The (Temporary) Demise of Uptown
The Tap for Friday, September 13, 2024
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UPTOWN BLUES
By James Norton
When Becca and I crash-landed in Minneapolis at the tail end of 2005, we wound up renting a sunny duplex apartment at Dupont and 33rd. We didn't know much about our new home, other than it was legitimately cold, people on the street smiled and said hi, and we were within walking distance of a beautiful lake. Coming from Boston, a city allergic to small talk and possessing an ocean and a river but very few urban lakes, it was a welcome shift of circumstances.
I keep a semi-public email-based diary, so I went back in time to see what I had to say about arriving in the city. Here it is:
The warmth and general kindness of Minnesotans is amazing to behold. In 5 1/2 years of living in Boston, I may have had one or two chance interactions with strangers -- on the street, in stores, on the train, in public parks -- that I'd characterize as outgoing and warm. I can't actually remember them, but I'm going to assume they must have taken place, on purely statistical grounds.
After spending about four days in the Twin Cities, Becca and I probably racked up a half-dozen pleasant experiences, a few of which I recounted in my previous update. On top of those: Our mailman spontaneously rang the doorbell and introduced himself to us. A stocker in the grocery store overheard me wondering where the eggs were and enthusiastically helped us locate them. And so on, and so on.
So, that was the vibe we were dealing with. Say what you want about Uptown, but in 2005/2006, it was a great place to arrive after leaving a buttoned-down East Coast city. And we found a lot to keep us entertained, too, all within walking distance: the books of Magers and Quinn, the respectably good croissants at Lucia's, the coffee at Dunn Brothers, the trendy happy hours at Chino Latino, the European-style up-for-anything menu at Barbette, and the views of Lake Calhoun (now, of course, Bde Maka Ska).
Magers and Quinn is still there, of course, and so is Barbette, although I haven't been back in years. But the feeling of Uptown - the feeling that you'd found the beating heart of the city, the place that everyone wants to be - isn't really in Uptown anymore. You can find it a few blocks over, at Lyn-Lake, I think, or down around Nicollet and 38th. And you can find it in the North Loop, where you can hit a different chic and aggressively priced restaurant every night for a few weeks before you start to run out of choices.
The neighborhood isn’t finished. It has geography and economics on its side, and the same vital forces of creativity and enterprise that built it once can build it again, once the cold hands of capital are peeled off the husks of the vacant buildings that are currently crowding up the stage.
Uptown still has its champions, and I asked one of them, Heavy Table contributor and relentless Minneapolis defender Mike Norton, to pound the streets, sit at the tables, and round up the usual suspects to tell the story of a neighborhood in distress and the still-delicious food you can find within its boundaries. He rose to the challenge and then soared above it. You get to enjoy the fruits of his labor in this edition of the Tap. Cheers and guten appetit!
The Minneapolis Foundation invites you to its upcoming Minnesota Meeting on October 7th. Hear from local and national leaders in the environmental justice movement and learn about a new initiative focused on Minnesota’s water. Together, we can move toward a more equitable and sustainable future. Register today.
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)
Dexter’s, 3717 W. 50th St., Minneapolis ■ The latest Daniel del Prado restaurant has arrived at 50th and France, offering a “casual yet refined” concept including burgers and wings. Opened August 19, 2024.
Forepaughs, 276 Exchange St., St. Paul ■ The venerable Saint Paul institution has returned this summer after five years of hibernation. Jeremy Wessing (Pau Hana, Baldamar, Sea Change) will run the culinary side of things. Opened August 19, 2024.
Tender Lovin’ Chix, 2700 Lyndale Ave S., Minneapolis ■ We didn’t dig Fire and Nice Ale House when we visited it on our Lyndale Avenue Checklist; it has since shuttered its doors, to be replaced by the bricks and mortar location of a popular local fried chicken truck with support from Billy Tserenbat of Billy Sushi. Opened August 19, 2024.
Cross Bridge Noodle Restaurant, 2 E 26th Street, Minneapolis ■ The former Bad Waitress on Nicollet has become a new spot from Sushi Train co-owner Kevin Ni, serving crossing-the-bridge-noodles, a pho variant native to China's Yunnan province. Opened August 18, 2024.
Lynette, 3751 42nd Ave S., Minneapolis ■ Ben Siers-Rients, a mainstay of the well-regarded Lyn65 restaurant, has opened a new spot in the former Riverview Cafe and Winebar in South Minneapolis with partner Travis Serbus. Opened August 16, 2024. We checked out one of their soft openings.
Vinai, 1300 NE 2nd St., Minneapolis ■ After years of anticipation, Yia Vang’s Hmong restaurant will make its debut in the former Dangerous Man taproom in Northeast. Opened July 28, 2024.
Black Duck Spirits and Hearth, 2900 Johnson Street NE, Minneapolis ■ Smoked and/or wood-fired fare will be the driving culinary influence for this new spot by Fare Game food truck chef/owner Jason Sawicki. Opened July 22, 2024.
Local Rumor, 1811 Selby Ave., St. Paul ■ The COO of the now defunct Keg and Case food hall is trying out some much smaller digs: the former founding location of the Blue Door jucy lucy burger chain. Opened July 19, 2024.
