By Cece Sauer / Asst. News Director

ST CLOUD, MINN — On memorial day, 1959, Val and Kathleen Henning opened the hamburger stand known as Val’s Rapid Serv to the public and community of St. Cloud.

The legendary hamburger stand of St. Cloud never made it out as easy as some might think. On that opening weekend in 1959, Kathleen Henning was in a car crash.

“They were going down to the cities for some type of charitable thing. She got in a car accident, she was ejected from the vehicle, and everybody else in the vehicle died.” Said Val’s Current Co-owner, Aaron Henning.

Despite the Struggle they faced in the beginning, Val’s managed to be triumphant and flourish as a family owned restaurant.

Val’s has managed to stay family owned since it open. The business started being owned by Val, then his two sons, David Henning and Billy Henning bought the restaurant in 1980, then David’s two sons, Logan Henning and Aaron, bought it from their father in 2015 and have been running it since.

“We’ve been doing this for 11 years, kind of on our own, but the old man still kind of pokes his nose around,” said Aaron.

Facing Growing Popularity without room to expand

According to Aaron, even during their slow season, Val’s serves about 175 customers. However when the busy season arrives, they see anywhere from 300 to 700 people a day.

These numbers have only been growing, and according to Aaron’s statement to KVSC, they can’t afford to expand much either.

“I don’t know if there’s much more we can ring out of it, really. I mean on a busy day, we have a 45 minute wait sometimes.  So, you know, and we can only cook 35 patties at a time.” Said Aaron.

He then goes on to say, “We’ve had a lot more of that business come in, which we’re grateful for, but it does cause a little bit of a disruption to the operation. We are not meant to cook 200 burgers.”

Despite the current issue, Val’s has been prioritizing quality and customer safety above all, and the growing numbers haven’t been the biggest issue at hand.

“That’s always the number one priority in any restaurant because making sure that your product is safe from when it goes from here to when the customer eats it.” Said Aaron

Honoring a Legacy

The original owner of Val’s, Kathleen, recently passed away at the age of 100 years old in December of 2025.

“What we really sell is a story,” Aaron said.

From Kathleen’s injury opening weekend to road closures and the constant construction, Val’s plans to continue operating as a locally owned small business in St. Cloud.

“We don’t plan on going anywhere and we hope that our customers continue to see the value of our product and our story and bless us with their business,” said Aaron.