Dinner Break! - Burger King - Coon Rapids, MN

Oh look! The Burger King on Springbrook Drive closed up...

That gives me a story idea! For whatever reason, my recent St. Cloud Burger King story has been fairly popular, so let's see if people are just as interested in this one. Since it’s Coon Rapids, and I have more “historical” material than I did for the St. Cloud Burger King, this story should be better. Although the material I have is probably less interesting than the St. Cloud King, so it all equals out.

I better find some padding...

September 11, 2022

The building has now been boarded up, so I’ll just do a quick drive thru of the property. There's not much to see. I didn’t bother getting out of my car. The weeds are already popping up through the sidewalk, looking pretty tall and neglected. 

The city’s going to fine them for that...

A stolen Target shopping cart sits on the sidewalk, waiting for service.

But all the windows are covered, meaning there’s no one here to serve a Whopper. Nor could you go in and buy one.

This is most definitely the late 1980's Burger King design.

Complete with a vague, yet distinct, label scar left behind.

Nothing here says Burger King, but no one would mistake it for anything else.

Going around back through the drive thru lane.

Menu board and intercom were located here, before they were removed shortly after they closed.

Pulling around toward the drive thru windows...

The last time I got that strange craving for Burger King was about three years ago. I had come back from bringing Laura to an appointment, and was on my way to work. This Springbrook Burger King was nearby, so I hit the drive thru. I don't know if they still have it on the menu, but they were selling some big ass burger that was bigger than their Whopper.

"Dood! It was Meat'Normous!"

No, it wasn't Meat'Normous...

That was an omelet on a bun.

Anyways... I remember the Bacon Cheeseburger version of whatever that big ass thing was called, was really good. During that 4 month stretch of 2018, jammed between leaving Colorado and moving into our house, Laura and I would hang out anywhere we could, other than our respective parents houses. The Oak Park Plaza shopping center was frequently chosen, even if it was just the parking lot. Including the Burger King in that parking. The one that used to be a Hardees, that I worked at in 1992. Point being, I liked the giant Bacon Cheeseburger I had there a few times in the summer of 2018.

So I order this stupid giant burger at the Springbrook Burger King, on my way to work some three plus years ago, and it took forever to get through the line. The service was terrible (which is very hard to achieve in a drive thru, so seriously, I tip my cap to you) and it was ridiculously expensive. And of course the burger was awful. Just a giant ball of grease, and they managed to undercook it.  Well, this sucks... I was hungry and on my way to work, now too late to get anything else. Most shocking part of this story is that I ate it, and I DIDN'T get sick! Still not sure how I pulled that off.

That is my last experience with the Springbrook Burger King. Which was actually my last experience with any Burger King, as far as eating goes. I've taken quite a few pictures of abandoned Burger King's in several states, over the last few years. A number that will likely increase in the coming years.

Someone has already ripped the board off the drive thru window that served me that nasty burger mess three plus years ago. I should have stopped to take a picture inside the window. But why bother? Not like I'd be able to see anything inside this dark, boarded up Burger King.

That helmetted Dalmatian on the wall would like some perspective...

For that, we will travel back in time nearly 44 years, to that aerial photo of the Northtown area. 

September 27, 1980.

Northtown Mall sits in the middle of the photo. This was before the mid-1980's addition on the eastern side of the mall. First Mainstreet, then Kohl's, now Burlington Coat Factory. Springbrook Mall (on the left side of the picture) sits to the south, across University Avenue. 

The most fascinating thing to me is the absence of 610, cutting across Coon Rapids, just east of Foley. So many other notable buildings in the area, didn't exist in 1980. There's no Allina Health, Rainbow Village, Northtown Village, Northcourt Commons or Target Greatland on the map. But if you know what you're looking for, in the upper/middle portion of this photo, you can see the old Coon Rapids Drive-In Theater (closed in 1985, demolished in 1988).

For the moment, we need to cover the retail area just north of Northtown.

