Meet the folks who are 'part of the solution' to keep Lake Street vibrant

Come, learn to love Lake Street as much as suburban Rotarians love Lake Street.

Three years ago, as Lake Street burned and Minneapolis mourned, Rotary clubs across the metro mobilized to help. And they stayed. Still helping, they now hope their neighbors will see what they see in this vibrant commercial corridor that is home to so many small family businesses working so hard.

"Once you get down on Lake Street, you realize it's not a scary place at all. In fact, it's a really welcoming place," said Suzanne Kochevar, president of En-visioneering Inc. in Excelsior.

She was half an hour west of Lake Street, watching the news from her couch, during those awful days in May 2020. But her heart was with Minneapolis, and she wanted to help. She found plenty of other members of the Rotary Club of Lake Minnetonka-Excelsior who felt the same way.

She sat in the First Independence Bank on Lake Street last week, one of many new businesses along the bustling 5-mile commercial corridor through the middle of Minneapolis. Out the window was Lake Street in all its beauty and complexity — gorgeous street murals, a bustling rebuilt Target store, unhoused people encamped under the Hiawatha underpass, the shattered husk of the Third Precinct.

The meeting included some of the businesses that have worked with the Rotary Community Core @ Lake Street project.

Midori's Floating World Café. Diamond's Home Health Care. Post Plus. Katar River Restaurant and Bakery. Los Andes Latin Bistro. Mama Sheila's House of Soul Restaurant and Museum. The sort of small family businesses that built this country. The sort of businesses that have gotten their start on Lake Street for generations.

You don't have to live in Minneapolis to love Minneapolis. You don't even have to like Minneapolis to root for Lake Street to succeed.

What Lake Street needs now is us. They need customers to come back.

But because Lake Street cannot catch a break, on Friday, the street was once again choked with smoke and bad memories. Everyone's least-favorite Kmart — the abandoned wreck that's been clogging Nicollet for decades — burned.

Then on Saturday, because you cannot keep Lake Street down, it was time for the 2023 Taco Tour. Fleets of food trucks, accompanied by mariachi bands and hungry crowds, were set to fill the street, courtesy of the Latino Economic Development Center.¨ Your weekly reminder that Lake Street is always worth a visit.

Millions of dollars worth of donations, along with federal, state and city assistance, poured in to Lake Street. But many small businesses needed help finding that help.

"Us, as owners, we didn't get single check for at least 10 months," said Quito, who owns Los Andes with his brother Christian and brother-in-law Victor Pacheco. "Just to make sure our employees were getting paid, just to make sure the business was up and working."

His friends at the Rotary Club connected him with resources, they held meetings at Los Andes, they advertised the restaurant in Rotary publications and invited the mayor of Minneapolis over for a meal. Each time he learned about a new resource, Quito would share it with other immigrant-owned businesses in the neighborhood.

Eight Rotary clubs worked with nine Lake Street businesses, connecting them with outside assistance and with each other. That was how the Quito family learned that goat was a popular ingredient in many African dishes. Which gave them a chance to introduce some of their neighbors to a Los Andes specialty — seco de chivo — a savory Ecuadorian goat stew.

"We are trying to help revitalize this part of Lake Street and our community. It is so important for our business," said Lynnette Lais, a registered nurse with Diamonds Home Health Care Inc., located in the shopping complex across the street from the former Third Precinct.