Where did all the Embers go? (Fridley, Wells: real estate, college, closing)

[David A Stone]

I recall stopping at one near Anoka/Champlin in the mid 60's ( over 50 years ago)


I thought it was a great place.

[Radical_Car]

A lot of Pizza Huts closed in Minnesota in 2014. Border Foods, who owns all the Taco Bells in Minnesota and I believe they hold the exclusive franchise rights for Taco Bell in Minnesota, used to own all the Pizza Huts and then a couple years ago they sold their Pizza Huts off to some company called Muy Foods out of Texas and thats when a lot of them closed (I think they were unable to sell them or defaulted on their lease or something, don't really know for sure)

When that happened a ton of them closed. Hutchinson (Has been replaced by a carryout only location), Redwood Falls, Buffalo, The 2 in St Cloud and one in Sauk Rapids (though they have since opened 2 new ones in St cloud/Waite Park and one is a bar style restaurant downtown by SCSU), Ely, Sauk Centre, Columbia Heights, Lakeville, Woodbury (A new one has since opened in Woodbury), 2 of the 3 Pizza Huts in Duluth, Little Falls, Superior WI, Two Harbors, Grand Rapids, Hibbing, Milaca, and more that I can't remember off the top of my head.

Also last fall around September 2016 I believe the Pizza Hut in New Hope off Bass Lake Road closed, don't know why for sure, all it had was a sign on the door saying they were permanently closed and please visit our nearby locations in Brooklyn Center, Crystal and Osseo and at the bottom of the letter it said Muy Foods San Antonio, TX (the company that bought the Minnesota Pizza Huts from Border Foods)

[Citykid3785]

I saw the Pizza Hut in Lakeville reopened, trying to look a little more like a bar/restaurant. I actually went inside a Pizza Hut in Pine City MN for the first time in 10+ years. It was like a time warp, I was back in childhood.

All these restaurants are struggling to capture the new foodie generation (of which I am admittedly one of), who want healthier fare, less customer service interaction, and it ought to come in a bowl, lol. Calorie counts should also not be over 1,000 (I'm looking at you TGI Fridays, Outback, Cheesecake Factory, Olive Garden, Red Lobster etc). The food should be homemade, as in not right off the Sysco truck. These guidelines have killed off or diminished many chains.

Without knowing, I can promise you Embers sausage links were right off the Sysco truck (as opposed to be homemade or purchased from a small local establishment). I personally wouldn't eat there this day in age.

[David A Stone]

Originally Posted by David A Stone

I recall stopping at one near Anoka/Champlin in the mid 60's ( over 50 years ago)


I thought it was a great place.

The Embers I mentioned above bore no resemblance whatsoever to the last Embers I was in about 10 years ago on Hwy 7 in Clara City.


Like comparing a Cadillac to a Yugo.


The last Embers were no different than any other truck stop café along a major highway.

[MsBall]

Originally Posted by David A Stone

The Embers I mentioned above bore no resemblance whatsoever to the last Embers I was in about 10 years ago on Hwy 7 in Clara City.


Like comparing a Cadillac to a Yugo.


The last Embers were no different than any other truck stop café along a major highway.

Interestingly, I passed an Embers along a highway on my travels to Denver this past weekend. It was attached to a Clarion Hotel in Fort Morgan, CO.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaura..._Colorado.html

[TheGrandViking]

Where did all the embers go?
And where are all the Gods?

I need a Gyro,
I'm holding out for a Gyro 'til the end of the night
It's gotta be good,
And it's gotta be fast,
And it's gotta be fresh from the block.
*****************************

In the mid 90s at a Mankato Embers, I had a very tasty chicken ranch sandwich. I went back there again and the same sandwich was dreadful. I went back a 3rd time, same result, so never went there again. Maybe that is why they are nearly out of business.

