Uptown's Newest Tenants Are Betting on Late Nights Again

"The bottom line is that Uptown is evolving from a nightlife destination to a neighborhood-servicing corridor." Suzanne Schefcik, vice president of capital markets at Colliers, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that in late May. At the time, it sounded right. The Lowry had closed in April after 15 years. Red Cow announced it would close June 1 after a decade. Both said the prolonged Hennepin Avenue construction was one reason the numbers stopped working.

Four months later, the storefronts that refilled along West Lake Street and Lagoon Avenue point the other way. The busiest new arrivals around Lake and Hennepin have extended Uptown's closing time. One pizza counter stays open until 3 a.m. on weekends, a chicken restaurant runs across three floors with a rooftop, and a taco spot is planning dance nights. The neighborhood-serving shift is real. But the tenants that arrived this summer are also bringing back the late-night Uptown that forecast expected to fade.

Where the Daytime Forecast Came From

The forecast had solid evidence behind it. In the same Star Tribune story, Chris Ikeda, co-owner of Lake & Irving, described the recent wave of smaller independent openings as "the most positive energy I've seen in Uptown since I opened the restaurant 13 years ago." Most of those newcomers were daytime businesses. Thesis Coffee Collective, Mosaic Coffee Co. and Unwind Corner Cafe joined longtime staples, while new burrito, Cantonese, samosa and peri peri chicken spots opened or signed on along Lyndale and around Lyn-Lake.

The same reporting also points to what makes the next move possible. Schefcik said retail and restaurant space in Uptown costs about half as much per square foot as space in the North Loop. Rent that cheap attracts small local operators. It also lets any restaurant take on a big footprint and long hours without the rent eating the margin. And the orange cones are gone. The Hennepin reconstruction between Lake Street and Douglas Avenue reopened to traffic on Oct. 31, 2025, and the city now describes major construction as substantially complete.

The shoppers came back after that. Judy Longbottom, owner of the UPS Store on Hennepin and vice president of the Uptown Association board, told the Star Tribune her sales rose 25% in April and another 30% in May. "Uptown is back," she said. "We have so much to be excited about now that the construction trucks have left."

Five Storefronts and What They Used to Be

Every one of this summer's new Uptown tenants moved into a space with a recent past. Some had been empty for close to a year, and some had changed hands more than once.

Only one row describes a lunch-and-dinner restaurant. Every other space was set up for later hours, a larger crowd, or both.

Closing Time Just Moved Later

OG ZaZa, the local pizza chain founded by chef Josh Hedquist, took over the former Mesa Pizza slot on West Lake about ten months after Mesa's last night. According to the Star Tribune, it's open 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and until 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. That schedule keeps the same block busy after the bars close, which is the job Mesa's slices did for years.

Around the corner, Harold's Chicken is open at 1430 Lagoon Ave. It's the Chicago-based chain's second Minnesota location, after Brooklyn Center. The Star Tribune describes three levels, a rooftop patio, boozy soft serve, blender drinks and "plenty of big TVs to catch every game." When it was announced in July, the project was described as the chain's largest location, with a full-service sports bar and a double rooftop. The building has held Daisy's and, before that, Cowboy Slim's. Neither was built as a lunch counter.

At Lake and Hennepin, Arizona Taco Co. from New Hope opened its second location in the space Arts & Rec left in 2023. Racket reported that the restaurant plans salsa and other dance nights. One rooftop salsa night has already happened, on Sept. 11, from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Arizona Taco hasn't posted a recurring schedule yet, so its Facebook page is the place to check for the next one.

Taken together, these three spots mean a Friday night at Lake and Hennepin in fall 2026 can run well past midnight in ways that were hard to count on a year ago.

The Daytime Tenants Stay Open Later, Too

The neighborhood-serving openings are part of the same pattern, because they also keep longer hours.

Haraz Coffee House opened its first Minnesota cafe in the old Iron Door Pub at Lyndale and Lake. It ran a soft opening through July 9, and franchisee Hussein Alobaidi planned later evening hours from the start. The corner that used to fill up with pub regulars after work now has a coffee shop open into the evening. That answers a complaint from the May reporting. Nora Hitchcock, who moved to Uptown after graduating from the University of Minnesota, told the Star Tribune, "I wish there were more coffee shops that stayed open late. I work a nine-to-five, and it feels like whenever I get off work, there's nothing to do."

Tom's Thai is the closest match to the daytime forecast. It serves soups, curries, fried rice, pad thai and noodle dishes at lunch and dinner, and it also has cheese curds. Its space at 1601 W. Lake St. has changed hands more than any other in this group. It was Kim Bartmann's Pinoli, then Matriarch, which opened in June 2025 and closed after about two months. A steady lunch-and-dinner tenant makes that address a regular stop again.

Seven Points is changing at the same time. Part of the former Calhoun Square at Hennepin and West 31st Street is being demolished. By late 2027, Doran Cos. plans a five-story, 228-unit apartment building where the Kitchen Window and CB2 storefronts used to be. That's more people living within walking distance of places that stay open until 1 a.m. and later. Chris Ikeda put the longer pattern this way: "they don't stay dead forever; they're always going to change every 15 years or so."

An Uptown Fall Calendar Built Around the New Hours

The fall event calendar gives residents reasons to walk past these storefronts, day and night.

1. Friday evenings, community walks. Uptown United lists Friday walks that meet at 6 p.m. at Seven Points and wrap up around 7:30. That leaves time for dinner at one of the new spots.
2. Oct. 10–11, City of Lakes Art Fair. This is a new fall fair at East Bde Maka Ska Parkway, between West Lake Street and West 32nd Street, with more than 150 artists and live music, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.
3. Oct. 11, Open Streets Hennepin. Hennepin Avenue closes to cars from 26th to 34th streets, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., for local businesses, artists, performers and food vendors. The East Isles neighborhood calendar lists the date.
4. Oct. 21, Uptown Movie Club. The club meets at the Lagoon Cinema from 7 to 9:30 p.m.

October 10 and 11 make for the fullest weekend. The art fair at the lake runs both days, Hennepin is car-free on Sunday afternoon, and both events end at 5 p.m. That still leaves the evening for the new places. Harold's rooftop is open for dinner, and OG ZaZa serves until 3 a.m. Saturday night and 1 a.m. Sunday.

New tenants on West Lake and Lagoon change how an Uptown evening goes, and they can change how a nearby home's location reads to the next buyer. At Michael Favre, we follow those corners closely and are happy to talk through what's changing on your street, with no pressure. Let's Find Home.