Dinner Break!! - Khan's Mongolian Barbeque - Coon Rapids, MN

Khan's Mongolian Barbeque had a near 20 year run at their Coon Rapids, MN, location, before closing abruptly in February, 2019. Maybe it was longer than 20 years? I don’t know, I wasn’t even there.

"It's great!"

(Ding!)

September 10, 2022 - I don't have a whole lot to say about Khan's, so I'll make a story out of the picture sets I took over four specific visits to the former Mongolian Barbeque, after it closed for good.

March 24, 2019 - Khan's sign at the intersection of Northdale and a small access driveway, shared with Burger King and SuperAmerica (now Speedway, via purchase from 7Eleven). But most people don’t want to go there…

September 20, 2020 - The building sat unused for several years before a buyer stepped up. Property signs and this banner cite Edina Realty as the lister. Following up on that, I found this property sold for $1,585,000, on August 11, 2022. New ownership moved quickly. Less than 3 months after purchasing the Khan's building, it had already been demolished.

Further digging brought me to the Berkshire-Hathaway Real Estate listing for the Khan's property. Their website included 16 photos of the closed up restaurant. Some of which were some highly desired interior shots. I may have borrowed some of them for this story...

Like this one… My favorite of the Berkshire-Hathaway Real Estate photos was a diagram of the restaurant layout. Finding this online was pretty cool for me, for a reason I'll show you later...

See, now you have to keep reading!

July 28, 2018 - Simple drive-by shot on my way to the Cub Foods, where Village 4 Theaters used to stand. I don't remember what time of day this was, likely mid-afternoon, but Khan's Mongolian Barbeque appears to be fairly busy. 

July 28, 2018 - Waiting for the red light, after leaving the grocery store. Years of sun has really baked the Khan's sign frame. Given the height, I’m sure it's not the cheapest thing to hire a painter to maintain... 

"It's great!"

(Ding!)

March 24, 2019 - In early February, I found out that Khan's had closed the Mongolian Barbeque. That surprised me. I always saw cars there, but I guess it wasn't enough to sustain the location. While appearing nice from Northdale Blvd., a closer look at the building showed some real age. Without a whole lot of attention paid to basic upkeep. Painting the building would have been a good idea... Their parking lot desperately needed a complete milling and re-paving, as well. 

That sun-beaten sign frame was a subtle preview for the rest of the property.

March 24, 2019 - Khan's entrance really stands out against the rest of the building. Which had been a light shade of brown, with darker brown trim, since 1985. Today, it's a shade of brown with a hint of purple. Not a drastic makeover compared to the updates Khan made to the front entrance. The black and red looks really good, but it's cast against that boring purpleish-brown. Kind of like they started out with a grand vision for their building, then got tired and gave up at the front doors. Grey would have looked much better for the full building.

March 24, 2019 - Closed sign has been taped inside the front door. Khan's closed their Coon Rapids location on February 2, 2019. The sign on the door points you to the other two Khan's locations in Roseville and Richfield. Khan's Richfield, closed in November 2021. As of March 2025, Khan's Roseville, is still open.

September 20, 2020 - 18 months later, the sun has bleached all the red out of the sign.

March 24, 2019 - Interior set of doors, through the dirty glass of the exterior doors. Don't think I noticed the "Welcome to Khan's" hand painted above the doors, until I took this picture.

September 20, 2020 - 18 months later, the door on the right has been left open. Looks like all of the restaurant chairs have been called to duty at the front of Khan's.

September 10, 2022 - Some of the hand-painted wall art inside the vestibule.

November 5, 2022 - Standing inside the lobby, at the entrance to the coat racks and restrooms.

Looking out the vestibule.

(All my best to you and yours...)

March 24, 2019 - With Khan's closing just 7 weeks earlier, this shot of the lobby represents Khan's last days.

Doesn't look like much has changed... Yet.

March 24, 2019 - Looking into the windows opposite the restrooms, toward the bar on the west wall. This would be a much better picture had I done a better job of blocking the window reflection. It was a difficult angle against the glass, but I should have done better.

March 24, 2019 - Khan's restrooms, with a coat hanging section and chair storage in front of them. I'm not sure what is on that table under the mirror. Looks like some removed wall art.

September 10, 2022 - Taken from roughly the same spot. There appears to have been a Khan's fixture sale recently. My photos taken from earlier walk-arounds show an interesting perspective on what was sold, and was was left behind to be cleaned up by the demolition crew.

