Walk west on Selby Avenue past the Cathedral of Saint Paul on a Friday evening and the block still sounds and smells the way it always has: a patio conversation spilling into the sidewalk, garlic and woodsmoke drifting from an open kitchen door, the particular hush of a street that never quite closes. But three storefronts along that stretch changed hands in the past year and a half, and not one of them reopened as anything close to what it replaced.
That's the part worth noticing if you live here. Restaurant turnover on Selby isn't new. What's different this time is the direction it's moving. Each vacancy filled with a cuisine that had nothing in common with the one before it, as if the avenue is running through the map rather than repeating itself.
Three Storefronts, Three Different Countries
Here's what actually happened, in order, at three addresses you've probably walked past dozens of times:
| Address | What Was There | What's There Now | Cuisine |
|---|---|---|---|
| 526 Selby Ave | Five Two Six Coffee | YaiGu Hot Bowls (opened March 2025) | Thai, counter-service curry bowls |
| 173 Western Ave N, at Selby | Handsome Hog (closed December 2025) | Tasca Madrid, with San Román Bakery (opened June 2026) | Spanish tapas and paella |
| 525 Selby Ave | Revival | Aubergine (opened April 2026) | French bistro |
A coffee shop became a fifteen-seat Thai counter. A decade-old Southern barbecue spot on the avenue's most visible corner became a Spanish tapas bar with a bakery tucked into its side door. And the space that had cycled through a regional restaurant chain reopened as a French bistro built by two chefs who spent years cooking outside Minnesota before coming home.
None of that is a coincidence of timing. It's a pattern, and it tells you something about what the corridor is trying to become.
The People Behind the New Kitchens
Aubergine's owners, Megan and Bjorn Jacobs, aren't new to St. Paul, but they didn't build this restaurant here. Bjorn worked kitchens in Montreal, including a stint at the city's well-known Joe Beef, while Megan spent time at Spoon and Stable in Minneapolis. The two eventually landed in Portland, where Aubergine started as a pop-up before making its way back to the Twin Cities through appearances at Bûcheron, Mucci's, and Hyacinth. By the time they signed a lease at 525 Selby, they'd already tested the concept in front of three different local audiences.
Tasca Madrid's owner, Alberto Blanco, has a similar résumé built through other people's kitchens. He's worked for chefs Alex Roberts, Stewart Woodman, and Hector Ruiz, three names that carry real weight in Twin Cities dining, before opening his own restaurant at the corner everyone in Cathedral Hill knows as Selby and Western. Blanco isn't from Spain himself. He grew up in Guatemala, with a Spanish grandfather and enough time spent in Spain to shape how he wanted the menu to feel.
"We're hoping to bring more than the food, because the scene here has seen Spanish food before. It's more about the way it's done, a more authentic approach."
That's Blanco's own framing for why Tasca Madrid isn't just another tapas restaurant filling a gap. The menu runs to roughly fifty small plates, along with meats and fish seared on a flat-top grill and paella the restaurant plans to cook outdoors on the same patio that made the Selby and Western corner one of the avenue's most recognizable spots long before the change.
What Didn't Move
None of this means Selby Avenue reinvented itself overnight. The corridor's older anchors are still exactly where they've always been, doing what they've always done:
- Moscow on the Hill, still serving the Russian menu that's made it a fixture
- W.A. Frost, its basement built into a nationally registered historic space with original 1800s brickwork
- Red Cow, still turning out the burgers and cheese curds regulars order without looking at the menu
- Blue Door Pub, still running its Juicy Lucy variation at the far west end of the avenue
That contrast is the real shape of the story. Selby isn't a street in decline that's scrambling to refill empty storefronts, and it isn't a street being remade wholesale by a single developer or trend. It's a corridor where a handful of restaurants have earned enough loyalty to stay put for years, while the storefronts around them keep testing whoever shows up next with a strong enough concept and the ambition to run it. The corner spots, the ones with the most foot traffic and the best patios, are the ones that turn over. The mid-block places that built a following don't need to.
A Bigger Year Than Just the Restaurants
The avenue wasn't the only part of the neighborhood that got something new this year. Cathedral Hill Park, at the top of Summit Avenue, hosted a Fourth of July fireworks show this summer, organized in large part by the St. Paul Rotary Club Foundation, which put together roughly $125,000 to fund the display along with food trucks lined up on Dayton Avenue and a free concert. That concert brought in Grammy-winning guitarist Pat Donohue and violinist Richard Kriehn, both familiar to longtime Prairie Home Companion listeners, alongside trumpeter Solomon J. Parham.
It's a small thing next to three restaurant openings, but it fits the same theme. This was a year Cathedral Hill got noticeably more of something it hadn't had in a while, whether that's a fireworks show at the park or a French bistro on a block that used to house a chain.
Why This Matters If You Live Here
None of this changes what Cathedral Hill is. The Cathedral still anchors the skyline, Summit Avenue still runs its quiet, tree-lined path past the same historic homes it always has, and the neighborhood's character isn't defined by any single restaurant lease. But if you've noticed more people trying new places on Selby this year, or wondered why three different storefronts all seemed to reopen as something you didn't expect, now you know it wasn't your imagination. The avenue picked a direction, at least for the moment, and that direction runs through France, Spain, and Thailand rather than repeating whatever closed.
That's worth knowing simply because you live here and you're going to keep walking past these storefronts on your way to wherever you're actually headed. It's also the kind of detail that tells you a neighborhood is still active, still drawing chefs willing to bet a lease on it, rather than coasting on its history.
If you're curious about what else is changing in Cathedral Hill, from the businesses on Selby to the housing behind it, Arbor Residential Group keeps a close eye on this neighborhood because Julie Doolittle works in it every week. Get your instant home valuation or reach out to Julie directly if you want to talk through what's happening on your block.
