Like Grandma always said, “Keep your fork, there’s pie!”
Okay, so that’s not the official slogan of Baker’s Square — it’s “Come for the food, stay for the pie”. Close enough though. Personally, I’d rather just come for that 3,000-calorie slice of pie & scoop of ice cream that will surely lead me down the path of bedridden obesity, and pass on the food, but that’s just me.
Keep your fork, there's pie!
Welcome to Baker’s Square, a restaurant chain serving all-day breakfast entrees, inoffensive continental cuisine, burnt coffee, and sweets that go straight to your ass. And lots and lots of French Silk Pie.
The Baker’s Square restaurant chain is still alive ‘n kickin’ in Minnesota, but only a handful of locations remain. Many locations, including Maple Grove, were wiped out in the Great Bakers Square-icide of April 2008. (Those locations were Plymouth, St. Anthony, Maplewood, Minnetonka, Burnsville, one in Minneapolis, and one in St. Paul).
Bakers Square closed early, probably keeping a lot of riff-raff out of the restaurant
Okay, so a random chain restaurant closes in the suburbs — big whoop, right? Yeah, I know…not very interesting. But by golly, I just like taking pictures of abandoned buildings and writing blog posts about said abandoned building. I’m no photographer (as evidenced by the shitty photos on this blog), so I’m not going with an artsy angle here. Just a post about a ho-hum suburban chain restaurant that I haven’t eaten at in years. I can’t really say I’m shedding tears over this one.
I’m sure Grandma is though!
Baker’s Square is the local elderly hangout. Whether it’s a gathering place to shoot the shit before hitting up the Kohls Early Bird specials, or the spot of a Grand Casino after-party, Midwestern old fogies love this place, my grandma included. When my parents would take us to Grandma’s house, Grandma would always want to come here. She’d gather up her pie tins (grandma always saved the pie tins. She’d get a whole quarter every time we’d go here), and squeal, “POPPIN’ FRESH!!! POPPIN’ FRESH!!! POPPIN’ FRESH!!” (even though this place dropped the Poppin’ Fresh name years ago) and would practically wet herself on the drive over, just thinking of the pies.
Bakers Square
Prior to 1983, Baker’s Square was known as Poppin’ Fresh. You’d think that after all this time, people would call this place by its correct name, but no. The elderly crowd this place caters to keeps the Poppin’ Fresh name alive. Oh fiddlesticks, I shouldn’t talk — I’m sure in 30 years, some young whippersnapper will poke fun at me for calling US Bank “First Bank” and referring to Macy’s as Daytons and saying stuff like, “Back in my day, Wells Fargo was Norwest Bank!!! Their logo was a giant green “N”!!!” *waves cane*
Most of the Baker’s Square locations are or were in need of a major renovation. It looked like you were dining at Grandma’s house, with the fluffy window valances, stain-concealing carpet, country floral wallpaper and matching border, all in the Baker’s Square-signature cranberry red and seagrass green color accents. Ho-hum.
You can still see the decor through the window
The food wasn’t anything to write home about either, but your Grandma probably raves about it. Lackluster comfort food and an anytime-breakfast menu is how Baker’s Square rolls — it’s the stuff you crave when it’s 2 below and you want to eat something that requires elastic waist pants (luckily, most of their regulars are people who already rock the elastic waist pants, so no wardrobe change is necessary for most patrons). The elderly-friendly menu consists of breaded chicken patties, BLTs, meatloaf, onion rings, chicken fried steak, rice pudding, pot pies– all assuring that critical bowel movement later on in the day.
So yeah — starchy, simple meals that can be gummed easily by Grandpa. And pie. Can’t forgot that pie. But really, when do you ever eat a meal at Baker’s Square? I honestly can’t remember the last time I ate here. My friends and I used to rock Perkins or Denny’s HARRRDD when we were in high school. But Bakers Square closed at like 10 or 11PM — far too early for our 1AM dinner parties, so they lost out on the teen demographic and just went after Grandma. Too bad — we’d eat ourselves sick at these places, running up a huge tab chowing down high fat trucker-style breakfast food and greasy appetizer samplers right before going to bed. How I escaped my teenage years without blowing up like a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon is beyond me.
The free WiFi (Wi-Pie. I stand corrected) gives Grandma another opportunity to check her email and clog your inbox with more chain-letter email forwards.
