Nelson's Owner Talks Meat Market's Half Century History

Rick Nelson started working at his father's meat market as a 10-year-old dishwasher the day it opened in the mid-1960s. 

He kept at it through high school and college. Once he graduated from the University of Minnesota, he decided to put his journalism degree on ice and head into the family business. 

When his father died in 1979, Nelson found himself the owner at just 24 years old.

For more than three decades he ran Nelson's out of its original Hopkins location until a reconstruction project on Shady Oak Road forced him to move earlier this fall. 

"We were a neighborhood business for 48 years in Hopkins," he says, "and that's what we're hoping to be in St. Louis Park."

The meat market, bakery and deli opened its doors at 6318 Minnetonka Boulevard last Friday. 

Nelson said the new location will offer a salad bar and ready-to-eat options such as Arizona chicken breasts and garlic Greek flank rolls. But the smaller size of the St. Louis Park store meant that he had to cut donuts and fried rolls from the menu, 

"I've been getting lots of sad faces from customers," Nelson said. "I have three grownup sons who are not happy with me either."