Favorite Restaurant From Rochester’s Past Is Actually Still Open
It's consistently listed as one of the restaurants we miss the most here in Rochester. But did you know this restaurant is actually still around today?!?
I'm talking about Shakey's Pizza. Rochesterites have routinely listed that restaurant numerous times whenever we've asked about a local restaurant everyone loved but that isn't around anymore.
But, wait a minute-- Shakey's Pizza IS still around! And, yes, it IS the same chain that once called Minnesota's Med City, as well as many other locations across the Midwest-- home. While I never made it to the Rochester Shakey's, I did go to Shakey's in beautiful Rib Mountain, Wisconsin, near my hometown of Wausau when I was a kid.
According to this Post-Bulletin article, the Rochester Shakey's opened in the March of 1968 on the Highway-52 frontage road near the 19th Street overpass. It was one of 342 Shakey's Pizza restaurants operating at that time, and was, according to the article, Rochester's first real pizza place.
The story says it closed when MnDOT began to rework sections of the Highway-52 frontage road, and the owners didn't want to relocate the business. That location is now just a vacant plot of land (though it IS available for sale.)
But, if you check THIS website, you'll see the Shakey's Pizza chain is still very much around! That's the good news. The bad news is that the closest Shakey's location to Rochester is... almost 1,100 miles away in Auburn, Alabama.
The Shakey's site also lists several other locations that are still open out in California, Washington state, and down in Mexico. Roadtrip, anybody? Keep scrolling, too, to check out some other classic Rochester restaurants that have long since gone-- but that we still miss!
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