Uptown Minneapolis: The Neighborhood That Used to Be Cool

Ask anyone who lived in Minneapolis in the 1990s or 2000s about Uptown, and they'll tell you the same story: it was the cool neighborhood. Independent bookstores, vintage clothing shops, dive bars with live music, late-night diners, and young people everywhere. Then rents rose, chains moved in, and the character drained out. Today's Uptown is struggling to figure out what it is now that it's not what it was.

This is the story of a neighborhood that was cool, stopped being cool, and is now trying to reinvent itself.

What Uptown Was

From the 1970s through the early 2010s, Uptown was Minneapolis's bohemian district. Cheap rent attracted artists, musicians, and young people who couldn't afford to live downtown. The neighborhood developed its own ecosystem: Calhoun Square had independent shops. Cheapo Records sold vinyl. The Uptown Theatre showed art films. Bars like the CC Club and Liquor Lyle's stayed open late and didn't care what you looked like.

The cultural peak was probably the 1990s and early 2000s. This was when Uptown felt like its own city within the city — a place with distinct identity, street culture, and the sense that interesting things were happening. The musician Prince lived nearby and would show up at clubs unannounced. Artists opened studios above storefronts. Late-night diners fed service workers after shifts.

Then development came. Luxury apartments replaced old buildings. Chain stores moved into Calhoun Square. Rents doubled, then tripled. The independent businesses that made Uptown distinctive couldn't afford to stay. By 2015, the transformation was obvious. By 2020, it was complete.

What Uptown Is Now

Today's Uptown is in transition. The old character is mostly gone, but the new identity hasn't fully formed. Luxury apartments tower over streets that used to have three-story walk-ups. Chain restaurants fill storefronts that used to house local businesses. The sidewalks are less crowded. The energy is different.

The 2020 civil unrest hit Uptown hard. Some businesses never reopened. The pandemic accelerated changes that were already happening. The neighborhood that emerges will be different from what came before.

But Uptown isn't dead. It's changing. Some excellent businesses survive. New places open. The lakes are still beautiful. The bones of the neighborhood — walkability, density, proximity to water — are still there.

Where It Is

Uptown centers on the intersection of Hennepin Avenue and Lake Street. It stretches roughly from the Chain of Lakes (Bde Maka Ska, Lake of the Isles, Lake Calhoun) eastward to Lyndale Avenue, and from West 31st Street north to Franklin Avenue. The core of the action is along Hennepin and Lake, though these streets aren't as vibrant as they used to be.

What's Still Worth Visiting

**The Uptown Theatre** — Art deco movie theater from 1939, still showing films. The marquee is an Uptown icon and one of the neighborhood's most photographed landmarks. Go for a movie just to see the interior.

**Chino Latino** — Asian-Latin fusion restaurant that's been in Uptown since 1998. The food is creative without being weird, the atmosphere is stylish, and it's one of the few pre-gentrification survivors. Still excellent.

**The CC Club** — Dive bar that opened in 1934 and refuses to change. Cheap drinks, punk rock aesthetic, the ceiling covered in dollar bills. This is what Uptown used to be.

**Bde Maka Ska and the Chain of Lakes** — The lakes are why people moved to Uptown in the first place. Walking paths, beaches, kayak rentals, and some of the best urban park space in America. The lakes haven't changed.

**Cowboy Slim's** — Honky-tonk bar with mechanical bull riding, line dancing, and a commitment to not taking itself seriously. Fun, unpretentious, exactly what a neighborhood bar should be.

**Kitchen Window** — Cooking store that's been in Calhoun Square since 1981. Knives, cookware, gadgets, and staff who actually know how to use everything they sell. This is the kind of specialized local business that made Uptown work.

What Happened

Uptown's decline (or transformation, depending on your perspective) followed a predictable pattern: success attracted investment, investment drove up rents, high rents pushed out independent businesses, chains replaced locals, and the character that made the neighborhood desirable disappeared.

This is the fundamental problem with neighborhood coolness — it's self-destroying. The moment a neighborhood becomes known as "the cool neighborhood," developers notice. Money follows. And money kills whatever made it cool in the first place.

Uptown is now what happens after that cycle completes: a neighborhood with luxury apartments, chain stores, and the lingering ghost of what it used to be. The question is what comes next.

Getting There

Uptown is accessible by several Metro Transit bus lines (6, 12, 17, 21). Street parking is metered and competitive. Your best option is to bike — the Midtown Greenway bike path connects directly to Uptown, and there are bike lanes on most major streets. Walking from downtown takes about 30 minutes.

Uptown isn't what it was. The cool neighborhood is gone, replaced by something cleaner, more expensive, and less interesting. But the lakes are still beautiful. Some good businesses survive. And maybe — maybe — something new and worthwhile is emerging in the spaces between the luxury towers.

Or maybe Uptown's best days are behind it, and the future belongs to other neighborhoods. Time will tell.