Roper: Want to revive Uptown? Grab a ‘passport’ and show Hennepin Avenue businesses some holiday cheer

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Twinkling lights, baubles, garlands, Santa hats — stores on Hennepin Avenue in Uptown are dripping with extra holiday spirit this year.

It is, after all, a vital shopping and dining season for the businesses in this walkable district, which has been struggling to revive its once-lively image after a cascade of setbacks. The halls are decked a bit more because neighbors devised “Holidays on Hennepin,” the latest scrappy effort to draw visitors and reset the glum narrative about Uptown.

Free “Holidays on Hennepin” passports are available at nearly 70 participating businesses. Customers get a stamp for each business they visit, and people who rack up a lot of stamps can win prizes.

The time is ripe for it because this is the first holiday season in years that Hennepin has been fully navigable through Uptown after a bruising reconstruction. The street reopened this fall with fewer car lanes and safer travel options for pedestrians and bicyclists. A new rapid bus line opened there in early December.

Those are positive upgrades for this dense part of town, which is home to a bevy of apartment buildings, the Midtown Greenway, historic theaters and the Chain of Lakes.

“We still have the best, I think, urban fabric in the Twin Cities for businesses,” said Will Stancil, who helped create the passport program. “The problem that we’re having, in my view, is … the public reputation suffered so badly over the last few years."

I hopped on the new E Line from downtown to see what Holidays on Hennepin was all about. The first place I visited, Sebastian Joe’s Ice Cream Cafe on Franklin Avenue, said the passports were in such high demand that they needed another batch. Another business owner told me that several people a day come in with the passports.

“I think it’s a great way to get people talking about Uptown again,” said Michael Tadros of Vital Print Press, which makes a wide variety of signage for businesses and events. Vital has been hosting an ornament-making workshop on Tuesday nights, where people can also take photos posing in a cutout sleigh against a snowy-scene backdrop.

Tadros said smaller, more independent businesses are starting to sprout in Uptown, which is rife with opportunities, like vacant storefronts, for entrepreneurs. “This is ground level. Right now,” he said.

Anna Needham at Tao Natural Foods, a cozy place to enjoy “classic hippy food” and buy natural medicine products, said business dropped by 30% during the Hennepin closure. The passport program hasn’t moved the needle much, but she hopes it catches on.

“It’s a very sweet program,” she said.

“It’s going to be fun,” said owner Edwin Plaza, whose business is busy this time of year providing decor for holiday parties.

For an immersive Christmas experience, check out the delightful explosion of decorations at Red Cow restaurant near 26th Street. It’s the third year they’ve done it. There are holiday-themed cocktails, a chalet-themed heated patio and a fun photo area decked out with a wintry mix of colorful props. I ran into Assistant General Manager Heather Love wearing reindeer antlers and filling ornament-shaped shots of Fireball whiskey.

Reservations have been pouring in — “People come in just to get in the spirit,” she said — but the area’s public image can be a hurdle.

“People are afraid of Uptown still, I think. Afraid of the reputation,” Love said.

Two businesses I visited stood out as great places to pick up a holiday gift.

“It’s kind of a Christmasy store,” said owner Jeff Bengtson, while the theme from “Home Alone” played and snow fell hard outside.

People can find unique vintage items at H&B Gallery, a three-level antique and consignment shop near 27th Street. The place is packed with art, furniture, tableware and tchotchkes. Manager Jonathan Campbell has noticed an uptick lately in 30- and 40-somethings looking to upgrade from Ikea.

Antique dealers are the “original green business,” Campbell said. “We keep it out of the landfill.”

I’m enthusiastic about the grassroots efforts to revive Uptown, such as the farmers market that was organized beside Seven Points mall this summer. Uptown is probably the region’s most eclectic, urbane shopping area. So city dwellers should hope that it succeeds.

But there’s work to be done, particularly around public safety. As I waited for my bus home, a crowd was huddled in an alcove of Seven Points, seemingly using drugs. There was an open box of Narcan at my feet in the open-air transit shelter, and I kept my eye on a guy nearby who was holding a suspicious piece of tinfoil.