Maverick's Real Roast Beef (1746 N. Lexington Av., Roseville, mavericksbeef.com) is expanding.

Chef/owner Timothy Hughes is opening a second location, this time in a Stillwater strip mall storefront (1491 Stillwater Blvd.) that most recently housed a pair of side-by-side restaurants: Mac Me Cheese and a Taco's Fresh location.

"We just knocked down the wall between them, and I'm converting the space into a single restaurant," he said.

Expect the same menu as the original Maverick's, which is home to an exceptional roast beef sandwich, along with open-faced turkey and pork sandwiches, fries, onion rings and shakes and malts. Beer will follow.

"Some people just like having a craft beer with their roast beef sandwich," said Hughes.

When Hughes purchased Maverick's in 2018, his original expansion plan was to land in a downtown Minneapolis skyway. Timing is everything, right? Skyway lunch traffic has slowed to a near-halt during the pandemic, as a majority of downtown's office population works from home.

"It was blind luck that I didn't do that," he said. "But maybe there's going to be some good opportunity to get in there in the next couple of years."

The Stillwater location will be slightly larger than its Roseville predecessor, and will follow the same counter-service format. Hughes is aiming for an April 1 opening date.