Tony Donatell has a knack for spotting business opportunities that others might overlook. Over the past two years, he's transformed an empty storefront next to an Amoco gas station convenience store in Lakeville, Minnesota into The Farmer's Cellar, an upscale restaurant and cocktail bar with a speakeasy twist.
Donatell, 46, is the owner and founder of the Wondrous Collective, a restaurant group that owns 12 businesses, including The Farmer's Cellar, in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota.
Donatell opened The Farmer's Cellar in May 2025, and the business — which includes the speakeasy, the convenience store and the gas station itself — brought in almost $5 million in revenue in its first year, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.
A gas station convenience store may seem like an unusual choice for an evening out, but The Farmer's Cellar has a near-constant line of patrons waiting to enter the speakeasy on Friday and Saturday nights, he says.
The Farmer's Cellar is a popular weekend destination.
Ben Brewer
That's not something every restaurant can boast amid rising prices and economic pressures. Thirty-seven percent of American diners were eating out less often than they had a year earlier, partially due to cost, a YouGov report from October 2025 found. The consumer price index for eating out has increased by 3.4% year-over-year as of July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
For 61% of Americans, eating out feels like more of a "special treat" than a regular occurrence, according to a November report from OpenTable, an online restaurant reservation platform.
"Guests are looking for experiences right now in this tough economy," Donatell says, and the speakeasy is a unique one that can offer them a "really fun escape from the world."
Building a gas station with 'the best food in town'
Gas stations are familiar territory for Donatell, who "learned the ropes" working at a local gas station chain for several years after college. He purchased his first gas station and convenience store 17 years ago in Eagan, Minnesota.
At first glance, the Eagan store didn't look promising, he recalls: It was "kind of dark, kind of gross" and located in an isolated area. But it already had a kitchen with built-in fume hoods and cooking equipment, so he decided to take a chance on the property.
Tony Donatell opened The Farmer's Cellar, a speakeasy bar, inside a gas station convenience store.
Ben Brewer
Business was slow at first, but once Donatell overhauled the convenience store's menu, food sales "took off," he says. "Word spread. People started bringing their friends in. People were like, 'Hey, you gotta check out this gas station. They have the best food in town.'"
Donatell later expanded the Eagan property to include a burger joint, Burgers and Bottles, and a speakeasy called Volstead House. "We basically turned a gas station into a restaurant that happens to sell gas," he jokes.
In early 2024, he had a chance to replicate his success. A gas station convenience store owner in nearby Lakeville reached out and asked Donatell to help him revive his struggling store by turning an empty storefront next door into a restaurant and bar.
"I came and looked at his kitchen. I looked at the operation. I looked at the neighborhood and just really loved the opportunity," says Donatell, who rented both properties in November 2024. Over the next six months, he and his team transformed the neighboring storefront into The Farmer's Cellar.
Inside the speakeasy, it's still the 'roaring twenties'
In true speakeasy fashion, The Farmer's Cellar has a hidden entrance: a faux soda cooler inside the gas station convenience store, which Donatell renamed The Farmer's Grandson.
One of Donatell's favorite parts of owning a speakeasy is watching newcomers try to figure out how to enter. Some people end up "pulling out every cooler door, every shelving unit in the store, trying to figure out where they're supposed to go," he says.
The entrance to The Farmer's Cellar is hidden behind an unassuming cooler door in the gas station convenience store.
Ben Brewer
Once customers enter, the convenience store's fluorescent lighting and vinyl floors give way to moody chandeliers, smooth leather chairs, an antique wooden bar and even a copper bathtub, which is a nod to the "bathtub gin" brewed during the Prohibition era.
"You really feel like you're back in the roaring twenties," Donatell says.
Another key draw is the speakeasy's "inventive" cocktail menu. Bartenders use centrifuges, dry ice and liquid nitrogen to add a unique twist to classic cocktails like mojitos and gimlets and "put on a fun show," he says.
To attract customers in today's economy, "you have to provide an incredible experience," he adds. "People are enthralled with the idea of discovering something new."
Thanks to the speakeasy, sales have soared
The Farmer's Cellar brought in just over $1.7 million in revenue from its opening in May 2025 through April, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. The convenience store brought in about $1.4 million in revenue and the gas station brought in almost $1.9 million in revenue during the same period. The business as a whole has been profitable since the speakeasy opened.
Two of the speakeasy's most popular cocktails are mojitos and gimlets, according to Donatell.
Ben Brewer
When Donatell first took over, the convenience store was losing at least $10,000 each month, he says. But after the speakeasy opened next door, "those numbers completely flipped," partially because patrons often purchase snacks at the convenience store while they wait to enter the bar.
Labor is "always the biggest expense" in the hospitality business, according to Donatell: "It takes money to hire great people who take good care of our guests." Donatell says he's had to up his menu prices, too. "Unfortunately, it's part of operating in today's economic challenges of inflationary pricing."
Total expenses for the average restaurant — including food and labor, utilities, maintenance, supplies, insurance and credit card processing fees — have risen 36% between 2019 and 2026, according to estimates from the National Restaurant Association, a trade organization and lobbying group. The organization's research found that restaurant menu prices have also increased by 3.4% between July 2025 and July 2026.
Patrons at The Farmer's Cellar
Ben Brewer
The Farmer's Cellar primarily serves "light bites" like crab rangoon dip and crispy chicken sliders rather than full meals, says Donatell, who estimates that approximately 70% of their sales come from beverages, including beer, wine, soda and liquor. "That mix, along with high margins on cocktails, allows us to be profitable."
Looking ahead
The Farmer's Cellar's immense popularity has benefited the Wondrous Collective as a whole. "As is typical in business, sometimes you have restaurants that aren't making money — or are losing money — but the immediate success of this one has helped level up our entire hospitality group," Donatell says.
Right now, he's working on expanding The Farmer's Cellar into another adjacent storefront.
"In a few months, we'll be opening what's going to be called the Withdrawing Room," he says, a Victorian-inspired event space that will host private parties and provide overflow seating for the speakeasy on busy nights.
Like The Farmer's Cellar, Donatell says, it'll be a place where customers can "come have fun and forget about everything else for a little while."
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