urbanMSP

The holy grail for downtown St. Paul's restaurant scene would be a Gavin Kaysen restaurant. I know, good governance and all that, but seriously, all the tax breaks for a Gavin Kaysen restaurant in Lowertown.

You can add Parlour to that list.

I hear the Como Dockside space will be replaced by the owners of Republic. Any confirmation of this?

I hear the Como Dockside space will be replaced by the owners of Republic. Any confirmation of this?

You would be correct, but things are still getting approvals. From here:

A team led by veteran Twin Cities restaurateur Matty O'Reilly is in line to take over management of the Como Lakeside Pavilion. O'Reilly proposes to open "Spring Café" in the space previously occupied by Como Dockside and Black Bear Crossings, say Dana Hagemann and Maggie Zimmerman, who are District 10's representatives on the city's selection committee. "We're excited about the opportunity," Zimmerman says. O'Reilly now is negotiating lease and management details. City officials continue to project an April start date.

If O'Reilly's name sounds familiar, it should. He's the guy who opened Delicata restaurant, on Pascal near Midway, in summer 2017. He also is familiar with running a restaurant on park property: He operates the seasonal Red River Kitchen at City House, creatively using a food truck to revitalize a converted barge terminal on Saint Paul's Upper Landing. O'Reilly and his team also operate Republic in Minneapolis' Dinkytown, and Bar Brigade in Saint Paul's Highland Park neighborhood.

HodgesBend at 2700 University St. Paul (Westgate LRT right on border with Mpls, near 280/94) is now open.

Since I live nearby I've several times in last 10 days they have been open. Their emphasis is on quality drinks - fromm coffee to cocktails, wine and some select beers on tap (I'm very fond of their Irish Coffee) but they also have a decent menu of quality food options from breakfast (served til 3 pm), weekend brunch, small plates, entrees, salads, and desserts. The have some high-end, high quality stuff but also affordable options.

Given its central location hub location at LRT station, seems like a great place to meet up with friends from different parts of the city. Space is classy and cozy, one friend described it as "sexy". Big marble bar, wood cabinetry and banquettes, high tops, big table for big groups.

Love that they are open from 7 am to late night.

Given they are open for such long hours and pack a diverse set of drink and food options into a fairly small place, best way I can think of describing it is if Café Latte, Groundswell, and Marvel Bar had a small child....

I'm very excited to try it out, have you tried their poutine yet?

I was there with some friends opening night, and they were giving out free poutine. Which was lucky, since I'm not a huge mushroom fan and probably wouldn't have ordered poutine with mushrooms, but it was very good.

The cocktails were also very good. I ordered one with "pepper" as a listed ingredient, assuming there would be some black pepper in there... there were a couple jalapeño slices floating in it when it arrived. Be wary if spicy isn't your thing.

I haven't had the poutine but people keep saying good things about it.

Their Irish Coffee is very good.

My Californian-born and bred spouse was even impressed by the tomatillo sauce that was on side of breakfast tacos.

They also have cool old school punch bowls so groups can get alcoholic punch.

Is there news for the old Faces on Mears Park space? Maybe I missed it.

It looks like FireBox Deli may be opening a location in the old Garden of Eva building on Marshall and Snelling. They have proposed some sort of addition to the building - can't wait to see more details! https://content.govdelivery.com/attachm ... 110218.pdf

Will 1 name a day get a free sandwich?

Surprised it hasn't been mentioned here, but Tin Cup's is moving. https://www.twincities.com/2018/11/03/t ... -violence/

Having a bullets whiz by your family is terrible. But I also can’t help but notice that over the past few years, improvements to the streetscape (road diet, bike lanes, better sidewalks) that actually would attract the very sort of patron Gidget would want at her business — well, she always stood in the way of meaningful improvements (beyond street lights) that would make Rice Street a much safer street to travel down and make Tin Cup’s more accessible to the area.

Can’t clean up Rice until we address the dangerous design and unpleasant streetscape. Gidget talks about walking distance, but then actively resisted anyone trying to make Rice Street actually walkable.

She may be a nice lady, but it’s time to start executing a new vision for Rice Street; the status quo simply doesn’t cut it.

look again!
https://www.twincities.com/2018/11/07/n ... oneerPress

And to her credit - Gidget wants to meet with me! We were going to on Sunday to chat a bit about our visions for Rice Street, but something came up and wasn't able to, so she bought me and my friend a round of beers. Truly an extraordinarily kind woman who does care about the neighborhood. I am hopeful that when we do eventually meet that we will find common ground! Seems evident that we both love this city.

Don't let her fool you.

I just want to point out, Tin Cup was going to move to Vadnais Heights specifically, which Bob Fletcher is/was the mayor of. Now that Fletcher is (unfortunately) the sheriff, they say they will stay. Smells like politics to me.

So he won the election because the restaurant threatened to move? Or what exactly are you saying?

They have a working relationship of some sort to the point that there would be a police substation rent-free in the basement of Tin's. I'm not necessarily against a police substation somewhere near Rice & Maryland. But I don't think that a police substation replaces the longer-term need to make more fundamental improvements to the neighborhood. For some reason there is a mentality that we can't make improvements to Rice until it is "safe" - but it won't be more "safe" until we start addressing the much-needed improvements that need to happen to the area which involve longer-term thinking.

I was surprised Fletcher was elected as Sheriff. Don't people remember all the ethics violations and scandals that lead to Bostrom's election?

Today is the last day for Great Waters. Can’t say I’m personally too disappointed, but there seems to be some public reaction of disappointment. It’s a nice space, at least.

After about seven years as a vacant eyesore, the renovation of the Shilla>Kum Gang San>Korean Garden>Asian Buffet building on Snelling near Minnehaha is coming along nicely. Signage for the new restaurant went up today. No word on any prospective tenant for the southern third of the building, but I am glad to see they split that off for a second business.

(The "greater than" symbols in describing the history of the restaurants in this space was intentional. I only went to Shilla once, but recall it was pretty decent. The last tenant in this progression was known for serving... Hot Dog Sushi!)