A lakeside bar on County Highway 22 near Detroit Lakes has shed its old identity as TJ's Booze & Bistro and reopened under a name that started, of all things, as a joke among sheriff's dispatchers. Owners Troy and Jen Goering reopened the business on January 14 as the Zoo on 22, following a four-month closure for renovations that reconnected the bar to the lake it overlooks.
The name traces back to years of radio traffic from the Becker County Sheriff's Office, according to InForum. Dispatchers began calling the property the Zoo on 22 after fielding calls involving complaints, occasional intoxication and parking issues, and the label stuck long enough that the Goerings decided to make it official rather than keep the name they had given the place when they first took over.
Troy and Jen Goering bought the Lake Eunice business in 2015 and initially renamed it TJ's, using their own initials. The Goerings spent roughly the first full year of ownership working on a renovation, adding an expanded patio, kitchen and outdoor space before undertaking the more recent overhaul that gave the bar its current look and name.
A Property With Decades of Local History
The building's roots on Lake Eunice go back further than either the TJ's or Zoo on 22 eras. Virgil and Elsie Cummins made Lake Eunice Resort their home in 1968, when the property included a main building, an attached store, four nearby cabins, guests' boats and a gas pump. Randy Johnson and friends transformed the property into Randy's in 1984, and Nancy Hofstrand later managed the business after Randy Johnson's family had operated it.
Vikki Johnson started working at Randy's in 1990, taking on roles as a pull-tabs worker, bingo worker and bartender over the years. Randy Johnson died in 2004. The site was known as Randy's on Lake Eunice before becoming the Zoo on 22, a nod to the venue's multi-generational pull on local families.
Vikki Johnson told InForum that many former customers have returned to the renovated bar and liked what they found. The crowd at the Zoo on 22 today is different from the one that filled Randy's, but general manager Derek Mackner has reported that summer still brings float planes landing near the bar, alongside boaters pulling up to the dock.
Inside the Renovation
The most recent renovation removed walls and portions of the old bar area down to the structure, addressing plumbing and mechanical issues along the way. Crews added storage, upgraded kitchen equipment, televisions, sound equipment and seating, and connected the indoor space to outdoor seating through new garage-style doors. Troy Goering said the changes opened the bar up to the lake and gave the business a refresh.
Not everything went. Jen Goering said the old bar poles were kept in place because longtime customers recognize them, and the Zoo on 22 also retains the old front-bar tap from the building's earlier life. The result is an open garage-door concept with a timber-wrapped interior, wood-lined walls and new bar counters that still nod to what came before.
Food, Games and a Sports-Bar Feel
The Zoo on 22 opens at noon every day and leans into a sports-bar-meets-family-hangout atmosphere, hosting watch parties and offering jenga, bean bags and other outdoor games for customers who want to sit outside overlooking Lake Eunice. Guests can arrive by boat, play games on the patio or watch a game inside. Lake Eunice itself spans 325 acres, according to Lake-Link, supporting a sport fishery of northern pike, largemouth bass and panfish that draws its own share of anglers to the area.
The kitchen serves bar appetizers, burgers, sandwiches, chicken baskets, tacos and ice cream, though it stays closed on Mondays. It runs from 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from noon to 9 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
Charitable Gaming and Community Ties
Charitable gaming has become a fixture of the bar's weekly rhythm. The Zoo on 22 hosts bar bingo, known locally as Bargo, every Wednesday, along with meat raffles every Friday. That gaming is operated by HSL Gaming to benefit the Humane Society of the Lakes, offering paper pull-tabs and electronic pull-tabs alongside the linked bingo, according to the Humane Society of the Lakes. HSL Gaming says it follows Minnesota Gambling Control Board rules.
The bar's regional profile has grown beyond its charitable gaming nights. In July, the Midwest comedy podcast Bellied Up recorded an episode on-site at the Zoo on 22. Winter brings its own crowd too — The Mighty 790 KFGO reported on a Midnite Riders Old Timers run and snowmobilers in the nearby Lake Park and Cormorant area.
The bar sits within Lake Eunice Township, a rural community of an estimated 1,760 residents as of 2026, up 2.21% from the 2020 census, with a median household income of $89,554, per World Population Review. That relatively small year-round base, set against Becker County's broader population of roughly 35,283 across 14,404 households, provides a contrast with the seasonal boaters and snowmobilers who visit the area. Before opening TJ's, Troy and Jen Goering owned Bordertown in West Fargo for roughly 20 years, giving them a long run in the bar business before taking on the Lake Eunice property.