November 5, 2022 - Standing in the lobby, looking into the restrooms.

As I took the photos from the scraped floors of Khan's, it brought back memories of the late 1980's...

Pre-dating the Wrath of Khan, this building was previously a Bonanza Steakhouse. 

Bonanza was founded in 1963, by Hoss Cartwright, from the TV series of the same name. I'm not kidding, that is true. Ponderosa was founded in 1986, in Indiana. Although they operated many of their restaurants in Canada, until selling them off in the mid-1980's. (Most of them became Red Lobsters.) In 1988, Ponderosa was sold to Metromedia Restaurant Group. Who then bought Bonanza in 1989, combining the two similar chains officially, in 1997.

By 1989, Bonanza owned about 600 restaurants, and Ponderosa had about 700. 

As of December 2024, those numbers dropped to just 12 open Ponderosa restaurants, and a meager 3 Bonanza locations.

Bonanza built this restaurant on a vacant lot, with a grand opening in the summer of 1985. It was a fairly big deal for a while, and was quite busy for the first several years. Their opening in Coon Rapids helped to fill the void left by Mr. Steak's 1984 closure. Mr. Steak was s similar low-end family restaurant type steakhouse, without the features that would set Bonanza apart. Bonanza (like Ponderosa) is a low-end family-friendly "steakhouse", with a fairly simple menu, buffet style soup and salad bar with rotating specials. 

They also seemed to employ at least 50% of the student body of Coon Rapids High School, in the late 1980's/early 1990's. If you were a student at the time, you had no greater than 1 degree of separation from a Bonanza employee. 

However, as the years and competition increased, Bonanza was just another dirty, aging relic of the recent past. Even though their run ended in late 1996, Bonanza was a pretty hot property for much of their first 10 years. My family ate there at least once a month, through the early 1990's. The food wasn't Earth-shatteringly good, but it was acceptable. Back in the day when that alone was enough to sustain a restaurant in this town.

Until it no longer was...

Bonanza closed in November 1996, and transitioned into the Northwoods Steak Buffet, "Reopening" in early 1997. They offered a similar menu, with the same soup and salad bar gimmick, but added the new dimension of "all you can eat" steak. And that's just a wonderful thing!

I only ate there once, since I was living in Colorado during Northwoods brief run. In July, 1997, I was in town and went to dinner with my parents, my sister and her future ex-husband. This would be my first time meeting him. He was ex-military and didn't care much for the likes of me. The feeling was mutual. I was just better at hiding it.

After Northwoods closed, the restaurant reopened as Khan's Mongolian Barbeque. I'm not sure the exact timeline there. Other than a few random mentions (including my own), there's little-to-no information about Northwoods Steak Buffet on the Googles. Was really hoping for a logo...

March 24, 2019 - The building had a small set back window, to the left of the entrance. Birds like to poop on it. This is the bottom of that. Earlier, there was a shot of the lobby, taken from the window above this one.

March 24, 2019 - About 6 feet to the right of the entrance, two additional (filthy) windows allowed a better look inside Khan's dining and service areas. 

Heheheheh... Smoker's pole...

March 24, 2019 - This area has been remodeled since the Bonanza days. Booths were removed, along with the half wall, that separated the diners from the people waiting in line to order steaks. Other than changing the signage and staging props, the "Freshtasticks Bar" looks very much like it has since 1985. Which didn't serve alcohol (as far as I remember), so the drink specials board would have been dedicated more towards the promotion of steak. 

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

September 20, 2020 - Rows of chairs have now been positioned in front of the drink specials.

But no one is coming to order them.

Wont be sitting on those chairs either.

September 10, 2022 - Two years (minus ten days) later, the chairs have been repositioned and shuffled around. My guess would be that very few of them sold during the somewhat recent Great Khan's Fixture Sale.

However, someone appears to have bought the drink specials board.

November 5, 2022 - Less than two months later, this is roughly that part of the dining area.

March 24, 2019 - Another 6 or so feet to the right of the first window, was this one. Showing a clear view across to the fountain. That cool mosaic tile on the floor wasn't there in the Bonanza days. Likely added when the dining area was redone. Previously, this had been a fairly narrow half walled people corral, herding patrons towards the big steak picture menu on the wall, where you'd place your order. Directly to the right of what this picture shows.

