A small family-owned convenience store has opened at 415 East St. Germain Street in St. Cloud, giving the city's East End a corner grocery stocked with basic household items, personal care products, and eventually grab-and-go sandwiches. St. G's Bodega is run by Marla Waseka and her two daughters, who own the building and describe the shop as a neighborhood gathering space where residents can post local events on-site.
The bodega's arrival was timed to the run-up to Festi-Fall East, the East End's annual street festival, according to WJON, which reports the store plans to open in time for the September 20, 2026 event. Waseka told the outlet she intends to maintain a 1920s-era grocery store atmosphere inside, complete with four tables and chairs near the front windows where customers can sit. She also said the old Dutch Maid Bakery awning may be repurposed in the bread aisle, a nod to the building's history as a bakery for more than 60 years before it relocated to Sauk Rapids in late 2017, according to 96.7 The River.
A Family Business With Deep East End Roots
St. G's Bodega opened next door to The Kitchenette, the bistro Maddie Waseka launched in the former Dutch Maid space in 2025, the same report notes. The St. Cloud City Council approved the bodega's tobacco license on Monday, clearing the way for the shop to begin operating. Waseka said the store will change and evolve based on customer and neighbor feedback as it settles into the block.
The Waseka family's ties to St. Cloud food service go back three generations. Robert and Ila Waseka opened a Country Kitchen franchise in 1966 that later became the Copper Lantern, and granddaughter Madison Waseka acquired and rebranded it as Copper Kitchen in 2022 and 2023, according to the restaurant's own account on its website. Madison now runs both Copper Kitchen and The Kitchenette.
Building a Block, One Storefront at a Time
The bodega is the newest addition to a stretch of East St. Germain Street the Wasekas have been assembling for years. Marla Waseka purchased the 1922 Mackrell Building at 413-415 East St. Germain Street in November 2022, renovating its upper-level apartments and storefronts, where she later debuted her curated pop-up shop Sage & Salvage in April 2025, per KNSI. That building previously housed a hardware store and Place of Hope Ministries before her purchase.
Waseka has described her vision for the block as an urban village with services, shops, restaurants, and bars, saying the neighborhood could eventually become partly self-sufficient. She operates her real estate and design ventures through Moxie Ladies, LLC, a company she founded in 2008 that began with residential historic restorations, including a 1913 Craftsman home in South St. Cloud, before expanding into commercial corridor redevelopment, according to 98.1 Minnesota's New Country.
The Long, Rocky History of the Ace Bar Site
In June 2026, Waseka bought the former Ace Bar building at 423 East St. Germain Street, which anchored the East End for more than 80 years before closing in October 2016. The property sat vacant through a series of failed redevelopment attempts, including a tribal cannabis dispensary shut down in 2024 for health and safety violations and a stalled 2025 daycare proposal, per the same KNSI report. Waseka plans to renovate the building and reopen it as a bar and restaurant, though a timeline for that project has not been announced.
The daycare plan, a proposed 100-child facility called Mother's Love Childcare Center, stalled after the St. Cloud Zoning Board of Appeals delayed action on its conditional use permit in May 2025. Maddie and Marla Waseka had raised public safety and traffic concerns about alley access and heavy delivery truck traffic at the site, KNSI reported at the time. The building sits adjacent to the parking lot and properties Waseka is developing as part of her broader plans for the block.
Institutional Recognition and Ongoing Traffic Questions
The family's restoration work has drawn formal recognition alongside the neighborhood's history of commercial instability. In May 2026, the St. Cloud Heritage Preservation Commission presented Marla and Madison Waseka with a Heritage Preservation Award for the adaptive reuse of the Mackrell Building and the former Dutch Maid Bakery space into Sage & Salvage and The Kitchenette, according to KNSI's coverage of the ceremony.
Festi-Fall East itself has grown since local business owners and the St. Cloud Downtown Alliance launched it in September 2024 to showcase the East End's commercial revitalization, with an estimated 3,000 attendees at the inaugural street fair. This year's third annual festival, set for September 20, will include live outdoor music at Iron Street Distillery, a classic car show, food trucks, mobile escape rooms, and a Touch-a-Truck tribute to local businessman John Waseka, according to the St. Cloud Downtown Alliance.
Meanwhile, broader infrastructure questions loom over the corridor. In May, the Minnesota Department of Transportation briefed the St. Cloud City Council on ongoing studies examining traffic safety and potential intersection improvements along Highway 10 at East St. Germain Street, as Hoodline previously reported. Highway 10 serves as a major arterial connector at the entrance to the East St. Germain corridor, and how those studies ultimately shape traffic and pedestrian access remains an open question for the block the Wasekas are betting on.
