Don Pablo is the latest restaurant here in the Twin Cities to announce the closing of their Richfield location at the CSM – Shoppes at Lyndale. This leaves the owners – Food Management Partners – with only the Eden Prairie location remaining here in Minnesota, and it’s fate is probably uncertain too. At one point, the Don Pablo – Texas based chain had almost 100 locations, and now less than 20 remain.
Over the last few days, 8 of the 12 Minnesota Ruby Tuesday restaurants have closed, as has 1 of the 2 Fargo stores. The remaining stores are in Inver Grove, Shakopee, Rosedale and Southdale.
As the Site Selection Broker for 9 of the 12 Ruby Tuesday restaurants in Minnesota, I find it interesting that high profile properties like Plymouth and Eden Prairie were shuttered while two properties in smaller, less dense, suburban-fringe markets where Ruby Tuesday was the only ‘player’ remain open.
The race for space is on, as every piece of decent retail/restaurant real estate that comes available will have multiple interested parties. Stay tuned!
Kaskaid Hospitality has signed a lease to open a Crave restaurant at the Eden Prairie Center in the space previously occupied by Biaggi’s. This will be their 12th Crave restaurant, and sixth Crave in the Twin Cities. Kaskaid also owns five other restaurants here with varying concepts – Union, Blvd, Avenida Cocina, Burger Burger and Zio Italian. Tricia Pitchford of Mid-America represented the Landlord. With this lease, Mid-America reports the center is 99% occupied, with only 15,850 sf vacant.
Chick-fil-A introduced this ad campaign in 1995 featuring a herd of “renegade self-serving cows” promoting the idea we should be eating more chicken and less beef.
Chick-fil-A began its expansion into the Twin Cities market in 2013 with restaurants opening in Maple Grove, Coon Rapids, Bloomington, Apple Valley, and three outlet locations (Minneapolis St. Paul Airport, University of Minnesota, and Minnesota State University, Mankato). Additional restaurants were recently opened in Burnsville and Blaine. Chick-fil-A is in the planning stages for restaurants in Maplewood, West St. Paul, Eagan, Chanhassen, and Eden Prairie.
Chick-fil-A, Inc. is a family owned and privately held Restaurant Company founded in 1946 by S. Truett Cathy. Dedicated in serving the local communities in which its franchised restaurants operate, and known for its original chicken sandwich, Chick-fil-A serves freshly prepared food in more than 2,000 restaurants in 42 states and Washington, D.C.
Chick-fil-A opened its first restaurant in Greenbriar Mall in 1967 and continued expansion with stand-alone, mall and licensed locations throughout the country. The majority of the chain’s 2,000 restaurants are locally owned and operated by independent franchisees, ensuring oversight of day-to-day activities at the restaurant and employment and community involvement decisions.
Known for its freshly prepared food and award-winning customer service, Chick-fil-A’s menu options include its signature hand-breaded, boneless breast-of-chicken sandwich along with hand-chopped salads, fresh-squeezed lemonade and hand-spun milkshakes. Chick-fil-A Founder S. Truett Cathy first served his boneless breast-of-chicken sandwich, pressured cooked and served on a buttered bun with two crucial pickles, at his Dwarf Grill restaurant that opened in 1946 in Hapeville, Ga. The sandwich was the signature menu item when the first Chick-fil-A restaurant opened in 1967 and continues to be the most popular menu item today.
With a long-standing tradition in the restaurant industry for setting the highest standards in customer service, Chick-fil-A ranked first for customer satisfaction in the Limited Service Restaurants Industry by the American Customer Satisfaction Index for 2015. The company has also earned recognition as one of America’s “Most Inspiring Companies” by Forbes Magazine, one of America’s “Top 20 Most Admired Brands” by The Harris Poll and “Top Fast Food Chicken Chain” – for best chicken sandwich, customer service and cleanliness – by Consumer Reports, among other honors.
Since its first location in Minneapolis in 2012, New Bohemia Wurst & Bier Haus has been on a tear to take over the wurst and sausage restaurant niche here. They have opened locations in the Uptown area of Minneapolis, Eagan and Mankato, and now have a deal signed for a location in Roseville at Snelling Avenue and County Road C. And that isn’t enough for this interesting and innovative restaurant group – the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reports they are also looking for locations in the Southwest metro in Eden Prairie and Bloomington, the East metro in St Paul and Woodbury, and Northeast metro in Blaine and Lino Lakes, as well as outstate Rochester, then onto other states. Brian Ingram, COO, was quoted in the Pioneer Press back in February, stating “We’d like to get 12 stores by the end of the year. We’ve been looking at places like Eden Prairie and Woodbury. We’ll probably open one in Wisconsin as well.”
These are guys who like to think outside of the box. Inside their restaurants, customers sit at long communal tables. The menu includes craft beer and traditional brats, but also smoked Antelope is on their menu, along with alligator, wild boar and yak – ACK!