Ridgedale Lost A 27-Year Grill And Made Room For A Shake Shack This Fall. The Parking Lot Explains Both.

Two restaurant stories broke around Ridgedale Center within six weeks of each other this fall. Redstone American Grill on Wayzata Boulevard closed in early September after 27 years near the mall. Across Plymouth Road, Shake Shack scheduled its Minnetonka opening for Wednesday, Oct. 21, on a lot that until recently held a Wells Fargo branch.

Both moves come from the same plan. Minnetonka has spent more than a decade turning Ridgedale from a mall ringed by asphalt into a denser district with housing, a park and parking that moves into structures. As that happens, a big sit-down dinner spot with its own lot has a harder time, and a counter-service outlot built around quick visits has an easier one.

The reason Redstone gave

Redstone announced the closure on social media and named parking as a primary issue. Director of operations Joe Fresta told Bring Me The News that "we had every intention of staying in Minnetonka long-term, but parking continues to be a challenge for our guests."

That same Bring Me The News article added context from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Parking around Ridgedale has gotten more complicated over the last nine years, as developments took over lot space and the city focused on moving surface parking into structures. The Minnesota Star Tribune's restaurant roll call reported it the same way, saying parking challenges tied to nearby development contributed to the decision.

Redstone first opened near Ridgedale in 1999 at a different location and spent 27 years around the mall across its two sites. Its Eden Prairie and Maple Grove restaurants are still open, and staff were offered positions with the same hours at those two locations. For regulars who want the same menu, that's the practical answer. What will go in at 12241 Wayzata Blvd. hasn't been announced.

The plan that was always going to use up surface lots

The parking pressure follows a plan Minnetonka has had for years. In 2012, the city commissioned the Ridgedale Village Center Study to guide land use, design and investment around the mall. In 2017 it added the Ridgedale Area Public Realm Guidelines, which call for transforming the retail center into a mixed-use community and rebuilding Ridgedale Drive as a parkway.

The city's vision for new development in the area lists:

• 800 new housing units
• 180,000 square feet of office space
• 250 new hotel rooms
• A conference center of 20,000 square feet or more
• Six new restaurants totaling 45,000 square feet
• Up to 2,800 structured or surface parking spaces

That list is a long-range target, not a roster of finished buildings. The projects that have gone up so far show what it looks like on the ground. Ridgedale Drive was rebuilt in 2019 and 2020 with new street, sidewalk and trail infrastructure. Avidor Minnetonka was approved as a six-story, 168-unit apartment building for residents 55 and older. It would remove part of the existing parking lot at 12421 Ridgedale Drive and dedicate 1.31 acres for park use. The Luxe, at 12501 Ridgedale Drive, was approved as a four-story, 77-unit building replacing a vacant restaurant and its parking lot.

Then came Ridgedale Commons, a two-acre urban park at 12590 Ridgedale Drive. Its official grand opening was June 1, 2023.

Each of these projects turned parking or an empty pad into something people live in or walk to. The district now has more people within walking distance and less open asphalt per visitor. A restaurant whose dinner rush depended on easy parking at the door is up against both changes at once.

What went up on Plymouth Road instead

The new buildings across from the mall are designed for a different kind of visit. In October 2024, the Business Journal described plans for two fast-casual restaurants on a Ridgedale Center outlot. Two years later, both are on the former Wells Fargo site.

Chipotle at 1807 Plymouth Road opened at the end of July. Bring Me The News reported it as the chain's third Minnetonka location. Shake Shack, next door at 1809 Plymouth Road, has been in the works since 2024 and is the chain's fifth Minnesota restaurant.

Location is a big part of how Shake Shack picks sites. Its other Twin Cities restaurants are in or near Mall of America, Southdale Center, the Shoppes at Arbor Lakes and Rosedale Center. More are planned near Eden Prairie Center and the Shoppes at Woodbury Lakes. The chain is betting on mall traffic that is already on site. A guest who stops in between errands at Ridgedale doesn't need a dedicated lot the way a party of six booking a 7 p.m. table does. The fast-casual model works with how the village-center plan is changing the district.

Fast casual isn't a sure thing here either. Toma Mojo Grill, a fast-casual Spanish-Portuguese chicken spot at 12977 Ridgedale Drive, closed on Dec. 31 after four years. By February 2026, city council materials referred to the address as the former Toma Mojo space. A sushi restaurant has since been licensed for that space.

Where a sit-down dinner still happens near the mall

With Redstone gone, most of the full-service dining at Ridgedale is now inside the mall, where the center's own ramps and lots serve every tenant. Ridgedale Center's directory lists three places it classifies as sit-down restaurants.

For a weekend dinner, the Level 2 cluster near Macy's has two sit-down options within a short walk of each other. If you want a reservation, Big Bowl takes them. The Cheesecake Factory posts its current hours on its location page. Kyoto Sushi's license approval and planned July opening were posted on the city's license notice, so check with the restaurant before planning around it.

For dessert outside the mall, a new Minnetonka spot opened this month. Ichigo Cafe, known for its Eat Street Crossing location in Minneapolis, opened its Minnetonka outpost at 10988 Cedar Lake Rd. S. on Oct. 1, serving Tokyo-style crepes and other Japanese sweets.

Getting there while the interchange work wraps up

Getting to any of these places has also been affected by road work this season. In mid-July, MnDOT started replacing traffic signals and rebuilding sidewalks where Plymouth Road and Ridgedale Drive meet I-394. Southbound Ridgedale Drive was down to one lane through late August, and then the work moved to Plymouth Road. The Plymouth Road phase includes a new signal at the westbound I-394 ramps, a rebuilt sidewalk on the west side of Plymouth Road from the North Frontage Road to south of the I-394 bridge, and storm pipe replacement.

MnDOT's project release set October as the completion target. It also kept the I-394 ramps open to both Plymouth Road and Ridgedale Drive throughout, and noted that all timing depends on weather. The rebuilt west-side sidewalk on Plymouth Road runs along the same stretch as the new Chipotle and Shake Shack. That fits the plan's priority on pedestrian access and connections.

Put together, the openings, closings and road work this fall all fit the plan the city set in 2012. More people live within walking distance of the mall, surface parking is getting scarcer, and the restaurants opening on Ridgedale's edges are built for quick stops on foot or between errands.

When a restaurant closes, a park opens or a new building goes up nearby, the value of homes around Ridgedale can shift. If you own nearby and want to see how this fall's changes show up in your home's numbers, Morgan Real Estate Group can walk you through it. Request Your Home Valuation, and Michelle and Patrick will put together a current read on what your home is worth.