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Photo by Jake Weyer
There are plans for a Walgreens to move into the space currently home to Pearson’s Edina Restaurant at 50th & Ewing.
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Biz buzz // Walgreens could replace Pearson’s restaurant
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By Southwest Journal Staff
Walgreens is looking at moving its 49th Street and France Avenue store in Edina to the current site of Pearson’s Edina Restaurant near 50th Street & Ewing Avenue.
The family-owned neighborhood café would close after 36 years on the corner and 71 in Minneapolis, but the Pearson family said nothing is decided yet. The Walgreens move is a proposal that’s still in its early stages.
Downtown-based Semper Development this spring brought preliminary redevelopment plans to the Fulton Neighborhood Association board. Revisions were presented at a July 22 community meeting, after this edition of the Southwest Journal went to press.
Semper Development architect John Kohler said parking and traffic flow issues at the Edina Walgreens are among the driving factors for the possible move. The Pearson’s site is larger and could remedy those issues, he said.
The restaurant building would be demolished and the site would be completely redeveloped for the drugstore, Kohler said. Height would be on par with the old building, but the new development’s face would stretch further along 50th.
Kohler said the new store would not look like a typical Walgreens. Creating a design that fits with the surrounding property — specifically the newer Pinehurst building next door — is a priority, he said.
No plans have been submitted to the city and no timeline has been drawn.
“This is an initial concept,” Kohler said. “We want to get the feelers out there and see what the neighborhood thinks.”
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New grocery store moving into Ron’s Market
Southwest residents still mourning the June closing of Ron’s Market at 4600 Bryant Ave. have a new grocer to look forward to.
Tom Thomson, who owns Guse Hardware next door to the former Ron’s store, plans to reopen the market under a new name with new offerings by September. Thomson plans to cut down on the chips, soda and other junk food and focus instead on fresh, local, organic items.
“As much local stuff as we can get that’s good and good quality,” he said.
The store will also offer recipes and cooking expertise from professionals. Thomson said he’s been working with a cookbook author, someone with a food science degree and local growers and distributors.
He’s working on remodeling the space for his new venture, which hasn’t been named yet. Hours will probably be around 6:30 a.m.–9 p.m. daily.
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Smokin’ hot barbecue comes to Tangletown
Friends and family always told Chris Jackman, known as C.J., that he knew how to cook ribs.
The Bloomington resident said he’s been doing it for 20 years, ever since he picked up the skill from his father. But he never did it for a living, until now.
C.J. and business partner Greg Alford — a South Minneapolis resident — recently opened C & G’s Smoking Barbecue at 4737 Nicollet Ave. S. The restaurant replaced an Italian eatery next door to bakery Madwoman Foods.
Aside from ribs, C & G’s serves a variety of barbecue dishes and special creations including a Motor City corned beef sandwich, chicken wings, catfish, Coney dogs, chili cheese fries, hot-water bread and more. The focus is food, so the restaurant does not have a liquor license.
Hours are 11 a.m.–10 p.m. Monday–Thursday and 11 a.m.–11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. C & G’s can be reached at 825-3400. A website is in the works.
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A new option for take-and-bake pizza
Take-and-bake pizza company HomeMade Pizza is scheduled to open in Calhoun Commons Sept. 10.
The 3056 Excelsior Blvd. store will offer pre-made pizzas, cookies and salads with all-natural ingredients. HomeMade Pizza has four other Minnesota locations, as well as stores in Illinois and the Washington, D.C., area, but this will be the first one in Minneapolis.
Homemade Pizza will offer some competition for Papa Murphy’s, a take-and-bake chain that is largely unrivaled in the metro area.
“We’re a family-owned company and we’ve always worked hard to stay true to our roots — offering our customers made-to-order, bake-at-home pizzas created from the freshest, best ingredients we can find,” said Shane Colton, from the Chicago branch.
The pizzas range from classic cheese and pepperoni to “favorite ensembles” like sausage and caramelized onion and spinach pie, with fresh spinach, feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted garlic, pine nuts, fresh Wisconsin mozzarella and an olive oil base.
Any combination is possible, even taking plain cheese pizzas and adding your own toppings at home, such as fresh produce from the farmers market.
Online ordering, which will allow customers to place an order online and pick it up when it is ready, will be up in the fall, but the in-store wait is expected to be about 10–20 minutes.
