Brooks: St. Paul's Lowertown has everything — except the foot traffic its businesses rely on

Lowertown is waiting.

Through the pandemic, through the unrest, through street construction that never seemed to end, shops and offices and residents waited for downtown St. Paul to come back.

Mark Toth opened a restaurant on 4th Street E. in 2018; right across from Union Depot, right in the heart of Lowertown. In the years since, he's built Urban Wok into a fast-casual franchise with locations in Minneapolis and St. Louis Park.

But he put his heart into Lowertown. A small golden heart by the entrance, marked with his late father's initials, greets every customer who walks through the door — if customers walk through the door.

Urban Wok operates in a gorgeous space that used to be a pub. The ceilings are high. The woodwork gleams. You can get a beer or a glass of wine for $3. Staff will let you mix and match as many sauces as your taste buds can handle. But too often, it is echoingly empty.

The city of St. Paul ordered government workers back to the office part time, starting April 1. The state of Minnesota is following suit on June 1, hoping to drive foot traffic back to downtown shops and restaurants.

Neighborhood restaurants have been struggling, with several going out of business. Saint Dinette. Dark Horse. Black Dog Cafe. Barrio. Noyes & Cutler. Big Biscuit.

"I still believe in Lowertown, it just gets harder and harder," said Toth, who estimates his revenue dropped 25% last year, when a massive construction project blocked the streets around his restaurant from spring to late autumn.

"Do you want Lowertown to be a ghost town?" he said "Because it's kind of getting there."

Lowertown has everything going for it. The farmer's market. A minor-league ballpark. Theaters. Parks. Parking. A historic train depot. New residential development and artists' lofts. Beautiful old buildings. Quirky shops. Great people.

The state just spent half a billion dollars on the new Gold Line rapid transit system that whisks riders in from Woodbury and deposits them on the doorstep of Urban Wok.

Lowertown has everything — except the foot traffic its businesses need to stay in business.

Lockdown was five years ago. America still feels locked down and pulled apart.

It's one thing to make workers go back downtown.

It's another to make them want to be there.

At Urban Wok, manager Lisa Okoi has loved this place since it opened and she joined the crowds that jammed inside to mix-and-match sauces to proteins to noodles.

Come for the food and cheer, stay for the events the restaurant lines up to encourage people to relax and spend more time at a neighborhood business that's still in business. They've hosted trivia nights, stand-up comics and artists to teach patrons new crafts.

"We're going to get this place up and jumping again," Okoi said. "We want people to know we're here for them. We love St. Paul."

Next door, coffee is brewing at the Lost Fox and customers are settling ever deeper into the comfy chairs at the cafe that serves as the neighborhood's unofficial town square.

"We get a lot of state workers in here," said owner Annie Rose, who is planning to bring on an extra daytime server in anticipation of even more.

Again and again, she looked up to greet familiar faces. There are fewer people living downtown now, but most of those who stayed seem to find their way to Lost Fox — to the delight of the staff.

"We're here all the time. We're open every single day of the week," said Rose, who set up shop — a restaurant, a bar and an all-day coffeehouse, all in one — with her husband, Mike, in 2022.

When Lost Fox opened, Urban Wok was one of the few signs of life on a street of boarded-up windows.

When Annie Rose looks around the neighborhood now, she sees what Lowertown has gained, not only what it has lost. Since the pandemic, art galleries, restaurants and a cat boutique have opened nearby. There's So Yen donuts, the Erta Ale Ethiopian restaurant, the Lowertown Bike Shop, Story Line Books, and the 1881 Eating House. There are three new breweries within a three-block radius of Lost Fox.

If you haven't been there in a while, Lowertown businesses want you to know what you've been missing. Warmer weather is coming, bringing concerts and food trucks and outdoor yoga at Union Depot. Lost Fox just secured a grant to build a performance stage.

When Lowertown business owners meet, they discuss how to coax the people who used to come downtown back downtown. People hear about the crime and closed restaurants. They hear less about cat boutiques and bike shops and chocolate mousse brioche donuts.

"One of the biggest problems we talk about is the face of St. Paul," she said. "People from other areas who don't come here are afraid to come down here. But there's nothing scary about it."

"So how do we change the face?" she added. "How do people know that we're here and we're safe? We're like a small town in a big city."

Maybe you've been missing Lowertown. Lowertown's been missing you.