Star Tribune
John Rimarcik, restaurateur who shaped Twin Cities dining, dies at 84
When John Rimarcik was a student at DeLaSalle High School in the 1950s, he walked home among warehouses long past their manufacturing heydays.
“It was nothing. Vacant, windowless buildings,” he told the Business Journal in a 2016 interview.
He eventually acquired and invested in many of those buildings — and some of the restaurants within them, instigating a renaissance of what today are the thriving North Loop and St. Anthony Main areas of Minneapolis.
Rimarcik, a visionary restaurateur and commercial real estate investor who owned and operated some 50 restaurants during a career that spanned 60 years, died Dec. 11 at his home in Minneapolis, from brain cancer. He was 84.
Rimarcik bought his first restaurant in 1964 when he was 25, the Peacock Cafe, and went on to launch or revitalize eateries in Minneapolis, such as Waters, Rachel’s, Dante, Dirty Face Hamburgers, Cafe Havana, Tubby’s and more.
He later leaned into preserving landmark restaurants that struck a nostalgic chord with diners. In 1974, he acquired the then-40-year-old Convention Grill in Edina. Through the years, he added restaurants in Rochester, La Crosse, Wis., and Duluth to his portfolio.
But he did most of his business in Minneapolis. He owned Dinkytown’s Annie’s Parlour; the 1906 saloon Monte Carlo; Pracna on Main, then the oldest bar in Minneapolis; the Art Deco gem Paramount Cafe; the St. Anthony Main Theatre; former burlesque house Runyon’s; and the Kitty Cat Klub.
“Along with being a skilled and tenacious restaurateur, John was an urban visionary,” said former Star Tribune restaurant critic Rick Nelson. “He was investing in the North Loop before anyone thought to call it the North Loop. With the Monte Carlo, Runyon’s and other properties, John laid the foundation for the neighborhood’s role as the Twin Cities dining epicenter.”
He also collected remnants from restaurants that had closed, including the bar and wood-carved frieze from the legendary Charlie’s Cafe Exceptionale, which was demolished in the 1980s. He kept that piece in a 20,000-square-foot warehouse of restaurant artifacts until 2022, when it was reinstalled at the Minneapolis Club, where he had been a member since he was 18.
“We had 31 meat slicers,” said Tony Rimarcik, John’s son and business partner. “He likes to buy things. He doesn’t like to sell things. That includes the real estate. And it’s proved incredibly successful.”
Born March 27, 1939, in Chicago, Rimarcik was adopted by Charles and Angela Rimarcik, and raised in Minneapolis. He graduated from DeLaSalle High School in 1957 and studied journalism at the University of Minnesota, working as a copy boy for both the Minneapolis Star and Minneapolis Tribune newspapers.
He had worked in restaurants since he was 12, but as an extrovert, Rimarcik pursued a career as a showman when he was in his teens and 20s, first in stage magic and comedy, then in broadcast as a Top 40 disc jockey under the pseudonym DJ Johnny Vincent.
“Hope, Crosby, Berle and Como all have characteristics that I admire,” he told the Star Tribune in 1957. “Maybe I could adopt some of the best from each of them.”
As a businessman, Rimarcik was known for his doggedness.
“His biggest phrase may be, ‘Time is everything,’ ” his son said. “I would say he’s a little bit on the undiagnosed ADHD spectrum. When he thinks of something and it gets in there, then it starts to recur.”
As a restaurateur, he was a preservationist who also put his own stamp on places Minneapolitans already knew and loved. The Monte Carlo, which was around 75 years old when he acquired it in 1982, was in a remote part of the warehouse and light manufacturing district. During Rimarcik’s tenure, the area roared back to life.
Rimarcik added the now-famous dry rub wings to the menu. He said he devised the recipe as an alternative to messy Buffalo sauce, which was rising in popularity in the early 1980s.
The Convention Grill, which was founded by a pair of metalworking brothers in 1934, was a one-room old-fashioned burger and malt shop. After Rimarcik took over in 1974, he gradually acquired the neighboring businesses, expanding it into a full-fledged diner known for its chicken soup, coleslaw, Plazaburger and tulip-glass malts.
The Convention Grill has remained closed since the first restaurant shutdown of the pandemic, undergoing extensive structural renovations over the past three years.
During the closure, the family has fielded intense interest from regulars about a reopening date. Rimarcik understood that customers had deep connections to his longtime restaurants, which were there for generations of celebrations and traditions.
“It’s hard to estimate that sense of nostalgia and ownership and belonging. It’s really humbling,” said Tony Rimarcik.
Construction was completed, and in recent weeks, Rimarcik was urging his son to reopen Convention Grill, along with Annie’s Parlour, as soon as possible. They made plans to launch a limited takeout menu of just shakes and malts before the end of the year.
Last week, with Rimarcik’s health failing, Tony Rimarcik explained why he was pushing to reopen a malt shop in December.
“Dad will never see these places,” he said, tearing up. “But I’d like to be able to tell him that they’re open.”
Rimarcik is preceded in death by his first wife, Adele, and son, Jeffrey. Survivors include his wife, JuLee, and sons Tony (Marta Bowman), Tom (Colleen), all of Minneapolis, and Charlie (Jessica) Egan, as well as grandchildren, Griffin and Harrison all of St. Charles, Ill. Services will be held Dec. 21 at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis.
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.