Restaurants at North Loop Green (Hope Breakfast Bar, Salt & Flour, Bassett Hound), 350 North 5th Street, Minneapolis ■ A new partnership between restaurateur Brian Ingram and the upcoming North Loop Green development features three new restaurants, including a new location of Ingram’s Hope Breakfast Bar and his new Italian classics concept Salt & Flour, and the North Loop Green-operated bar and casual restaurant Bassett Hound (named for nearby Bassett Creek). Bassett Hound opened July 5, 2024; Salt & Flour and Hope to open this fall.
Asian Duck, 4010 E 46th Street, Minneapolis ■ Lao/Thai favorites served up with joy and aplomb in a tiny little space at 46th Street and Minnehaha. Opened July 3, 2024. Reviewed in the July 26, 2024 edition of the Churn.
Oh Crêpe!, 4408 France Avenue South, Minneapolis ■ Claire Corvaisier has converted her mobile Breizh Crepes project into a bricks-and-mortar serving classic sweet crepes and savory crepes, plus some ice cream concepts and crepe cakes. Opened June 26, 2024.
Tap In, 2618 Lowry Avenue N., Minneapolis ■ This newly opened neighborhood gathering spot and bar is ambitious about bringing people together, but keeps the food simple with salads, bowls, and sandwiches. Opened June 22, 2024.
Darling, 3311 E. 25th St., Minneapolis ■ Former private chefs for Prince (and co-owners of Peoples Organic) have teamed up with the owner of Hi-Lo Diner to transform the former Birchwood space into a new breakfast and lunch spot. Opened June 14, 2024.
CLOSED AND CLOSING (Up to 3 Months)
Tattersall Distilling, Minneapolis ■ After a controversial rent dispute / possible scam, this foundational craft distilling company is shutting down its Minnesota location at the end of the year. Its River Falls, Wisc. location remains open. Closing December 2024.
Barrio (Lowertown, Saint Paul) ■ The once popular outpost of a local Mexican-inspired chain has called it quits amid a general struggle for foot traffic and life in downtown Saint Paul. Closed September 6, 2024.
Kim’s ■ Uptown’s retooled Sooki & Mimi closed shortly after employees voted to unionize. We wrote about the closure in the Aug 30, 2024 edition of the Tap. Closed August 30, 2024.
Cafe Pizzaria ■ A low-key mainstay in Bloomington for 70 years, Cafe Pizzaria shut abruptly to “retire and have more time to focus on family.” Closed August 28, 2024.
Gray Duck Tavern ■ As per the Pioneer Press, Gray Duck Tavern was shut down abruptly last weekend. Closed July 13, 2024.
Eli's Food & Cocktails ■ Open in downtown Minneapolis since 1960, Eli’s Food and Cocktails called it quits this year after one last Pride celebration. Relatedly, Business Journal reports that sister businesses Eli’s East and Beast BBQ are for sale.
Peppers and Fries ■ The Longfellow neighborhood burgers and burritos mainstay is shutting its bricks and mortar and going food truck-only. Closed June 29, 2024.
Italian Eatery and Un Dito ■ Open since 2016 and often packed to capacity, South Minneapolis favorite Italian Eatery stunned the public by suddenly announcing its closing this week. Closed mid-June.
UPCOMING (Most Imminent to Furthest Out)
Kinzo Udon, 802 Washington Ave SE, Minneapolis ■ A self-service Japanese-inspired cafeteria focused on hand-crafted udon noodles made by a Kagawa, Japan-trained chef. Opening September 2024.
Caphin, 4503 France Avenue South, Minneapolis ■ A hip Vietnamese coffee truck is getting bricks-and-mortar space in the former Jinx Tea and Folly Coffee spot in South Minneapolis. Opening Fall 2024.
Razava Bread Company, 685 Grand Avenue, St. Paul ■ This upcoming bakery is a partnership between Steve Baldinger (whose family ran Baldinger Bakery in St. Paul) and Omri Zin-Tamir (above) of the Bakery on 22nd St. Will feature challah, bagels, pita and more. Read our interview with Omri Zin-Tamir in the May 13, 2022 edition of the Tap. Opening Fall 2024.
Grackle, 11852 Elm Creek Boulevard North, Maple Grove, Minn. ■ Hot on the heels of Starling, another suburban bird-themed restaurant shooting for “neighborhood, but upscale”: Grackle, from the team behind Margie's Kitchen & Cocktails in Andover. Opening Fall 2024.
Hey Bear Cafe, 791 Raymond Ave., St. Paul ■ The former Foxy Falafel spot on Raymond will become a biscuit-driven breakfast and lunch spot. Opening Fall 2024.
Jade Dynasty, 600 West Lake Street, Minneapolis ■ A former owner of the well-regarded Hong Kong Noodles restaurant is teaming up with a former Mystic Lake Casino restaurant manager to open a dim sum, hot pot, and Cantonese restaurant in the former Fuji Ya space on Lake Street. Opening Fall 2024.
Minari, 323 13th Ave. NE., Minneapolis ■ The former Erté & the Peacock Lounge space will become a Korean-inspired temple of noodles, dumplings, and dim sum controlled by the burgeoning Daniel del Prado group and headed by Chef Jeff Watson. Opening Fall 2024.
