen the lake grow up in the past 15 years with new cabins and homes,” Susie said. “South Long is a nice recreational lake with great fishing for all species.”

ABOUT THE LAKES

Upper and Lower South Long are not connected as a dam was built between the two lakes. The two lakes are in the upper 10% of lakes in terms of size in Minnesota. The lakes are moderately shallow with maximum depths of 40-47 feet. The combined watershed for Upper and Lower is about 68 square miles including the lake’s surface.

Logging was popular around Upper South Long from 1890 to 1910. A mill pond was located on the north end of the lake, and a small town was eventually built with a creamery, store, flour mill and other small buildings in 1906.

Susie Hoheisel and her son, Cody, stand in the Paradise Resort Bar & Grill, located on Upper South Long Lake.

Photo by Pete Mohs

Lakeshore was being developed in the 1930s and a dam was built in 1936 on the outlet of the lake, mainly to stop logs. The west shore was developed in the 1960s and 1970s and a lake association was formed.

As for Lower South Long, a development began in the 1920s on the east side from Paradise Point Resort to just north of the cutoff on Paradise Beach Road. The Works Progress Administration built two dams on the lake, one on the north and one on the south in the 1930s.

There were also two small plane crashes on the lake in the 1930s. Rowan’s store opened in 1934 on Paradise Beach Road and electricity was introduced to the area in 1942.

The Lower South Long Lake Association was formed in 1977.

PETE MOHS is publisher of the Pineandlakes Echo Journal weekly newspaper in Pequot Lakes/Pine River and the Brainerd Dispatch daily newspaper.