[Archived] Uptown Retail & Restaurant News 2012-17

[ECtransplant]

East Isles Residents Association Zoning Committee meeting agenda for 5/21 "will include a presentation for a potential new restaurant at 1513 W Lake (vacant building that formerly housed Blue Sky Ice Cream in East Calhoun)."

Anybody know any details?

[PhilmerPhil]

"Lake & Irving" restaurant is slated for Blue Sky Creamery space on Lake

(Corrected post for inaccurate rumor speculation.)

[lordmoke]

Birdhouse has closed:
http://blogs.citypages.com/food/2013/06 ... oodman.php

Perhaps someday this row of identity crises will be redeveloped into something a bit more logical for their use (I say this without having ever visited one of the building, however.) Have any of you dined in these spaces? I'm curious to know whether the old homes work well as restaurants or not.

[woofner]

I think Namaste's layout is pretty good. I'm not sure what's upstairs. I ate once at the one before Birdhouse, I forget what it was. It did seem kind of awkward as a restaurant and I think it's always annoying for restaurants to have two floors. When I was in high school I hung out at the coffeeshop that used to be in that space (Pandora's Cup I think), and it worked really well for that.

[UptownSport]

Frequented Duplex-
It was great for those of us who have problems with typical- or 'cookie-cutter' layouts, as there were intimate nooks and a 'homey' feel (It was a house, go figure).
The patio worked well

[twincitizen]

New restaurant planned for Old Chicago space: http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/n ... urant.html

Old Chicago's lease is up and the Crave folks wanna take over. Hopefully it's something original.

Not long ago, rumor was that the land owner was looking to sell to a developer...

I'm doubly bummed because
a. Old Chicago is actually pretty good, and have decent beer specials. Cookie-cutter suburban chain? Sure, but it's one of the least pretentious places in Uptown and isn't loud as hell all the time.
b. If OC must go, I would have liked to see a mixed-use development go in here. This is adjacent to Uptown Transit Station and a 50-stall parking lot is a bad fit. But the truth is, that's exactly what restauranteurs are looking for (see Heyday, Burch, etc). Maybe Old Chicago can find a home elsewhere in the City, like the Chevy's space or Block E! Downtown at one point had Applebee's, Friday's, Chevy's and Champps. Now there are none. Perhaps there was over saturation of that segment (and a recession) but with Target Field and the growth of that area, I think there's room for at least one chain restaurant down there.

[RailBaronYarr]

Wasn't there also an Old Chicago downtown on Hennepin or 1st Ave? Am I crazy?

[mamundsen]

^^^I think the OC downtown is now 508 in Butler Square.

[twincitizen]

That is correct. And Champps became Smalley's 87, which is now The Alley Sports Tavern.

Man, we really had an oversupply of corporate chain restaurants before Block-e opened.

[min-chi-cbus]

Kinda sux, I also was hoping for a larger mixed-use development (restaurant included).

[Nick]

We didn't already have a thread for general Uptown retail?

Anywho, got a letter from The Wedge Co-Op yesterday, and they're planning to remodel their existing store on Lyndale as well as open a new store in an undecided as of yet location, and they hope to have both things done in the "next 2-3 years." I chuckled a bit at the line "We have members driving from far and wide." in the letter. The current Wedge store is probably printing money at $6/box for granola bars, but I imagine that the Trader Joe's proposal would have eaten into their business quite a bit. Hope they don't overextend themselves and leave them vulnerable to being undercut by a new chain in the area. Or, ourselves, I guess, I am a member and all...

[MSPtoMKE]

I assume that this project will not do anything about the Wedge parking lot, that would be hoping for too much... The Twin Cities is already kind of Co-op central for the country, now there will be two new ones opening soon with the Seward Co-op 2nd location.

[John]

I recieved the letter too. My thought is it would be nice for downtown to have a third grocery store preferrably near the Guthrie area and DTE. The residential population is growing enough (in that area) to support a nice, walkable place to buy food. But who knows where a second Wedge will be located.

[ECtransplant]

I keep hoping for Trader Joe's to take a stab at DTE.

[Matt]

DTE could definitely use something. It is a bit of a hike to get over to Lunds/Whole Foods. Trader Joe's would be great over there.

[gpete]

In this article about Espresso Royale in Dinkytown, it mentions that Town Hall Brewery is currently expanding into Uptown. I don't think I've heard that news before. Anyone know where they are going in? Are they part of a new development like Walkway or Lime?

http://www.mndaily.com/city/business/20 ... s-building

[twincitizen]

Two words: student reporting.

Town Hall Lanes is opening soon at 34th Ave & 50th St in the Minnehaha neighborhood. I don't believe there has even been a rumor that they were opening in Uptown. It would make sense though. Both Walkway and Lime have the super tall first floors that would work for their brewing operations. Walkway makes a little more sense, with Lime being so close to Herkimer.

EDIT: On second thought, they're probably talking about the Crooked Pint location at Lyndale & 40th, which if you live on campus, probably sounds like Uptown to you.

[Wedgeguy]

I was with a friend of mine from out of town that wanted to know more about our food coops as he is part of a small Wisconsin coop that is working to improve there coop. We talked with a manager that said a big part of the new location is to move some of the baking, butchering, and other kinda back room functions to a larger and better organized location so that the current store can concentrate more on the retail function.

[woofner]

I've been frustrated by how more and more of my time at the Wedge is spent waiting in line for the chance to even get at the product I want. Depending on how much space is opened up by offsiting the kitchen, I will suggest that instead of renovate after the second location opens, they rebuild altogether. That would provide the opportunity to redo the long-despised parking situation (preferably with all access on 22nd St, which then would be closed to non-local vehicular traffic) and add some mixed-use. Affordable housing would work well with their mission, provide a built-in customer base, as well as living space opportunity in a highly accessible location. Also a cafe on the corner would be nice for CPTD and general walk-friendliness. That small parking lot is stupid.

[twincitizen]

A. I wonder where this second location winds up. Where do you think most of their non-neighborhood customers are coming from? What is the shortest distance you'd estimate someone has driven to The Wedge? I'd venture it's less than 2 blocks, within Whittier.
With Seward opening a second location at Clinton and 38th, that kind of affects where the 2nd Wedge will go. I mean, that would just be super if they were opening a store in North, but we all know that ain't happening anytime soon. There are Kowalskis stores at Lyndale & 54th, and Chicago & 56th, and not much else between there and Lake Street. Linden Hills has its own Co-op. Thinking both spatially and economically, I would say roughly Nicollet & 38th or basically anywhere along 36th. The 2nd Seward Co-op location makes me think that the Wedge will not be coming to northern Kingfield. Frankly, I'm having a hard time guessing where they're going to put this store, but there is a huge gap between the Uptown cluster and the aformentioned stores further south by the parkway.

B. I concur with everything redisciple just said. If not a full rebuild, which they are obviously not doing at this time, for the love of organic granola, please close (or build on) the tiny parking lot at 22nd and move the primary human entrance to that corner.