Another Restaurant Icon to Be Bulldozed for Apartments

Joining the ranks of Nye’s, Jeruselum’s, Tryge’s, Villiage Wok and possibly O’Gara’s, Market Bar-B-Que’s historic location will soon be rendered into rubble as a planned apartment building takes over the current Eat Street address. This won’t be the first move for the restaurant, still operated by the Polski family. According to the Star Tribune, this will be the fourth address the restaurant will occupy. What that exactly address will be is still under wraps. A purchase agreement has been signed for a building, but father/son owners Steve and Anthony Polski says the deal isn’t final just yet.

Marketplace Bar-B-Que first opened in 1946 by brothers Sam and Willard Polski after they returned from World War II. The name came from the original location at 130 North 7th Street near the Minneapolis Market Place. In 1962 the business moved to 28 Glenwood Avenue North, now the site of a parking ramp. It was 1987 when Willard’s son Steve took the reigns of the restaurant and it moved to its current location at 1414 Nicollet Avenue South. Anthony eventually joined the family business and launched a food truck in 2016.

As the move happens, the Polski’s are dedicated to preserving as much of the history of the restaurant as possible. For one, the barbecue, slow cooked over wood in a brick pit will not change. That pit, as well as the historic bar, ceiling and light fixtures are planned to be painstakingly transported to the next location.

Market Bar-B-Que on Eat Street will close some time near the end of the year and plans to re-open in Northeast some time in 2019.

• Market Bar-B-Que, 72 years young, is moving to northeast Minneapolis [STRIB]
• Market Bar-B-Que [WEB]
• The Twin Cities Essential Barbecue [ETC]