While there is optimism on the horizon, with many restaurants that have been dark for so long returning to bustling dining rooms, there are some that did not reach the other side of the pandemic. In every year, there are restaurants and bars that say goodbye; it’s part of the natural lifecycle of dining out. In the year 2021, which will likely be remembered for vaccinations and returns to family and friends, it is perhaps all the more bittersweet to say goodbye to beloved institutions like Liquor Lyle’s and the original Blue Door Pub. We will miss pizza nights in the basement at Burch, or steak dinners with the parents upstairs. The landscape of where and how we eat out continues to shift and change, and while we’re ready to resume a semblance of normal, it feels right to take a pause and remember the dining and drinking places — and third spaces — that won’t return. Here are the major restaurant and bar closures of this year, so far.
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June 3, 2021
Eat Street’s Co-op Owned Bodega and Cafe Won’t Reopen
The Wedge Table is exiting its ambitious building on Nicollet
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April 20, 2021
The Original Blue Door Pub Exits Merriam Park Location
The tiny restaurant that launched a love of blucys will continue to operate two other locations
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March 29, 2021
Liquor Lyle’s Is Likely Gone: The 57-Year-Old Minneapolis Bar Is Up for Sale
Known for serving generations of drinkers on the cheap, the bar has been closed since the pandemic hit
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February 18, 2021
Minneapolis’s Steakhouse with the Downstairs Pizzeria Will Not Reopen
Isaac Becker and Nancy St. Pierre’s other restaurants remain dark, but hope remains for their eventual return
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January 20, 2021
Target Center’s Restaurant Has Closed
Downtown’s sports venue adjacent eateries are suffering