Customers can pick up a pizza, take it home, and put it in their refrigerator until they are ready to eat. Ten to 15 minutes in the oven, and it’s ready to serve.
The store will be open Monday–Thursday from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday – Sunday from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. To check out the menu, visit homemadepizza.com.
“With everybody living such busy lives these days, we’re trying to make dinner easier while striking the balance of giving you something you can feel good about serving and eating,” said Colton.
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Vegas gallery owner opens Uptown store
Las Vegas art gallery owner Ken Zamani chose Uptown for his second venture, Art at Your Door Gallery II, which opened July 6 at 1433 W. Lake St.
The gallery features about 20 international artists, as well as custom framing, home accessories and gift items. Most suppliers are from the Minneapolis area.
Zamani is also looking for a few local artists to add to the collection. The gallery offers copies as well as original works, with prices from $200 to the thousands.
A thousand custom frame samples are available from almost all major companies. Zamani requires that the companies featured have 15–20 years of experience with framing.
Zamani and his wife, a Minneapolis native, split their time between here and Las Vegas.
They worked for a month renovating the space and said the gallery has been “well received.” Zamani is not an artist, though he jokes that he wishes he were. He worked in interior design and home décor for 30 years.
A painting by Zamani’s favorite artist, Orlando, hangs behind his desk. The Cuban artist is well known for his elaborate rooms in which he paints other famous works of art.
During the summer the gallery is open 11 a.m.–7 p.m., but stays open an hour or two later on Friday and Saturday. The store does not have a website, so call 824-7956 to get in touch.
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Bull Run Coffee stampedes into Calhoun Village
In October Bull Run Coffee will join Rustica Bakery in its new location in Calhoun Village at 3220 W. Lake St.
It will be the first retail location for St. Louis Park–based Bull Run Roasting Company, a roaster wholesaler, said owner Greg Hoyt.
The menu will include coffee, espresso, espresso beverages and iced beverages. Only seven or eight coffees will be available at a time, but each blend can be brewed on a single cup. No airpots will be used to store mass amounts of coffee.
A state-of-the-art espresso machine, milk art and brand new espresso blend require precise and skilled work by baristas. The lack of large overhead menus will stress consumer-producer relationships.
Hoyt said he is most excited about the tasting experience that will be offered to customers.
“I’ve been dying to do this because no one else has. No one has brought to retail the behind-the-scenes way in which we evaluate coffees, slurping coffee with spoons,” Hoyt said.
Hoyt suggests the cupping experience changes the way people look at coffee, and believes it’s a great way to include people in the process.
For four years Hoyt wanted to connect with consumers in a new way. Two years ago he began talking with Steve Horton, owner of Rustica Bakery, on how to combine the two companies, which share similar philosophies.
Rustica also successfully paired with coffee shop Java Jack’s in its old location.
The new store will most likely open at 6:30 a.m. weekday mornings and at 7 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. It will probably close at 10 p.m.
The Bull Run Roasting Company provides coffee to restaurants, country clubs and stores around the Twin Cities and is open to the public during the week. For more information, call 952-285-4242 or visit bullrunroasters.com.
“We want to meet people on their coffee journey and help them along,” said Hoyt. “It’s a celebration of coffee.”
——— Café taking over former Acadia space
A prominent, but vacant storefront at the corner of Franklin and Nicollet avenues soon should have a new tenant.
The owners of Tillie’s Bean planned to open a second location of their South Minneapolis coffee shop at 1931 Nicollet Ave. S., the former home of Acadia Café, which decamped last year for the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. The space was briefly Café Oliver, but the soup-and-sandwich joint closed last fall after only a few months in operation.
Maggie Turner, who owns Tillie’s Bean with her husband, David, said they planned to serve coffee and their breakfast-all-day menu 6 a.m.–4 p.m. daily. Tillie’s is a family-run operation, with David Turner roasting the coffee and Maggie Turner’s mother preparing fresh baked goods daily.
During its tenure at the corner, the Acadia Café built its reputation on an extensive beer list and the live, local music it hosted in the building’s intimate theater space.
The Turners may some day offer beer and wine, but they won’t be on the menu when Tillie’s Bean opens in August. The theater space will be made available to nonprofit organizations for fundraisers.
