"We live in the neighborhood," Nicole Pederson-Bates told the Pioneer Press in August, a few weeks before she and her husband, Andrew Bates, opened Bewick Cafe at 1340 Thomas Ave. "We loved Groundswell. Having a place close enough to walk to was such a treat."
Groundswell was badly damaged by fire in May 2025. Pederson-Bates told the Star Tribune that, like a lot of people, she expected it to reopen. Then she saw the space listed and called about it.
That story fits most of what Hamline-Midway gained in 2026. Three new places to gather opened this year, and all three moved into a room the neighborhood had lost. Each one is run by people with a direct connection to the place that came before: neighbors who used to walk to the old cafe, a brewer who worked five years in the old taproom, and a library system that kept pieces of the old building and built them into the new one.
Three Losses, Three Returns
Here's the order it happened in:
- May 28, 2023. The Henry Hale Memorial Library, Hamline-Midway's 1930 branch at 1558 W Minnehaha Ave., closed to the public ahead of its replacement.
- May 2025. Fire badly damaged Groundswell, the cafe, bakery and coffee shop at 1340 Thomas Ave.
- Before summer 2026. Burning Brothers, the gluten-free brewery at 1750 Thomas Ave., closed after more than a decade in the same building.
- July 18, 2026. The new Hamline Midway Library held its grand opening on the same Minnehaha Avenue site.
- Summer 2026. SAW Brewing opened in the old Burning Brothers space.
- Weekend of Sept. 12–13, 2026. Bewick Cafe opened quietly in the old Groundswell space, with no formal announcement.
Two of the three are on Thomas Avenue. All three reopened within roughly the same summer.
On Thomas Avenue, the New Owners Already Knew the Rooms
Pederson-Bates and Bates didn't come to 1340 Thomas cold. According to the Pioneer Press, they talked with former Groundswell owner Megan Greulich Schoonover before deciding on an all-day cafe. They even thought about keeping the Groundswell name. They went with a new one because Pederson-Bates wants to add dinner eventually, and dinner never caught on at Groundswell. Bewick is named for Bewick's wren, a songbird.
The changes are small and specific. There's now a four-person bar, a long repurposed church pew in the main dining room, and part of the adjacent room can be closed off for private events. Bates also brought a full counter of salvaged butcher block from Chicago when the couple moved back to Minnesota, saving it for the day his wife opened her own place. It's now installed at Bewick. The Star Tribune described the look as a spare but cozy Scandinavian-design makeover.
Bewick sold out of cardamom buns, savory scones and other baked goods almost right away in its first days. For later risers, the menu also has griddled hard-boiled eggs with chili crisp, a breakfast burrito that can be made vegan, and a sambar stew made from roasted local vegetables. The opening menu announced in August also listed marinated cannellini beans with house-made pita, pickled herring, an egg soufflé sandwich, braised beef and a bacon and caramelized onion scone. Bewick's website lists hours of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day except Tuesday, when it's closed.
About half a mile down the street by address, SAW Brewing has a similar backstory. Kasey Pate opened it with her mother after spending five years brewing at Burning Brothers. "An opportunity was there to pick it back up," Pate told WCCO. "It's always been my dream to have my own."
SAW kept the old taproom's defining feature. The whole facility is dedicated to gluten-free brewing, and every ingredient that comes in is certified gluten-free. That makes the beer celiac-safe, which Pate described as something that matters to drinkers who can't rely on barley beers that have the gluten stripped out afterward. She's brewing her own recipes now, including an English pale ale. The name stands for "strong-ass women." SAW is open Thursday through Sunday.
"There's not a lot of options for people in the celiac community."
Pate said this while WCCO was noting how many metro taprooms had closed or changed hands over the past year. So SAW reopened a specialized taproom in a tough year for taprooms, and the person running it already knew the building and the people who drank there.
The Library Took the Longest and Kept the Most
The cafe space sat dark for more than a year. The library was closed for more than three years, from May 28, 2023, to July 18, 2026. Most of that delay came from a long fight over whether to renovate the 1930 brick building or tear it down and rebuild. A group called Renovate 1558 sued in summer 2023 to stop the demolition. Library officials argued the old layout had poor disability access and didn't meet current needs.
The building did come down, but a lot of it is still there. The Pioneer Press reported that the old stone arch entryway and salvaged brick now sit inside the new library, framing a wall that leads to a small meeting room with a display on the library's history. The new fireplace pays tribute to the one in the Henry Hale building and includes a mosaic salvaged from it. A designer with LSE Architects explained the diamond pattern on the new brick exterior. It came from the original Henry Hale drawings and, for reasons no one knows, was never built in 1930. Saint Paul Public Library says salvaged brick also lines the outdoor reading garden, and salvaged wood was reused in the community room.
More than 1,300 people came to the opening. The new branch is all on one level, with study rooms and meeting spaces that support hybrid meetings. It also has a geothermal well and heat pump, rooftop solar panels and bird-safe glass. It reopened with the old branch's hours: noon to 8 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, and 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
Across University, a Diner Built on Cleared Ground
Just south of University Avenue, outside Hamline-Midway's borders, the Midway Diner opened Monday, Sept. 28, at 445 Simpson St. in the United Village development around Allianz Field. It's the opposite kind of project from the three above. It's a new pavilion on land that was cleared after the old Midway Shopping Center buildings came down. The diner serves all-day breakfast and lunch, with 120 seats inside, a long zinc bar and 80 patio seats.
There's a link back to Thomas Avenue. The diner's head of culinary is Vincent Francoual, who ran Vincent, A Restaurant in downtown Minneapolis for nearly 15 years. Pederson-Bates studied under Francoual in culinary school, then joined his line when he opened Vincent. Teacher and former student each opened a Midway restaurant within about two weeks of each other this September.
Building new comes with its own pace. The hotel, parking ramp and office building in United Village are expected to open in 2027. Construction on the eight-story hotel stopped for more than a week in early September over stormwater fees, then started again after a compromise. The acre-sized Bailey Gardens planned next to the hotel missed its planting window for the second year in a row. The mayor's office says planting will wait until spring 2027.
Still Coming This Fall and Beyond
Several of this year's openings aren't finished yet:
- Picco Pizza and Gelateria, Francoual's second United Village spot across the walkway from the diner, is expected to open within a month or so of Sept. 30. It will serve pizza from a red deck oven brought in from Italy and gelato from Cossetta.
- Bewick happy hour will be added once the staff and the neighborhood seem ready, according to the August preview.
- Bewick dinner likely won't start for several months, per the Star Tribune's mid-September report.
- Library family storytime is on Tuesday evenings from 6 to 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 3, 10, 17 and 24. Teen Hang-Out: Miniature Painting is on Oct. 13.
- Bailey Gardens is now pushed to spring 2027 planting.
Bewick's bakery case currently sits on top of the new bar so it can be moved out in the evenings. The bar is being set up for the dinner service that never took hold at Groundswell.
If you live near Thomas or Minnehaha and wonder whether this year's reopenings show up in what homes on your block are worth, Arbor Residential Group can run an instant valuation and walk you through the recent sales behind it. Our team keeps track of the Midway one block at a time.
