heart saint paul

Reasons to love this city.

[heartsaintpaul]

Visit artists studios and enjoy the spring thaw!

[mnperegrinations]

100+ year old sandstone paving stones exposed by large pothole on Maria Ave - St. Paul

(via Photo by darrylsteineck • Instagram)

[heartsaintpaul]

That pothole is serious business, but the stones underneath are super neat.

[heartsaintpaul]

Hello, my name is Brett Ortler, and I'm the editor at Adventure Publications. We're working on a book about Famous Crimes of MN, and we'd like to include your image of Nina's Cafe in the book. (In case you don't know, it's named in honor of Nina Clifford, a famous brothel owner from the 1910s-30s.) If you're amenable to this, please let me know. We'd of course attribute the photo to you in the book. Thanks, Brett Ortler

It is indeed a beautiful picture, but it is not mine. If you're referring to the one from this post, you'll want to contact the author of that tumblr.

[heartsaintpaul]

"Wabasha Street Freedom to Marry Bridge."

St. Paul Public Works installing rainbow flags on the Wabasha Bridge this morning - thank you St. Paul and Mayor Coleman!

From Family Equality Council's Facebook.

[heartsaintpaul]

[morethanfrost]

St.Paul at night on Flickr.

[finding-joy]

Rice Park (Taken with Instagram)

[stuffaboutminneapolis]

The Master - At his peak, Joe Mauer is ignoring his critics and enjoying these sweet years

Joe Mauer is one of America’s last remaining geographical oddities — the Midwestern stoic. He encompasses what an entire state believes to be its best attributes: humility, loyalty, self-deprecation, drive and conscientiousness. And yes, more than a fair measure of blandness. “You’ll find that I’m really boring,” Mauer said in mid-June. “I’m not as cool as I’m supposed to be.” He is the Midwestern ideal sprung to life, as reliable as summer corn, with an image as square as his sideburns. His locker, home or away, looks like the hotel closet of a businessman on an overnight stay: shirt, pants and shoes. Other guys have family photos, food, books, even women’s thongs strung across the backs of their chairs, but Mauer has nothing remotely personal.

He is so tied to Minnesota and its monochromatic idiosyncrasies that the distinction between Minneapolis and St. Paul is a cultural gulf for him. When Joe made the big leagues as a 20-year-old in 2004 and enlisted a friend to help him find a place to live, Joe’s father, Jake, asked, “Where are you looking?”

“St. Paul,” Joe responded. “And a few places in Minneapolis.”

Jake Mauer got quiet.

“Remember, you’re a St. Paul boy,” he said in a fatherly tone.

Joe chose St. Paul, the less glamorous, remember-where-you-came-from city. Locals say you date Minneapolis but marry St. Paul.

“My dad was joking,” Joe says. “Well, maybe half-joking.”

via ESPN

[bigboxcar]

Mugshot Monday - “Mickey’s Dining Car” coffee mug with special guest appearance by Christopher Pollard

Mickey’s Dining Car in St. Paul is a great place for breakfast regardless of the time of day. They’re even open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. If you’ve never been there, it looks like an old-school railroad dining car — and it’s super cozy.

Mary, our waitress, was full of sass and (rightfully) gave me grief for wanting a Mickey’s branded coffee mug instead of the plain white one I was originally served. Chris got one with a logo, after all. “We don’t have many of them. He got the last one. Dontchya know you can buy your own? Geez.”

So I bought one.

Mary eventually asked about Mugshot Monday and I showed her the gallery of photos on my phone. “I hate these phones,” she said. But she mentioned she owns about 200 coffee mugs! She said her favorite coffee mug, the one that was her dad’s and that reminded her of her dad, was stolen from the diner one day. That’s just terrible.

Mary asked about our kids, told us about her grand-kids, and mentioned her dad was a sign painter back in the old days. “They don’t need sign painters no more these days. It’s all done by computers. But the signs, they don’t look good.”