La Madre, 205 Park Ave., Minneapolis ■ The floor level of The Vicinity apartments will soon offer “a chef-curated menu providing a modern take on traditional Mexican entrees, small plates, and shareables with plenty of seafood and exotic Mexican cuisine options” operated by Abe Ponce of La Tapatia in Roseville. Opening Fall 2024.
Khue’s Kitchen, 799 University Ave. W, St. Paul ■ The former Ngon Bistro will see life again as pop-up restaurant Khue’s Kitchen, formerly at Bar Brava, takes over the space. Chef Eric Pham is the grandson of Lung Tran, who opened the locally legendary Quang on Nicollet Avenue. Opening delayed by fire.
Small Hours, 2201 NE 2nd St., Minneapolis ■ A new bar built for wine drinkers and music lovers, operated by a sommelier and a songwriter. Small plates and conservas round out the menu. Opening September 21, 2024.
Aster House, 25 SE Main St., Minneapolis ■ New-school supper club with a local food edge by the team behind Aster Cafe and Jefe Urban Cantina, helmed by Chef Josh Jones with Myriel’s Karyn Tomlinson acting as menu consultant and mentor. Opening September 2024.
Saturday Dumpling Company, 519 Central Ave. NE, Minneapolis ■ The popular subscription-based dumpling company will be moving its production operation to a space with 45 indoor and 10 outdoor seats, in the former Glam Dolls Donut shop space. The restaurant will serve dumplings in three styles (steamed, pan fried, and deep fried) with pork, beef, chicken, and vegetarian fillings, plus a filling of the month. The menu will also feature scallion pancake burritos and rice bowls. MSP Mag is following their opening process in detail. Opening Fall 2024.
Pearl & the Thief and Big E, 250 Portland Avenue, Minneapolis ■ A reboot of Justin Sutherland’s Stillwater-based restaurant, Pearl & the Thief, will be going into the 02 Luxury Tower along with another location for the chef’s egg-based sandwich shop, Big E. Press release promises “an exceptional culinary experience” plus “a high-end whiskey bar, craft cocktails, and approximately 2,000 SF of outdoor patio space.” Opening Fall 2024.
Le Burger 4304, 4304 Upton Av. S., Minneapolis ■ Roast chicken, soft-serve ice cream, and most of all carefully turned-out burgers will be the heart of the menu for this new spot by two Bachelor Farmer alums in partnership with John Gross of Kado no Mise and Sanjusan. Opening Fall 2024.
Cafe Yoto, 548 North Washington Ave., Minneapolis ■ A casual, counter service-driven Kado No Mise spinoff by Chef Yo Hasegawa, riffing on that restaurant’s internal pop-up concept Yo Monday Cafe. Opening October 2024.
Russell's Bar and Grill, 656 Grand Ave., St. Paul ■ The former Tavern on Grand space will reopen as a restaurant with contemporary American classics and some supper club favorites. Opening November 2024.
Eloise, 332 Broadway Ave S, Wayzaya, Minn. ■ A new sister restaurant to the existing and popular Grocer’s Table, Eloise will be focused on evening gatherings, “elevated food,” and cocktails. Opening 2024.
Ate Ate Ate, 1178 Burnsville Center, Burnsville, Minn. ■ Yet another Asian-focused food hall is coming to the metro, anchored by the Asian food store Ensom Market. The spot is giving some Market at Malcolm Yards vibes. As per the press release: “The 13,320 square foot location will be home to a diverse roster of nine food vendors, plus a bar and beer pull wall, an event space, and regular entertainment offerings.” The project is spearheaded by Akhtar Nawab, a Michelin-awarded chef, cookbook author, and TV personality. Opening delayed, likely 2024.
Tim McKee Restaurants at The West Hotel, 167 N. First St., Minneapolis ■ A basque-inspired charcoal-driven restaurant and a Mediterranean bakery will be part of a new North Loop hotel in the former [Commutator Building](https://northloop.org/history-of-the-commutator-building/) operated by Salt Hotels. Opening 2024.
Animales BBQ and Burger Co., 241 Fremont Ave. North, Minneapolis ■ The two well-regarded Jon Wipfli food trucks, Animales BBQ and Animales Burger Co., will unite in a bricks-and-mortar effort located in the former Royal Foundry Distillery in the Harrison neighborhood of Minneapolis. Opening early 2025.
THE TEMPORARY DEMISE OF UPTOWN
The death of Uptown came slowly, then all at once. Its rebirth may be around the corner.
By Mike Norton
This story was originally published in Heavy Table’s Substack newsletter for Sep. 13, 2024 and was underwritten by its paying subscribers. The full version will be made available to all readers on Monday, Sep. 16 on the Heavy Table website and via Racket.mn and Southwest Voices.
Three of the four corners at Lake and Hennepin – the center of Uptown in Minneapolis – are vacant retail storefronts. The fourth is a mostly empty urban mini-mall that has been slowly bleeding retail tenants since before it was purchased in 2019 by Chicago-based real estate investment firm Northpond Partners. [1]
After renaming the mall “Seven Points,” Northpond announced plans to convert the vacant piece of land along Lake Street to the east into a 14-story tower with over 400 apartments in 2020. In February of 2022 Northpond also announced plans to turn properties along Hennepin Avenue into more than 200 apartments and over roughly 70,000 square feet of retail space.
