Each year about this time I find myself avoiding the New Year’s resolution I was going to commit to a week ago. But this year is different—thanks to Fridley’s Shorewood Bar & Grille.

The Shorewood is nestled into a beauty of a spot on the shores of Moore Lake. The Nicklow family, known for their restaurants that dot the metro area, manages the place.

I arrived at the Shorewood on the first Tuesday of the year, and family patriarch Jim Nicklow greeted me at the door with a joke: “You picked a great night to visit. We've got an 18-piece big band playing tonight, and if you promise to sing, I promise not to lock the doors.”

Customer Brian Thelem of Coon Rapids was at the bar. “I like everything on the bar menu,” Thelem said. “The prices are great, and most things are a full meal. I’ve had ‘em all, but my go-to is the gyro sandwich.”

The crowd grew as the band arrived with its funky-looking baggage, musicians cradling a brass sax or a silver trumpet.

“This place is great. A great room, friendly crowd, and there’s a soundman to help,” said Bob Hirte of the Acme Jazz Company. “They’ve been having us, and other big bands, play here for the last eight months or so. There aren’t a lot of places like this around town anymore.”

The room soon filled with the sweet sound of swing music, and I realized that I needed to revise my new New Year’s resolutions.

In 2011, I resolve to spend more Tuesday evenings with the swinging, big-band sounds and bright smiling faces of the folks down at the Shorewood Bar & Grille.