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LOSING HOPE A local restaurateur's star turn on Fox News raises questions about crime, downtown Saint Paul, and why restaurants fail. By James Norton
Becca Dilley / Heavy Table / File
Whatever you might think of restaurateur Brian Ingram, he's a force. Both Hope Breakfast Bar (above) and Apostle Supper Club made high-profile splashes when they opened, and he announced earlier this spring that Hope was expanding to four new locations around the metro, making a total of nine of the high-end breakfast spots.
But Ingram stepped into an even brighter spotlight last week when he appeared on a Fox & Friends segment to blame criminals, soft prosecutors, and bleeding-heart judges for the closure of Apostle Supper Club in Saint Paul.
He also made the aggressive assertion that the answer to crime is harsher jail penalties: "If you do a crime, we're going to put you away for as long as we can possibly put you away."
By tacking hard right on crime at a time when "ship 'em to El Salvador or Libya" reflects the Republican party mood on due process and proportional punishment, Ingram turned sympathy about Apostle's closure into a firestorm of caustic remarks.
Hey Twin Cities, it’s your favorite restaurateur, Blorn Dingrunt here. Come visit our newest offering, Haystack & Horseapple, in the godforsaken shithole of Saint Paul. If you can make your way past the stack of corpses outside our front door, you’ll enjoy $35 pork chops and $22 negronis.
So: Did crime close the doors at Apostle? And is a "throw-away the key" approach the way to save downtown Saint Paul?
DOWNTOWN SAINT PAUL IS A MESS...
I love Saint Paul, and legitimately think it's home to some of the best eating in America. (Specifically: the Thai, Cambodian, and Vietnamese stuff on University Avenue, plus Meritage, Myriel, Hyacinth, and Mucci's, just for starters.)
But downtown is a wasteland; Lunds is gone, the skyway system is falling apart, and restaurant after restaurant are shutting their doors. Early last Sunday evening me and the kids had an hour to kill before picking Becca up at Union Depot.
A 15-minute circular drive around the terminal revealed spot after spot that was closed for the evening or closed for good. We ended up hanging around the palatial but mostly empty train station, where the on-site restaurant was also closed.
If Ingram had stuck to the idea that Saint Paul is a challenging place to run a restaurant, he would’ve had a case. I've heard the same thing from other chefs, and seen the situation first-hand.
Moreover, his stories about repeated break-ins and poor police response certainly line up with my personal experiences in Minneapolis, where calls to report break-ins have provoked a very "they've got us working in shifts" kind of non-response.
...BUT CRIME IS ACTUALLY DOWN
But Ingram blaming his restaurant's closure on a rising tide of crime in Saint Paul aided and abetted by feckless liberal judges and prosecutors doesn't hold up. Serious crime in the city is actually down, something another Saint Paul restaurateur credits to a more engaged police force.
It's entirely possible that Apostle's specific break-ins contributed to the spot's closure, but the fact that Hope and other nearby restaurants seem to be going great guns around the Xcel suggests that it's a localized problem, possibly an extremely localized one.
GOVERNMENT IS WORKING ON THE PROBLEM
In their thoughtful MSP Mag column about the closure of Apostle, Justine Jones and Stephanie March noted:
...investments are being made to convert office buildings into housing and to bring 20,000 new residents downtown, to throw $1.4 million behind the Commercial Corridors Fund, to increase downtown safety patrols, to hold a city-wide fentanyl summit. These things take time, and in the interim the challenges are very real and heavy for restaurants. But it doesn't ring quite true to call it a "wake up call" when many who love the city are already awake, and working.
PUNITIVE JAIL TIME DOESN'T HELP AS MUCH AS YOU MIGHT THINK
Crime is a notoriously difficult nut to crack, but if there's one thing that we've learned over the decades that it has been studied, studied, and studied some more, it's that "get tough" approaches that rely on heavy jail time don't necessarily help.
Prisons can be hellish; rehabilitation has faded from the agenda; many prisoners emerge traumatized, stigmatized, and less able to participate in society than before they went in.
Independent of the human rights concerns, dehumanizing mass imprisonment isn't a practical solution to a problem that has a lot of systemic causes.
Moreover: while Minnesota's incarceration rate is low by national standards, it's still higher than just about any other democratic country on earth. You can choose to incarcerate more people for longer, but pulling that lever doesn't automatically lower the crime rate.
