urbanMSP

It’s not a coincidence that Revival is opening their second location in St. Paul.”

I'm friends/former bandmates with the chef/co-owner of Revival, and yes - he has some stories about the environment here in Minneapolis. And I will say, as someone who is generally supportive of the Working Families Agenda, that I had no idea how much fear and hatred there was of the proposals we have seen or will see here in Minneapolis. I'm not sure how much of it is founded (similar to downtown property managers' fears of a three lane 3rd Ave not being well founded) but it's definitely a real thing. Interesting to hear Klein's take.

I run the kitchen of the restaurant with the largest patio in Minneapolis. If the scheduling rules of the Working Families Agenda goes through I will have to quit my job. It will become impossible to run that kitchen. You can't predict the weather more than a week out. If I staff for nice weather we will have to raise our prices 50% to cover all the extra labor that we burn when the weather is bad and we cut people early or call them off. If we staff for bad weather, food will take two hours if the weather is sunny and warm. I would be better off getting a new job in St Paul or the suburbs. In general my personal politics run to the left of the DFL but these scheduling rules are just unworkable. Sick days I support. In general, it would be better to raise wages and institute single payer health care but keep work rules flexible.

Also, I know Russel and worked with him in the past before he was a "famous" chef. He is a grade A douche. I think he is having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that competition is tougher in Minneapolis than in St Paul, and he just wasn't good enough.

Also, I know Russel and worked with him in the past before he was a "famous" chef. He is a grade A douche. I think he is having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that competition is tougher in Minneapolis than in St Paul, and he just wasn't good enough.

I'm not at all surprised - this fits perfectly with my experience at Brasserie Zentral. The food was fine (though overpriced), but the service was absolutely horrible. Our wait was extremely long, so the manager apologized and said he'd like to "get us a bottle of wine." As it turned out, that wine was not comped on the check. And not inexpensive. When we called this to his attention, he tried to barter us up to paying 75% of the bottle. Naturally, this infuriated us and he backed down, but not without making us feel like we were somehow to blame, and lucky to have the privilege of eating there. A similar story was reported by friends who asked about the slow service and were made to feel like garbage instead of receiving an apology.

Nicollet mall Dunn Bro's. closed Friday. Blames Construction and Target cutting 25% of workforce across the street.

http://m.bizjournals.com/twincities/new ... polis.html

Dunn Bro's isn't doing so hot. They were just overtaken on Lake & Bryant too.

Dunn Bros are franchises, lots of them are doing really great, some of the older not updated ones seem to be doing poorly.

I wonder if that's one of the reasons they have started partnering with Bruggers bagels? Maybe to split the renovation costs.

That's Caribou.

I'm just getting tired of the blame game that businesses have been playing.

Too bad for Dunn -- and the Mall sure is bottoming out -- but there are countless cool concepts (coffee and otherwise, local and national) with their eyes on the Minneapolis market. I think we'll see plenty of fresher new stores/restaurants once the mall reconstruction nears completion.

That's Caribou.

I'm just getting tired of the blame game that businesses have been playing.

I don’t think they’re really blaming anyone in a negative way. The article pretty clearly spells out that their lease was coming up and ripping up the Mall combined with fewer workers across the street cut into business. It’s not like coffee shops have a bad business model downtown! These franchisees most likely just saw the writing on the wall for the next few years and cut their losses.

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2016/04/13 ... ts-closing

Some interesting perspective on the downtown restaurant scene from MPR (listen to the audio for the full story). The one element that the analysis misses is the growth of restaurants across Minneapolis within the last several years (especially in the North Loop). While the closures downtown were driven by multiple issues, I still believe its a bit of correction bringing supply and demand back into equilibrium.

Some good news on the corner of Hennepin and 7th: the former Taste of Thailand is being replaced by an Indian restaurant and the former Chilis has signs up advertising an online auction. Not sure what the latter means but hopefully a tenant will be announced soon.

There was a Chilis downtown? Do you mean Chevy's?

It still blows my mind how long that Chevy's space has sat vacant. And how eerily untouched everything inside looks.

The Musicland space next to it has been vacant since the early '90s. Obviously the landlord has no interest in renting it because surely somebody would have taken it by now.

When I do a search for the owner (701 & 705 Hennepin)
METRO HOLDINGS LP
c/o MICHAEL J LAZARETTI
1155 CEDAR VIEW DR
MINNEAPOLIS MN 55405

I see Mr. Lazaretti owns a house (presumably where he lives) in Florida:
912 BEACH RD
SANIBEL FL 33957

After a Taste Of Thailand closed last February, the Business Journal had this to say in an article:
Taste of Thailand was near the corner of Seventh Street and Hennepin Avenue next to a vacant space that was once Chevy's Fresh Mex, which has been closed for several years. It's unclear what may happen with the newly vacant restaurant space, said Peter Armbrust, a broker for Cushman & Wakefield/NorthMarq who represents landlord Michael Lazaretti. "We are in the process of understanding the next steps for [the Taste of Thailand] space," Armbrust said, but he added that interest in retail and restaurant real estate on that end of downtown is "as high as they've ever been."

So finally, a year later, there's finally traction... ugh.
I wish the city could force Mr. Lazaretti's hand. I hate that two incredibly prominent Hennepin addresses have been vacant for way too long!
Chevy's closed in 2007... it's just sad.

Perhaps someone can reach out to Mr. Lazaretti, or Peter Armbrust, the broker for him at Cushman & Wakefield/NorthMarq?

I know in some instances, when a tenant (especially a large corporate tenant) leaves, they will continue to pay rent until the end of their lease and therefore the landlord has little motivation to re-lease the space. But there's no way Chevy's lease was this long, and Chef's right -- Musicland has been closed for 20 years.

How long has the Caribou/Einstein sign been on the old Vincent restaurant space? Did anybody know it was going in there?

I believe it was posted in the Dt Mpls restaurant news thread almost immediately after Vincent closed.

Something is in the works for the old Origami space downtown.

http://mspmag.com/Blogs/Dara/April-2016 ... -Furukawa/

Old Vincent place to be filled.
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/n ... ormer.html