The Nicollet Diner, Roxy’s, and On the Rox

People still walk in and ask how the diner, the cabaret, and the rooftop bar are related. They are related the way a house is related to its second floor. Same building. Same kitchen. Different reasons to stay.

Dion and I opened the original diner and Muffin Top as a side hustle in 2013. I still had a day job then — a long stretch in communications, sales, and operations at a local internet company that ended up being eighteen years of my life. The diner was the thing we built because we knew restaurants and we knew this neighborhood. In 2020 we bought 1333 Nicollet Mall, the old Ichiban building, and spent the next stretch of years turning a two-story pagoda into what Dion likes to call a three-story Airstream. We moved the diner here in August of 2022 and built Roxy's Cabaret and On the Rox on top of it.

Roxy's is named in homage to Roxy Marquis, a Twin Cities drag legend. I have always loved stage entertainment, especially female impersonation, and I wanted a room in our own building that took that seriously without taking itself so seriously you could not eat a burger during the show. Drag brunch on Sundays. Shows on the weekends. Bingo, game night, cult movies, the kind of calendar that gives downtown a reason to come out on a Tuesday. The kitchen is the diner kitchen. Breakfast all day, even when the wigs are taller than the pancakes.

On the Rox is the craft cocktail level and the two patios. Happy hour. Skyline. The place you go when you want the same food with a better view and a drink that took a minute.

The original space on Nicollet Avenue is now Mother Clucker's Pizza and Muffin Top Cafe. Five concepts, two addresses, one slightly stubborn family. I am not going to turn this into a corporate org chart. The useful version is: if you want a 24-hour diner, you are downstairs. If you want a show, you are in Roxy's. If you want a patio and a cocktail, you are up top. If you want pizza at an hour that would alarm a normal restaurant, you walk a few blocks to Mother Clucker's.

Come as you are is not a marketing line we invented in a workshop. It is the only way a diner, a cabaret, and a rooftop bar survive in the same stack of floors. Neighborhood people, convention people, show people, late night people. Same coffee. Same fryer. Different jackets.

— Sam