Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022
Rose Vyskocil has worked at the breakfast joint that used to be Perkins, and now is Ruby’s Restaurant off County Road 101 and Marschall Road for more than 44 years!
Rose remembers that when she started working in 1979, the place was Perkins Restaurant & Bakery. Kitty-corner was the A & W Restaurant, now Burger King. The population was smaller then, and Perkins was one of a few restaurants in town, including Wampach’s.
Rose grew up in Shakopee, and she enjoyed staying close to her friends and meeting new friends. According to an article in the Shakopee Valley News, April 28, 2021, when she was younger girl, some older people remember when her mother used to dress up Rose and her sisters in identical outfits every Sunday for church!
Everyone seemed to know Rose. David Schleper’s mother used to go with her girlfriends for brunch and lots of coffee in the corner booth where Rose kept the location open for the friends for years. Later, when Rose Weidner Schleper started forgetting things as she got dementia, she still loved going to Perkins. And Rose Vyskocil would know Rose Schleper’s order, making it so easy!
When Perkins closed in 2019, Rose was devastated. After working at Perkins in Edina for a few months, it was not the same.
But luckily Marcos Gomez purchased the restaurant and opened Ruby’s Family Restaurant. Rose contacted Marcos and asked for her job back. He gave it to her, and so Rose once again is working at the same place, but by a different name.
Rose noted that the new restaurant has better food than with Perkins because the menu is smaller. “Chef Sergio Portillo makes the crêpes from scratch and cuts all the meat in-house. Nothing is frozen,” said Rose in an article, “Ruby’s Restaurant in Shakopee maintains the ‘diner’ atmosphere” by Maddie DeBlizan in the Shakopee Valley News, April 28, 2021.
Rose has been working at the same place, called Perkins and then Ruby’s Family Restaurant, for more than 44 years. She has been working full-time in Shakopee in a city longer than many of the customers had been alive. Rose believes that about eighty percent of her customers know her.
Rose has watched first dates that turn into marriages that turn into kids. “Now, those kids are going on dates, and she pours them coffee as she asks about their parents and grandparents.”
“I’ve watched people grow up here,” she said.
Bibliography
DeBilzan, Maddie. “Ruby’s Restaurant in Shakopee maintains the ‘diner’ atmosphere.” Shakopee Valley News, 28 April 2021.