As of September 2024, neither project has started.
Northpond bought the property for a steep discount in 2019, paying less than half of what the prior owner had paid in 2014. Retail was already starting its backslide before the pandemic, and stores like Heartbreaker and Victoria’s Secret had closed in 2017 and 2018 respectively. Since then Fjällräven, MAC Cosmetics, Timberland, The North Face, Apple, Urban Outfitters, Juut Salon, People’s Organic Restaurant, H&M, Columbia Sportswear, Arc'teryx, AT&T, Paper Source, American Apparel, Jonathan Adler, ROAM Furniture, John Fluevog shoes, Stella’s Fish Café, and more have all closed in Uptown. In 2021 Kitchen Window, a 35-year neighborhood staple, also closed.
“Kitchen Window was a nexus for people who were serious about food,” says Heavy Table’s editor, James Norton. “Nowhere else in the U.S. could you find more stuff on the shelves and get your eyes on whatever gadget you wanted, while talking to truly knowledgeable staff. There was nothing else quite like it.”
Jeff Herman, an Uptown commercial property owner with Urban Anthology who has been involved with several major retail projects in the area, says what’s happening is “a perfect storm of remote work, retail atrophy, and other demographic shifts that are having an impact all over the country, that have also caused the temporary demise of Uptown.”
HOW DID UPTOWN EVEN BECOME UPTOWN?
Minneapolis was a busy summer tourist destination in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s up until air conditioning and air travel became more common in the middle of the 20th century. You could take the train to Minneapolis or Saint Paul and then ride streetcars all the way to summer resorts on Lake Minnetonka, passing through the Minneapolis chain of lakes along the way.
The old Lyndale Hotel stood on the hill above the east side of Bde Make Ska where St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church is today and “Hennepin-Lake” (as it was then called) was full of restaurants and shops for tourists and locals alike.
The chain of lakes was dredged in the early 1900’s to deepen the lakes so they looked bluer, with the dredgings being used to convert swampland into parkways and walking paths.
The first of the many reported deaths of Uptown took place in the transitional period after tourism and before the area’s rebirth as a local retail hub, with grocery stores, restaurants like Rainbow Cafe, and the Uptown Theater all coming into the area in the early to mid-20th century. The large theaters of generations past gave space for an ‘80s punk scene that brought people from outside the neighborhood back into Uptown.
The “Uptown McPunks” of that era would eat cheeseburgers on the McDonald’s patio at Hennepin and Lagoon and scare passersby. “All they want, they say, is a place to catch up on gossip… to burn cigarettes, to see and be seen,” read a 1984 Star Tribune piece on people being afraid of Uptown before it was even really known as Uptown.
The Uptown McPunks were fortunate to exist in an age prior to social media, because if it happened today that Crime Watch account would be scaring people in greater Minnesota shitless with photos of them blasting cigs and sharing hot goss in their black leather jackets on Hennepin.
Eventually more people wanted to go where the cool kids were hanging out and Uptown became widely known as a hip spot. As is often the case, large corporate chains took notice of the area’s popularity and started filling the spaces with large-format stores in the 1990’s and early 2000’s.
When the Uptown Theater was rebuilt in 1939 they added the landmark “Uptown” sign above the building, but the area was still mainly referred to as “Hennepin-Lake” until the 1980’s. When the old Calhoun School was sold by the school board and developed by Ray Harris into what is now Seven Points, he claims to have invented Uptown (even though Prince released “Uptown” four years before Calhoun Square opened).
Harris was the first head of the Hennepin-Lake Association, which later became the Uptown Association. Though it’s often confused with a neighborhood association of some sort, the Uptown Association is a private group consisting mainly of commercial property and business owners collectively working to maximize the return on their investments in Uptown.
The group hosts the Uptown Art Fair primarily to bring people to Uptown and showcase their investments, but last year it was moved to the Bachman’s parking lot four miles south of Uptown. Just as suburbanites often believe that Uptown can be anything south of 94 between the lakes and 35W, the Uptown Association seems to still believe that “Uptown” is an abstract description of any area where the term could be beneficial from a marketing perspective. [2]
THE SUBURBANITE FUN ZONE
After people stopped being scared of the McPunks and corporate retail started moving in, the inertia brought Uptown to a frenzy in the late ‘90’s and into the 21st century. Before the era of smartphones and online reservations, you had to just show up to Famous Dave’s and wait. Back then it was normal to have an hour wait, and the nearby shopping was a great wait to pass that time.
A symbiotic relationship between retail and restaurants snowballed to a point where restaurants like Figlio and Chino Latino could fill 10,000 square foot spaces every night, with people still spilling out onto the sidewalks with live blues from Famous Dave’s as background music.
If Chino Latino opened today what it called “global street food” would probably be viewed as a bland appropriation of a disjointed alignment of cultures that’s been dulled down for Minnesota palates, but in 2004 it was quite avant-garde. “You felt like you were discovering something new when you went there,” says James Norton. That’s a lot of what Uptown was at the time: something you couldn’t experience anywhere else.
