Despite parking concerns, new St. Paul eatery gets liquor licenses

The St. Paul City Council cleared the way Wednesday for the opening of a new Cathedral Hill restaurant that some neighboring businesses fear will worsen a parking crunch in the popular commercial and residential district.

The council unanimously approved liquor licenses for Salt Cellar, a steak and seafood place that will open in a few weeks once it passes final city inspection and the kitchen staff is trained, co-owner Kevin Geisen said.

"We have a couple preliminary plans in place [to open], but we need to meet with senior management and decide what is the best course of action," Geisen said.

He added: "I've got a very big smile on my face."

Geisen and Joe Kasel, who also own the Eagle Street Grille across from the Xcel Energy Center, have spent much of the year planning a 180-seat supper club-style establishment in a corner building formerly occupied by the College of Visual Arts.

Geisen and Kasel maintained that to get their liquor licenses they needed no more than the 13 off-street parking spots that the college had held with the property — even though a new building on the same site would require 31 spaces. City officials agreed with them.

But the owners of nearby restaurants said that allowing Salt Cellar to operate without a couple of dozen more off-street spaces would make "a disaster" of "an already difficult parking situation."

Rupp, who this year had looked into renting the former college property himself, recently lost an appeal over the parking issue. City zoning officials decided in the end that 14 spaces were required, a condition that Salt Cellar met.

Geisen said that he and Kasel never would have chosen the location if they felt that parking challenges would keep customers away. They're planning a valet service that would provide parking in the nearby Boy Scouts lot.

"We did our fact-finding on the location," Geisen said. "In a community of restaurants, everyone will get to know each other, and I look forward to showcasing our abilities and our staff."