What does a restaurant need to last at 27th and Lake? Two different answers have been tried in the same room within two years. By mid-September 2026, Square Roots was open in the Historic Coliseum Building, in the same space where Lagniappe opened in late September 2024 and closed eight months later.
Up and down East Lake Street and the blocks around it, the pattern repeats. The Hook & Ladder kept its name and changed hands. Duck Duck Coffee opened its second shop in Milkweed's old space. A sauna went up on a lot where a building had been planned. Hardly any of this year's arrivals are in rooms with no history, and each one is built a little differently from what was there before.
The Corner That Already Had a Restaurant
The Coliseum reopened on June 19, 2024, after a $30 million renovation. The co-development team included Redesign, Inc., architect Alicia Belton, consultant Janice Downing and Shanelle Montana, Sahan Journal reported. The building's own site describes it as office and retail space, with a coworking operation called Longfellow Collaboration Hub.
The ground-floor restaurant was the public face of that reopening. Shanelle and Chris Montana opened Lagniappe, a New Orleans-inspired restaurant, together with the return of Du Nord Cocktail Room, which had closed during the pandemic and the 2020 uprising. Both closed May 31, 2025. In their announcement, quoted by the Star Tribune, the owners wrote:
"Rebuilding on this stretch of Lake Street came with real challenges, and we met them with everything we had."
Du Nord Social Spirits and the Du Nord Foundation kept operating after the closure, according to the same report. The room sat ready for whoever came next.
What Square Roots Changed About the Setup
Square Roots arrived quietly. Longfellow Whatever reported on September 15 that it was serving lunch and dinner every day but Sunday, with a full menu. The owners were holding off on a bigger opening celebration until the liquor license came through. WCCO has since reported that the license is in hand and a full cocktail menu is on offer.
Founder Jared Brewington calls the food "Afro Creole Southern cuisine." In practice, the business behind it differs from the one it replaced in three ways:
- Pricing is held down on purpose. Brewington told WCCO that the wagyu bone and short rib, the top seller, costs $22. At lunch, a double wagyu burger with fries or the soup of the day costs $13. "We're decoupling food excellence from price," he said.
- Profit is not the goal. "We took the profit mission out of our mission," Brewington told the station. He brings experience from the nonprofit restaurant world, and the board includes former Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo, the Minnesota Twins' CFO and the former CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council.
- The kitchen doubles as a training program. A six-month paid residency for 13 young people ages 18 to 24 is planned, with guest chefs coming in to help train them. WCCO reported the restaurant was still taking interest for the cohort and looking for corporate partners.
Brewington also described the lunch side as a quick stop: "We're in an office building, but we're also in a busy neighborhood on Lake Street, where you can pull over." The first restaurant here was a destination dining room. This one is built to work at noon for people who are already nearby.
The Hook Kept Its Name and Changed Its Operator
A few blocks away, at Lake and Minnehaha, the Hook & Ladder turned 10 this year. The handover there is easy to miss from the sidewalk.
FPAC ran the venue in the historic Firehouse #21 from 2016 on. Its website says that in 2026 it is "transitioning from operating the Hook & Ladder Theater" to presenting shows at other venues around the metro. The Hook's own About page now lists Nobool Presents as the operator, and it still dates the venue's service to Minnesota's creative community back to 2016. The tenth-anniversary event on August 7 and 8 was billed as "Firehouse Performing Arts Center & Nobool Presents." FPAC curated the Saturday lineup, and food-concession proceeds went to FPAC. In August, Longfellow Whatever reported that the venue was getting ready for another expansion.
The three stages are still The Theater, the Zen Arcade Stage & Lounge, and Under the Canopy. Programming still runs from concerts and comedy to film, dance, culinary events and community gatherings. From the outside, the venue looks the same. Behind it, a different organization is now responsible.
Further East, Smaller Bets in Spaces With a Past
At 39th and Lake, the old Milkweed space has a new tenant. Duck Duck Coffee, owned by Kat Naden, opened its second shop there, called Ducks on Lake, at 3822 E. Lake St. Racket reported that it had been quietly open since June 19, 2026. This is the same quiet kind of opening Square Roots chose. Like the Hook's new operator, Duck Duck is an established name moving into an existing room rather than a first-time business.
A little further along, Silver Lake Sauna opened in early May on the empty lot next to Dogwood Coffee. Longfellow Whatever described it as rentable by the seat and the only sauna business in the neighborhood. That lot had another plan first. Dogwood had announced a new building next to its Lake Street shop. As of a May 2026 update, that plan is paused, and the owners are looking at expanding inside their current building instead. The sauna is a lighter use of land that was meant for something bigger, and it is open now.
The Pending List Looks the Same
The openings announced but not yet confirmed follow the same pattern. Most of them are moving into a space with a recent past or growing an existing business.
| Business | Location | Last public word | Status as of Oct. 12, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Front Porch Pies, vegan bakery | 3008 36th Ave. S., former Savory Bake House storefront | Aiming for an October opening; its FAQ still lists the storefront as "Soon" | Opening not confirmed |
| Levitated Dispensaries | 41st and Hiawatha, the other end of the Elevated Beer Wine and Spirits building | Expected to open "next week," per an August 18 report | Opening not confirmed |
| Iron Loon Clubworks, golf-club repair and used gear | 40th and Lake | Could open by the end of May, per a May 20 report | Opening not confirmed |
Savory Bake House didn't close for good. It moved to 895 Front Ave. in St. Paul and kept its Friday through Sunday hours, 9 a.m. to noon, Bring Me The News reported on October 8.
Where the Second Tries Show Up on the Calendar
Several of these rooms host public events over the next three weeks. The dates below come from Longfellow Whatever's October events calendar:
- Saturday, Oct. 17: Audrey Rose Vintage hosts a maker-and-vintage market.
- Tuesday, Oct. 20: Bungalow Club holds an Italian Islands wine dinner.
- Wednesday, Oct. 21: The BeLongfellow Gathering takes place at the Historic Coliseum Building and features the Longfellow Whatever VR Time Machine.
- Sunday, Oct. 25: The 11th Annual Homebrew Tasting at the Community Hops Garden, and Boo 'n' Brew at Arbeiter Brewing.
- Saturday, Oct. 31: Festival de las Calaveras at the Hook brings live music, art and food trucks. The Cooper Kids Trick or Treat meets at 29th Street and 44th Avenue.
- Sunday, Nov. 1: The Howe Kids Trick or Treat meets at 36th Street and 45th Avenue.
The same calendar lists recurring live music at the Hook & Ladder, Schooner Tavern, Cloudland, Urban Forage Winery and Merlins Rest. The BeLongfellow Gathering on October 21 puts a neighborhood event inside the Coliseum the same fall Square Roots opened on its ground floor.
At Arbor Residential Group, we keep track of which Longfellow storefronts are changing hands and what moves in next. If you live near Lake Street and want to know how these changes might factor into your home's value, request an instant valuation, or reach out and someone from our team will follow up.
