There’s not much point in bemoaning the death of Uptown (the neighborhood) as anything but an open-air mall, as that happened 15 years ago, but still: the Uptown is the only tolerable bar left within 3 blocks of Hennepin and Lake, and probably the best of all the tolerable bars in the Harriet/Calhoun/Lake of the Isles area. Also, last time I checked Tommy and Bob Stinson’s mom still worked there.
The developer behind the project, Jeffrey Herman, said a plan is in place to relocate the bar and keep its legacy as a music venue alive.
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Herman, whose company, Urban Anthology, helped bring Victoria’s Secret and American Apparel stores to Uptown, said he is among those who would hate to see the neighborhood lose such a landmark. That decision is up to bar owner Frank Toonen, 88, who approached Herman about the retail plan, the developer said.
I hope the old man gets a lot of money for it. I can’t imagine the relocation will come to much. Aside from its legacy, the Uptown wasn’t ever anything more than a decent bar and a decent music venue. Not vital, just solid. Still, Jeffrey Herman can go fuck himself with his middle-brow retail bullshit.
This sucks. Now the only reason to ever set foot in Uptown is to see a movie. Which you can still do here but not here, at the Suburban World Theater, one of America’s last remaining Atmospheric Theatres. After becoming a “Cinema Grill” (ugh) it’s now just some sort of vague “event space.” I’m told the cloud machine still works, though.
