The sign lingers like smoke, but the barbecue and cornbread hit the road. True Smoke BBQ packed up and closed its Rochester location at 2040 Viking Drive NW along Elton Hills Drive Northwest in September 2021, after three years in that location. ADVERTISEMENT True Smoke BBQ, owned and run by Mike Thompson and Brenda Janvrin, earned a loyal following with its award-winning barbecue in a 1,000-square-foot restaurant space inside the former Family Video store that was previously occupied by Marco’s Pizza.
While the sign remains on Elton Hills Drive, True Smoke is still rolling as a food truck that went south for the winter and serves southeastern Minnesota in the warmer months. The Success Family Center, an autism therapy facility, now operates in the Viking Drive building. Following the company's bankruptcy, Toys 'R' Us closed its Rochester store at 808 Apache Lane SW in June 2018, after a 27 year run.
The building has been mostly empty since then, though it did have a short run housing the MedCentral Outlet + Transport store from July 2022 to May 2023. The Penz Automotive Group had plans to partially demolish and renovate the building to house their Nissan of Rochester dealership, but that didn't work out. Grand Forks, N.
D.-based Acme Tools purchased Rochester’s former Toys 'R' Us building for $4.8 million in July with plans to turn into a retail tool outlet.
The everyday buffet is a thing of the past. While there is no longer even a restaurant building standing nearby, th.
