Star Tribune
Anticipated — and debated — new north Minneapolis bar Tap In is gearing for launch
At night, the corner of Lowry and Upton avenues in north Minneapolis is now awash in the magenta lights of Tap In, a slick new restaurant and craft cocktail bar.
The building at 2618 Lowry Av. N. was once a SuperAmerica gas station, but had been vacant for years before developer Christopher Webley, who also owns the New Rules event space a half-mile down the block, transformed it. There was a “soft opening” in October, and Tap In’s team is now completely engrossed in crossing the finish line, according to an email from the business. Webley declined to comment further.
While some residents and neighborhood leaders are eager for the launch of a new business in an area with few entertainment options, others have taken concerns about the business — and its owner’s other ventures — to City Hall, delaying its launch.
Tap In’s groundbreaking took place last May with a touch of fanfare — Mayor Jacob Frey and Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw tossed shovels of dirt — but subsequent licensing has been a rollercoaster.
Supporters of the venture, including other North Side business owners, are grateful that an eyesore has been replaced with a modern social space that will provide jobs and boost community connections. But some immediate neighbors, wary of late-night noise, say they’ve been thrown off by the space’s shifting plans.
An initial flyer that Webley circulated in 2021 requested neighbors’ support for rezoning so he could build an “innovation hub,” an artist workspace and small business incubator with room for community gatherings. Neighbors loved the vision, but when a sign went up the following summer announcing Tap In would be a bar, many felt misled.
When Tap In applied for licenses last February to serve alcohol and stay open until 2 a.m., most of the feedback was negative.
It didn’t help that, two months earlier, a pipe burst at Bell Lofts, an apartment building Webley owned at 816 N 21st Av., displacing more than 20 low-income families three days before Christmas. Some of those residents also spoke against Tap In, and city staff recommended that the council deny the licenses.
“Usually when we have something like this coming up in north Minneapolis, people are 100%, they want to see this happening,” said Council Member Jeremiah Ellison. “So to have a number of residents come out today and say ‘we’re not sure about this,’ that certainly resonates with me.”
Ellison encouraged Webley to re-engage the immediate neighborhood before taking another stab at licensing.
Danecha Gipson, executive director of the Cleveland Neighborhood Association, said she believes Webley has connected with the community. And while the displacement of Bell Lofts residents was traumatic, Webley should be commended for investing in the neighborhood in other ways, she said.
“We in the Cleveland neighborhood don’t really have too many businesses,” Gipson said. “We have a church, a couple of stores, stuff like that. We don’t have nothing that serves live entertainment. So I was excited when he said that they were making moves to put something there.”
When Webley went back to the city in October to ask again for a liquor license, he specified that normal hours of operation would be 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. Tap In would stay open until 1 a.m. only on special occasions, and there would be no dancing, assuring neighbors it would not be a nightclub.
This time, more North Side residents came out to support Tap In, and while the City Council was split — five out of 13 voted against — the bar ultimately received its liquor license after staff promised to impose conditions if there are complaints and problems come up during inspections.
Tooties, a low-key beer and burger joint that for a long time was the only eatery on this stretch of Lowry, initially opposed Tap In for the same reasons that other neighbors felt deceived about its nature. But as Tap In gets closer to completion, owner Lili Johnson said she’s hoping for the best — which is that the bar would be as chill as it looks from the outside, and even help direct more business to Tooties.
“There’s a lot of neighbors around that are still pretty frustrated with the whole situation, but I just kind of shrug and say I guess we just need to wait and see what happens, because it could be fine,” Johnson said.
Tap In still has two outstanding permits in the way of final approval of its business license: a plumbing permit and a commercial permit, requiring payment of some $12,000 in sewer fees.
Two men are dead and one woman was injured in a shooting at a homeless encampment in south Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, police said. It was the second shooting at a Minneapolis encampment this weekend.
At about 2:20 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a reported shooting in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue near the railroad tracks at the small encampment between Snelling and Hiawatha avenues. At the scene, officers found two men with fatal gunshot wounds, said Sgt. Garrett Parten Minneapolis Police spokesman. Responders rendered aid, but both men died at the scene.
A woman was found at the scene with life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital where she was being treated Sunday night, he said. Police have yet to say whether the three were living at the encampment.
Officers detained three people, who Parten said have since been released after police found they were not believed to be involved in the shooting. No suspects had been identified as of 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
The shooting is the second at a southside homeless encampment this weekend. One man died and two were critically injured early Saturday at an encampment shooting near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S. On Sunday, the man was identified as Deven Leonard Caston, 31, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“We don’t know if there’s a connection between this homeless encampment shooting and the one that occurred yesterday,” Parten said on Sunday. “That is a consideration of the investigation. We can’t rule it out.”
Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the area and lives nearby, was at the site of the shooting Sunday afternoon. She said officials need information about what happened to better understand how to address situations like this long-term.
“This is an absolute tragedy, and this type of violence should never occur within our city,” she said. “It really makes me think about how we need to look at this more systemically and not just take a whack-a-mole approach and expect the problem to go away.
During Sunday’s Twitch stream, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez played Madden while discussing making homebuying more accessible, building affordable housing, eliminating student loan debt and raising the federal minimum wage.
After the match, Walz showed off his Sega skills in a round of “Crazy Taxi,” the Y2K-era racing game where gamers play as a taxi driver picking up passengers and taking them to their destination for cash.
Walz called himself a “first-generation gamer” and recalled playing “Crazy Taxi” when he bought a Sega Dreamcast. He also mentioned the Minnesota Star Tribune’s coverage of how his old game console was sold and ended up with a Plymouth resident, who still has it.
Afterward, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez watched a short clip of Trump denying on Rogan’s podcast that he lost the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden won that year.
Ocasio-Cortez during the livestream also showed viewers her farm on the cozy, indie game Stardew Valley. Walz said the game reminded him of Minnesota: “You’ve got mining,” he said. “You’ve got agriculture. You’ve got snow.”
Before Walz headed out to a rally in Nevada, he pleaded with viewers to vote. More than 12,000 viewers tuned into the livestream on Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch channel. More watched from Harris’ channel.
”Hey guys, they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, who draped a sparkly ”MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke. ”And you know what they’re claiming, guys? It’s very scary. They’re claiming we’re going to go after them and try and put them in jail. Well, ain’t that rich?”
Declared Hogan in his characteristic raspy growl: ”I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here.”
Trump has denounced the four criminal indictments brought against him as politically motivated. He has ramped up his denunciations in recent weeks of ”enemies from within,” naming domestic political rivals, and suggested he would use the military to go after them. Harris, in turn, has called Trump a ”fascist.”
The arena was full hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were overflowing with Trump supporters in red ”Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Streets were blocked off and access to Penn Station was restricted.
In the crowd was Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump backer from Queens, the borough where Trump grew up. The 64-year-old said it was appropriate for Trump to be speaking at a place bills itself as ”the world’s most famous arena.”
”It just goes to show ya that he has a bigger following of any man that has ever lived,” D’Agostino said.
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