Quirky 38th – Never gonna gentrify U

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE

A couple of years ago, there were serious fears in some quarters that the arrival of the Seward Co-op Friendship Store on 38th Street would open a wedge (if you can pardon the pun) to gentrification of the adjacent Central and Bryant neighborhoods. Even before that, the Tiny Diner, a Kim Bartmann eatery, had opened a few blocks east, and although it’s a restaurant you might associate with a more upscale neighborhood, it also fits in with the prevailing values.  Somehow 38th Street deflects efforts to make it trendy, let alone exclusive. The Friendship store defied the worst expectations and blended smoothly into the predominantly African-American setting, and now has a majority-minority staff and a diverse local customer-owner base.
Maybe it’s because of some of the long-standing businesses and organizations  along its stretch from Bryant Avenue’s anchor in the west (Walker Methodist Health Center) to the last institution before River Road in the east (Howe Elementary School, one of two district schools on the street, the other being Bancroft.) Maybe it’s also the influence of Sabathani Community Center, across the street from the co-op, the first African-American founded major nonprofit in the state and still going strong in its imposing old school building (formerly Bryant Junior High School, the alma mater of Prince).
Remember (how could you forget?) the spoken intro to Ike and Tina’s “Proud Mary” that Tina Turner does: “We never like to do things nice and easy; we like to do them nice and ROUGH.” That’s what 38th Street reminds me of. Take, for example, two near neighbor establishments—Vintage Music and the Southside Farm Store. Both of the businesses have an admirably narrow commercial mission, in keeping with their smallish spaces. And this makes them too quirky to be fashionable. Besides that, they are too venerable, and too disheveled, to allow the gentry to blossom in their vicinity.
Vintage Music is all about 78 RPM records. I learned this first by consulting their surprisingly well-organized, straightforward and up-to-date website. I say surprisingly, because the shop itself is anything but those adjectives. I had never been in, and I was only in there about three minutes. To tell the truth, the facade has always rather daunted me. The windows are not so much a display as a lurid revelation of some kind of steampunk, dystopian other-world inside. And guess what—it’s exactly like that once you’re through the door! They do indeed sell 78s, and not that I would know, but the assortment seems to be impressive, almost overwhelming. They also repair turntables (to be fair, it does say so on the signage.) The website says they sell reconditioned old record players that play 78s, which is useful, because the turntables of the last 40 years or so don’t have that speed. I could only see one in my quick circuit around the store, and it seemed like a stone bargain at $200—a 1917 Victrola cabinet also including its stuffing of 78s. Obviously, this is exactly someone’s cup of tea, because they are doing a good trade just off the corner of Cedar and 38th.
Southside Farm Store, 16th Avenue and 38th, is a local resource for urban farmers that also sells “pet supplies” and related items for the care and feeding of animals. Both of these classes of goods can be bought at other places in the area, some even along 38th Street. The very upscale and much-loved Mother Earth Gardens at 38th Street and 42nd Avenue has everything a gardener could want—whether urban or suburban, food or flower or lawn, indoor or outdoor. And the very 38th Street-quirky A Tree Service, too, has some things like straw bales (about which more later). But Southside Farm Store is unique in combining these items and selling them from what looks sort of like a country lot with a little shack on it. Atmosphere it has, or some would call it an odor, but the goods are good and the service is friendly.
In the vicinity of Vintage Music are some more uniquely 38th Street sites. Everett’s Grocery has occupied the southeast corner for six decades. The owner, and master butcher, started the business himself at the age of 26 and has no plans to retire. One of his daughters is now the manager. Everett’s is famous mainly for its meat, but it’s an excellent if old-fashioned (they carry your bags to your car!) grocery store with lots of items packed into its small, well-organized space. Another daughter operates The Candy Jar, just around the corner at 3805 Cedar. This used to be an Abdullah (a chocolatier in Burnsville) outlet, but now carries a variety of other sweets as well, including old-time hard candies, and also seasonal gifts. In the other direction from Everett’s just east on 38th Street, is the La Loma tortilleria, a wholesale outlet supplying its own and other restaurants and, among other retailers, Everett’s. On the southwest corner there is a small-engine repair shop that appears to service nothing but lawn-mowers and rototillers. I’m sure that’s not strictly true, but I am trying to give you a flavor of the neighborhood here.
