Best Steak House: “When they told me business would go up…I couldn’t figure out how, but it really has”

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Mike Hatzistamoulos was born on the Greek island of Samos. “But,” he says, “I consider myself as a St. Paul boy.” His family has owned the Best Steak House at University and Victoria since the 1980s, and another one on West 7th Street prior to that.This article is part of the series, Along the Corridor: University Avenue business owners navigating change, an oral history project funded through a State of Minnesota Historical & Cultural Heritage Grant. As he multitasks, greeting a steady stream of customers and manning the grill, Hatzistamoulos recalls a fairly idyllic childhood. Of Samos, an island with a population of around 20,000, he says, “I was young, but back then it was nice, quiet, easy-going, nothing like the cities, I can tell you that.” He remembers going swimming every day, fishing, and playing soccer.Hatzistamoulos’s parents followed aunts and grandparents to the United States when he was 11-years-old. “We came over here for the big dream, to make lots of money,” he says with a smile, admitting that his family lives “very well” here. Continue Reading

Homi Restaurant: “If you like our food, come support us”

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“I remember my first year, when I come to Minnesota. Only one place that I can find Mexican people, El Burrito, El Burrito Market (on St. Paul’s West Side).” That was over 20 years ago, but Miguel López, co-owner of Homi Restaurant (864 University Avenue W., St. Paul), still recalls the feeling of isolation that he experienced. “No Lake Street, no nothing. Continue Reading

Flamingo Restaurant: “We feel like we’re home”

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In July 2010, six months after fulfilling their dream and opening Flamingo Restaurant (located at the intersection of Syndicate Street and University Avenue in St. Paul), Shegitu Kebede and Frewoini Haile faced a huge and unexpected challenge, one that they feared might shut them down.This article is part of the series, Along the Corridor: University Avenue business owners navigating change, an oral history project funded through a State of Minnesota Historical & Cultural Heritage Grant. Kebede explains: “We have a power surge run through our restaurant. I think two or three blocks from here, something happen (an Xcel Energy transformer failed). So the power company turned off the power to fix that situation and by the time I run to my box to turn the power off, the power came on, and all that power came, and our hood…it’s huge, it’s a $75,000 hood, so that burned, icemaker, freezer, refrigerator, everything that you can imagine.” The electrical surge that overloaded the system caused large quantities of meat and produced to spoil.Xcel Energy refused to cover repair costs, calling the power surge, “an act of God.” Kebede and Haile assumed their insurance would cover the damage, but they were wrong. They were told that their policy had no provision for electrical surges.“We didn’t have the money to fix all this….Everything we had, we invested in the place…and so we…we were ready to close. Continue Reading

Russian Tea House: “Will light rail bring me thousands of new people? I don’t think so”

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Russian cuisine was entirely absent from the Twin Cities food scene back in 1979. University Avenue, long a bustling commercial corridor, was best known for its new car showrooms, a huge Montgomery Ward department store and distribution center, the Blue Horse, one of the area’s most upscale restaurants, and the Prom Ballroom. It was void of the rich array of cuisines available today. Nicolai Alenov, owner of the Russian Tea House, with wife, Linda, says that Russian fare was scarcely available anywhere in the United States when they opened up shop at Fairview and University Avenues in St. Paul.We were a Russian carryout service and there was no Russian carryout in America. We checked out Chicago. Continue Reading

Dubliner Pub: “Do you think I have a crystal ball or something?”

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Tom Scanlon will tell you that he doesn’t have a crystal ball. He’ll also tell you he has a thing for shoes. The owner of the Dubliner Pub—and, until recently, the Turf Club—grew up in the village of Tarbort in County Kerry, Ireland. He arrived in the United States in 1965, landing in Saint Paul, where his uncle was a fire captain. The firehouse, located at University Avenue and Vandalia, is visible from the Dubliner’s front windows. Continue Reading

Placemaking: loving where you live and why it matters

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“What makes people love where they live, and why does it matter?” “What bonds residents to a city and how can a community foster those emotional ties to drive economic success?” Those are questions explored in the Soul of the Community Project, a major initiative of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Gallup pollsters. They were also the focus of several presentations by Dr. Katherine Loflin during her Placemaking Residency in the Twin Cities in early May. Loflin was lead investigator for Soul of the Community while at Knight.                            Among the events held during Loflin’s residency were a presentation and workshop, “Measuring and Understanding Place,” held at the Wilder Foundation, and a walking tour of portions of St. Paul’s Frogtown and Summit-University neighborhoods, combined with a discussion and placemaking brainstorming session. Both took place on May 8. Katherine Loflin (l), Tim Griffin, St. Continue Reading

Beer? Wine? Meat? Late hours? Dawn of the new—with a nod to its past—at Seward Cafe in Minneapolis

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Friday, March 8 marked a new chapter for the Seward Café, one that in many ways returns it to its roots. The worker-owned, collectively-run cooperative will once again be open late into the evening. Staying true to its mission, it will begin offering more meat options, as it did in the past, and resume pouring beer and serving wine. Entertainment will be regularly featured, beginning later this month.Radical Roots Collective member Ben Acaso says that changes were prompted by a really good summer. He chalks up the bump in business to the magic of plastic, i.e. credit cards. Acaso adds that it didn’t hurt to be named “best vegetarian” by City Pages in 2012, or that a team of food critics for Mpls.-St. Continue Reading

PFLAG’s Cultivating Respect conference promotes safe schools for LGBT and all students

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Close to 250 people gathered in St. Paul on January 18 for the second annual Cultivating Respect: Creating Safe Schools for All Students conference. Organized by the Twin Cities chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), the day-long event featured presentations and breakout sessions, followed by an awards dinner and entertainment in the evening. Hamline University’s Hedgeman Center for Student Diversity Initiatives and Programs hosted the conference, donating space at the campus’s Anderson Center to PFLAG. Attendees pick up programs and name badgesPFLAG-Twin Cities president, Carol Curoe, said that last year’s conference demonstrated the importance of holding such gatherings. It came together as stories about teen suicides in the Anoka-Hennepin School District were making the news. “There is nothing else like this for teachers. Continue Reading