November 5, 2022 - Some of that cool mosaic tile from a reverse angle inside Khan's.

Khan's Coke fountain, courtesy of the fine folks at Berkshire-Hathaway Real Estate.

Well, at least the people in charge of putting stuff on the internet.

Looks very similar to how it did in the late 1980's. Back then it was not only drinks, but a self service soft serve machine, just to the right of the fountain. There were other assorted desserts in this area, which were all included in the price of your dinner. 

September 20, 2020 - The fountain lights have been turned off in the past year... Carpeted areas on the floor show the space that was previously used for seating. Right side of this picture shows the cut out wall into the kitchen area. If you look closely, there is a small gong hanging between the walls.

(Googles photo by Lu Anders)

You were supposed to tip the cooks and the beat the gong upon doing so. Because there's nothing more awesome than being in the middle of eating, or even a conversation, with a sudden loud noise blasts through the place. That's always so relaxing!

Khan's grill, courtesy of the upstanding citizens at Berkshire-Hathaway Real Estate. Khan's worked kind of like a buffet in reverse. You'd come in and they'd give you an appetizer. It used to be a cup of soup and a chicken wing, but I read they got cheap and switched to chips or crackers, in later years. Then you'd go the buffet and get salad, if that was what you were after. Or you'd go to the other side and fill a bowl with various species of raw meat, assorted vegetables and whatever noodles you wanted, then douse it in one of however many sauces they had.

Once you're happy with your raw food bowl, you bring it up to the counter and the chefs plop it on these circular grills and work their magical skills of cookery. In what seems like less than a minute, they hand you back a steaming bowl of grilled meat and veggies on top of noodles or whatever. I read these grills operated at 600 degrees.

This is a job I would not want.

September 10, 2022 - Looking back through the same window. The gong is gone. So is the fountain. And all of those stage props above the kitchen wall cut out? All gone. 

What's not gone is a whole lotta chairs.

September 20, 2020 - Khan's has been closed for 19 months now. The grass has been kept up, but the sidewalk weeds haven't. The bushes and trees should have been trimmed years ago. So it doesn't look at that different than it did when it was open. There isn't much you can do with the wooden Khan's logo on the wall, but I'm surprised they weren't required to take the main signage down.

"Because it's great!"

(Ding!)

March 24, 2019 - As far as I can remember, Bonanza didn't have a patio.

I also didn't feel like walking through that show for window pictures on the west side. 

September 20, 2020 - Looked a lot nicer when covered in snow. But the snow has melted and the gate is open, so I'm being invited to come take a look. 

I'm just going to wait for almost two full years to do it.

September 10, 2022 - Didn't know Khan's sold Funyuns... The shrubbery has grown out of control during that time and the fence and gate are completely gone. Not sure what caused the dirty rusty color on the concrete. 

September 10, 2022 - Oh, it's probably mold!

Is that some sort of dismantled irrigation system in that little garden? Nearly 4 years after it was last tended to, it's still looking pretty nice. I never knew it was back here, tucked under some overgrown bushes. Now that I'm looking at it, the patio is definitely a later construction than 1985. The concrete looks completely different from the rest of the property. Thinking there was just a line of windows above the booths, that used to line this wall. Probably some bushes in front of them, if my hazy memory serves correct.

Let's see what can be seen in the open blinds!

September 20, 2020 - Someone and I ate here in April, 2008, back on vacation from Colorado. This would have been my only dinner at Khan's. We sat in the booth at the left/center of this picture. So I was happy to get a reasonably decent picture of it. I remember the food being pretty good.

September 10, 2022 - The chairs have been walking around over the last two years, and the TV is gone.

September 20, 2020 - The bar takes up the space between the windows, so this is is taken on the north side of the bar, but still standing on the patio. Funny how much stuff has been left sitting in the same exact spot for nearly two years. This entire section of Khan's was barely touch since the restaurant closed.

March 24, 2019 - It's still winter behind Khan's! But there's plenty of windows with the blinds open. Guess I will stomp through some snow for those... Along the windows, there's a narrow path that's defrosted. That will work just fine for some window shots.

September 20, 2020 - Looking in at the bar and the "untouched" room. All of those purple chairs and that stuff on the tables, has not changed since March, 2019.

September 10, 2022 - Sure, now it looks different...

