Coborn's Delivers

Mr. Lofty registered for Coborn's Delivery earlier this week, but hasn't used it yet. Several people in the building jumped right on this grocery delivery service, which replaced Simon Delivers, as soon as they started downtown. With gas prices down to $1.99 a gallon at the SA on our corner, the $5 charge for delivery of orders of $50-$100 isn't the bargain it was-fuel wise. But, not having to go grocery shopping after work, or eat into the weekends with the chore makes it look like a bargain at twice the price. If you have experience with Coborn's Delivers, good or bad, please leave a comment.

In other grocery news. Bud Kleppe at Your St. Paul Homerealty blog reports Byerly's is going to be part of the new development plans for the Penfield Condos site. (A hotel and rental apartments to replace the luxury condo plans.)

Bulldog Opening Tonight!

Check out the web site-We are proud to announce that THE BULLDOG Lowertown is finally open!
From an e-mail:
Our doors will be open TONIGHT
Wednesday, October 29,
at 4pm until 2am, serving a full menu until 1am.
We will be open to the public all weekend
for evenings starting at 4pm.

Come enjoy lunch our Happy Hour
starting Monday, November 3.

Our hours from that day forward will be
11am-2am everyday.
(Closed: Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve & Day, New Year's Day until 5pm)

Happy Hour:4pm-7pm & 11pm-2am
$1 off Pints, Wells and Domestic Bottles
1/2 Price Appetizers
And yes, we have a brand new 22' Shuffleboard,
2 Dart Boards, 2008 Golden Tee Live and
10 Flat Screen TV's.

We can't wait to throw one back with you!

Sincerely,
THE BULLDOG Lowertown

Never Ending Home Improvement

The problem with loft living in St. Paul is that it is so easy to get distracted from home improvement projects. Paint or walk down to Pop!! for dinner? Alas, it will probably be spring before we have everything to some level of "done," though experience tells me I'll be editing and refining forever. Take a look at the new granite counter tops. We've opted to put an antique buffet opposite the long galley kitchen layout to give more counter top and provide a spot for some bar stools and casual dining. For others looking at long narrow spots, take out the tape measure and see if your space really is that narrow. I thought the buffet would make the space seem like a tunnel, but instead it opens it up. Go figure.

How Long is a Long Time?

From a very small polling sample (3 respondents) it looks like there isn't exactly irrational exuberance going on in the downtown St. Paul housing market. I've been thinking about time horizons and real estate a lot lately, and stumbled on some pictures of Lowertown taken in 2001 and 2002. Where do you think this picture was taken, and what is there now?

Great Eats

Roger and Dawn Hubmer owners of Prairie Pride Farms make some very fine sausage that they sell at the St. Paul Farmer's Market in Lowertown. While they gave out free samples of a very tasty wild rice sausage this weekend it was their andouille that I could not resist. This is an awesome time to make meals of nothing but fresh food available at the farmer's market. It won't be long before all this fresh local produce is a sweet memory. On Sunday we had a throw together almost 100% farmer's market dinner as a break from the death march that is unpacking after the movers deliver your stuff.

Fresh New Potatoes with Andouille
red skinned potatoes
red bell pepper
yellow bell pepper
onion
fresh garlic
3/4 of an andouille sausage link per person
dab of butter
salt and pepper
sour cream

Boil the potatoes whole until tender. Drain and cool, then remove skins as desired. Dice. Chop the bell peppers and onion fine. Saute in butter just until onions start to caramelize, then cover and simmer until they are quite soft. Slice sausages then cut slices into quarters. Put in covered skillet with peppers and onions and chopped fresh garlic (to taste) with enough water to cook the sausage. After sausage is cooked through remove cover and let sauce continue to simmer until it is quite thick and begins to caramelize. Stir in potatoes, add salt and pepper to taste, then turn up heat. Let sit until potatoes begin to brown and a nice crust begins to form. Turn and brown other side. Slide onto a plate and serve with sour cream on the side. Goes great with beer and football. If you eat breakfast at Keys this is very much like a dish on their menu. (Can't remember the name, I've only been there once.) But, for the price of one restaurant serving you can feed three very hungry adults.

Mears Park Demonstration HQ

Today's big protest march started at Mears Park. Although billed as a march addressing poverty issues there were still plenty of anti-war and anti-administration sentiments.


The street in front of Chez Lofty seems to be set up as a holding area, we get a great view of the police searching backpacks and such. I'd say they are no more intrusive than your average TSA search, but that would be damning with faint praise.