The café’s namesake — nature-loving Tillie, the Turner’s 6-year-old daughter — inspired the café’s eco-friendly practices. They planned to use recycled materials and compost organic waste to cut down on trash, Maggie Turner said.
According to her mother, Tillie’s current obsession is polar bears.
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Noted
Luggage and travel-goods retailer Urban Traveler moved in June from its Uptown space near Hennepin Avenue and Lake Street.
The longtime Uptown business opened a new store in Minnetonka’s Ridgedale Center. Urban Traveler spent many years in Calhoun Square before moving to its most recent Uptown location last year.
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A Subway restaurant is scheduled to open soon at 28th Street and Nicollet Avenue, in the former Maytag space.
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Newest development proposal: A courtyard with pool and movie screen in the heart of the Uptown nightlife scene
UPDATED August 31, 2010, 11:04am
By Nick Halter
A new development proposal in Uptown calls for the construction of a three-level restaurant with a rooftop patio, plus a private, ground-level courtyard with a pool and movie screen in the heart of the Uptown nightlife scene. The courtyard would go between Cowboy Slim’s and the new restaurant, which would be built directly across from the Lagoon Cinema on Lagoon Avenue, according to a plan submitted to the city of Minneapolis. The owner of the site is Uptown Gassen LLC, which is owned by Clark Gassen. Gassen is proposing a 3,000 square-foot, single-level retail building that would go along Girard Avenue between Lake Street and Lagoon. Underneath the proposed development would be a 125-car parking ramp. The restaurant’s three
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Harriet concession contract nears approval
UPDATED August 30, 2010, 1:00pm
By Jake Weyer
2 Comments
The board will decide this month whether to approve local restaurateur Kim Bartmann’s concept, Bread & Pickle.
After more than a year of community review and a selection process that narrowed a field of nearly a dozen applicants, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is scheduled to vote this month on a new Lake Harriet concession contract.
Staff recommended local restaurateur Kim Bartmann’s concept, Bread & Pickle, based on the suggestion of a community group that reviewed and interviewed the applicants. That group was made up of former members of a Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) the Park Board assembled last year after public outcry over a proposed concession change that would have required a new building. The CAC examined concession opportunities and drafted recommendations used to review applicants.
“The CAC was really a lengthy, drawn-out, long process,” said Park Board General Manager Don Siggelkow. “But it yielded the information and the understanding that I think brought this conclusion the way it needed to happen.”
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Urban fashion store and art gallery opens on Hennepin
UPDATED August 26, 2010, 10:14am
By Nick Halter
With rare Michael Jordan sneakers dating back to 1985, local art work, a DJ table and pinewood floors, Moh Habib on Aug. 21 unveiled Studiiyo 23, an urban fashion store and art gallery at 2319 Hennepin Ave. Everything about Studiiyo 23, from the name to the design to the merchandise, is a reflection of Habib, a 34-year-old world traveler who spent his high school and college years in Minnesota. “In those travels — I’ve been to 30 countries and 169 cities so far — I picked up the best of what I like from all those spots, and what I did was try to merge everything I love in life into one space,” he said. Habib has spent the last eight years working in Japan and Switzerland, first for Northwest Airlines and later as a
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Bryant Lake Bowl operator plans to buy Casey’s Bar and Grill
UPDATED August 25, 2010, 2:12pm
By Nick Halter
Kim Bartmann, who runs popular Lake Street establishments Bryant Lake Bowl and Barbette, said she has a purchase agreement for Casey’s Bar and Grill, 3510 Nicollet Ave. Bartmann wouldn’t offer specifics on what she will do with the space. She is asking to present to the Kingfield and Lyndale neighborhood groups soon to show them her plans. She said the renovation will last a couple weeks and said work will be done on the kitchen and dining area. Casey’s has a very limited food menu. “We’re a very food-focused company, so I think that will be a major change,” she said. Bartmann said Casey’s current owner has taken good care of the place and kept it clean. “It has a lot of potential,&rdq
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Neighborhood notebook
By Dylan Thomas, Nick Halter and Sarah McKenzie
THE WEDGELHENA hires new newspaper editorLowry Hill East Neighborhood Association hired a new editor for its monthly newspaper, The Wedge. Wedge resident Quentin Skinner took over with the July issues of The Wedge. Best known as the theater critic for City Pages, Skinner also has written two novels set in the Wedge, where he has lived for 15 years, according to an announcement posted Aug. 2 on thewedge.org. ——— WHITTIER Rex Hardware demolishedWrecking crews in early August demolished the former Rex Hardware building at 2601 Lyndale Ave. S. The demolition came 11 weeks after the Minneapolis City Council overturned a Heritage
