Edina has a reputation as the high-class address. Mousse and paté and all those froufrou hoity-toity poodleville clichés. But perhaps we have underestimated it. Just look at the border with Minneapolis at France and 50th. You know it when you cross it. Especially now: On the Minneapolis side, an empty storefront; on the Edina side, a jewelry store. Sums it up. You expect to see people in top hats and diamond-studded walking sticks on the west side and bread lines on the other. I say, Thurston, run over there and give them a nickel, they look so sad. I'll hold your cape.
Well, that's the reputation, anyway. But it's not correct. The empty store was an Ann Taylor, and its loss doesn't meant Mpls is less stylish; it was once a B. Dalton's, and when that closed no one said we was un-booked dumb people. Both sides of the street are charming and full of Urban Vibrancy, and when I bring guests to town I take them there to show how disparate populations can live in peace together. (There was that uprising between warring stylish shoe stores, the intiPrada, but that was rare.) Last Friday, however, I ordered a pizza from a new place, and noticed that even though it sat two blocks inside Minneapolis proper, the business address was given as Edina. Whoa! This means:
1. They're aiming for that upscale Edina cachet -- I say, this sauce must be made from vine-riped organic tomatoes hand-buffed with silk scarves, sliced with cutting remarks from sarcastic chefs! Not like that Minneapolis sauce they make by hitting the tomatoes with hammers while grunting, "ME SMASH!" OR: Edina is slowly annexing Minneapolis. Many years ago, a restaurant one block in called itself Pearson's Edina. Now this, three decades later. This slow, inexorable encroachment goes unnoticed until they raise their flag over the Harriet Bandshell in 2027, and force the mayor into exile in 2045, although he will continue to rule from a Dairy Queen in Richfield.
St. Paul, you're warned: Don't like brie? You have until 2092 to get used to it.
Don't expect Woodbury to save you. Whose side do you think they'll be on?
jlileks@startribune.com • 612-673-7858 More daily at www.startribune.com/popcrush.
