Rosati’s Pizza, which I encountered while visiting all of the thin-crust square-cut pizza spots I could find, offers a wide variety of the occasionally maligned Chicago deep dish style pizzas, my preferred Chicago tavern style, and two varieties of double crust-either both on the bottom or with the toppings sandwiched between. Paul, Crafty Crab in Columbia Heights, and Rosati’s Pizza in Maple Grove. Some members include Spitz in Minneapolis, Pollo Campero in West St. Haagen-Dazs, which is surprisingly headquartered in Minneapolis, only has two scoop shop locations in Minnesota, one at Ridgedale Mall, the other at the Mall of America.Īnother group earns the moniker “The Hopefuls.” These are the restaurants that have opened one location in Minnesota with the intent to have others follow. The latter two are the only ones left-not only in the state but in the northern third of the country. Take Pei Wei, for example, a fast-casual Pan-Asian restaurant that once had a handful of locations in the metro area: St. There are at least a couple two-location chains that are a closure away from joining this club.
#THE I AM SO LONELY SONG CRACKER#
Cloud, Cracker Barrel in Lakeville, Space Aliens Grill & Bar in Albertville, and the aforementioned Checkers in Brooklyn Center, among others.
This category includes places like Bonanza Steakhouse in St. The Lasts: restaurants that once had multiple locations in Minnesota, but are now down to just one. Being the last location in Minnesota, when they numbered five as recently as 2013, they fall into a category best described as “The Lasts.” Looking up the proximity to the next-nearest location for the outlying Maid-Rites for the original premise revealed that this location is 30 miles closer to its nearest link than the only recognized Ohio location is to its distanced neighbor. Credit: JD Hovland The magnificent Maid-Rite Sundae Having the Maid-Rite sign displayed outside and operating the signature cast-iron vessel where the ground beef is transformed into the mixture that adorns the Maid-Rite, Cheese-Rite-and here, a Maid-Rite Sundae-is what keeps them on the official Maid-Rite’s infrequently updated locations page. It’s really a long-lived breakfast and lunch diner with the typical food that entails, including some very popular pie. The result was their signature “loose meat” sandwiches-think a sloppy joe, but without the sauce.īut the Maid-Rite loose meat items only constitute maybe a tenth of the Barn’s menu. Maid-Rite got its start as a chain in the mid 1920s specializing in a specific grind of meat cooked in a specially designed vessel with a proprietary blend of seasonings.
Let’s start with The Barn in Brainerd, which is considered a Maid-Rite for all intents and purposes. The rabbit hole I climbed into turned out to be fascinating. (One caveat: None of the restaurants in the airport were considered passing through airport security isn’t a typical dining experience.) When these spots were examined for things they might have in common, a few patterns emerged. After entirely too much research, I identified at least 45 chain restaurants with one or more locations in another state and only one in Minnesota, which I’ve mapped for you here. With these orphans fresh in mind, along with the recollection of an early summer visit to Song Tea & Poke in Blaine-then only the second location of a New-York based chain-I pitched a piece on the idea that these three are rare institutions, further away from their chains’ other location(s) than any other franchise. Then a TikTok comparing different fast food chain fries reminded me there’s a solitary Minnesota Checkers location in Brooklyn Center. Cloud Maid-Rite announced that it was closing, leaving the Brainerd location as the sole Minnesota representative of the loose meat sandwich chain. The seed for this story was planted last fall when the St.