Local commercial realtor Ben Krsnak pegged the “heyday of Uptown” as “probably the late '90s to 2006 or 2007” in a Business Journal piece last year about the space that’s been empty for years now.
As demand increased and outside investors gobbled up rapidly appreciating commercial properties in Uptown rents followed. Eventually everyone except companies like H&M and Victoria’s Secret were priced out of the neighborhood. Then the bubble ultimately popped.
Nobody can identify a peak until you’ve gone past it, and commercial leases tend to be around five to ten years in length, so the sunsetting of Uptown appears to have started in earnest roughly a decade after the 2008 “great recession” in that 2017-18 range when Heartbreaker, Victoria’s Secret, and others started closing. That retail collapse was accelerated by the pandemic and shopping in Uptown has followed the retail “death spiral” that suburban malls have also experienced in the past few years. Gone with that retail traffic is the spillover consumer spending in neighboring restaurants and stores.
“When I moved here in 2017 I didn’t have a lot of friends, so I’d ride my bike around the chain of lakes and bop around Uptown,” says Em Cassel, former editor in chief of City Pages and Co-Founder of Racket. “I can still ride my bike around the chain of lakes, but the bopping options aren’t there. When I get my haircut in Uptown, I still get a book at Magers & Quinn, but that’s all I still do because that’s all that’s still open.”
That reduced bopping is impacting local businesses in Uptown. “When I first opened people would come in with their little Victoria’s Secret bag, with their little Apple bag, and that’s not happening anymore,” says Jennifer Lisburg, the owner of Sugar & Salt at 32nd and Hennepin. Her cafe is one of the few places besides Jimmy John’s where you can still get a sandwich on a Tuesday in Uptown. The BLT ($13.50) has applewood smoked uncured bacon and perfectly thick tomatoes.
NO-SHOW JOBS
Even though there isn’t a ton of office space in Uptown there are still several multi-story office buildings, including two recently added Mozaic office towers on Lagoon that are both now mostly empty. My office has been in Uptown since 2018, and I’ve seen the slow decline firsthand over the past six years.
Just like the impact remote work had on central business districts, remote work has diminished the already small daily office traffic in Uptown to almost zero. Even if workers are still coming into an office, it’s usually on a hybrid schedule of a few days per week, which further dilutes lunch and happy hour crowds.
The pandemic era national uptick in crime also impacted both the perception of Uptown as well as the cost of doing business. Lisburg had her truck stolen (twice), as well as a trailer and generator she used for events, but she also says it feels like crime is coming down this year (and the data show that as well).
“So much of the problem is the livability stuff that MPD can only react to afterwards, stolen bikes, smashed car windows,” says John Edwards (above), founder of the hyper-local Minneapolis news source Wedge Live that hosts the nationally renowned Wedge Live Cat Tour in the Wedge Neighborhood which borders Uptown.
Edwards believes the lack of people in Uptown is part of the issue and is supportive of a proposed ambassador program for Uptown that’s being pitched in the Minneapolis City Council right now by Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai and Council Member Katie Cashman (whose wards intersect in Uptown). “Having people around, stereotypical eyes on the street, somebody in a uniform, somebody official looking is standing around, you’re probably less likely to break a window or steal a bike.”
CM Cashman supports a multipronged approach to addressing the issues in Uptown. “The first conversation Aisha and I had was ‘what are we going to do about Uptown,’” says Cashman. “We made a $9 million investment in police, but police alone aren’t going to save Uptown. That’s why we need viable complements to police, one being Behavioral Crisis Response and the other being ambassadors, and that’s been working downtown. Police leaders in downtown and Uptown will be the first to tell you how helpful BCR and ambassadors are to support their work.”
THE NEGATIVE EXTERNALITIES OF SOMEONE ELSE’S VACANT SPACE
Just as retailers used to benefit from suburban diners wandering into their stores from overflowing restaurants nearby, now they have to hope their customers are willing to walk past a handful of vacant storefronts to get to them. Most of the east side of Hennepin between Lake and 31st is empty and waiting to be torn down by Chicago-based Northpond Partners for their long-awaited development.
“What frustrates me about rent seekers is they can wait to benefit off of enterprising individuals to increase values in the neighborhood,” says Lonnie McQuirter (above), owner of 36 Lyn Refuel Station a few blocks from Uptown and a board member of the Minnesota Retailers Association and the National Retail Federation. “The investment group that bought Seven Points were focused on a low-interest rate environment because they were looking to make a gain and they lost. There’s a ton of investors that engage solely in rent seeking behavior and their attitude is ‘rents will go up and if it sits vacant it sits vacant’ but they don’t add anything.”
Perpetually vacant buildings are a problem all over Minneapolis, particularly on the city’s north side where the 2008 mortgage crisis disproportionately hurt communities of color. The Minneapolis City Council has even amended an ordinance to increase fines on buildings that absentee landlords are leaving empty for multiple years and allowing to deteriorate.
Vacant buildings hurt communities; when they start to aggregate, owners can become even more reluctant to invest money in improvements that might attract new tenants. The idea is that the increased fine will nudge the landlord into doing something, whether that be improving the property or selling it to someone else who will.
