Open & Shut: Tracking Uptown's Latest Comings and Goings

The Lowry closed April 26 after 15 years on Hennepin Avenue, with its owners citing changing consumer behavior, city mandates and the long Hennepin reconstruction. Red Cow's Uptown location set a June 1 closing date after 10 years; owner Luke Shimp said sales fell 60% to 70% during the rebuild and never recovered, leaving the restaurant about 50% down when a new five-year lease came due. The plant-based restaurant Matriarch, at 1601 W. Lake St., closed within weeks of its June opening and is now in litigation; landlord Kashi Associates filed an Aug. 8 eviction suit claiming $33,000 in unpaid rent against owner Michelle Courtright's company.

The Uptown Association says roughly 65 businesses have closed in the district over the past four years, a tally that includes earlier losses like the New Uptown Cafe and Pizza Shark.

The arrivals are easier to overlook. Moona Moono, an Asian-inspired cafe and general store from owner Angie Lee, opened April 12 in the former Paper Source space at 3048 Hennepin Ave., drawing lines for coffee, boba and curated stationery. Karmel Market opened a full-service halal supermarket May 2 at Yusuf Corner on Lake Street, with halal meats, produce and a deli aimed at Somali, Arab and Latino shoppers.

Spaces are also changing hands. Justin Schaefer's vintage and streetwear shop, JSCHAE, opened in the former White Castle at 3252 Lyndale Ave. S., a building that has cycled through a music nonprofit and an antique shop in recent years.

Read both columns together and the season looks less like a single direction than a turnover: a corridor shedding longtime names while a new roster signs leases on the same blocks.