Wahlburgers MOA Open Draws Thousands
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Thousands showed up to welcome the Wahlberg brothers to Mall of America Thursday.
People began lining up at about 3:30 a.m. to get a good spot inside the rotunda to see Donnie, Mark, and Paul Wahlberg. Their 55-hundred square foot restaurant, called Wahlburgers, officially opened last week.
Donnie Wahlberg said Mall of America is where a chain like Wahlburgers aspires to be, and it made sense to build their first with partner Hy-Vee here. For the people that showed up, the talk was more about the brothers than burgers.
A sea of fans screamed at the top of their lungs to welcome the Wahlbergs to the stage. Some have been fans for decades, since the early boy band days.
"Donnie, Mark, Paul, all of them. Thirty years strong," said Daylynn All from Albert Lea.
Her daughter Sophie held a sign about their past with Donnie in Minnesota.
"He rubbed my mommy's tummy and passed music on to me," Sophie All said.
Others drove great distances to be here.
"We're die hards. We love them, we came all the way from Canada," Errin Bollenback said.
The Boston-bred brothers said the entertainment industry prepared them for the Wahlburgers restaurant venture. Both are about customer service.
"You have to engage in different ways, you have to make sure your customer is happy," Donnie Wahlberg said.
"It's all about making it worth the trip," Paul Wahlberg said.
And they choose to make it about family.
"We've learned a lot along the way, and it's brought us closer together, which is nice," Mark Wahlberg said.
A lucky few had the chance to meet and eat with the Wahlbergs at Wahlburgers.
"It's just surreal. I can't believe he's sitting right there," said Vaune Hanson from Missouri.
"Stealing all their tots is what I'm doing," Donnie Wahlberg said.
The reason why the fans who showed up support whatever the Wahlbergs do is because they make fans feel like family.
"They're passionate. They're very down-to-earth people, very genuine and they love their fans and they treat us well," Bollenback said.
The Mall of America Wahlburgers is the first of 26 Wahlburgers that Hy-Vee has teamed up with the brothers to build. Several more will be built in Minnesota.