BOTH HOPE AND APOSTLE HAVE CONSISTENCY AND VALUE PROBLEMS
I know Hope Breakfast Bar fairly well, having eaten there around 10 times. I was bullish on it for the first few meals - prices were assertive, but the menu was expansive (in a good way!), service was great, the food was tasty, and it had an all-the-bells-and-whistles brunch-y feel that can be difficult to find around here.
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And then consistency issues started to mount, and every meal I got was less enjoyable than the one before it. I gave up on the restaurant when I dined at the original location, paid around $20 for an updated twist on gravlax, and left most of the food on my plate. My server's indifference to my bad meal was the final straw.
Apostle also has a reputation for aggressive prices - check the menu and you can find $19 wings, six oysters for $25, a $22 burger, and a $4 side of steak sauce(!). You can also find $40 lobster mac and cheese, the ultimate entree for the undiscerning customer who doesn't understand how or why to eat lobster.
And in the case of the short-lived Duluth location of the franchise, here's a representative excerpt from our review by Stacy Brooks:
I was looking forward to my entree thanks to a photo from an influencer re-posted to the Apostle Supper Club account: over a dozen breaded popcorn shrimp, a gravy boat brimming with warm hollandaise, and a hefty breaded lobster tail.
Stacy Brooks / Heavy Table / File
In reality, I was presented with a ramekin of four popcorn shrimp, a diminutive lobster tail approximately one-third the size of the lobster tail in the promotional photo, and two small bowls of hollandaise, one served at room temperature and one that had clearly just been removed from the refrigerator— it was cold and had the unappealing consistency of Miracle Whip.
My impression of my meal didn’t improve once I dug in. The popcorn shrimp were rubbery. The breading on the chicken fried lobster was nicely seasoned and had an appealing craggy texture, but the lobster within was chewy and flavorless. There’s a reason chicken fried lobster isn’t a thing: the concept doesn’t work in practice.
It doesn't seem like much of a stretch to suggest that however frustrating break-ins and nuisance crime might be, Apostle closed its doors - like most restaurants eventually do - for a variety of complex reasons that boil down to unprofitability.
THE TAP
The Tap is the Heavy Table’s ongoing biweekly account of noteworthy Minnesota restaurant openings, closings, and future openings. Please send any tips to editor@heavytable.com. All dates are approximate based on best information available; opening dates, in particular, tend to shift around a lot.
NOW OPEN (Up to 3 Months)
Hey Y’all Tipsy Taco Bar (formerly Big Star Tipsy Taco Bar), 2501 Marshall Street, NE, Minneapolis ■ The sprawling, Ferris wheel- and mini golf-bedecked site of the former Betty Danger’s will become a Tex-Mex and barbecue spot with a special emphasis on cocktails. Owners include Joe Radaich, formerly a partner at the Como Tap in Minneapolis. Opened May 3, 2025.
Jeanne Lakso / Heavy Table
Kinsley’s Smokehouse Deli, The Market at Malcolm Yards, 501 30th Av. SE., Minneapolis■ The former Revival Smoked Meats is now an East Coast-style deli offering a Reuben on rye, corned beef, a cold pastrami sandwich, and more. Opened April 28, 2025. Look for our review in the Friday, May 16 edition of the Churn.
Pizza Karma (Dinkytown), 409 14th Ave SE, Minneapolis ■ The well-regarded Indian-meets-pizza chain that has racked up a series of suburban locations has moved into the heart of the metro with a new shop in Dinkytown, Minneapolis. Opened April 16, 2025.
Joshua Feist / Heavy Table
Karol Coffee Company, 1503 Hamline Avenue North, Saint Paul■ Fresh, locally roasted coffee and specialty drinks anchor the menu at this shop, which is named for Pope John Paul II. Soft opening March 25 (6:30am-2pm), grand opening March 29 (8am-4pm).
Tres Bandidos Asadero Grill, 143 Snelling Ave. North, Saint Paul ■ Carnita, barbacoa, and rotisserie chicken are the titular bandits that give this restaurant by the owners of Taco Libre its name. Plated meals with slow cooked meats are the foundation of its menu, and it may open for breakfast in the near future. Opened April 1, 2025.
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