Tasting Room Sommelier and co-owner, Nico Giraud (formerly of Spoon and Stable, Bellecour, and Meritage, pictured above) calls losing his next door neighbor Kim’s last month “a bit of a fucking disaster” because of the loss of the complementary traffic and what it will mean for people coming to the neighborhood. “When I was at Spoon and Stable it was important to me that Bachelor Farmer was busy because that means the neighborhood is busy.”
However, Nico isn’t longing for the days of corporate retail. “If you want Gap, Victoria’s Secret, Apple, go to Mall of America” he says with a sophisticated disdain that can only really be accomplished with a French accent.
Kim’s closed August 26 two months after workers voted to unionize in what became a highly contentious fight with the James Beard Award winning owner Ann Kim. Unite Here Local 17 filed labor charges against Kim’s and their parent company Vestalia Hospitality shortly after the restaurant abruptly closed with only a few days’ notice, and at the time of this writing legal proceedings are still pending. Workers at Kim’s were given so little notice of the closure that they started a GoFundMe to cover employee transition costs.
Kim bought the building where her restaurant was located and the main tenant, Paper Source, closed in February. This left Kim’s to subsidize the vacant retail space with an already challenged restaurant. At that time Ann Kim said: “…Uptown is faced with many challenges so it will require committed and creative business owners and leaders to bring this neighborhood back. I'm tired of hearing people complain and whine about the state of Uptown. If you don't like it, do something about it.” We reached out to Kim for comment via Vestalia Hospitality; she didn’t respond.
(LOTS OF) SPACE FOR RENT
The empty space in the Kim’s building only represents a small fraction of the Uptown vacancies. “No one wants vacant spaces, not landlords, not nearby businesses, not people in the neighborhood, and most landlords in Uptown would gladly lease out their properties on very favorable terms to any good business right now,” says commercial landlord Jeff Herman.
The problem is even with favorable terms you still have to build out a space and pay for inventory and employees, regardless of rent. The annual cost to simply operate inside a space like the old Chino Latino would easily be in the six-figure range, before you paid a dollar of rent. Carving up a large space into smaller spaces would also cost landlords hundreds of thousands, or even millions at a time when properties are already distressed.
The end result is the slow decay of what were once multimillion dollar buildings that used to be filled with people, often now owned by investors like Northpond that have no ties to the neighborhood.
“Uptown has often been misunderstood by investors who live and die by data. The average income in that area is crazy,” says local TV and radio personality Jason DeRusha, above. “Cities change and our population may only really be able to support two destination nodes. Right now, the Uptown energy moved to North Loop, with 50th and France being that other node.”
While Uptown may never turn back into the destination retail node that it once was, there’s still a lot to like about the area. The chain of lakes that were beautified for tourists a century ago aren’t going anywhere. There are also a lot of people in Uptown, which is now one of the most densely populated areas in the state of Minnesota. “Uptown has advantages downtown doesn’t have because we have the people here already,” says John Edwards, “but we can’t win on car-centric commerce, and we can’t beat Eden Prairie on parking spots.”
Nobody really longs for the days of corporate retail, and there’s a hope that the next phase of Uptown will be one focused on the neighborhood instead of trying to entice suburbanites to come here and shop.
THE RESTAURANTS OF UPTOWN
If this clustering of restaurants were in any other part of the Twin Cities, that neighborhood would never shut up about them
LAKE & IRVING RESTAURANT & BAR
John Edwards of Wedge Live and I met for lunch at Lake & Irving, named for the intersection where it sits in Uptown, to talk about Uptown. We both biked there and shared a bike rack on Lake Street in front of the restaurant. He moved to the area “because of its walkability” and touts what’s being built in terms of pedestrian and biking infrastructure in Uptown right now, but that construction is still in progress and the street and sidewalk outside the restaurant were still torn up the afternoon we went.
Our server described the construction as “shitty,” but said that patronage at the restaurant had been steady and things seem to be “moving in the right direction” in Uptown. John ordered the Cheeseburger ($20), which is made with Sakura Farms wagyu and comes with shallot aioli on a brioche bun.
We also shared the KFC ($13) - Korean style fried cauliflower with gochujang, honey, lime, and sesame – and the Fried Brussels Sprouts ($13) which come with white soy, patis, and togarashi.
I had their signature Buttermilk Chicken Sandwich ($20), a thinly sliced breaded chicken breast on toasted La Brea sourdough with Duroc bacon, Cady Creek Farms pepperjack, with sriracha aioli. You can also get it with ghost pepperjack or ghost pepper aioli for an extra $1.50.
Between bites John talked about how great Uptown is and how it will be even better once the Hennepin Avenue construction is finished. “We’re doing so much better on streets; this is going to be an even more walkable neighborhood than the one I moved here for because of the bike lanes and wider sidewalks that are coming.”
ISLES BUN & COFFEE
When I met Council Member Katie Cashman at Isles Bun and Coffee on Hennepin and 28th the line was around the corner. We queued in the late August sun for around 15 minutes with neighbors all waiting for their freshly made pastries. “This is where I grew up, serving in the Uptown Diner and spending my paycheck at Urban Outfitters and with my friends at Cheapo [Records],” Cashman says while we wait outside the restaurant. “Uptown is such a nostalgic place for so many people, and that’s what can bring it back. Everyone has great memories here.”