More RNC Protest Pictures

Click on the pictures for a larger view.
Mears Park, across the street from the blocked intersection. Almost empty.
Police move in to keep protesters from doubling back and blocking traffic on 5th, allow them to block northbound Wacouta St. as it doesn't really affect anyone. Sidewalks remain open for pedestrian traffic.
Hot dog vendor does his best business all day.

RNC Welcome Committee

Here are some pictures of protesters near Chez Lofty taken this afternoon. A real post will follow later.

Skyway Map and Move-in Musings

We have a comment! Which means we have at least one very helpful reader. Here's a link to a better skyway map(links to a pdf folks!). Thanks Condo Guru.

The poll is closed and perhaps we have two readers as someone wanted to know if living in downtown St. Paul is safe. It has nothing to do with St. Paul, but I always answer that question with "it depends." We lived in a quiet neighborhood in Tampa, where kids walk to school and play in the parks without constant adult hovering, but we also had two drug-related murders two blocks and half a block from our house. You can't control who comes down your public streets in the middle of the night and the neighborhood backed to woods and water-easy hiding places for people with ill intent (who weren't afraid of snakes and alligators). Which brings up other dangers-poisonous snakes, alligators, and rabid animals, all live in some surprisingly crowded habitats in Florida. It's almost to the point where a small dog being consumed by a large reptile is not news. Enough about Florida.

I feel very safe in downtown St. Paul. We checked out the crime stats, spent some time in Lowertown at various times of the day and night, and put some thought into security when choosing a building. However, bottom line is that as urban environments go St. Paul feels more small town wave at your neighbor with the dog than scary post-modern crime infested chaos. Perhaps in another post I'll talk about how that small town vibe can be the equivalent of a big yawn, but we won't know anything about that until we're done with the work in the loft.

As promised, a look at the bamboo floor- The cinder block area is going to house a Murphy Bed and cabinet for linens and a little clothes storage. Our version of a guest room for the 'rents who will undoubtedly want to stay overnight when they fly in for the annual pilgrimage to the old home place up north. I'll post pictures of that when it is installed, some time at the end of September if all goes as planned.

Here's another view of the floor. We had planned to go with stained concrete, but the loft is long and narrow with the balcony doors as the only natural light source. After spending some time in it we decided to go light, light, light, with all the floors. -

On the Skyway

Mr. L thinks he will be using the skyway a lot this winter. I'm not so sure, but the uniform hours in force since March of this year will help a bit. He's an early riser so he'll want to be at the Skyway Y when they open at 5:30 AM on weekdays. Unfortunately the new skyway hours are 6:00 AM - 2:00 AM, so he'll have to brave the half block walk to get there. You know we've lived in a lot of places, but never so close to Mr. L's workplace that it was too close to run or ride his bike to the office and call it a work out. I've added a link to a skyway map, but if any of my imaginary blog readers knows of a better one please leave a comment.

Sunday Up North

Mr. L is in the Army, and after 26 years there are still people who ask if he'll make a career of it, or they ask "when can he get out?" The answers are "yes" and "any time he wants." We find ourselves, after years and years of living in places we didn't choose but mostly came to love, in Minnesota which we did choose-and better love since we have only ourselves to blame.

But today we aren't in St. Paul, I am in our cabin north of Grand Rapids. In my family for four generations I've always taken this place for granted. We lived near a wonderful public marina on the Potomac River outside Washington, DC for a half decade and every time Mr. L wanted to buy a boat I gasped, "Why would we want to keep a boat 5 miles from the house when in Minnesota all we'd have to do is walk down to the dock in our own front yard?"

Mr. L is on his way to St. Paul, driving up from his last assignment in Tampa, and I will make my way to town to meet him on Monday. After almost 50 years as a military brat, then as a soldier, then as a soldier's spouse, all the while calling Minnesota "home," it really is going to be home. Don't you have to spend at least a few summer weekends "at the lake" or "up north" to be considered a true Minnesotan?

New Adventure

Or misadventure? Can a soon to be empty nest couple who've always had a yard, garden, pets, and too much stuff, find happiness in a Lowertown loft? I hope so, or we spent a lot of money in a bad market for a view of the capitol dome.

Step one-the first batch of our furniture arrives, in a U-Haul trailer, on Monday and we race to find bamboo flooring and get it installed (floating over concrete) before the rest of the stuff arrives. Pictures to follow.

On an exciting note- Bud Kleppe over at Your St. Paul Home reports the folks who brought Bulldog to two locations in Minneapolis are making the move to 6th and Wacouta (right across the street from Chez Lofty). I'll save the real excitement for opening day as eateries are having a hard time actually getting off the ground downtown, but this looks like a good development.