Dinner Break!!! Wendy's, St. Anthony, MN

Here sits a perfectly good -and fairly new- abandoned Wendy's...


Sitting in the southeast corner of the old Apache Plaza shopping mall (story to come) was a very tiny Taco Bell, that also used to be a Zantigo's. When the mall was demolished in 2004, Taco Bell went down with it. Which was sad, but it had served it's purpose as a convenient place to grab a Chilito or three, and open those packs of baseball cards just purchased at Coach's Corner, inside the mall.


In the mall's place, a "Town Center" was built. Which is basically a mall, but you have to go outdoors to change stores. Possibly drive a block away to park in front of the next store you want to go into.

Hardly convenient, but that is how we choose our retail these days....


The replacement for the mall on the south end was a big ass WalMart (which is also now closed, story also to come...). The replacement for Taco Bell was a brand new Wendy's. However, Wendy's didn't even get to survive for a decade. The new restaurant went up, served a few years worth of Double Stacks and Spicy Chicken Sammiches, then closed when WalMart fled the city.


You can tell it was a new store in that they didn't get to plant a giant Wendy's sign in front. Instead, the store's identity was confined to the trendy "monument" style of signage. Which is supposed to be more visually appealing, and I'm assuming has something to do with city code. Most of the mall replacement retail signs in the area are similar. Once the sign is removed, you are left with what looks like a window mounted on rocks for no apparent reason...

Apparently this isn't ugly...


Before we check out the inside via unboarded windows, they were nice enough to leave a floor plan of the building for us! Now we all know how this style of Wendy's was laid out. This was before the 2013 rebranding which just made the stores and logo look dumb...


The entrance to Wendy's. No, wait... According to the floor plan, this is the vestibule. (All my best to you and yours...) A few lights have been left on inside, which made the place look more warm and open. If not downright welcoming.


View from the north looking in. All tables and chairs are gone, but the Wendy's quad-booths are secured firmly to the ugly carpet. You can faintly see the kitchen on the right side of the picture.


From the east looking toward the kitchen and restrooms.


Better shot of the lobby from the south. 

I'm trying to come up with anything to say about this place, but it's just so boring...

Moving along then...


View from the drive through window. I'm always interested to see what kitchen equipment was left behind, and what was removed from closed restaurants. The entire front counter has been taken out, but the kitchen looks like it's ready to make me a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger with NO MAYO!


Conversely, behind the cooking equipment, nearly everything else was gone...


Before we leave this place and go somewhere less boring, I have one more minor detail I want to note... Around back, they had built a handy little stairway for roof access. Now closed by an impenetrable barricade. Had I more time that day, a climb up there may have gotten me arrested!  I haven't seen too many of these before. You usually just get a ladder coming halfway down from the roof...

So... Hooray! Stairs!

Overall the place looked very clean. Boring... But clean... Not one single bit of tagging or graffiti on the entire property.

Which is nice, but also boring...

I took these pictures on September 18, 2015.

As of today, I have no update on the site. So it may have been leased by a new restaurant, maybe boarded up, could be torn down... I have no idea...

But there you go... Abandoned Wendy's...

*****

This is an abbreviated post, as I've got several larger stories I'm working on that will appear over the next few days...


Oh, and good luck to Jose Berrios. I'm hoping to watch the Twins win their 7th in a row tonight...

Comments

Post a Comment

Someone else liked these...

Gates Rubber Company - Demolition Diary part 11

Image
Been a while since I checked the demolition progress at Gates Rubber Factory.  Yup, still going on!  So let's hop into that time traveling machine and go all the way back to mid-morning, on Sunday, February 23, 2014. I told her that I was going to drive up to Gates for pictures, and she asked me to bring food home. "How about Griff's?"  I lived in this apartment from May 2006 to May 2018. It worked just fine when I was single, but when Laura joined in 2012, we outgrew the place quickly. The deck faced south, with Big Dry Creek flowing beside a tree lined bike path. With the Rocky Mountains visible to the west, the view from our third floor balcony was worth an extra few percentages of the skyrocketing rent. Standing on that deck, enjoying a cigarette, watching all of these things from my third story perch, was a definite highlight of my Colorado time. We also had an excellent view of the Littleton High School baseball and soccer fields. Not that I'd particularly w...
Read some more »

What Happened to Clark's Submarine Sandwich?