Keeping in the rough-and-tumble blue-collar vein is a very unusual business that really is a big lot with a small shack on it—A Tree Service. Eleven months out of the year, this place sells things like straw bales and mulch for your urban farm and firewood for your stove, as well as, as the name implies, performing tree services. But for the month of December, it’s an extraordinary Christmas tree lot that not only sells everything evergreen but also hosts the neighborhood group’s (Standish-Ericsson Neighborhood Association) Christmas tree lighting social event. And speaking of urban farms, there is actually a farm a few blocks east of there. At the corner of Standish Avenue and 38th, a vacant residential lot was turned into a biodynamic garden plot that’s part of the Jack Dog Farms CSA.
The aforementioned Tiny Diner has grown to be one of the main foody destinations for Central-Powderhorn-Corcoran and environs. With a beer and wine license, they sell wine-based cocktails and house-made sodas, and an interesting mixture of diner food and healthy gourmet fare. In conjunction with the Permaculture Research Institute, they also have a farm site elsewhere in South Minneapolis to grow a lot of their own produce. And the best part, and a real neighborhood feature, is the parking-lot farmer’s market each summer. They also have events there, such as the upcoming Pancake Breakfast and Plant Swap on Saturday, May 14, from 9 a.m. to noon.
I cannot fit in all the cafés, little shops, and restaurants along 38th Street, but two cozy neighborhood cafes, each with a different, uniquely local vibe, I will point out. On the other side of the light rail, at 36th Avenue, is Fireroast Café. A small but well-curated selection of baked items, sandwiches and burritos top the bill, and gourmet ice cream and the occasional live music rounds it out. And then there’s Keen Eye Coffee, the latest, and I hope lasting, coffeeshop to occupy the street-level below the condos at 28th Avenue and 38th. They also have very first-rate baked goods, and a full selection (including decaf) of coffees and teas.
There are also two outstanding small specialist restaurants, and one hoary old stalwart, that together or separately provide a powerful counterweight against gentrification. Ted Cook’s 19th Hole Barbecue is take-out only, and is legendary among local BBQ fans. Just east of 28th Avenue, it has a complete “soul food” menu (black-eyed peas, collard greens) and is dripping authenticity and street cred. Marla’s Caribbean Café, at Bloomington and 38th, is also legendary, though small and not the least bit flashy. It has nothing but five-star reviews on Yelp, was featured on the TV show “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives,” and is said to be some of the best Trinidadian food you can get without a passport. And then there is the Cardinal Bar, just before the light rail station. This is your go-to for partying like it’s 1969, with PBR and various fried things in baskets. Hard to believe, but you can also order it delivered by Bite Squad.
A final, and less appreciated, gentry-repellent is a community of good old-school geeks. Not the modern trendy kind with their anime and sushi, but the kind that collect things and are more passionate than they are socially skilled (my kind!). Again, three representative examples along 38th Street show that this is where quirky and geeky come together. The Hennepin Overland Railway Historical Society, Inc., is a nonprofit that operates a model railway museum and store at 2501 38th St. It’s only open on Saturday and Sunday, and the admission is not cheap, so I haven’t been yet, but I do intend to go some day and check it out. Dreamhaven, on the other hand, is a geeky establishment I know from way back, from when it was located in Dinkytown. When I first   moved to this neighborhood, Dreamhaven, which sells comic books and SF for the most part, was only open by appointment or random odd hours, but in the last year or so has happily returned to normal business hours. And finally, what can we say about the Riverview Theatre? Only that it’s a neighborhood treasure, and not just for its film schedule, low prices and excellent popcorn. The amazing Mid-century Modern decor stuck around for years of being very out of date, and now, like everything does, has become uber-trendy again. But it’s still not enough to gentrify good old 38th Street.