Number 6, at the bottom of the picture was Poppin' Fresh Pies, in 1980. A couple of years later, it was re-branded as Baker's Square. I wrote about its last days a couple years ago. Number 5 was Warner's Hardware in 1980. Today it's been divided into three retail spaces, currently leased by Cheapo Records, Salon Magnolia and The Salvation Army. From the mid-1980's through 2018, Toys R' Us operated out of 2/3 of the building.

The large building (number 4) was built as the Blaine Kmart, in the mid 1970's. I took this picture on September 24, 2011, just before noon on a Saturday. That parking lot doesn't have many cars in it for that time of day. Not long after I took the picture, it was announced that Kmart's lease would not renewed, and will close soon. After closing, it sat ignored for at least five years. Other than Chuck E Cheese on the east end, which has been at this location since the early 1980's.

In 2018, the building was gutted and broken into smaller retail spaces. Kmart of Blaine is now Auto Zone and Chuck E Cheese, with a big open space in between. Xperience Fitness was here from 2019-2022, before closing. So far, no one has stepped forward to re-open a gym there. Or renovate it into something else. 

Numbers 3, 2 and 1 on the map were (in 1980) Broadway Pizza, Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips and Burger King. After multiple changes to this particular area, now it's occupied by IHOP, The Well Sports Tavern, Valvoline Oil Change and...

Pawn America and Payday America.

Burger King closed this location in the mid-1990's. It was previously one of the early 1970's style Burger King's, that were being phased out as the 1990's dawned. A quick 1991 remodel of this BK saw the installation of a cool aquarium in the middle of the store. I liked looking at the fish while I ate my chicken tenders. I don't know the exact date, but I'm pretty sure this BK closed in 1993 or 1994. After the King left, much of the building was demolished. What remained was incorporated into the design of Pawn America's new building. 

A small part of Burger King's old wall can be seen on the far right of this picture.

Of course we have to mention...

Northtown Mall

That sign sucks.

Let’s use this one instead!

Much better.

(I wish that was my photo. It was saved via the Googles, many years ago. Don't recall the source)

I've already covered as much of Northtown Mall as I care to, in this story. So go read that. You can skip the lengthy parts about pirated compact disks, if that's not your thing. (Not like you'd be placed on some sort of Bootlist or something...) Maybe I'll cover Northtown again, once demolition commences. The mall isn't quite dying anymore. Chopping parts off it had lead to a higher occupancy, but it still feels inevitable that I will outlive the Northtown Mall.

For a decent stretch of time, a Burger King operated inside the Northtown Mall Food Court. Pretty sure it opened around 1985, and lasted until the early 2000's before closing. I may be wrong about those dates, I was living in Colorado when it closed. There was at least a 3-4 year period where three Burger King's operated in less than blocks of each other, two in Coon Rapids and one in Blaine.

Flashback to 1980, and the University Avenue & 85th Avenue intersection. I was surprised that (some of) the Springbrook Mall was built at this point. There is a large missing chunk of the north end, where Target doesn’t yet appear. Most of the stores that are open today, don’t show up in the photo, as this area didn’t really start growing until the mid to late 1980’s. The building at the corner looks to be different than what sits there today.

Today, it’s a Red Lobster. In 1980, I don’t know what it was. That aerial photo is just too blurry to reveal much, and the number 24 on top of it just says “Springbrook Mall”. My suspicions are this building was demolished not all that long after 1980, to allow a big new Lobster to hatch in its place. Vague memories are all I’ve got here.

September 30, 2012.

I'm on a Denver vacation to Coon Rapids, part of which was spent getting more photos for that long planned Wasted Quarter issue(s), which were never printed. A great deal of what was planned/written for this project either has, or eventually will, show up in some form here. For the sake of now, these are from a series of pictures I took of the Springbrook Mall area, on this day.

I distinctly remember this Red Lobster once having a Jr. Pac Man tabletop in the lobby, in the mid 1980's. It’s not there anymore. Or at least it wasn’t the last time I was here a few years ago. Which was more recent than September 30, 2012. Just not into seafood. Although the Cheddar Biscuits are tasty.

Back in 2012, a Sears Outlet was operating out of the southern-most storefront of the Springbrook Mall. They had moved here, after closing their former location in Fridley, off of Moore Lake Road. Sears Outlet was still operating in June 2018, when we moved back to Minnesota. Though with the ongoing Sears/Kmart bankruptcy, it wouldn’t be open for much longer. It’s still a furniture outlet today, but they dropped the Sears name from their identity.