September 10, 2022 - Oh cool! Laying on the table below the window I was looking in, was a stack of large papers on the table. The top sheet being that original store layout diagram, as featured on Berkshire-Hathaway Real Estate site! Before I found that, I was going to try to Photoshopitize this diagram into something sort-of presentable. Now I didn't have to!

March 24, 2019 - The photo I took from this spot in September, 2020, shows everything on these table in the exact same place, as they are here.

September 10, 2022 - Apparently no one was interested in those red Tsing Tao things, at the Fantastic Khan's Fixture Liquidation Sale. They probably didn't know what they were either. A big no on the wooden high chairs as well. However, the salt shakers, soy sauce bottles and napkin stacks moved like hotcakes!

November 5, 2022 - Two dumpsters, holding the last of the big pieces of Khan's non-foundational parts, now stand on top of Khan's bar. Safe to say things have moved this time. A set of those red Tsing Tao things sit crushed at the bottom of one of these dumpsters...

September 10, 2022 - Walking a few feet to my left, was a seating area that had been recently torn apart during the Fantabulous Khan's Fixture Liquidation Blowout Sale. Behind the half wall is the buffet. That entire unit wasn't moved since Bonanza opened in 1985. I would imagine it being an "island" in the middle of the floor, connected to plumbing and electricity, wouldn't be the easiest thing to relocate.

I tried, but was unable to get a better shot of the "First Time" sign above the buffet.

September 10, 2022 - A few more feet to my left. What's left behind from the sale sits anxiously in front of the half wall, in front of the buffet. 

Khan's didn't have a catchy slogan or nickname to match Bonanza's "All You Can Eat Freshtastiks Soup and Salad Bar". Or if they did, I never knew of it. The contents of the buffet didn't match either. Any raw meat in Bonanza's Freshtastiks buffet was clearly an accident. Raw meat in the Khan's buffet? Well, that was the whole purpose. But only on the south end. The north end was still your traditional salad bar fare. 

Doubt they had Goldfish crackers and cherry Jello.

That's what I remember from the Freshtastiks bar!

September 20, 2020 - Well look at everything being all neat and orderly! Of the fixtures in this area, precisely one table and one table top was all that sold. And they broke the base of the one that didn't sell complete, from the previous photo. Go look, it's left on the floor, missing a foot. On second glance, it appears some of these chairs sold as well. Unless they just went someplace else.

March 24, 2019 - This side of the dining area got completely different chairs. That's odd... This also a better view of the raw meat side of the bufffet. And if you look closely, second shift didn't properly sweep under the buffet. Someone better get written up over this!

March 24, 2019 - You take your empty bowl, put whatever raw meat you want, then vegetables, noodles, etc.. As I mentioned earlier. You'd also add your choice of sauces to the bowl. This handy sign above the buffet was your guide to that. At least I was able to get an acceptable picture of this. The small type isn't readable, but you get enough of an idea. Unfortunately the labels taped to the sneeze guard are unreadable. Would have loved to seen the final selection of Khan's raw meat.

September 20, 2020 - The red chairs appear to have been whisked away from their comfortable tables. And we're still about two years away from the Khan's Tremendous Sale of Fixtures sale.

September 10, 2022 - Now they're playing tricks on me... The purple chairs are here, the red chairs are gone and one table is missing? Were the purple chairs returned, or maybe traded for a table? Also, someone traded the Khan's sauce sign for a bucket of paint. However, the raw meat labels are still on the sneeze guard. Since no one bought the meat stickers, I guess they're going down with the ship in a few weeks...

March 24, 2019 - The next window over, before the red chairs were an endangered species. The Kharpet is a little less worn in this part of the restaurant.

September 10, 2022 - Sad... It used to look so festive...

Here's a opposite angle from where I just was, thanks to the supreme beings at Berkshire-Hathaway Real Estate (photography division). Buffet's on the right. Salad bar side, with a labeled sneeze guard. Not positive, but I suspect those stained glass lampshades date back to Bonanza. Shame no one bought them, and they were likely destroyed with rest of the building.

September 10, 2022 - The east side of Khan's. The northeast corner was obscured by trees and not all that interesting anyways. The part sticking out closer to the sidewalk was the home of Khan's freezers, according to that referenced diagram. Dumpster House is on the left side. In front of what said diagram labels: Dry Storage and Mech. / Elec.

March 24, 2019 - Back door of Khan's, between the Dumpster House and what I'm assuming was a grease/oil or an organic waste dumpster. With Khan's less than two months from closing, it would make sense this stuff was still here. It'll be gone soon enough, and people will start dropping their own trash here when no one's looking.

