"As everyone knows, times are tough for small businesses," Kiley Van Daalen told Bring Me The News in May, a few days before Donut Star closed its counters on Cliff Road. "Unfortunately, the cost of doing business outweighed the amount of donuts we were actively selling, and the business wasn't in a sustainable place."
Five months later, another Burnsville morning spot has a last day on the calendar. The Buzz Coffee & Cafe on West Burnsville Parkway will serve its final waffles on Saturday, Oct. 31.
Put this year's food news for Burnsville in order and a pattern shows up. The goodbyes have exact dates. Most of the hellos have target seasons. One newcomer opened right on schedule. The biggest project on the list, a food hall inside Burnsville Center, has been "coming soon" through more than one promised opening window. Anyone deciding where to spend a Saturday morning this fall is working from both lists at once.
Two Closings With Firm Dates
Donut Star had been part of Burnsville since the 1980s, according to the Star Tribune, and it grew to a second shop in Lakeville in 2024. In June 2025 it changed hands. Scott and Kiley Van Daalen and Brady Heerema bought the business from Peter Sebastian, who said he was stepping away to focus on his other restaurants, Mario's, Estelle and Liliana. The new owners had planned to keep the scratch-made doughnuts and add more coffee and baked goods.
Under a year later, both shops closed "indefinitely." Bring Me The News reported the last day of service as Sunday, May 24, 2026, with the doors closing at noon or whenever the donuts sold out. The Star Tribune's restaurant tracker lists May 25, one day later. In its Facebook announcement, Donut Star thanked "every customer, every regular, and every smile we got to see across the counter." As of this writing, the research turned up no report of a new tenant at 2901 Cliff Road E.
The Buzz is closing for a different reason. Jasmine Branum runs the cafe with her father, Mike Branum. In July she announced they had decided not to renew their lease at 411 W. Burnsville Parkway. Back then the closing date was only "sometime before the end of the year." It is now set for Oct. 31, ending a 10-year run.
The Buzz is known for a long waffle menu. It also built a record of community work that goes well past breakfast. According to Branum, the cafe raised nearly $10,000 to fight food insecurity in Minneapolis after George Floyd's murder. It hosted chili nights and a community food shelf, and the business gave more than $10,000 to local schools, nonprofits and charitable groups. A second Buzz location in Plymouth closed in 2021.
Rising costs closed one, and a lease decision closed the other. Both families gave customers weeks of notice and a specific final day. Those dates are the clearest facts in Burnsville's food news this year.
The Opening That Hit Its Date
Mo' Bettahs, the Hawaiian fast-casual chain known for plate-lunch-style meals, opened at 410 County Road 42 W. on July 13, 2026. It was the brand's first restaurant in Minnesota, with a Maple Grove location opening the same month.
Burnsville Center has added some smaller openings, too. The former Applebee's space at the mall now holds Chingu Korean Fried Chicken, which serves Korean fried chicken, saucy wings and loaded fries. Kyo Matcha shares the space and offers matcha teas, slushes, cakes and a few non-matcha items.
These are lunch, snack and dessert stops. None of them fills the slot of a waffle-and-coffee morning or a dozen donuts on the way to practice. Here the timing story moves from "open" to "announced."
Ate Ate Ate, by the Calendar
The new arrival with the most local interest is still the Ate Ate Ate food hall at 1178 Burnsville Center, in the former Gordmans department store space. It is meant to anchor the mall's redeveloped north section. Pacifica Square Burnsville is developing the project with Windfall Group, and plans pair it with an Enson Market.
The vendor list on the food hall's website shows why people keep checking: Mason's Famous Lobster Rolls, Oday, Niko Niko Boba, Amazing Momo, Han Sang Korean Cuisine, Messy Jesse's, Soga, Saigon Meats Manila and Sho Ramen.
Here is the public timeline as printed:
| When | What was said | Where it appeared |
|---|---|---|
| June 3, 2025 | City Council unanimously amends the $1.1 million city grant, giving the project more time to build | Bring Me The News, June 10, 2025 |
| June 10, 2025 | Still under construction with no opening date set. Exterior renovation deadline moves to Jan. 31, 2026 | Bring Me The News |
| October 2025 | Developer's project page lists "Spring 2026 Grand Opening" | Windfall Group |
| Sept. 8, 2026 | Listed under "Announced - Coming Soon," with no opening date | Star Tribune restaurant tracker |
The plan's footprint has changed along the way. Bring Me The News reported in June 2025 that a planned 15,000-square-foot addition had been dropped. Two restaurants that were meant for that addition would move into existing mall units instead. Spring 2026 has come and gone. As of the most recent coverage found, no source had reported an opening, a partial opening or a new target date.
The rest of the mall's outlook is just as open. A buyer called Burnsville Commercial Partners LLC paid $4 million for the former Macy's building at 14251 Burnhaven Drive, and the Pioneer Press reported in August 2025 that its future use was unknown. The city's longer-range vision for the area describes a mixed-use corridor north and south of County Road 42, with housing, hotels, eateries, recreation and natural space.
A Fall Built on Dates You Can Count On
The local calendar follows the same split. The city and Buck Hill publish exact times for this season, and one of those dates falls the night before The Buzz closes.
- Today, Sept. 30: Last day of the June 1 through Sept. 30 online price period for Buck Hill's 2026–27 season passes. The table lists $545 for adults, $445 for a child, senior or military pass, and $1,475 for a family. A new price period starts Oct. 1.
- Saturday, Oct. 3: Bucktoberfest at Buck Hill, with chairlift rides and family activities. A car show is listed separately for 2–5 p.m.
- Thursday, Oct. 8, 5:30–7 p.m.: Free Fire Department Open House at Fire Station No. 1, 14275 Newton Ave.
- Wednesday, Oct. 14, 5–7 p.m.: Ribbon-cutting for phase one of the City Hall project and groundbreaking for the phase-two police department work. The new City Hall addition opened Sept. 28. The city expects campus construction to run about another year and a half.
- Friday, Oct. 30, 6–8 p.m.: Halloween Fest at Nicollet Commons Park. It costs $8 per family, and the city asks families to pre-register.
- Saturday, Oct. 31: Last day of service at The Buzz Coffee & Cafe, 411 W. Burnsville Parkway.
- Saturday, Nov. 21, 10 a.m.: Run Now, Gobble Later 5K & Fun Run at North River Hills Park, 11501 19th Ave.
The Halloween Fest date matters for anyone with young kids. The city's costume night at Nicollet Commons Park is the evening before The Buzz closes. For a family wanting one last waffle breakfast, Saturday morning comes right after the trick-or-treat bags are put away.
Planning further ahead, the Highway 13 and Nicollet Avenue interchange will replace the traffic signal with an overpass. MnDOT lists a Nov. 10, 2026 letting and a 2027 construction start, and Nicollet is expected to close for much of the 2027 work. That is next year's routine change. This fall's changes are already set: Donut Star's counters are dark, Mo' Bettahs is open on County Road 42, Ate Ate Ate is still listed as coming soon, and The Buzz has one month of waffles left.
Restaurants change, and so do the routines a household builds around them. If you're weighing how changes along County Road 42 or around Burnsville Center might shape your next chapter here, West + Main Homes MN is glad to talk it through over coffee, ideally before Oct. 31. Let's Connect.