It was fun meeting Chris (and Mary) for breakfast today. Actually, Chris’ Mugshot Monday shot turned out WAY better than mine did:

[heartsaintpaul]

A rainy day at the Como Zoo and Conservatory.

[ericaaaaa]

Nina’s Coffee Cafe

Over six years ago now, I got my first teaching job and promptly decided it was time to get the heck out of my sister’s basement in the suburbs. One of my criteria for living spaces was “within walking distance of a cute coffee shop” but it may as well have been “within walking distance of Nina’s” because this was the only neighborhood I explored.

I became a frequent visitor at Nina’s, spending my weekend afternoons attempting to plan lessons. Even in summers when I had few lessons to plan, I’d still stop in to read, simply to get out of the apartment and possibly into air conditioning for a few hours.

Nina’s has the quintessential classic St. Paul feeling, with its dark wood, in the corner of a historical building. The Twin Cities have many great coffee shops, but Nina’s fits in so well with its surroundings, as if it would be totally out of place across the river.

Even though there have been a few times lately where I’ve had to turn around because there were no tables, I’ve always been grateful to have a place like this just a few blocks away.

[heartsaintpaul]

<3

[midtownmpls]

[heartsaintpaul]

Minnesota State Capital - St. Paul, MN

(via Minnesota Pictures)

[heartsaintpaul]

For its latest listicle, "Where the Hot Babes Are," Men's Health Magazine asked all the single ladies in the U.S. to put their hands up, and counted the 10th most in fair St. Paul. According to their calculations, the Saintly City beat Minneapolis by a long shot for the number of well-educated, gainfully employed hotties living la vida sola.

You know it, baby.

St. Paul has the 10th most hot single babes - Minneapolis News - The Blotter

[heartsaintpaul]

We're in the planning stages of a 'Me - 1, Cancer - 0' party that will, hopefully, be a full blown prom, and I'm putting the Landmark Center on my wish list of locations, because look at how pretty it is.

[tcdailyplanet]

Please join us for great beer, great music, great sausages and a fun time at our Daily Planet Winter Party and Sausage Fest on Thursday, February 2 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Summit Brewing Company in St. Paul. Artisan sausage is a hot new food trend, and we’ll have eight top sausage makers sharing the best of their wurst. The beer: Summit is generously donating their beer and use of their Ratskeller. They’ll have seven different brews on tap - Extra Pale Ale, Horizon Red Ale, Maibock, Pilsner, IPA, Great Northern Porter and Oatmeal Stout., plus 1919 Root Beer. The music: The legendary Brass Messengers will perform, with a repertoire that ranges from “music of the Carribean and Balkans to high speed polka to heavy metal for the Black Sabbath crowd, and our own originals. Our music of choice is anything that fits in the twisted brass tubing, from originals to “covers” from around the globe, as long as it makes a joyful noise.” The meat: Eight of the Twin Cities’ top sausage makers are contributing their wares - including The Black Forest, The Butcher and the Boar (opening in February at 1121 Hennepin Ave.), Clancey’s Meats, the Green Ox Provisions, Kramarczuk’s, the Modern Cafe, NateDogs and the Sample Room, and we’ll round out the feast with sauerkraut, German potato salad or other side dishes. Veggie brats and tofu pups will also be available, plus Dan Brady’s legendary chocolate chip cookies, made with the eggs of free-range chickens from northeast Minneapolis. (Really). You won’t go away hungry. The Summit Brewing Company is located at 910 Montreal Circle, St. Paul MN.  Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door - if any tickets remain. Capacity is limited, so buy your tickets now here: https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/262/donate.asp?formid=TCM-Event&c=1794787.

Photo by Christopher Najewicz (Creative Commons)

[swirlspice]

I’m amused that the Daily Planet is, literally, having a sausage fest.

[heartsaintpaul]

 +1

[weeks101]

Twilight in St. Paul (by jpnuwat)

[heartsaintpaul]

Hello, beautiful.