Council Member Cashman (above) ordered the Quiche ($6) which she says has been the same recipe as long as she’s been coming to Isles Bun, which opened in 1993. I got a Cinnamon Bun (also $6), which was simple in terms of ingredients but still piping hot to the point that I needed a napkin underneath the cardboard tray to insulate my hand while I carried it to the table. The bun also includes a thick slab of homemade icing, which is placed to the side in the tray because it would melt if it were slathered on top.
Over coffee the first term council member talked about her fond memories of Uptown and what she sees as a need for urgent conversations about its future. “There’s conversations around real estate that are happening downtown that aren’t happening in Uptown, and I think we need to get the stakeholders at the table.” She added “we can’t afford to do nothing.”
SUGAR & SALT – THE HOME OF LA LA ICE CREAM
Formerly La La Ice Cream, Sugar & Salt is the expansion of the luncheonette menu Jennifer Lisburg had been slowly adding over time at La La. She describes the food as “homey, for modern tastes” and has scratch made soups and a variety of sandwiches. I recommend the Havarti Pesto Chicken Sandwich with Bacon ($15.50) which comes with organic chicken, house made walnut pesto, and Havarti.
On a late summer day I met Lonnie McQuirter at Sugar & Salt for a couple scoops of La La Ice Cream. As we sat on the sidewalk patio along Hennepin Lonnie expressed his frustrations with unimaginative landlords that have gobbled up much of the properties in Uptown. Lonnie talked about a building he tried to buy nearby that got swept up by an investor with access to more funds from outside the state. It wasn’t all bad, though. We both had a great scoop of Ice Cream ($6).
TENKA RAMEN
While it may not be the most complex ramen in the city, Tenka is legit and a great weeknight ramen spot. Most of the customers that came and went when I joined Heavy Table editor in chief James Norton there on a Wednesday night were grabbing takeout orders, many appear to have walked to the restaurant.
Just east of Hennepin on Lake, next door to the now vacant Stella’s Fish Café, we were just a short walk to Bde Maka Ska. “The geography of Uptown is a golden opportunity for anyone with creativity and guts, but right now economics is standing in the way,” James said over a bowl of ramen. James ordered the Torishio Ramen ($13), karaage chicken in chicken broth with a boiled egg and corn. [2]
I got the Tonkotsu ($14), pork belly in pork broth with roasted seaweed, bamboo, wood ear mushrooms, boiled egg, and scallions.
Over green tea we talked about some of the interesting places that have come and gone in Uptown. Places like Figlio and Chino Latino remain memorable; the Uptown punk mentality was a safe space to let loose with your menu in a way that the businesslike stuffiness of downtown Minneapolis has historically not been. On that night, however, the only other business open on that section of Lake Street was a vape and tobacco shop and Tenka closed shortly after we finished our meal.
TII CUP L2
The second level of Tii Cup on Hennepin and 27th is a speakeasy with a patio that overlooks the north end of Uptown. I met Racket co-founder and former editor in chief of City Pages Em Cassel there for happy hour just in time to see the end of the road construction work on Hennepin that evening.
The speakeasy has a “street food” menu and we shared the Popcorn Chicken ($7.55), Tofu Squares ($6.25), and Taro Fries with Ube Dip ($5.45). The food was really good for simple happy hour fare, with more flavor than you’d expect from a fryer, but the real star at Tii Cup L2 is the cocktails.
Over a boba filled Tom-Yum ($11) and a Vietnamese Coffee inspired Espresso Martini ($12) Em shared her fond memories of Uptown from when she first moved to Minneapolis in 2017. “At that time, we were talking about how Uptown is dead,” when compared to its peak of a decade earlier.
The view from the patio above Tii Cup looks towards Lake of the Isles at a slight angle due to the bend in Hennepin Avenue there to follow the shape of the lake. When it’s completed it will be a great spot, but on this night road construction noise polluted the vibe. At one point a dump truck emptied out a full load of gravel right behind Em, but otherwise it’s a lovely space.
PIMENTO AT THE LAKE
There are a lot of places where you’re really just paying for the view and the food isn’t that great, but Pimento Jamaican Kitchen at the Lake combines both at the new Bde Maka Ska pavilion. Founded by former Cargill director and Jamaican native Tomme Beevas, Pimento played a memorable role in the protest movement that followed the 2020 murder of George Floyd, and now has multiple locations around the Twin Cities.
With the lake in the background, you can dine on Braised Oxtail ($22) with butter beans, carrot, potato and country gravy. As well as Jamaican Patties ($6), soft flakey dough filled with meat and spices (although the spices do seem to be dulled down to Minnesota standards to appease their customers). If you’ve still got room you might try the Sweet Fried Plantains ($6) with a spiced vanilla glaze.
THE TASTING ROOM
Award winning sommelier Nico Giraud is co-owner and operator of this hidden gem
along 31st street just west of Hennepin. A small space tucked into a luxury condo building’s ground level and a beautiful interior finished with wood features behind a concrete bar. Nico believes in Uptown but says “the biggest enemy of Uptown right now is the construction.” He’s also frustrated with the vacancies, particularly the massive Seven Points building a few hundred feet from his door. “Until Seven Points redevelops, I don’t think anything else changes,” he says, adding that “anything you can do to get that space going, because what the neighborhood needs is life.”