Also, the last Happy Chef is located off 169 near the fringes of Mankato city limits. At one time, the Happy Chef Franchise had 3k employees and started by 3 brothers who are in there late 70s and early 80s now. I have driven by that Happy Chef many times throughout the years and remember it from my childhood. It used to have a cigarette machine where you put coins without having to have an ID. I read an article about the iconic spoon waving statues from closed stores have been bought and altered into various figures like an umpire and another one into a chimney sweep.

[Radical_Car]

Originally Posted by Citykid3785

All these restaurants are struggling to capture the new foodie generation (of which I am admittedly one of), who want healthier fare, less customer service interaction, and it ought to come in a bowl, lol. Calorie counts should also not be over 1,000 (I'm looking at you TGI Fridays, Outback, Cheesecake Factory, Olive Garden, Red Lobster etc). The food should be homemade, as in not right off the Sysco truck. These guidelines have killed off or diminished many chains.

Without knowing, I can promise you Embers sausage links were right off the Sysco truck (as opposed to be homemade or purchased from a small local establishment). I personally wouldn't eat there this day in age.

One thing people don't look at is theres so much more competition. So many smaller and regional chains have started becoming a thing and exploding. Go back 20 years, you live in the Twin Cities and want a burger where do you go? Think of yourself as a McDonalds franchise owner in the Twin Cities and a huge chunk of your competition that exists in 2017 simply didn't exist or just barely existed 20 years ago.

Culvers, for example, their first restaurant opened outside of Wisconsin in Buffalo, MN in September 1995, and now in 2017 they have over 600 restaurants in like 19 or something states. Theres regional restaurants with EXTREMELY similar stories to Culvers all over the USA.

Five Guys didn't start franchising until 2003, before 2003 they only had 5 locations in the Washington DC area. Come 2009 they had over 500 locations and over 1000 locations in 2012.

Thats just looking at burgers and thats just 2 of many, many examples.

A lot of these "up and coming" and trendy "fast casual" places have only been around the past decade or two, or have only started to expand and explode like Five Guys in the past 1 or 2 decades.

Chipotle, for example, only opened in 1993 in Denver, CO. They had over 500 locations in 2006 and in 2015 had over 2000 locations.

It's all a phase. It won't be long before a bunch of new up and coming trendy restaurant chains start taking over, and we'll be hearing about the death of all these currently popular, trendy "fast casual" places like Chipotle, Five Guys and Buffalo Wild Wings that millenials are just so in love with.

Heck, it looks like I spoke too late and it's already happening before our very own eyes.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...ees/ar-BBBUk1X

http://www.startribune.com/buffalo-w...ets/413095263/

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/31/buffa...ectations.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/mille...ve-guys-2015-3

https://consumerist.com/2017/02/03/c...omeback-thing/

http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/02/inve...ngs/index.html

That was fast! Wasn't that long ago you couldn't go a day without being spammed with headlines about how Chipotle, Five Guys and Bdubs are America's fastest growing restaurants!

And then in another decade or so we'll be hearing about the death of the restaurants that are currently trendy and killing these current trendy restaurants, and so forth. The cycle will continue. And each newer and newer generation will continue to get more and more fickle.

(I kinda took a snarky direction with this post haha, im only 24 so please don't blame me for being a millenial hater and I love Bdubs, Chipotle and Five Guys! And Culvers!)

[Simple Living]

Where did all the Embers go?

I don't know. But I wish all the Appleby's would go there, too.

[Doctor Z]

Originally Posted by Unsettomati

What I remember is the commercial jingle with the line... remember the Embers!

I probably haven't heard it in 30 years but for some reason that jingle is fresh in my mind. Weird, the odd little things that somehow we remember when we forget 99.9% of everything else we experience.

Now who remembers Poppin' Fresh?

Here ya go!

[wamer27]

Originally Posted by Simple Living

I don't know. But I wish all the Appleby's would go there, too.

The one by me in St Anthony closed up this year, maybe the former Ember's management ran it.