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Parks update // Lake Harriet health
By jake weyer
Park Board applies for grant to study Lake Harriet healthThe Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board has decided it’s time for Lake Harriet to get a checkup. The board frequently receives complaints about the lake’s smells and surface algae and is hoping to perform a diagnostic study — funded by a $55,000 matching grant from the state — to see just how healthy the popular body of water is. “These grants are specifically being put out to prevent lakes from being designated as impaired lakes,” said the board’s Environmental and Field Services Director Debra Lynn Pilger. Pilger presented the details of the “clean water partnership grant” to the board at its Aug. 4 meeting. A
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Green digest // More mini markets
By Dylan Thomas
Farmers market season is at its late-summer peak, and more neighborhoods this year have easy access to fresh tomatoes and sweet corn thanks to an expansion of mini farmers markets sites. The number of mini farmers markets located mainly in low-income neighborhoods has tripled between 2008 and 2010, reported the Whittier-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), which established the market program in collaboration with the city. The Walker Place Farmers Market in the East Harriet neighborhood near a senior housing facility was one of the mini farmers markets to debut this summer. The Stevens Square Farmers Market, Southwest’s only other mini farmers market site, opened in 2008. The mini farmers markets are limited to five or fewer
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Wine may flow, after all
By Dylan Thomas
Uptown wine tasting was in question this springStart working on your swirl, sniff and slurp technique: The annual wine tasting sponsored by Hennepin Lake Liquors may go on this year, after all. This spring it appeared the wine tasting, an important fundraiser for Uptown-area neighborhoods, might not return for its 28th year. In mid-August, though, event organizer Pat Fleetham said he was nearly ready to announce a fall wine tasting. Fleetham said he was “tentatively proposing” a date in October for the tasting but still needed to finalize agreements with event sponsors before he could announce a time and location. The event in recent years had been held in early June. In March, though, Fleetham wrote in an email to
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Biz buzz // New improv theater
By Nick Halter
New Lyn-Lake improv theater will focus on long-formA new improv theater is coming to Lyn-Lake this fall, leasing the space formerly held by Lava Lounge clothing store at 3037 Lyndale Ave. Huge Improve Theater, the nonprofit company that is leasing the space, plans to have a roughly 100-seat theater open in late October and is pursuing a beer and wine license from the city. While Minneapolis already has improv theaters like Comedy Sportz and Brave New Workshop, HUGE Executive Director Butch Roy said the Lyn-Lake theater will be dedicated to a unique form of improv — long-form. No theater in the Twin Cities is devoted to the form. Most know improv in its short form through the “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” TV
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Schools notebook // Southwest steady on AYP
By Dylan Thomas
Six Minneapolis Public Schools in Southwest met goals for student proficiency in reading and math this year, down from eight schools in 2009. The district as a whole saw slightly fewer schools making AYP, or Adequate Yearly Progress, toward student achievement goals. About 14 percent of district schools met benchmarks on state standardized tests, down from nearly 19 percent in 2009. The slide means more district schools will face escalating sanctions under the federal No Child Left Behind law, although many in education say the law sets an unachievable goal. Approved by Congress in 2001, No Child Left Behind set a goal of 100 percent proficiency on math and reading assessments by 2014. But the ever-rising benchmarks mean more schools every year are
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Park Board organizing LRT advisory group
By jake weyer
Adding another facet to the ongoing Southwest light rail discussion, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board voted last month to organize a citizens advisory committee (CAC) to mitigate the impact of the route on parkland. Park Board commissioners, City Council members, neighborhood associations, Mayor R.T. Rybak and County Commissioner Gail Dorfman will appoint the 17-member CAC. The group will consider historical, cultural, visual, social, and safety issues associated with the 14-mile Southwest Light Rail Transit line (LRT). The route will start Downtown, travel along the Kenilworth trail between Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles, then stretch through St. Louis Park, Hopkins and Minnetonka, ending in Eden Prairie. Along the way, it will intersect or run
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