September 20, 2020 - Dumpster House contents: Other than an ugly chair, there's an expected amount of empty cups and various small trash. Not even enough to fill a 39 gallon bag.

September 10, 2022 - Dumpster House contents: A gross old couch and two flat screen TV's!

September 10, 2022 - Dumpster House contents: Plus a beat up office chair and that same ugly chair that was sitting here two years ago!

September 20, 2020 - You can see exactly where Khan's stopped caring about parking lot maintenance, many years ago. There is a small road connecting this side of Khan's, wrapping around the back and connecting in with the main parking lot. It had been ignored for a long time before Khan's even closed. We'll check it out in a bit.

September 20, 2020 - Wow, I didn't know that Coon Rapids actually named this access driveway... So now you take Partridge Street to fill your car with low grade gasoline, at the Speedway on Northdale. Or maybe some disappointing food in an incorrect order from the Burger King, next door.

And yes, it is THAT Burger King...

Awesome.

For the time being, we are leaving Khan's, and Coon Rapids, for a brief field trip to St. Cloud, MN. Just so I can get a steak. I can't have all these memories of the Bonanza Steakhouse going through my head and not give in...

Tea and weird looking fried eggs isn't going to cut it.

Because, as of May 18, 2019, there was an open Bonanza in St. Cloud! With the authentic old school Bonanza western letters, crazy glued to the barn shaped restaurant. I didn't actually go here to eat. It was on my photo target list, on an unrelated trip to St. Cloud. (Which you can read about here!) Besides, with Bravo Burrito just across the parking lot, that's I'm going, ten times out of ten.

Laura and I drove through St. Cloud on October 12, 2023, on our way to Bravo Burrito. Being late and dark, I didn't notice until we got closer that the building was gone. I didn't know it closed, let alone was removed from the Earth. Since it had already been paved over, I didn't mind driving across it to leave.

That almost felt like a victory.

Upon a search, the Googles revealed this: "The Bonanza Steakhouse in St. Cloud, Minnesota closed on October 28, 2022. The owners, Dustin Dusha and Jeff Mathiasen, announced the closure after 48 years in business."

Wow, 48 years! Doing some quick math, that would have made the St. Cloud Bonanza, older than me when it closed! Perhaps the St. Cloud Bonanza was done in by a fate similar to Red Lobster? Overstepping their bounds by offering a product they couldn't afford to give away?

From the August 9, 1985 edition of the Coon Rapids Herald.

If "All You Can Eat" is less than ten... 

This was my father's (and hundreds of other people's) gripe about the All You Can Eat Shrimp. Advertising an absolute bounty, then producing a meager allowance.

I don't like shrimp, so this never bothered me. But I can absolutely see the complaint many had made.

According to a former Bonanza employee I talked to (we'll call her "Jen" to protect her anonymity): Company policy for the "All You Can Eat Shrimp" promotion would consist of placing 3 deep fried shrimp in a small paper cup. An employee would walk around with a tray of them, to tables marked as taking part in the dinner promotion. They would pass out a maximum of 2 paper cups of 3 shrimps each, to each customer that ordered it. For a total of 6 little shrimps. Of course they'd only come around every ten minutes or so, because they were busy and product went fast.

No one partaking in an "All You Can Eat" promotion is going to put up with that kind of poor quality of service.

Maybe Red Lobster should have done that?

May 1, 2022 - Random drive by/wellness check. Khan's is still here.

Still for sale.

September 10, 2022 - A new sign showed up a couple of weeks ago. This will soon become Khan’s Mongolian Car Wash. Because there certainly isn't enough car washes in Coon Rapids... I suspect they wont be modifying the existing Khan's Mongolian Barbeque building into a functional car wash, so it's likely to be demolished soon... Meaning I better get another round of pictures.

Starting with some older ones!

September 20, 2020 - Probably my best shot of the Khan's parking lot, taken from the sidewalk along Northdale Blvd. Looks pretty rough now, and smaller than I remember it from the Bonanza days. I'm sure it's been the same size since 1985, but it seems different. Possibly because the trees and landscaping had grown so much from the days I saw the place all the time. Then I didn't see it at all for 20+ years...

September 20, 2020 - Handicapped sign shows interesting wear... The top sign's paint is all cracked, while the fine sign below is is rusted to the point it's hard to read.

