Style Scout: Little Brooklyn

How the artists and counterculture foodies of Northeast Minneapolis are keeping the neighborhood weird and wonderful.

Northeast is home to several wonderful, funky restaurants, including The Anchor Fish & Chips.

Image credit: The Anchor Fish & Chips.

Recommended by the Editor

Style Scout: Main Squeeze

Style Scout: Design to the People

By: Cy Winship |   November   |  From the print edition

In the August issue of METRO I lamented the fact that some clients of mine blew their wad on countertops, and thus had no budget for art. I encouraged looking for better options over finding something on the Internet or buying art-fair stuff. Later I got an irate letter telling me my column was “horrible” and that I was a terrible writer doing a disservice to artists who depended on art fairs to sell art. Ouch!

Then I got pissed off. Just because someone thinks they’re an artist doesn’t make them one—and they are definitely not owed a living simply for being one. I love artists, dammit. But, you gotta be good and, if not, you should do something else. So imagine my surprise when Susan Wagner Ginter from the Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association called me to judge NEMAA’s Fall Fine Arts Show—and told me it was that very column that made them want me. Take that, mean emailer!

Susan’s call came at the perfect time; I was already planning to write about Northeast’s growth as an art mecca over the last several years, a desire stemming in part from spending time in Brooklyn (I know, I know. Last month I wrote about us not trying to be New York, but this is different). The parallels between these locations were too numerous to ignore, and when I had dinner with Susan, a former Brooklyn resident, we talked about the similarities. There’s the obvious hipster-meets-ethnic thing: old Polish enclaves butt up against an amazing mix of new immigrants, followed by counterculture beatnik foodies who’ve moved in and opened restaurants. 

In both neighborhoods, there is another catalyst at play. Cheap housing and workspaces appeal to a certain kind of person with no money, but with a passion to remake things. In a word: artists—many of whom came to Northeast because they couldn’t afford Uptown anymore. That freaky mix of old-world folks, developing-world immigrants and artsy people gives the entire neighborhood its unique personality. The still somewhat shabby homes and cool vintage shops share the bohemian feel, and that’s all because of artists. The most unnecessary of things—a picture to hang on your wall—is the engine for cultural, social and, yes, even economic rebirth. 

Artists were followed by galleries, bars and restaurants, all bearing that artistic stamp. Just as Brooklyn’s funky, wonderful restaurants differ from Manhattan’s, Northeast’s boho eateries vary from those in downtown (and Uptown, for that matter)—places like Erté, Northeast Social, Anchor Fish and Chips, Element Pizza and the Modern Café (huge applause for Jim and Patty Grell, who started the Modern on 13th Avenue N.E. years ago when not much else was there).

Trust me, I know; I moved to Northeast in the early ’90s. (Sadly, way too far up Central—two women pistol-whipping each other in our front yard was the final straw, so we ended up back in Seward with the other old hippies). God, if we had only waited. To wander 13th Avenue N.E. now is heaven: Spinario, Rogue Buddha, rosemary panna cotta at Northeast Social, fries with gravy at Anchor Fish and Chips (OK, the fish, too). Metal-clad homes, ’60s funeral parlors and Ukrainian churches make me smile and giggle. Great, adventurous food and culture happens because exciting, thinking and feeling people demand it. 

I was terrified about “judging” art at NEMAA’s show, but shouldn’t have been. The great stuff jumped out at me (painter Caitlin Karolczak, who also happens to own Spinario, was the easy winner). Wildly uneven, but with several standout works, the whole show—like Northeast itself—was madly entertaining. Even some truly bad pieces are still making me laugh. 

So, this is where the fun people are. Saturday night in Uptown is for suburban poseurs and teens in Ugg boots (really, Uggs? Still?), while Northeast is real and fun and unpredictable. From a German pub (Gasthof Zur Gemutlichkeit, home of the yard of bratwurst on a plate!) to Afghani pizza at Crescent Moon to an art crawl in a former casket-maker’s building—it’s hard to get hipper, or better, than that.