Hidden Minneapolis

[barondave]

Restaurants come and go. The corner of Nicollet and 29th has had a series of restaurants, the current one being a very good Vietnamese soup place tucked into a corner that only exists because the KMart cuts off Nicollet (see previous entry) and the city built the one block long Cecil Newman Lane (just South of where 29th would have gone) to aid traffic flow.

Pho Tau Bay, Mpls, May 8 2008CE
sign on what would be Nicollet Ave if the KMart didn't block the way
Way back when, it was a homestyle 'Murrican breakfast/pancake house called The Three Bee'z Family Restaurant. For many years, through several restaurant changes, no one bothered to change the street sign. After all, it wasn't a street anymore. Decades pass. Finally, Pho Tau Bay, est. 1995, updated the sign, above. You can see it as you drive South on Nicollet, before you have to turn on 29th to go around the KMart. But since no one can drive North on Nicollet, the reverse of the sign is less important, and not worth changing.


Three Bee'z sign, Mpls May 8 2008CE

Comments

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Very cool and interesting.

I'd like to bring to your attention a Chicago website called "Forgotten Chicago (http://www.forgottenchicago.com/)" that tracks down oddities like this.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Many big cities have such. Probably small towns too, but fewer. Some cities make virtues of vices. Eg Underground Atlanta (http://www.underground-atlanta.com/).

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that link! I had no idea.

Um, the (possibly old now) sign for El Famous Burrito on Clark in Rogers Park is an old sign repainted. The original? Sue's, the pinball place. (I saw the Sue's sign there and asked about it.)

[radparker.livejournal.com]

Yikes, that site somehow got a pop-up or pop-under to load that won't quit, and it keeps trying to install malware.

[radparker.livejournal.com]

Maybe I spoke too soon. I had this page (http://www.thesouthfayettesource.com/1007/diningout.htm) open too, having googled three beez. It was one of those two sites, or Livejournal.

Nicollet History

[7ivy7.livejournal.com]

I remember having pancakes in that very restaurant way back in the sixties. It was not Three Bees but something nondescript like Nicollet Pancake House at the time.
Rumor has it that the mural (very familiar to my pedestrian self & thanks for the pictures) was actually a protest from Whittier residents and likens KMart using its corporate power in closing Nicollet to being overrun by the military might seen in the tank. Anyone know if this is so?

Re: Nicollet History

[barondave.livejournal.com]

You may be right about the mural as protest, but I find it difficult to fathom why KMart would let them do it. Maybe it was because it was back where the garbage is.

Re: Nicollet History

[7ivy7.livejournal.com]

Maybe nobody told them? "C'mon man, it's just art."

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

I used to enjoy eating at Three Bee'z. Then one evening in May 1985 (I flew to London the next day, which is how I remember), I stopped in there with friends (Ed and the late Beth Eastman?). The non-smoking section was roped off and there were people smoking in the smoking section. I asked to be seated in non-smoking, and the manager told me the section was closed. I insisted, and the manager went to one of the tables in the smoking section, removed the ashtray and said, "There!" I walked out and never returned.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Now, the whole place is non-smoking (like all the restaurants in Mpls).

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

So it's all your fault, then?

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

You're welcome.

[radparker.livejournal.com]

I love that sign, btw. Thanks for sharing!