Before Sears, this space was The Springbrook 4 Theater. Which opened in 1990 and closed in 2000. I didn’t see a whole lot of movies here, and likely none after around 1993, but it was a place that was frequented by my friends and a lot of people our age. A fun afternoon meant you went and saw a movie at Springbrook, ate at one of the three Burger Kings nearby, then hung around Northtown. Yup... I remember those days...

Before it was the Springbrook 4 Theater, it was a dingy, unorganized mess of a store called COMB (which stood for Consumer Overstock Merchandise... uh... Bitch? I don’t remember the acronym.) COMB was owned (either in part or in whole) by local entrepreneur, Irwin Jacobs. In the mid-1980’s, COMB and several cable television companies started developing the Cable Value Network, and were pioneers of home shopping via television. Jacobs closed his COMB stores in 1989, after buying out the wholesale division, and consolidated them into Jacobs Trading Company. Shortly after, the Springbrook COMB became a discount movie theater.

COMB's gimmick being, significant discounts for discontinued merchandise, damaged packaging and tons of out-of-box items. They also cheaped out on having enough employees to keep order amidst this barbaric retail free-for-all. It was kind of a game to see how much worse that place would look each time you went, I wondered how they ever sold anything. Overstocked merchandise was littered all over the floors. There was no organization to anything in the entire store.

I went to COMB a few times with my father, who would occasionally pick up some welding supplies there. My biggest memory of COMB was going there and seeing a giant tub on the floor, full of random small electronic devices. All of the power cords were hopeless tangled together, making none of the items in the bin removable. Hilarious watching people fight the jumbled ball of cords, in attempt to remove something that likely didn’t even work. It was like an interactive demo for frustration!

Oh yeah!, it was Close-Out Merchandise Buyers! Duh!

A few doors down from Sears, FKA: Springbrook Dollar Theater, FKA: COMB, was CR Billiards. After seeing a discounted second-run movie, you’d then walk down to CR Billiards and play video games or pool until your ride showed up. It was also where Coon Rapids High School students would go on weekends, to get into fights with Blaine High School students. That way, everybody would have something to talk about on Mondays!

In the mid-1990’s, CR Billiards moved into their own stand-alone building, just west of Sears. They partnered with Carbone’s Pizza for this venture. I went there a couple of times, last in 2002 to play pool with someone who may or may not read this. Because of this visit, the phrase “Missy to Carbone’s” is forever burned into my subconscious. If you get a chance, have Missy bring you some Carbone’s. They make a damn decent pizza still today.

Back to the north end of the Springbrook Mall...

Target (store # T-820) opened in July 1992, at the north end of the shopping center. This would be a prototype store named Target Greatland. This would be much smaller than your typical Targets, but would also feature a small scale grocery department inside. Target Greatland itself didn't take off, however the concept became Super Target. The same combination of general merchandise combined with groceries, only without the small scale. Super Target was just that. A giant abundance of everything. 

Today, all Targets have a mixture of grocery and general merchandise. All scaled down to the amount of square feet available. This particular Target Greatland eventually realized that it was stuck looking at Northtown and Blaine every day, dropped the Greatland. Because it just wasn't...

We wrap up this portion of the September 30, 2012, Springbrook Mall photo tour with a drive by the Springbrook Burger King. Which is still very much open for business then, and would continue to be, for just about another decade...

July 20, 2023.

The Springbrook Burger King looks pretty defeated, sitting there all boarded up.

Not letting anyone know what it looked like before the Dalmatian took the interior away.

June 16, 2022.

Luckily, I happened to be driving by the Springbrook Burger King, on my way home from work. This sign had been removed from the frame, clueing me in that I needed to stop and take a took. I parked in the far corner of the lot and began my walk-around, in a clock-wise fashion.

Looking at the drive thru lane, with the typical drive thru loitering spots, for when the King can't flame broil fast enough.

Hopefully you weren't planning on working at the Springbrook Burger King...

Although human trafficking is probably better than working at Burger King!