Image
Well, they went out of business! Yeah, that's the short answer.  But more importantly, what happened to each individual Clark's Submarine Sandwich store? Once there were 15 of them scattered around the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area, but they were all gone by 1991. Clark's still has a small but loyal following around town, and a reputation built off the bread, thinly sliced onions and most important, the sandwich oil that was it's signature. While the chain is long gone, I want to know just how gone is it?  For example, my hometown had a Clark's Submarine Sandwiches, and that building is still standing. Former Clark's Submarine Sandwich Location: 401 Northdale Blvd. Coon Rapids Back in October 2006, the building had long been sitting empty, but was still in good shape. Shortly after I took the picture of the abandoned Clarks/Cousins building, it was renovated and turned into a Dunn Bros. Coffee. But still standing! Clark...
Read some more »

Gates Rubber Company - Demolition Diary part 1

Image
As far as I'm concerned, the city of Denver's most important landmark was the abandoned Gates Rubber factory. Shown here from the southeast, at roughly Broadway and Mississippi Avenues, from two photographs spliced together somewhat decently. The massive factory's first structures were built in 1910. New construction and expansion took place over much of the 20th century, until the plant's closure in 1991. Ever since the rubber production was outsourced, rumors of the complex's demolition have run rampant. Until that one year when it finally happened. I did a poor job of documenting many of my favorite properties in the state of Colorado, nearly the entire time I lived in the state. So I made the resolution, that as soon as I first found out the shovels were chewing red brick, that I would be there to extensively cover it's demise. That happened in early November, 2013.  By April 20, 2014, Gates Rubber Company was rapidly disappearing, and now lo...
Read some more »

Abandoned Mall: Villa Italia Mall - Lakewood, CO

Image
Villa Italia Mall in Lakewood, Colorado, opened in March 1967.  It closed for good on July 15th, 2001. I'm not going to get into the biography of the large shopping mall. My experiences there number a grand total of two. Once in June of 2000 (for a baseball card show), and the other in May, 2001, when I took these pictures. Since there was no emotional attachment on my behalf toward the place, I know next to nothing about it. There are a few good sites with real information and more pictures of Villa Italia. Both in it's heyday and in it's depressed run down state. I consulted these for this story. Deadmalls has a basic biography, that is a good starting point.  A link appears at the bottom of the page that takes you to another site with a nice selection of Villa Italia photos. Or you can just click here... So let me add my piece to that total! In May 2001, my mom was in town from Minnesota. She was in Denver visiting my sister (who lived in Lakewood)...
Read some more »

Abandoned Retail - Target - Coon Rapids, MN

Image
Target T-42. The 42nd Target store in the world, was located in Coon Rapids, MN. Until it was replaced by Target T-1144, a mile or so to the north, 26 years later. Coon Rapids Target opened October 19, 1972, and closed October 6, 1998. Living on the north side of town in the 1970’s and 1980’s, big box retailers like Zayre and Kmart were more frequently visited, since they were closer to our house. Target was patronized less often, and usually paired with grocery shopping at Red Owl. Complete with video games while my mom shopped for food. And copies of Mad magazine slipped into the cart when no one was looking. Downtown Center, anchored by Festival Foods, opened in 1987. Sitting at the corner of Round Lake and Bunker Lake, in Andover, that shopping center was now more convenient for weekly groceries. Subsequently, Red Owl's visits started declining, just due to Festival. Riverdale WalMart opened November 14, 1990. For better or worse, that siphoned an even more significant chunk of...
Read some more »

