Dreams of Galaxy Drive In pizzeria over as the St. Louis Park icon goes up for sale

Rainforest Café creator Steve Schussler still plans to launch Big Dreams Pizza in collaboration with the founder of Famous Dave's, but is letting go of another dream in the process: re-opening the Galaxy Drive In.

Schussler is selling the St. Louis Park landmark for $939,000. He and Famous Dave's founder Dave Anderson decided the drive-in space was too small to be the first of their planned pizza franchise.

"We have found a location and are negotiating with the landlord for the pizza place," said Schussler, who declined to provide more details. "We are going to open up 1,500 to 2,000 franchises."

Galaxy Drive In became a pet project for Schussler, who's best known for creating large-scale restaurant concepts other operators then run nationwide.

Schussler acquired the property for $100,000 in April 2009, according to Hennepin County property records, but said he's invested $1.3 million in upgrades.

It was once known as Wagner's Drive In and went through a series of operators before shutting down in 2015 for five years. For a time, Schussler put the building up for sale. But he then chose to try again and find another operator.

In June 2020, the drive-in re-opened as Clays Galaxy Drive In but closed in October 2021 amid staffing issues, he said.

Schussler finally decided earlier this year it was time to sell because he realized the economics of the drive-in work best for an owner/operator.

"I hate to get rid of it, hate it with a passion, but I'm not an operator," he said.

Meanwhile, Schussler and Anderson are still pursuing their pizza project. The two have a long history of partnership, with Anderson being an early investor in Schussler's Rainforest Café idea. Neither is involved in the day-to-day operations of the restaurants they're known for, though they say they're far from being ready to retire.

Anderson opened the first Famous Dave's in Hayward, Wis. The chain has grown to more than 100 locations. He left the company in 2002 when President George W. Bush appointed him assistant secretary at the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs. Anderson, who is part Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians and Choctaw, was inducted in 2021 into the National Native American Hall of Fame.

In recent years Anderson also launched another barbecue concept named after his father, Jimmie's Old Southern BBQ Smokehouse. He opened the first one in Wisconsin and a second in Minneapolis in 2017, and his son and daughter-in-law run the daily operations of its four locations.

Rainforest Café, meanwhile, is Schussler's local claim to fame after it debuted in 1994 at the Mall of America. In recent years, he came up with the concept for the Boathouse in Florida's Disney Springs. That restaurant, which Lake Minnetonka boat culture inspired, has received accolades for its waterfront ambience.

Based in Golden Valley, Schussler has also developed restaurant concepts Yak & Yeti and T-Rex on Disney properties in Orlando. He also had a chain of nightclubs in the 1980s called Jukebox Saturday Night, including one in downtown Minneapolis.

Currently, Anderson is serving the "Chicago tavern-style" pizza planned for Big Dreams at his Tamarack Farms Winery restaurant near Hayward, Wis., and customer response is favorable, he said.

The future name in the works for the two men's pizzeria pays homage to their roots starting with nothing except dreams.

"Technically, it's Dave and Steve's Big Dreams Pizza," Anderson said. "I think it'll end up just being Big Dreams Pizza."