I used to come here to pick up a pie to bring up to my parents’ house for Christmas dinner. Baker’s Square took holidays seriously. On any major pie holiday (Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas), they’d have a pie hostess sitting at a card table in the lobby, taking orders and giving you a slip of paper to claim your pie. She’d pass on your order to some hotshot manager wearing a headset and he’d fetch your pie from the fridge, and update the inventory tally. It was quite the production! With the Maple Grove Baker’s Square location closed, our Christmas dinner will forever be without a Baker’s Square pie but really, with a little effort, you could probably make a better pie at home. Especially the French Silk — probably Baker’s Square’s most popular pie.
French Silk Pie is not that difficult to make. Buy a pie crust at Cub, whip up some instant Jell-O chocolate pudding, pour into the crust, and cover in Redi-Whip. Done and DONE. If you’re feeling really adventurous, toss a Hershey’s bar in the SlapChop and sprinkle the shavings on top. Want to make the Candy Cane Christmas pie? Follow the same steps for the French Silk pie, and cut up some candy canes. BINGO – Christmas Pie!
I do miss the Fresh Strawberry pie (seasonal). That fucker was a pie I’d die for.
And I’m willing to bet the Baker’s Square pies were not made fresh, on-site. Probably trucked in from Jersey or something.
I’m not sure if Baker’s Square will last in Minnesota — with all the recent closings, it doesn’t look good. All of these breakfast places pretty much offer the same thing, but I think Perkins does it best. They’re open 24/7 AND they have a wishing well. (just don’t go there on the “Kids Eat Free Tuesdays” — the entire restaurant turns into one loud juice box-flingin’ family section). Denny’s had the silly-named menu items but other than that, it doesn’t do much for me.
And Bakers Square has the pie.
So keep your fork.
Photos taken June 2009
Baker's Square
#1 by Joe on July 1st, 2009
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The Stillwater location closed last year too. Ironically, while all a lot of the other locations were closing, the Roseville location (on Highway 36) was rennovated. It is now called the “Square Cafe,” or something like that, and looks a little bit more modern. Still the same elderly clientelle, however!
#2 by Matthew on July 1st, 2009
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Add Hopkins to the list of dead Baker’s Squares. They also closed in the big wave of BS shuttering, but they blamed it on the probability of them losing land to the light rail station on Blake Road. 7 years from now. A little premature to close now if that’s the reason.
#3 by Tim on July 1st, 2009
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The Eagan location that was by me closed right after New Year’s in 2008, before the April purge (it’s a Mediterranean restaurant now). The one in Apple Valley is still around, though. I go there once in a while when I’m craving pie.
A server there once told me that couples getting a divorce go there a lot to talk over things while for some reason. It’s like they don’t want to do it at some place too nice or something. But yeah, lots of older clientele too.
#4 by Disco Studd on July 1st, 2009
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You mean to tell me the one next to Brookdale is still in business?!? Or was it closed already when they did the “Big Purge?” I remember as a kid we’d always drive past the “Poppin’ Fresh Pies” en route to Brookdale (they had the big red vertical oval-shaped sign right on the corner of those 2 frontage roads in front of the Snyder Brother’s drug store side of B-Dale.)
Ugh, I could never stand Baker’s Square/Poppin’ Fresh Pies. Ate there once in my life, and never again. Their pies aren’t too terrible, but I’d much rather have one from Perkins. Every year my mom insists we pick up a B2 pie for Thanksgiving Dinner, but I always tell her we live closer to Perkins, so I get the pies there instead. Perkins FTW!!!
I find that hilarious that the old gray-hairs keep calling the place Poppin’ Fresh! Reminds me of when I visited my Great-Grandma when I was 5 or 6 years old, and would throw a hissy when she’d keep refering to the Pamida next to her apartment by its former name of “Gibsons.”
#5 by dkzody on July 2nd, 2009
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Baker’s Square in Fresno closed a long time ago. It was right across the street from Marie Callender’s. Guess who is still standing!
BTW, Baker’s building is still, over a year later, empty. How many pie restaurants does a town need?
#6 by dumpystripmalls on July 2nd, 2009
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Oh wow, I don’t remember a Baker’s Square next to Brookdale. It must’ve closed down a while ago…the one I was referring to is in Brooklyn Park near the Rainbow Foods/Target Greatland/Benchwarmer Bobs (I know it’s not called that anymore, but I can’t remember what it is currently).
Funny, my mom is exactly the opposite when it comes to pies — she HATES Perkins’ pies but loves Baker’s Square. I really can’t tell the difference, but when I offered to pick up a pie this past Christmas from Bakers Square (not knowing the St. Anthony location had closed), she was so disappointed when I told her Baker’s Square was closed — I offered to pick up a pie for Perkins, but she said, “No, I hate Perkins pies! I’ll just make a cake instead.”
