DULUTH — A local restaurant chain announced Tuesday that one of its eateries soon will be replaced by a cannabis dispensary.

Grandma’s Restaurant Group will cease operations at 2202 Maple Grove Road on Sunday, May 3, as a new owner, Vireo Growth Inc., takes possession of the property.

Vireo already operates eight cannabis dispensaries in Minnesota under the Green Goods name, including a Hermantown store at 4960 Miller Trunk Highway.

Representatives of Minneapolis-based Vireo were unavailable to provide specifics about their plans for the new Duluth location when contacted by the News Tribune on Tuesday afternoon.

For Grandma’s, the departure will mark the end of a 35-year run operating a full-service restaurant at the site, with the exception of a
temporary closure necessitated by the 2012 flood.
A statement from the restaurant chain said: “Shifting consumer habits in the post-pandemic era — specifically a decline in late-night dining and retail-adjacent traffic — led the company to consolidate its efforts toward its iconic waterfront restaurant locations.”

Employees of the Maple Grove Road restaurant will be offered transfer opportunities to other Duluth venues, including Grandma’s Saloon & Grill (Canal Park), Little Angie’s Cantina and Grill, Bellisio’s Italian Restaurant, The Garden Wedding & Event Center and Adventure Zone Family Fun Center. Grandma’s will also continue to run a restaurant in Virginia.

Brian Daugherty, president of Grandma’s Restaurant Group, described a changing landscape in a news release, writing: “The late-night dining and drinking culture that thrived near the mall and movie theaters didn’t return after COVID. With the area becoming much quieter after 9 p.m., coupled with rising costs impacting full-service restaurants across Minnesota, the timing was right to make this move.”

Vireo
opened its Hermantown Green Goods dispensary in November 2020,
with the business at that time focused exclusively on customers who had been prescribed marijuana products to treat medical conditions.

Minnesota has since liberalized its restrictions on marijuana to allow for recreational use in 2023, but the state Office of Cannabis Management only began licensing businesses to commence sales of marijuana products to unprescribed customers in 2025.