Sweet’s Hotel to be Featured on America’s Best Restaurants Roadshow

There was a sense of excitement on the streets of LeRoy, Minnesota, on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, as the America’s Best Restaurants van pulled into town to begin filming at Sweet’s Hotel.

When owners Lu Overocker and her daughter Sarah Srsen applied for Sweet’s Hotel to be featured on the show, they had high hopes but knew that thousands of other restaurants had also sent in applications.

Overocker and Srsen subsequently interviewed for the show over Zoom and were later notified they had been chosen.

There are probably several reasons why Sweet’s Hotel was chosen. It’s a family-owned business that made it through COVID, road construction, and insurance struggles on an almost 130-year-old building. Also, the history of the building is intriguing. “There is so much history to this building,” stated Overocker.

“Sweet’s Hotel was constructed on its present location in 1898 by William W. Sweet. At that time, it was described as ‘one of the most modern three-story hotels in many miles around,’ and was known to have the finest cuisine, according to sweetshotel.com.

There have been many different owners and hotel managers throughout the years but has always maintained lodging. “In 1921 the names of Cy Thomson and Jay Hormel appear on the property abstract.  It was the same year (1921) that Thomson was caught and jailed for embezzling from Hormel where he worked as comptroller.  Due to his conviction, hotel ownership once again returned to Sweet.

In 2007, Rick Lamon, owner at the time, completed an impressive renovation while keeping as many historical aspects as possible.  Sweet’s Hotel originally had 36 rooms and one bathroom upstairs, now there are eight rooms – five of which are jacuzzi suites, and a fully furnished apartment, with the restaurant and bar on the main floor.

When asked why she wanted to own the business, Overocker replied “I kind of fell into it.  I have been in the restaurant business my whole life. A friend of mine was running it and needed help so I came over and helped him with it,” and one thing led to another. The mother-daughter team has owned and operated the business together for 18 years now.

The day of filming was busy, but the crew from America’s Best Restaurants Roadshow made it easy-going and fun.  Overocker and Srsen did a fantastic job speaking and explaining the chosen dishes.

Menu items featured were the prime rib dinner, the Admiral’s Platter and chicken fettuccine alfredo, which all looked mouthwatering and received high praise from Luis Rivera, host of America’s Best Restaurants Roadshow, and videographer director of the show, C.J. Havens. “It will be fun when we see the end product of it all,” commented Overocker.  The episode of America’s Best Restaurants Roadshow featuring Sweet’s Hotel will air in approximately two months.

Hours at Sweet’s Hotel are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.  “We are always open,” noted Srsen.

Overocker says she set the hours that way “because we are a long ways out of town for people, and we get people that travel here for a hundred miles, my theory behind it is you have a couple sitting at home and say oh I wonder if Sweet’s is open, we could go to Sweets; they know we are open, and they get in their car and drive here instead of having to question it,” she explained.

“There are too many people that close Sundays, close Mondays, doing that stuff you know, and we are open all the time. The only time this restaurant is ever closed is a major holiday day,” stated Overocker.

Sweet’s Hotel serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. They have daily specials that customers look forward to as well as a wide variety of delicious items on the menu.

“We also have our full menu at 11 a.m., that’s another draw, so if they want prime rib they can get it for lunch,” stated Srsen. Also popular is the salad bar at Sweet’s Hotel, as not many restaurants offer a salad bar anymore, and they are also known for their tasty soups.

All of this is made possible due to not only the hardworking owners, but also the outstanding and long-time employees who deserve recognition as well.  These employees include Haley Merten – 16 years, Katie Lowe – 16 years, Shirley Dreyer – 15 years, Amanda Lewison – 14 years, Marisa Hensche – 14 years, Chris Dahl – 10 years, Dallas Nolan – 7 years, Deb Hanson  6 years, Ashley Bundy – 4 years, Crystal Scrabeck – 4 years, Ann-Marie Scrabeck – 3 years, Mike Olson – 3 years, an Logan Peterson and Andrew Loven -1 year each.

As if the business and the building are not interesting enough, it is said that the hotel is haunted by Frank Sweet (son of W.W.) and his wife, but that is possibly an article for another time!

A well-earned congratulations goes out to Lu, Sarah and the staff of Sweet’s Hotel. Our area is very fortunate to have your establishment and mouthwatering food available to us.

Sweet’s Hotel is located at 128 W. Main Street in LeRoy. For additional information phone 507-324-9546, check out the business website sweetshotel.com, and be sure to “like” the Sweet’s Hotel facebook page which has frequent updates.