Uh oh! Our old pal Dert has struck the BK light pole! That means his reign of terror has expanded from Elk River's Saxon Motors (parts one and two), all the way down highway 10, to the Northtown Mall!

Partially dismantled patio furniture. The umbrellas are gone. Seats and tables look to not be far behind.

From the looks of things, it hadn't been closed for very long.

Possibly just days, since the interior looks like they're still open. 

Looking into the store, just above the closed note taped to the exit.

Paper table tents advertising free app fries, sit on a few of the tables.

I guess the app doesn't close... But don't you still need somewhere to pick up the free app fries?

Looking across the dining area, through the drive thru facing windows.

That killer late 80's neon is still burning bright! Looks positively Saved by the Bell in here...

More dining area, with the front counter behind it.

ENHANCE!

The menu board is still on.

Inside the drive thru window. 

Drive thru lane, on the east side of the building.

Red Lobster would be to your immediate right.

The drive through signs have been yanked out of the landscaping and thrown into the dumpster.

See, you have to go into human trafficking!

Since the Burger King now hiring sign is on the bottom of the dumpster cozy.

Along with the Texas Double Whopper sign.

Apparently the ordering screen and intercom is of no value any longer.

Which used to be attached to the ground, along with the menu board, right here.

Their feet.

Coming out at the drive through entrance.

When I first discovered the Springbrook Burger King had closed, I uploaded this photo to facebook, with the caption: "It's official, the Coon Rapids Burger King is closed. The required abandoned car, with open windows and flat tires, has been dropped off."

Very Burger King semi-anonymous label scar

Inside the front windows, you'll find a bin of small tools.

And those missing patio umbrellas!

Zach and Kelly say hi.

Hope someone remembered to take care of the tree...

Not sure what this walled off room, separated from the dining area, was used for. I think back in the day it was a very small indoor playground for kids. Now it looks like it was used for storage.

Those almost look good.

Thinking these were removed from the drive thru menu board, before it was trashed.

Maybe another King needed them?

Extra cash drawers for all the cash this store wasn't making.

What's left of the old patio.

What was the old patio.

I don't know why, but that "white" on the wall amuses me.

Since the Springbrook Burger King isn't a good picnic option, due to table removal, a better place to have an outdoor lunch may be Springbrook Nature Center. Less than a mile west of this closed up Burger King.

But in order to visit the nature center, we have to go back in time again. All the way back to a second leg of my Springbrook photo tour, on September 30, 2012.

Springbrook Nature Center is actually located in Fridley, which borders Coon Rapids, with 85th Avenue serving as its city limits. The park features several different trails, that take you through natural habitats of animals native to this region.

On July 18, 1986, around 5 in the afternoon, an F2 tornado struck the Fridley/Brooklyn Park area. It crossed the Mississippi River, and flew over Coon Rapids, but did not touch down. However, once it found Springbrook Nature Center, it danced around the park for over 15 minutes before dissipating. 

A local television station had planned a story on the first day of the Minneapolis Aquatennial Celebration, and had the station's helicopter out on assignment. When news of the tornado broke, the helicopter changed missions and flew directly toward it. The copter flow around the tornado at a very close distance, recording footage that hadn't been seen before. It was all broadcast live on the 5 o'clock news. While it was affecting my hometown, my parents house was still about 7 miles northwest of it. I remember being amazed watching the footage airing live on TV.

And thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can watch that entire broadcast! Just as I did when I was 11 years old!

At one point you can briefly see the Springbrook Mall in the footage. (Burger King hadn't been built yet.)

Tornado videos rank a close second to cat videos, as my go-to YouTube time waster.

After the tornado, the Nature Center's buildings were repaired, and walking paths were cleared and stabilized. This 2012 photo shows one of the damaged trees on display in the visitor center. In 2016, a larger visitor center was built, with a special exhibit on the 1986 tornado. I have yet to check it out.

Laura even has a commemorative Springbrook Nature Center Tornado tote bag!

But I don't feel like looking at nature today, it's time to go look at books. Like Trav and I did on August 15, 2016, on our visit to the Half Price Books. Going to places like this when we were hanging out is one of the things I really miss. An extension of what Shinders, Cheapo Records, 20/20 Sound, and every other local business we hung out in, that are now gone today.