2024 Baseball Whatever act 3 - That One Card Show

Image
The 2024 Baseball Whatever was planned as three acts. But then ... A sudden event appeared that necessitated it's own act in the Whatever...  Entering November of this year, I had yet to attend a card show. My mom sent me a text, asking if I knew about the card show in Golden Valley that weekend. She saw a post about it on Facebook. After thinking that I should, just for story's sake, I texted her back saying I wanted to go.  Life had been very hectic and I wanted to spend an hour or so, looking for some cheap Twins singles I didn't have. Hoping to snag a few things I'd never considered before finding them at the show. Zero interest in new unopened product. This was about walking in with $150, and walking out feeling excited about how it was spent. In that sense, the King of Grace Lutheran Church Sports Card Show, in Golden Valley, MN, on Saturday, November 16, 2024, was a massive success. They did a great job with this show, I was really impressed. It filled the (small...
Read some more »

Columbine Square Shopping Center - Littleton, CO - Part Two

Image
If you read part one of my Columbine Square Shopping Center story, you're familiar with its condition after the property owners closed the place down, in 2013. (And if you haven't read part one yet, go do it now!) Well, get ready for it to be all sorts of 2015 again, as it's time for part two! Very 1970's style Columbine Square sign, at the south (Federal Blvd.) shopping center entrance. Photo taken April 8, 2018, after I finished taking pictures of the Littleton Prep (Safeway) demolition. (Oh, sorry... SPOILER ALERT! ) I still really miss seeing the Rocky Mountains every day.  Going back a bit further is where part two starts.  The shopping center was already looking pretty rough, less than 2 years after all the tenants were kicked out. It had been a while since I walked around the property for pictures. Now I had a big writing project coming due. Which I needed additional Columbine Square material to complete. The day I chose for this was... Sunday, June 7, 2015.  P...
Read some more »

Demolishing the NE Business Center and Zayre - Columbia Heights, MN

Image
Not too often I get to watch a multi-story building being demolished. So I was happy to see this one... Thanks to a tip, I made the drive down to the disappearing Northeast Business Center site on September 12, 2020. It was a nice cloudy day, perfect for some outdoor Urban Decay photos! Photo of the open and intact Northeast Business Center. According to the fine commercial real estate folks at LoopNet, it looked like this in 2016. While I'm sure I'd driven by it in the past, or was a passenger in my parents car when they drove past, it was fairly rare that Central Avenue, was used in the route. Especially since I didn't live in Minnesota from 1996-2018. Virtually none of Columbia Heights appeared on my radar before 2018. It was always a part of town that you drove through, on your way to another part of town.  On June 30, 2018, Laura and I were driving around aimlessly on a Saturday night, and ended up driving on Central Ave, through Columbia Heights. We had just left the ...
Read some more »

Abandoned Retail - Brookdale Mall, Sears & Perkins!

Image
Visiting Minnesota in September 2011, my dad told me that Brookdale Shopping Mall was being demolished, and we should check it out. Brookdale opened in 1962, as one of the "Dales." A series of suburban metro area shopping malls designed to syphon retail dollars away from the traditional downtowns of major cities. In the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area, Brookdale was in Brooklyn Center, Rosedale was in Roseville, Ridgedale in Minnetonka and Southdale in Edina. Back in the day, needed housewares, "important" clothes for school and other reasons, and whatever other supplies the family had to buy, usually came from the mall. Brookdale was a constant. Rosedale as well, but that mall is currently thriving today, and thus far off my radar. Northtown mall was the closest to us, but it was a second tier mall without the top drawing anchors. Northtown has seen a little hint of a resurgence after losing it's long string of anchors and a series of renovati...
Read some more »

1981 Donruss Top Whatever...

Image
A few weeks ago, I debut the "Top Whatever" countdown. Where I would rank what I had of a given set, housed in my three ring binders. The number of cards in each countdown would depend on however many I kept in my collection. My first countdown was the Top 115 1981 Fleer cards . Those cards came from a sealed Wax Box I bought online in June, 2011. The same day I purchased the box of 1981 Fleer, I also purchased a box of 1981 Donruss. Which means the second edition of the Top Whatever Countdown will cover that box of 1981 Donruss. I plan on continuing the Top Whatever Countdown in future posts, highlight personal favorite and/or notable sets in my collection. But back to 1981 Donruss for today... I broke both of those boxes on the afternoon they arrived in the mail. Previous to those boxes, I owned very little from either of the 1981 Fleer and Donruss sets. I bought them specifically because 1981 was a baseball year not very well covered in my collection. Both F...
Read some more »