Maxwell's Beach Cafe offers fun, inviting workplace, causing staff to return year after year

Maxwell’s Beach Café is a fine dining restaurant located in the heart of Arnold’s Park Amusement Park. It has been a staple of Okoboji summers since 1986 offering quality food, views of the lake and welcoming service staff. The restaurant is a highly sought-after job each summer, with many attracted to the high tips and fun work environment.

Owner Steven Jensen started working at Maxwell’s in 2007, thinking it was going to be a one-summer job.

“I kept coming back,” Jensen said. He said the environment and staff at the time brought him back. Making $100s in tips each weekend also helped.

In 2017, Maxwell’s was the background for an important moment in Jensen’s life when he and his wife, Leah, became engaged at the restaurant.

For years, Steven Jensen and longtime owners Lewis Casson and Julie Roth had talked about Jensen's intent to one day own and manage the site. Growing up in Sioux City, Jensen said he spent his summers in Okoboji with family, leaving a lasting impact on his life.

Jensen had been living in Des Moines for a few months in 2018 when Casson approached him about buying Maxwell’s. Steven and Leah decided to make the move, getting a small business loan and purchasing the restaurant in May of that year.

“We didn’t have much time to really get rolling because we opened Memorial Day weekend of that year,” he said.

Each season since, Steven and Leah Jensen have continued to provide a place of employment that is more like a family, the same thing that made Steven Jensen return year after year.

“All those things that made me start and want to stay in 2007, I think it’s still true today,” Jensen said. “The culture is great, the money is great, the guests are great.”

Working at Maxwell’s is a sought-after summer job, but sometimes, the best way to get a job is who you know.

Jensen said they take applications from anyone, but many of their new hires are people who are recommended to them through current employees, such as siblings, cousins, or close friends. He said some families started working at Maxwell’s in the 90’s and each sibling thereafter continued working there.

“We pretty much hire from people we know, or if we have really good guests that come in constantly and their nephew or son or daughter want to work for us,” Jensen said.

With over 100 people applying for the summer job, it can be difficult to know who a good fit will be. Finley Hoien, Maxwell’s bar manager, said it helps when someone within the restaurant knows the person and can give the owners a reference of the person’s work ethic and how they will fit in with the staff.

“What we’ve kind of noticed over the years are the people that fit in and are willing to get to know the other employees are the ones that will go the extra mile and really join in and be friends with everyone, and they tend to stick around longer,” he said.

Hoien has worked at Maxwell’s for 10 seasons. His sister started as a busser and then his brother became a bartender.

“I would go in with my parents to eat dinner because it was the only time I got to see them because they worked so much,” Hoien said.

One of those nights, Hoien was sitting with former owner Julie Roth showing her all the different ways he could fold a napkin “and she goes, ‘why don’t you come in here and get paid for that tomorrow night? … I’ve got an extra polo for you and I’ll pay you to do it.'”

He started as a busser, worked in the kitchen and has spent the last five summers bartending.

“It’s just one of those places that you work at and you have so much fun,” he said.

Merabeth Heinitz has worked at Maxwell’s for 12 seasons. Her sister had gotten the job because of a recommendation from a friend, and then when Heinitz was old enough, her sister recommended her.

At 14, Heinitz started bussing tables. She returned after that first year because of the friendships she had made.

“It’s literally like a family,” Heinitz said. “I have created friendships that I will continue to have forever because of Maxwell’s. We always say, ‘if you’re not working at Maxwell’s, you with Maxwell’s people, or eating at Maxwell’s,’ because you get so close to everyone.”

Just like Steven and Leah, Maxwell’s was the location for Heinitz's engagement last summer and her engagement photos.

“My fiancé proposed there because he knew what a great environment it was,” she said.

When Heinitz started, the Jensen’s were working as servers at Maxwell’s. She said she was excited to continue to work at Maxwell’s when they took over because of the leadership she knew they would bring. Hoien said he connected with the Jensens right away, and said they are great people to work for.

Steven Jensen said a lot of the people he still talks to from years past are not high school or college friends, but people he worked with in his first year at Maxwell’s. Just this past Memorial Day weekend, he said there were 12 previous employees eating at the restaurant.

Heinitz works as a school counselor, giving her the summers to work at Maxwell’s. Currently, she is a lead server and manager. She said most people start bussing tables like she did and work their way up to serving. She now helps train new servers to continue to uphold the standards she learned.

“You’ve got to work hard, and it’s definitely not just given to you, which is something that I like, you have to earn it. You have to work hard and show up and do your best and I think that’s why we're so successful as a serving staff because there are those high expectations,” she said.

Hoien believes Maxwell’s is one of the best restaurants in Northwest Iowa if not one of the top in Iowa, so they believe in keeping a high standard for the employees' work ethic, while still being friendly and fun.

“It’s just such a good community of people, that it’s almost hard to not love it,” he said.

Many other staff members have stories like Heinitz, Hoien and the Jensens, returning year after year because of the welcoming and family-centered environment.

“I think a lot of people walk into it thinking it’s just going to be a summer job when in reality they’ll then end up coming back for five, six, seven years because they love it so much,” Heinitz said. “It makes you want to come back and it makes you want to spend your summers here and work and I will probably be back for a 13th summer just because it’s something that I know when I’m older, I’m going to look back and I’m going to miss a lot.

“It’s created some of my best friends, some of my best memories and while I might not get the classic Okoboji tourism summer, I would take Maxwell’s any day.”