ERIK THE BIKE MAAAAHNNNNN!!!

September 20, 2020 - Doesn't look like the parking lot has been repaved since the Bonanza days... Back when those trees planted at the far end of the lot were less than 6 feet tall. 

November 5, 2022 - Chunks of curbing are getting yanked away from the pavement, around both the parking lot and the now demolished Mongolian Buffet.

September 10, 2022 - Is the "For Lease" sign a last minute back-up plan, in case the car wash thing doesn't happen? Seems pretty late to offer a building for lease as it's scheduled for demolition in less than two months. And if you are seriously trying to attract a new lessee, you may want to touch up the paint. It's looking pretty shabby these days.

September 20, 2020 - Even shabby, I still liked the look of it. Something I've wondered since before the building was demolished... What happened to that little gold medallion above the doors?

ENHANCE!

March 24, 2019 - I wish I would have taken a better picture of this, instead of having to zoom in tight on a wide shot. Since it's blurry, I can't tell for sure what is going on here. I can see two crossed swords pretty clearly. What looks like either a pillow or a nose above them. Two perfect circle eyes with a furrowed brow above. Then maybe a radar dish coming out of the top of his head?

I don't know...

Anyways...

September 10, 2022 - Khan's Golden Medallion was removed at some point before this. So what happened to it?

Did someone buy it during the Great Killer Khan's Restaurant Fixture Fun Time Sale, a few weeks prior?

Was it stolen in the night, by renters from Camelot Square?

Or was it conquested by the Mamluks?

Or did one of the new owners decide it just looked cool and kept it for himself?

November 5, 2022 - Khan's front doors, less than two months later.

September 10, 2022 - Close up of the hand-made "sale" sign, left outside the entrance after the Big Khan's Restaurant Fixture Gala Sale Extravaganza. No one wanted any new authentic Khan's art.

September 10, 2022 - Hmmm... No one bought the wooden Khan's logo, that really needs some touch up...

"But it's still great!"

(Ding!)

Well, I've already covered the patio, so let's go back to the east side of the building, and around to the north side. See if there's anything interesting back there.

September 10, 2022 - The grass is mowed, but the weeds coming up through the sidewalk are getting out of control.

September 10, 2022 - The grass in the back isn't nearly as well taken care of. But the wildflowers are a nice touch. And it looks like Khan's has seen its first true sign of vandalism...

September 10, 2022 - Inner pane intact, outer pane shattered... I didn't see a large rock on the ground underneath. Stupid vandals were unsuccessful in their bid to steal one of those red Tsing Tao things.

September 10, 2022 - Earlier, I made mention of the access road behind Khan's. So here's some of the photos I took of that, At the far end (looking west) is a pair of parked semi trailers. My assumption was storage as the building was cleared out. Either for supplies they were using, or Khan's stuff they were keeping.

September 10, 2022 -  When Bonanza was built, small trees were planted to border the road. Over time the pavement had become so deteriorated, I didn't realize the north side of the road even had a curb. You couldn't see it because it was so overgrown.

September 10, 2022 - Looking east toward the Burger King parking lot. Nature is busy reclaiming Khan's, pavement first. Quite the hole there. I'd be real curious to find out when Bonanza last paved this part of the property. Because I'm sure Khan didn't.

September 10, 2022 - It was then I decided these raw Totino's Pizza Rolls taste terrible. And they should be disposed of in the part of Khan's that is being overrun by weeds. An entire bag of raw Totino's Pizza Rolls laying on the ground is one of the stranger things I've found around an abandoned building. It would make more sense if the bag was still here.

Drinks (March 24, 2019) - Perhaps the raw Totino's Pizza Rolls litterer was angry they couldn't enjoy a nice Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA (how do you squeeze a beer without it spraying all over the place?), with a bag of Totino's goodness. Screw that! Let the plants eat!

And I'm going home.

To NOT eat Totino's Pizza Rolls. Cooked or otherwise.

September 10, 2022 - The last photo I took of an intact Khan's Mongolian Barbeque, taken on the way back to my car. Where I'd parked in the lot of ERIK THE BIKE MAAAAHNNNNN!!!

