BY STEPHANIE FOX
It has been said that you don’t need a Minneapolis passport to visit the iconic St. Paul thoroughfare called Grand Ave., and it’s true. Among the 100-year-old houses and apartment buildings on that thoroughfare are unique restaurants and shops that are worth the trip across the river.
Red Balloon Bookshop (891 Grand Ave.) is a specialty children’s bookstore, and for the last 40 years, has been in the business of helping readers find the best in books. When the original owners Carol Erdahl and Michele Comer-Poire retired in 2011, Holly Weinkauf acquired the store.
Weinkauf says it’s a great place for people to get together with other book-lovers. Customers can come in and browse or attend some of the store’s popular events. At weekly story times everyone including infants and toddlers, is welcome. Wednesday mornings feature Storyteller Kelly and on Thursday, Storyteller Angela entertains with stories and rhymes.
In 2018, Red Balloon received the Woman’s National Book Association’s Pannell Award, and in 2024, the store was named a finalist for Publishers Weekly Bookstore of the Year. The Red Balloon Bookshop is open Monday – Saturday, 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. and noon – 5 p.m. on Sunday.
Chef Alex Roberts opened Brasa (777 Grand Ave.) in 2007 with the radical idea of bringing rotisserie-focused American Creole food, foods of the American South, the Caribbean and Mexico, to Minnesota.
Everything served at Brasa is made with regionally sourced ingredients. Menu items include Creole rubbed chicken, smoked beef with BBQ sauce, cornbread, yellow rice, black beans and collard greens.
Some of the restaurant’s best sellers include Creole-style rubbed rotisserie chicken, smothered chicken with creamy gravy, a roast pork with garlic-lime mojo and the fried catfish. There are also gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan options.
Prices support wages of $16 to $25 an hour, paid time off and health insurance. No tipping is needed.
Brasa is open 11 a.m. – 8 p.m., Sunday – Thursday, and 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
One of the more popular restaurants on Grand Ave., the cozy Iron Ranger (1085 Grand Ave.) offers “traditional Iron Range fare” including nachos with porketta, porketta sandwiches and a porketta Cubano. You can even add porketta to one of their specialty salads.
Iron Ranger also offers burgers, Buffalo chicken wings, flatbreads, codfish and chips and a lot more. If you are in the mood for an adult beverage, check the menu for local beers, wine and a number of exceptional and creative cocktails and mocktails.
Come hear live music featuring Ross Bell on Thursday evenings and Alex Sandberg on Sundays.
Dining is from 11:30 a.m. – 9 p.m., but the bar stays open later. Happy hour is from 3 – 5 p.m. on weekdays. Iron Ranger is closed on Mondays.
Treadle Yard Goods (1338 Grand Ave.) has been on Grand Ave. since 1976, but when Michele Hoaglund bought the store nine years ago, she wanted to spread the word that sewing is a creative venture and to teach current and future generations of about what she sees as an art.
Right now, the store’s main focus is the kid’s summer sewing camps, which she warns, book up fast. “Some of the kids have never used a sewing machine. And, we teach them hand sewing. It’s fun,” she said.
“For 25 years I’ve been doing custom sewing and have had classes of 25 years,” she said. “But people are getting more interested in sewing now. It’s about sustainability and creativity. The kids come in and start with bookmarks and soon they are doing skirts with ruffles.”
Adults too, can take classes, even if they’ve never sewed before and there’s advice for those advanced in sewing. “Some people come in with partially done projects. Some people come in with a button and ask us to sew it on. We show them how. They go ‘Oh!’ and then they do it themselves.”
Her half-dozen part-time employees, who call themselves the Treadelettes, pride themselves on customer service and giving advice to others who sew.
Treadle Yard Goods is open Monday through Thursday from noon until 6 p.m., Friday from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Sunday noon – 4 p.m.
While many toy stores focus on younger kids, Mischief (818 Grand Ave.) carries products that can also appeal to older kids, teens and even adults.
“We go toward the edgy and rebellious,” said owner Abigail Adelsheim-Marshall, who runs the store with her parents, Mille Adelsheim and Dan Marshall. From books to board games, lava lamps, Jellycat brand stuffed toys, ukuleles, edgy stickers and even pronoun pins, they have it all. They even carry a locally made hula-hoop called Hooperina. Customers wander the store to find the fun and the unusual.
The store was inspired by a family road trip nearly 10 years ago, to find new ideas as they changed the store from a baby store to what it is today.
“Halloween is very big for us,” she said. “We carry a lot of themed things and have a costume contest. It’s one of our favorite events.”
“Pretty much everyone will find something to excite them,” she said. If you don’t find what you want, the store is looking for recommendations. “Every kid wants something different.”
Mischief is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon – 8 p.m. and Sunday noon – 5 p.m.
While there are a lot of long-established shops on Grand Ave., few have been around for 119 years and still owned by the original family, like George’s Shoe and Leather (672 Grand Ave.) Bring in your leather shoes, purses, jackets and gloves and the leather workers here will have you taking them home, good as new.
The George brothers, Brian, Chris and Dan took over the store 20 years ago and hired and trained Tim Grundhauser.
“It’s crazy busy,” said Grundhauser. “We do about 200 repairs a week. I like taking anything that looks bad and make it whole again.”
Tim Grundhauser at George’s Shoe & Leather
In addition to leather repair, George’s is the place to bring your hockey equipment. “We fix broken blades, goalie gloves that need to be restrung. We repair hockey equipment from local high schools and even the pros.”
Some of the repairs are more fun and games, including a pair of clown shoes and a leather elephant that needed a new trunk and saddlebag. And, said Brian George, they repair a lot things dogs have chewed.
George’s Shoe Repair is open Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. They are closed Sunday and Monday.
Woman-owned grocery Golden Fig Fine Foods (794 Grand Ave.), now in its 18th year, might be small; but if you are into cooking and good food and are looking for unique or high-end ingredients for your recipes, this is the place to go. Everything for sale is American made (much of it locally made) from the fresh and frozen foods, cookbooks, candles and even doggie treats, all using clean ingredients with no artificial coloring or flavoring.
The store also carries their own line of herbs and spice blends, vinegars and sugars, all blended and bottled in small batches each week.
In 2014, the store hosted a visit from President Obama who had heard about the shop and its local food focus and wanted to visit this and other St. Paul small businesses. A week later, he called the owner Laurie McCann-Crowel to ask her about being a small-shop owner.
Golden Fig Fine Foods is open Monday through Saturday: 10:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