And her saying she’d make a cake says A LOT – my mom HATES to cook or bake anything. Granted, it was a Pillsbury Cake Mix, not from scratch, but still..
#7 by Disco Studd on July 3rd, 2009
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Wow, I guess the Bakers Square by Brookdale has been gone a while. I did a street-view peek on Google Maps, and there’s an IHOP where B2 used to be (and it doesn’t exactly look new.)
Have a look:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=45.057031,-93.322163&spn=0,359.972405&t=h&z=15&layer=c&cbll=45.056978,-93.322009&panoid=CZ1TSVyiZeWLv-YxwOF3ww&cbp=12,339.39,,0,5.55
#8 by Tim G on July 6th, 2009
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The MG B2 building is supposed to get torn down and they are putting up another section of strip mall there with Dave’s Sports Shop and a couple of other tenants moving in. So, at least we won’t have to look at it forever… and besides we need more stores in MG… or not.
Tim G
#9 by Tim G on July 10th, 2009
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Groundbreaking today at the former MG B2 for the new piece of strip mall!
#10 by dumpystripmalls on July 10th, 2009
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Thanks for the update! Glad I took the pics when I did!
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#11 by Ally on July 17th, 2009
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Actually, the Baker’s Square in Maplewood is still there. Noticed it was on your dead list.
#12 by Dave on July 19th, 2009
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B2 in Plymouth is now a Peony’s China Bistro – Chinese menu / Buffet Combo platter. Food is pretty good.
#13 by mygypsynature aka Tracy Jo - 1961 on July 26th, 2009
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Well – low and behold I’ve got a story about this
place too a recent one and a ‘back in the day one’.
The most recent is the B2 location you’ve got posted
up top. April of ‘09 we flew in to attend my dad’s
funeral up in McGregor, MN. On the way to meet up
with my brother and his family in St. Michael I told
Joe (that’s what I call him, aka husband) to whip in
to one of the FF restaurants off 94 in Maple Grove –
because sadly my brother sometimes doesn’t have
enough food at the dinner table and I thought we
ought to get a lil’ something before we got there.
He (Joe) was headed over Cladaugh’s (he travels to
Maple Grove on business and knows it better than I
do now) I scolded him, alright – I bitched him out
and told him to go the other way and hit the Wendy’s
or BK so we did. Did I say it had been 6 years since
I had been back ‘home’? We got our overpriced gap
filling grub and I said – alright, I bitched that we
had to pull over – OVER THERE, NOOOOO – OVER THERE
————> so he pulled over THERE and we sat in
our Jeep in front of a very dead and dated B2 and I
told him a story of the last time I was there –
which I’ll share now – It was Thanksgiving f1990 –
it was my task to pick up the pies – we took turns
and I made my way over there and mentioned my
reservation – you could make pie reservations ! I
got the 3 pies, put ‘em in the pickup (don’t all
Minnesotans have pickups?) on the passenger seat,
never thought I needed to buckled them up ……. I
pulled into the driveway and noticed the mailbox
open with a bunch of shit hanging out of it and
thought it would be nice of me to bring it in. I got
out wearing my SONY DISC MAN most likely the FIRST
generation model, gawd I was cool. I had Dwight
Yoakum spinning and went honky tonkin’ out to the
mail box. All of a sudden I hear what sounds like a
horn – took me a minute to realize it wasn’t part of
the song and see a car coming with all it’s
occupants pointing toward the house – I looked in
the direction of the pointing fingers just in time
to see my truck rolling leisurely, but with great
intent right toward me and the mail box. For
whatever reason – be it a deep seated desire to be a
cowboy on the rodeo circuit – I decided I could ‘ear
it down’ or stop it before it sheered the mail box
off at it’s frozen base and went careening off the cliff
backwards – instead it knocked me on my ass but not
before I went over the cliff with it – and DAMMIT -
———- the PPPPPPPIIIIIEEEEEEEESSSSSSS! All the
fancy pie decor was for not as I looked up to see my
dad getting his chains and hopping into his truck to
pull all of us (me and the pie mess) up and out of
the ditch. Soooooo there’s the past and the present.
By the way – of special interest, B2 was a very
popular spot for the AA* crowd – ummmmmm not that I
I had any ahhhhhh – first hand knowledge …………ummmm –
ahhhhh, but I did hear tell.
*see remembrances of Stuart Anderson’s Cattle Company.
#14 by Cindy on July 27th, 2009
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Well… We liked Bakers Square..seldom ate them but they had good pie, good soup and salads. And their breakfasts were pretty darn good too. Will miss the one in Maple Grove.