Midtown Global Market will soon lose its tostones, cachapas, and of course, arepas, as its Venezuelan restaurant Arepa Bar is set to close at the end of January.
After immigrating to the U.S. from Venezuela in 2016, chef Soleil Ramirez worked for three years at The Lexington in St. Paul before opening the Twin Cities’ first authentic Venezuelan restaurant inside Midtown Global Market in early 2021. The business received overwhelmingly positive reviews and led to Ramirez opening a sister restaurant, Crasqui, in St. Paul last year.
Three years after opening, Ramirez announced on social media “with a heavy heart and a lot of good vibes and happiness” that her business was ending its run inside Midtown Global Market, citing safety concerns for her employees and customers as the main reason for her departure.
“We were dealing with a lot of things, and if something happened to one of my employees, I would never forgive myself,” Ramirez said in her announcement video. “Coming from a country with a lot of violence, I have seen many things, and I don’t want to go through that experience again.”
People will still be able to get a hold of Ramirez’ creations. She is transitioning Arepa Bar into a catering business — including online ordering and event opportunities — that will operate out of her second restaurant beginning in March.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Neighborhood Development Center, which owns the market, acknowledged the community will miss Arepa Bar, but said as restaurants come and go, the building continues to be a safe place for people to explore the world locally.
“Midtown Global Market has served as a small business incubator whose mission is to provide opportunities to aspiring entrepreneurs,” the statement read. “Arepa Bar and Soleil Ramirez have been a part of our dynamic community and we wish her the best as she continues her business journey at her new St. Paul restaurant, Crasqui.”
Overall crime in Minneapolis has decreased in the three years since Arepa Bar’s opening, including a roughly 56% drop in carjackings and a 44% decrease in shots fired calls, according to city data. However, that improvement has not been seen equally across the city.
There were 42 police incidents within a two-mile radius of Midtown Global Exchange last year, the vast majority of which being vehicle thefts, according to Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) data. While that number is not an outlier compared to other neighborhoods in the city, Midtown Phillips’s crime rate in several categories has not declined in the past three years.
Lake Street Council has allocated nearly $2 million from the city’s budget toward public safety efforts in the area, including efforts to hire a safety coordinator, build a community center, create murals, and improve lighting. However, according to Lake Street Council’s placemaking and activation manager Charise Canales, making large-scale safety improvements does not take away from the impact crime can have on individuals.
“We have to really be cognizant of lived experiences of businesses and employees,” Canales said. “Lake Street Council and the partners we work with are really committed to continuing to address public safety so we can support our businesses to stay and thrive in this corridor, because it’s so special. It’s such a special place where folks from all over the world can make a home.”
Crime — or the perception thereof — is just one challenge, though. Like downtown Minneapolis, the market has had a tough time adjusting to the rapid adoption of remote work, having lost a good chunk of regular customers who used to report to Allina Health’s nearby headquarters each weekday.
Lived experiences
Next door to Arepa Bar inside Midtown Global Market sits Pham’s Rice Bowl, where owner Trung Pham has been serving family recipes since the market’s opening 17 years ago.
As a restaurant serving comfort Asian cuisine, Pham’s business could not have been more different from Ramirez’ upscale Venezuelan menu — and that was the best part. Vendors inside Midtown are not competitors due to their unique offerings, which allows owners like Pham and Ramirez to speak every day and learn cooking techniques from one another.
“I love Soleil, she’s been a wonderful neighbor to me,” Pham said. “And she’s an awesome chef, and so it really creates that buzz. Whenever there’s a positive news about a restaurant that’s doing well, it directly impacts all of us.”
However, while Ramirez’ cooking stems from her cultural roots, Pham said comments like hers hurt the market that helped grow Arepa Bar into a success.
“All of us here are family-owned businesses, a lot of us put a lot of sweat and effort into making this work,” Pham said. “By one fell swoop, one statement … becomes the running theme of Midtown Global Market.”
Any major city is forced to grapple with crime, Pham said. In the nearly two decades he has been in Midtown, Pham has witnessed an occasional shoplift and one car break-in after he left his daughter’s backpack visible in his backseat, something Pham called “a crime of opportunity.”
“I’ve been here 17 years, if I didn’t feel safe here, I would not be here,” Pham said. “When there’s a portrayal of crime in South Minneapolis, we’re the face of it. We’re going to get the negative fallout from that.”
Pham walked over to Manny’s Tortas across the market, where owner Manuel Gonzalez prepared food for him. Gonzalez came to Lake Street more than 40 years ago and joins Pham as two of the four original restaurants inside the market.
Gonzalez sat alongside photos of celebrity chefs including Robert Irvin and Guy Fieri visiting his restaurant. Despite the market’s popularity and external success, Gonzalez said fear is a narrative Lake Street has been forced to fight for decades.
“Lake Street, a lot of people thought it’s dangerous,” Gonzalez said. “Now, with this coming, it’s going to be even worse.”
The roughly six-mile stretch of road has long been famous for its historic diversity and cultural inclusivity. However, Lake Street became scarred by soot and outrage due to its proximity to MPD’s former Third Precinct building.
The precinct had a years-long reputation for misconduct against minority communities and was where former officer Derek Chauvin was assigned when he murdered George Floyd in 2020. The building was razed in the following civil unrest.
Now, some of Minneapolis’ most vulnerable communities are forced to fight discrimination and hurtful narratives in addition to the already enormous responsibility of owning a business, Gonzalez said.
“This avenue is pretty unique, there’s a lot of entrepreneurs, especially immigrant entrepreneurs, that make this place work,” Gonzalez said. “They’re showing that this place is a destination.”
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