St. Paul’s Lowertown faces challenges as restaurant closures mount

Lowertown is dealing with closings in recent years

Once a vibrant area of St. Paul, the Lowertown neighborhood has struggled in recent years to keep restaurant tenants, with Barrio being the most recent to close.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - Another Mears Park restaurant closed its doors over the weekend, leaving just one still open in that part of Lowertown St. Paul.

What we know

The Lowertown neighborhood was a vibrant restaurant scene not that long ago, but the area was dead during Monday's lunch hour and often in the evening as well.

Barrio is the latest restaurant to close, and the reasons so many are failing are complicated.

Bulldog now sits alone in a corner looking out over Mears Park.

Neighbors Big Biscuit, Noyes & Cutler, Handsome Hog, and others all closed their doors in the last few years, and Barrio served its last meal on Friday.

"It's been a lot of a lot of changes, a lot of challenges," Jeff Kaster, owner of Bulldog restaurant and bar told FOX 9.

‘For lease’ signs now litter the neighborhood across from the well-maintained park.

"This is our garden," said Dave Ziglar as he tended to flowers and plants in the park.

Ziglar lives nearby, and says the restaurants may be struggling because they’re too expensive for seniors.

"They got to get people out there and have a little more friendly pricing for the seniors down here, because a lot of them don't have a lot of money," he said.

But keeping prices low may be a challenge.

A mixed problem

St. Paul Planning Commissioner Nate Hood points out St. Paul has a higher minimum wage than most of its suburban neighbors, and taxes and rent are typically higher.

Restaurants can still make money when they have a big enough customer base, but during the pandemic a huge number of workers left downtown St. Paul offices to work from home.

Most of them have never returned full-time, and developers aren’t building new places for people to live.

"If you want the lunch business to come back, we're going to need workers," Hood said. "If you want housing to come back, we're going to have to do something about rent control."

The population is big enough for some new, smaller businesses like Warrior’s Garden.

"There's about 800 apartment units in a two block radius, so the locals definitely are our regular business customers," said Nick Rahn, who owns the veteran-aligned cannabis business.

However, foot traffic helps all the businesses and with every closed restaurant, there come fewer feet.

Rahn says more events could help, and he’s hosting comedy shows to do his part, but he’s having to jump through some hoops with the city.

He’s hopeful the pendulum swings back up soon.

Meanwhile, Bulldog’s owner doesn’t expect to be lonely for long.

"I think in time we'll be back to the robust, bustling Lowertown that we once were," said Kaster.

He’s actually hoping to take over the Barrio space, either for an expansion or a new concept.

Replacing the rest will be more of a challenge.