Same Operator's Edina Grill Closed Months Before Its Uptown Exit

The Lowry, a fixture on Hennepin Avenue for some 15 years, closed first, on April 26, 2025. In announcing the shutdown, Blue Plate cited "multiple compounding issues over several years," including changing consumer behavior, "city-specific mandates and economics," and the prolonged, disruptive reconstruction of Hennepin Avenue (startribune.com/uptown-minneapolis-restaurant-the-lowry-is-closing-april-26/601667822). The $36 million Hennepin project widened sidewalks, added protected bike lanes and a median, and built stops for the Metro E Line, and an 18-month stretch of construction made it harder for customers to reach Uptown businesses. The Uptown Association has said roughly 65 businesses have closed in the area over four years.

The Edina Grill followed in September, closing Sept. 18, 2025 after more than 25 years at 50th and France. Its closure had a different cause: the lease ended, and the adjacent jeweler R.F. Moeller is expanding into the space. Staff were offered jobs at other Blue Plate restaurants (startribune.com/edina-grill-closing-blue-plate-restaurant-group-50-france-construction/601436437).

The two closures came during a hard year for the group, whose co-founder David Burley died in a motorcycle crash in 2025; Stephanie Shimp co-founded the company. Blue Plate still operates neighborhood restaurants including the Highland Grill, Longfellow Grill, Groveland Tap, 3 Squares and the Freehouse.

The pairing complicates the simplest read of Uptown's troubles. The Hennepin rebuild genuinely battered businesses there, and Blue Plate named it among the Lowry's reasons. But the Edina Grill's exit turned on a lease and a neighbor's expansion, not the corridor, a reminder that closures in a single restaurant group can have distinct, local causes rather than one shared villain.

[note: the original article asserted the Edina Grill closed months before the Uptown location; the documented timeline is the reverse — the Lowry closed in April, the Edina Grill in September.]