Out with the Mayan, in with the Oriental

Paul Lundgren May 19, 2011 23 Comments

I’ve heard the Maya Mexican Restaurant at 220 W. Superior St. has been closed for a few weeks. It was indeed locked up today during the lunch hours.

One block up and one block over, the former Chef Yee’s location has a sign promising a new Oriental restaurant.

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23 Comments

Pamalama

about 13 years ago 

They also moved their Central Entrance location to where Tejas was... I say we need Mongolian!

Paul Lundgren

about 13 years ago 

Here's a link to a recent Business North story about Maya moving it's Miller Hill location.

Road redesign forces Maya restaurant to relocate

And here's a link to the PDD post from last summer about Maya opening downtown (and several comments predicting its swift demise).

Looks like Maya is expanding

Cory Fechner

about 13 years ago 

Is it safe to say we can add PDD as a classifier to the Predictive Model for new businesses in Duluth?

Bad Cat!

about 13 years ago 

I think a better predictive model would be that anyone who moves into that storefront is doomed.

Mildred

about 13 years ago 

It's not surprising after 2-3 failed restaurants in that space. So, who's next? I give them 2 years at the most.

ironic1

about 13 years ago 

I'm trying to remember the timeline of restaurants that were occupied 220 West Superior.  Anyone want to help?

Maya - June 2010 - May 2011
Grapevine
Taj India
My Buddy's Place
Burger King 
Mr. Nick's Famous Charburger

Do I have the succession right? Anyone have dates on these or know what was in there before that?

[img]http://ironic1.com/mrnicks.jpeg[/img]

Paul Lundgren

about 13 years ago 

That was also covered in the previous Maya post:


The Patronas family opened Mr. Nick's in 1968. It became a Burger King in 1996 when Nick Patronas, owner of the BK franchise rights in Duluth, decided to convert it. 

Brian Patterson, who had worked at Mr. Nick's since the mid-1970s, bought the restaurant in 1998 and changed the name back to Mr. Nick's. It closed in 2002.

The Nick's tradition is still alive, by the way. Charburgers are on the menu at Aces on 29th in Superior.


Kudos to Ironic1 for remembering that My Buddy's Place existed.

Maya Mexican Restaurant -- June 2010 to April 2011
Grapevine -- 2008 to 2010
Taj India -- 2005 to 2008
My Buddy's Place -- 2002 to 2005
Mr. Nick's -- 1998 to 2002
Burger King -- 1996 to 1998
Mr. Nick's Famous Charburger -- 1968 to 1996

By the way, My Buddy's Place was owned by Allan "Chef" Yee, in case we needed another reason to connect 220 W. Superior St. and 319 W. First St.

hbh1

about 13 years ago 

I'd vote for an East African restaurant (now that I can finally afford to eat out once in awhile), but I really don't want someone to lose their shirt. What empty storefront would make a great Ethiopian or Somali restaurant?

Barrett Chase

about 13 years ago 

Didn't it switch back to Mr. Nick's for a short time after it was Burger King? I might be imagining that.

Barrett Chase

about 13 years ago 

I was right. Via the News Tribune Attic: 
"The downtown location was converted to a Burger King for several years in the mid-1990s before reverting back to the Mr. Nick's name."


Mr. Nick's finally closed in 2002.

jake

about 13 years ago 

I miss My Buddie's Place.  Me and some friends of mine went there weekly for "Ultra Fat-ass" Burgers.  Not sure who nicknamed them that but they were good.  Gwanto probably remembers.

ironic1

about 13 years ago 

Thanks, Paul.  I can rest easy now.

Jim M

about 13 years ago 

That place didn't fare well as a music store, either.

adam

about 13 years ago 

I will never understand why they booted Chef Yee's out.

Attic

about 13 years ago 

The photo posted by Jim M. is from a News Tribune Attic post, available here with more information in case anyone wants to read more:

Dugar Music Co. and the Kasbar, 1961

Christie

about 13 years ago 

I am still sad about Taj India. I loved that place.

Claire

about 13 years ago 

I loved Taj India too. Best Indian food in Minnesota. Wonder what happened to the chef/owner?

Bret

about 13 years ago 

Yes, Taj India rocked.

Samantha

about 13 years ago 

Yea, Taj Indian was awesome!  What happened to the people who ran that place?  I miss it soooooo much.

ruby2sd4y

about 13 years ago 

I had checked the Maya twice last week during lunch and no activity. I just walked past this morning and noticed the hours sign has now been removed, as well as all the furniture/fixtures. Adios.

I can't agree about the Taj, as the three times our lunch group (of 3-5 people) had visited the food was blah/greasy/overcooked, and twice little to no effort was made to replace empty lunch buffet dishes, and twice the waitstaff were inattentive when the restaurant was nearly empty of other patrons. Two were reluctant to revisit at all as they had poor prior experiences on their separate visits as well. Three strikes was enough for me.

Alternately, last weekend I had some really delish Cuban fare in Mpls, and would love to see something like that here, or the African as mentioned, anything ethnic/cultural for sure.

Cathyp

about 12 years ago 

Adam, Chef Yee's wasn't booted out. Alan Yee's wife Amy told me at the time that he had such bad repetitive stress injuries from cooking that he wanted to stop cooking Chinese food for a while. They were opening a place outside of Woodland attached to a bowling alley that served more American food. Does anyone know if that happened?

TimK

about 12 years ago 

The bowling alley up in Woodland is/was Ridgeview and a Yee's was in there for a while at least. Now there is a "branch" of the Twig Bakery franchise in their, but I do not know if Yee is involved. Ate there once this summer -- standard American diner fare, reasonably priced as I recall. There was some remodeling to accommodate the new restaurant and I'm not even sure if the bowling alley is still there.

adam

about 12 years ago 

Thank you for the clarification.

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