When Khan's Mongolian Barbeque was demolished, there was a discussion of it in the Coon Rapids Facebook group, that I used to admin. Amongst the comments and memories and protests of it becoming yet another car wash, Brian Person uploaded this photo he took of the in-progress Khan's demolition. Much of the building is already gone, including the large freezer, which would have been center right. This shows the Dumpster House, dry storage and Mech. / Elec. area of the building. He took this picture from the Burger King parking lot, and said I could use it in a future story about Khan's. Whenever that would be. Well that would be now, so thanks again!

This is something I do miss about Facebook. I enjoyed reading other people's memories of places that I have my own memories of. Not to mention getting tips on new abandonments and future demolitions. Leaving Facebook has likely cost me some additional material for local subjects of interest. However, I had to weigh the cost/benefit ratio, and have since come to the conclusion that life is so much better without social media.

Except for Reddit.

I like Reddit.

November 5, 2022 - By the time I made it back to Khan's the restaurant was gone. Scraped down to just pieces of floor, with no walls attached to them. I'd hoped to take some mid-demolition photos, but I was too late. At least with the segments of floor still on the ground, there was something left to see.

November 5, 2022 - The Dumpster House is gone, including the pavement it rested on. Foundation for dry storage sits behind it.

November 5, 2022 - Remains to the foundation of the side by side, walk-in freezers. 

September 10, 2022 - Which were previously behind these walls.

November 5, 2022 - Some of the floor tile remains inside the freezer.

November 5, 2022 - This used to be the Khan's dishroom.

Which used to look like this! At the time the Lovely Lads from Berkshire-Hathaway Photography took this picture, the dishwasher itself had already been removed. Wonder if it was sold, or if it was moved to one of Khan's other locations? I found this picture almost fascinating because of my familiarity with the restaurant dishroom of the old Coon Rapids Perkins. I spent more than a few hours washing dishes there in 1991, and it was a terrible set up compared to this. 

November 5, 2022 - The next room over was labeled "Janitorial" on the Khan's diagram. What was left of the floor was littered with packaged Poly-Aprons. Inexplicably surviving both the building clear-out and demolition. Almost wish I would have grabbed one of these tough little buggers for the Archives...

Another of the great Berkshire-Hathaway Real Estate photos... Taken from the kitchen, looking into the Janitorial area, past the ice machine and the office on the right side. Employee restroom behind it. Otherwise known as the secret area, that couldn't be seen by customers. Apparently Bonanza didn't include any sort of "break room" for the staff, unless that was supposed to be part of the janitorial area. Which seems cruel and wrong. Yet appropriate for how these types of businesses typically view their employees.

Where are the overstressed servers supposed to catch a few quick drags of a cigarette?

Stepping back from the kitchen area, while still looking at it, through the eyes of Berkshire-Hathaway Real Estate. This is in front of the counter where you'd drop off your bowl of raw food, wait for the chefs to grill it, then reclaim your bowl of cooked food. This angle shows the grill (on the right), the manager office beyond the open door (in the center of the picture), and the stacks of buffet pans in the dishroom.

November 5, 2022 - The remains of the Mechanical / Electrical room. I know nothing about it, but I'm assuming this pipe sticking out of the floor was for water. Unless it was gas? 

November 5, 2022 - Laying out front was a broken piece of "K". Now I've spent way too much time looking at the picture of the Khan's logo that was attached to the wall, in roughly this area, trying to figure out which piece this is from. I'm 99.2% positive this is part of the letter K.

November 5, 2022 - And that pretty much wraps up my interest in Khan's Mongolian Barbeque. Coming soon will be Silver Star Car Wash. A business that no one asked for, but apparently it has its supporters. I'm not amongst them.

Nothing against Silver Star, I just don't care.

November 5, 2022 - Goodbye Khan's. You were great!

(Ding!)

December 10, 2023 - The new Silver Star Car Wash is nearing completion. Looks kinda stupid. They built another one of these in Anoka, where Pizza Hut was in the 1980's into the 1990's. (Almost mirroring Bonanza's window.) That car wash's new neighbor is a Jimmy John's. Where Anoka Perkins once stood.

And that's not a good trade in anyone's mind.

May 11, 2024 - Silver Star Car Wash has opened. Yay... New car wash... But instead of showing a photo from Northdale Blvd., here's one taken from Hwy 10. It's a more interesting angle. Hooray...

With Khan's gone, Coon Rapids no longer has a restaurant with a mural of happy children tugging on a giant set of anal beads. And I don't know that we're a better city for it...

But we did gain another car wash!

"It's great!"

(Ding!)