Drive Camden Avenue North on a Friday night and you'll pass through a strip that doesn't look like much from the road. A Topgolf lot lit up with bay after bay of golfers who couldn't care less about their swing. A Denny's. A Davanni's. A Zantigo drive-through next to ALLTACO Taqueria and Pappy's, the hot dog and wing spot that's been quietly feeding this corner of the city for years. Value Foods African Market sits a few doors down from House of Hui's. None of it is flashy. All of it is busy most nights of the week.
A mile and a half west, Shingle Creek cuts through Centennial Park, and for most of this summer that stretch has had its own rhythm entirely, one built around a free concert series and a movie screen instead of a menu. Brooklyn Center residents already know these are two different weekends happening in the same city. What most of them don't know yet is that the Camden Avenue side just got a lot more serious about its future, and the city council put a number on exactly how serious.
What's Already Working on Camden Avenue
Topgolf, at 6420 Camden Ave N, anchors this strip and has for a while. It's the kind of place that pulls in groups who came for one thing and stayed for the food, and the restaurants clustered around it have built a small but real ecosystem on that traffic. Denny's and Davanni's Pizza & Hot Hoagies cover the reliable, no-plans-needed end of the spectrum. Zantigo and ALLTACO Taqueria split the fast Mexican crowd. Pappy's does hot dogs and wings for the crowd that wants something in hand while they watch a game. Value Foods African Market and House of Hui's round it out with grocery and Chinese options that serve the neighborhood as much as the visitors.
It's a corridor that works because it's dense enough to make a single trip worth it. You don't drive to Camden Avenue for one restaurant. You drive there because whatever you're in the mood for, something on that half-mile probably has it.
The Restaurant That's About to Double Its Bet
That density is about to increase, and the reason is Jambo Africa.
The Brooklyn Center City Council voted unanimously on July 27 to approve the restaurant's move to 6500 Camden Ave N, a vacant parcel just north of Topgolf that the city's Economic Development Authority has owned since 2017. The new building will run 5,720 square feet, roughly double the size of Jambo Africa's current spot, with a 1,645-square-foot dancing and dining area and an indoor-outdoor patio. Total investment on the project is expected to land between $3.5 million and $4 million, according to Robert Sanders of Sanders Development Group, who presented the plans to the council on the restaurant's behalf.
Council Member Dan Jerzak didn't hedge about what the vote meant.
"Honestly, I couldn't think of a better use for that particular property."
He followed that with a point aimed squarely at residents who might drive past the empty lot without knowing what's coming: "It's such a huge contribution to the city. This is a significant investment in the community and I want this community to recognize that."
The city originally bought that 1.62-acre parcel for $685,000 back in 2017. A 2024 report on the project put the planned sale price to Jambo Africa's ownership group at $500,000, a below-cost transaction that would signal the EDA cared more about getting a serious operator on that lot than recouping its purchase price. Construction is expected to take 10 months to a year once it starts, which puts a realistic opening somewhere in 2027 if things stay on schedule. Once the new location is up and running, the current building will be redeveloped, meaning this isn't a case of the restaurant simply expanding. It's relocating its entire footprint two miles east and leaving its old spot open for whatever comes next.
More Than a Decade on Freeway Blvd
Context matters here, because Jambo Africa isn't a pop-up looking for a bigger stage. By a 2024 count, the restaurant had already spent 13 years at 1601 Freeway Blvd, near the FBI building, building a menu around Nigerian, Kenyan, and Liberian cuisine and a calendar around the community events that come with it. The restaurant hosts Liberian Independence Day and IgboFest every year, gatherings that have made the Freeway Blvd location a cultural fixture as much as a place to eat.
That history is exactly why the move matters to more than just the owners. A business doesn't put $3.5 to $4 million into a new building unless it expects the crowd and the events to follow it. The council's unanimous approval, and the below-market land sale that made it financially workable, both read as the city betting on the same thing: that Camden Avenue can carry the weight of a restaurant this size, and that the Topgolf corridor has room to become something closer to a destination than a drive-through row.
The Other Half of the Map: Shingle Creek and the Amphitheater
None of that touches the other Brooklyn Center, the one that runs along Shingle Creek instead of Camden Avenue.
The Shingle Creek Regional Trail starts up in Brooklyn Park, cuts south through Centennial Park, passes the Hennepin County Government Service Center, crosses Highway 100, and continues past Lions Park and Centerbrook Golf Course before it eventually links up with Brooklyn Center's City Hall and Community Center and the Brookdale Library. It's paved, flat, and connects almost every civic building in the city without requiring a single turn onto a busy street.
Centennial Park's amphitheater, right along that trail, has carried the free side of Brooklyn Center's summer for years. The city's Entertainment in the Park series fills Tuesday nights with a rotating mix of Latin, blues, bluegrass, big band, and reggae acts, and the same amphitheater hosted free movie nights that ran into late August, closing out this year's run on August 27 with a screening of Elio. Bring a blanket, skip the ticket, and you've covered a Tuesday night for the price of nothing.
It's the version of Brooklyn Center that doesn't show up on a restaurant map. It's public, seasonal, and built around a creek instead of a parking lot. And as of this week, with Labor Day closing in, that side of the calendar is wrapping up for the year.
What This Means for Next Summer
That timing is the interesting part. The free, city-run half of Brooklyn Center's weekend just finished its 2026 run. The privately financed half, the one built around Camden Avenue and Topgolf, is only now clearing its last permitting hurdle, with a construction window that stretches into 2027. One side of the map is resetting for winter while the other is about to break ground.
Nobody voted $3.5 to $4 million into a restaurant expansion because Camden Avenue was fading. The council's approval, the below-cost land sale, and Jambo Africa's own decision to double its footprint all point the same direction: this corridor is where the next few years of Brooklyn Center's food and nightlife scene are headed, and the businesses already there, from Pappy's to House of Hui's, are sitting on a corridor about to get a lot more foot traffic.
We track this stuff at Brisky Homes because we live and work in these same suburbs, and knowing which corridor is about to get busier is the kind of detail that shapes how a neighborhood feels day to day, not just what it's worth. If you're keeping an eye on how Brooklyn Center or any of the other communities we cover are changing and want to talk through what that means for your own home, reach out for a Get a Free Home Valuation conversation. No pressure, just a straight answer from people who are already watching the same corners you are.