Bartender Whitney Gale also shares Nico’s frustrations, but speaks warmly about the neighborhood and the other restaurants nearby. “We get our cookies from Isles Bun, and usually Jeff [the owner] will walk over and hand deliver the order with a couple extra cookies for us to eat.” Sometimes if he has time she’ll pour him a glass and they’ll chat for a bit after he makes the delivery.
I recently visited The Tasting Room on a beautiful summer night with a friend of mine from college, Gabe Afolayan (above), who was student body president of Minnesota State University, Mankato when I was on the student senate. One of my first visits to Uptown was during its heyday almost 20 years ago with Gabe, and I remember him singing “Last Call” from “The College Dropout” with the parking lot attendant at the lot next to McDonald’s.
Uptown was buzzing back then, and we had to push through crowds of people and puddles of spilled Mich Golden Light to get a drink at the bar which was aptly named “Drink” (that space has turned over a few times between now and then, but is currently called Uptown Ties… I think).
Today Gabe is a vice president at a large local company and part-time events DJ and there are no crowds to push through to get a glass of wine from the bar.
We shared a Foie Gras Torchon ($18) with sweet caramelized onion jam and fleur de sel on toasted brioche bread and a few glasses of sparkling rosé while we talked about the ghosts of Uptown’s past. “It’s almost more poetic that it’s faded away because the experiences we had in Uptown can never be had again,” Gabe said.
BLACK WALNUT BAKERY
Sarah Botcher opened Black Walnut Bakery at the corner of 32nd and Hennepin in November of 2019 just a few months before the global pandemic and well past the peak of Uptown as a destination retail hub. She’s spent the majority of her adult life living in Uptown and describes herself as “the village baker for uptown.” The lower price point on her high end French inspired pastries makes them “an attainable little luxury that you can have every day in the way you can’t at a restaurant.”
Even with a cup of coffee or tea (Black Walnut has some of the best tea options in the city) you can still easily spend less than $15 for a light breakfast at Black Walnut.
Neighbors are often lined up around the block for the croissants and other pastries Botcher makes with her team. She works overnights in Uptown, powered by coffee and a cookie to ensure pastries are fresh and ready in the morning. The delicate nature of making croissants means slight variations in humidity can totally change the consistency of the bread.
While Black Walnut has a great staff, none of them have the expertise Botcher has so she can often be seen through the kitchen window of her bakery kneading dough at midnight.
“Black Walnut is one of the best bakeries in the country,” says Jason DeRusha. He and I met there a little while back to talk about Uptown and have egg sandwiches. The Egg & Cheese Croissant Bread Sandwich ($12) is made from fluffy egg custard, gruyère, fines herbes, and chèvre spread on toasted croissant bread (made in house).
“Uptown always means more in terms of what it was than what it is or what it could be,” says DeRusha. “We’re nostalgic. We remember Filglo and Chino and when it wasn’t corporate. But it’s always been in flux.” As for what’s next, DeRusha says Uptown needs to “be reimagined as something different” than the destination retail hub that it’s been in the past.
Botcher also believes Uptown needs to go through an evolution to improve. “We all have to do our part, if everybody does that then uptown can come back. Slowly but surely. One croissant at a time.”
ELSEWHERE ONLINE
Karyn Tomlinson of Myriel wins the 2024 Food & Wine Best New Chef nod. DeRusha talks to the owner of Barrio about the Sep. 6 closure of the restaurant's Lowertown location (above). Eater offers ways to help victims of the tragic Park Tavern car crash in St. Louis Park. MSP Mag presents a few contenders for "best bagel" around here; TC Jewfolk recently did the work of finding the best bagels with even more attention to detail. And the Minnesota Star Tribune directs readers to the year's booya events.
FOOTNOTES
[1] EDITOR’S NOTE: Mike Norton reached out to Northpond Partners for comment and did not receive a reply.
[2] WRITER’S NOTE: For the purpose of this story we did not include Lyn-Lake or other neighborhoods near Uptown and instead focused on the area unofficial Minneapolis historian David Brauer has outlined for Uptown (above). Its boundaries include Dupont to the east, the chain of lakes to the west, 33rd Street to the south, and just above 27th Street to the north.
[3] EDITOR’S NOTE: Brief review of the ramen: solid. Fried chicken was dense but not claggy, and it held up to the broth, which was rich without being fatty. The overall dish was simple and nourishing, pleasant without being a towering gourmet achievement. The simplicity of the bowl overall made it a tempting target for spicy and/or umami-rich mix-ins. A smart weeknight pick.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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Awesome post - much more detail than I've seen anywhere else. Also, I appreciate that you're even-handed about the pros and cons of the current situation. I agree with Brauer's map BTW - sometimes I've seen places closer to downtown (Namaste, Nico's Tacos..) referred to as being in Uptown and I don't think it's helpful to stretch the definition that far. We need to do more to uplift the great businesses that are still anchoring Uptown: Barbette, Magers & Quinn, Lake & Irving, Pinoli, Isles Bun, those Thai places... Uptown is going to come back (led by housing I think) but in the meantime let's support what's still there!
Really enjoyed this one.