When this building went up in the late 1980's, it was initially a Discovery Zone indoor playground. Slides, ladders, ball pits and a massive child habitrail system wrapping around all of it. All incredibly brightly colored. And loud. Never walked inside the doors, but I know what I'd imagine it to be wouldn't have been far off...

Discovery Zone didn't last long into the 1990's. In order to keep up the payments on a building that large, you either have to bring in a massive amount of customers, or charge an outrageous price to let the kids in. The product/service offered isn't that great of a value as it is. Unless you have some sort of secret to keep it going, an indoor children's playground just isn't sustainable on that scale.

So now it's a used book store, Pantera Bread and a Caribou Coffee right in front of Target (Greatland).

Before Trav and I left Half Price Books, something across the scummy retention pond caught my eye...

Wait, what is the Springbrook Burger King trying to tell us?

ENHANCE!

Whopperrito!?!?!?

Guarantee whatever they handed you after ordering a Whopperrito, wouldn't look like this. Judging from all of the photos that pop up on a Googles Whopperrito image search, it wasn't appetizing at all. The Whopperrito was such a failure, it was pulled from the menu less than 3 months after roll out.

Dear Burger King, a little self-awareness goes a long way.

September 23, 2023.

The Whopperrito didn't lead to the demise of the Springbrook Burger King.

Neither did Meat'Normous.

It was apathy.

It was a product that didn't care enough to be quality. Served by employees who didn't care enough to be quality. Inside a property that was run by people who didn't care enough to be quality. Product was priced as quality, and delivered anything but. There was simply no appealing reason for anyone to go there.

How did it last until 2022?

December 2, 2023.

Signs posted in front of the property announced that Mister Car Wash (straight from the old 201 Proof Television sketch!) was going to open here in the future. They probably can't use the old Burger King building to wash car inside, so I bet they tear it down soon...

And it can't come soon enough. I can't find anywhere to wash my car in this town!

Guess that means I need to take a final look at the place. Chances are I won't time my next daylight drive-by with the actual demolition taking place. So one day I'll drive by and it'll be gone.

Couple of geese have shown up to mourn the loss of the Springbrook Burger King.

Likely a one time source of stale, cold, parking lot French Fries.

Drive Thru entrance.

No trespassing sign is up and the building's power has been cut.

Matter of days now...

Uninteresting dumpster house garbage.

Folded up plastic Burger King sign. Most likely from one of the exterior walls.

Coming around the corner, to pick up my order, which they will have gotten wrong.

Spraypainted marks are all over the property to show underground service lines, before any serious work begins. 

When I walked behind the building, between the drive thru and Red Lobster's backyard, I found a bunch of DVD's that someone tossed on the ground. Cast Away being one them. A movie that reminds me of stuff I don't want to think about again. So I'll live vicariously through the littering party, in a move of symbolic excising of their own demons, with the Tom Hanks pays with a volleyball movie. 

And anything starring Jennifer Garner should immediately be thrown on the ground.

Probably stomped on as well.

At least until it stops disingenuously asking "What's in your wallet?"

The first window that was never used. 

Before it was boarded up, it was darkened/dirty enough that I couldn't get a decent picture.

What I did see was a clear shot to the second drive thru window.

Not enough periphery to see anything else.

This is the one that your food comes out of. 

Or... Well... It used to...

Hey, the helmetted Dalmatian left...

Funny that no one ever bothered to finish tearing down the patio tables. 

Did someone really need to smash that ridiculously heavy garbage can/ashtray combo, by the door? 

I still want one of those.

What do you think, geese?

March 27, 2024.

Well, I drove by and the Springbrook Burger King is gone.

Did I call it or what?

Yes...

The Springbrook Burger King was close to a lot of things.

Problem was, all of those things were a lot better.

Especially Rax!

As far as the Springbrook Burger King? Doesn't matter to me.

Would have liked to see something other than a car wash take its place, but whatever.

They are decades removed from me caring about their product.

So... Goodbye.

Just stop it Burger King!