St. Paul’s Grand Avenue and how to get there

BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE

Grand Avenue is not the grandest avenue in Saint Paul; it’s not even the grandest one nearby. That would be Summit Avenue, home of the Governor’s Mansion, the James J. Hill House, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s and his buddy Garrison Keillor’s little places. But it’s clear that Summit Avenue and Grand Avenue, which are parallel and adjacent, grew up symbiotically, Summit to carry the stately private homes, the grand churches and academies, and Grand to carry the apartment buildings, which have an urban grandeur of their own, the smaller houses, but especially the neighborhood goods and services all these people would need. So Grand Avenue was, is and shall always be, most likely, a shopping destination (or dining or pub crawling) and Summit Avenue most definitely is not.
Since our focus this month is Grand Avenue in Saint Paul, and I am here in South Minneapolis, I thought I might make a small detour and review a new option for getting there. Specifically the new A-Line bus service, which will get you quite quickly, and frequently, from the transit hub at the 46th Street LRT station to the corner of Grand and Snelling. In fact, it will take you all the way to Rosedale, and in the interest of thorough reportage, I did take it to the end of the line, then did a quick and, I have to say, thoroughly miserable tour of Rosedale, and hopped back on to return to Grand Avenue at Snelling. The A-Line is a new idea in bus service; it’s not exactly an express, but it’s express-ish. Like the LRT, you pay before boarding. Unlike the LRT, it only stops for sure at four stops along the way, but it WILL stop at any of the 20 or so if you request a stop or there is someone hailing it. On my trip, that happened slightly more than half the time; still it kept to the schedule and took about 25 minutes to get from 46th Street in Minneapolis to the transit hub at Rosedale.
Here is where one begins to see some design flaws. From where the A-Line stops at Rosedale to actually entering the mall there stretches a vast expanse of parking lot. It’s not user-friendly, signed, flat, sheltered, or close. It was hellish on a bright and breezy late summer day. I shudder to think what it would be like in winter. Or if you’re frail, blind, or even a bit mobility-challenged. It actually took me longer to find the entrance to the mall, spend about 5 minutes looking around, and then find my way back to the transit hub than it did to get there! And the 46th Street beginning of the line was not much better. Quite a hike, and the A-Line stop is the farthest one. Oh, well. Did I mention the buses have WiFi? So that’s good.
Getting back to Snelling and Grand, things looked up considerably. The corner there looks so completely different from the 1990s when I last visited Dunn Bros., but Dunn Bros., thank goodness, is still there. It also finally gave me a chance to visit Common Good Books. This is one of the must-see Grand Avenue area shops. It will not disappoint. Across Grand from the coffee shop is a little shopping center with another coffee shop, a Caribou, and one of the first signs of the colonization of Saint Paul by Minneapolis—a Coastal Seafoods. Apart from the Coastal Seafoods, and maybe the Sherwin Williams paint store, all the other businesses at this corner seem to have their eye on the Macalester student shopper, for this corner is also one edge of the Macalester campus. But if they had to stay here to shop, it would be a pretty meager existence, books and coffee shops notwithstanding.
Fortunately, another bus comes rolling eastward along Grand Avenue—it’s the #63. You can transfer to that and go see the real crème de la crème of Grand Avenue’s shopping in the vicinity of Grand and Victoria or Victoria Crossing. And some other good things along the way.  If one comes from the east heading west, that’s a good trip, too. This will lead you past the rest of the Macalester campus, another cultural incursion from Minneapolis in the form of a French Meadow restaurant, past the beautiful Grandview theater, a sister of sorts to the Highland Theater in Highland Village, past the lovely University of Saint Thomas campus and ultimately to the Saint Paul Seminary. Grand Avenue itself stops at the campus gates, but Summit continues on to intersect with Mississippi River Boulevard, beyond which is Shadow Falls and the Mississippi itself.
But let’s say we go east. Between Dunlap and Lexington Parkway is a shop I have never frequented but I have to mention due to the clever name—a baby stuff shop called— yep, Baby Grand. Just past Lexington is a shop that has branched out due to great retail success, not from Minneapolis, but from the Como Park neighborhood – the Bibelot Shop. This is one of those shops “about nothing,” as suggested by its name, but that has so many cool things that you should avoid it unless you’re well in credit and have a purpose, such as gift-giving (even if to yourself.)  In that case, go for it. One thing is for sure—no one will question your taste.
Pretty soon you will come to Milton Street. If you’re on the bus, alight here, at least if you can walk a few blocks. The five blocks between Milton and Dale, with Victoria Crossing in the middle, are the heart of the Grand Avenue shopping and dining district. Here is where you’ll find the venerable Cafe Latté (since 1984, when it was so ahead of its time) which has added on to its basic formula of upscale cafeteria dining, baked wonders, and coffee drinks the pleasures of pizza, wine and afternoon tea. It also has a spin-off—the very wonderful Bread and Chocolate, just across the avenue. Here also you will find the Barbary Fig, receiver of many best-of’s and high online ratings. In both restaurants and retail, I implore you, ignore the chains that started elsewhere, even if they’re good ones. Go for Grand Avenue unique —Salut, India House, Grand Ole Creamery, Emmett’s Public House, and Dixie’s on Grand, for instance. In the retail world, there is the Red Balloon Book Shop (children’s books only), Golden Fig (Midwestern-sourced fine foods, cookbooks and doggy treats), and Atelier 957 (women’s fashions.) You can go to Juut Salon or Anthropologie anywhere.
There are a couple of other places worth a stop. Technically, the first is a chain, because there are two of them, and the original was in Uptown, not here. That’s Penzey’s Spices. Especially if you’re a foodie, you’ll appreciate its vast selection of spices of the world. And then, Garden of Eden. Started locally in 1972, it has grown to be the best shop in town, maybe in the country, for fine body care products and scents. Their own-brand selection of soaps and soaks for the bath is amazing. Have a great day out on Grand Avenue.