Down on the corner

BY RACHEL FANG

Family owned businesses characterize the vibrant corner of 42nd Street and
28th Avenue South.  Bill St. Mane Sporting Goods (Now St. Mane Sporting
Goods) was opened in 1962 when Bill decided to follow his dad into the
retail sports equipment trade.  Once called Bill St. Mane’s Hockey City, the
store made the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team’s jerseys in 1980—the year they won the gold medal.  St. Mane Sporting Goods and neighboring family businesses Ve-nel Lettering and All Service Screening sell letter jackets for Roosevelt High School (just down the street), as well as youth sports uniforms for the city of Eagan and Minneapolis Park and Rec teams, among others.  “Corporate business is down,” said Bob St. Mane, the store’s current owner, but we had good Christmas sales and the economy has actually helped local retail.”  At
St. Mane’s, experienced employees can fit you properly with skates or soccer cleats and you can’t beat the full-time sales team’s 80 years combined
experience in selling sports equipment and uniforms.

Across 28th Avenue from St. Mane’s is Flanery Brother’s Automotive, another family business, begun by “Burn” Flanery in 1957.  Formerly on 34th and Hiawatha, the shop moved to its present location in 1980.  Now owned by Burn’s sons Tim and Brian, Flanery Brother’s relies on returning customers who may move out of the neighborhood but know that good mechanics are hard to find.  “The economy has changed business for the worse over the past two years,” Brian said, “but business fluctuates a lot.”

The hardware store was among the first businesses on the corner of 28th Avenue and 42nd Street in South Minn-eapolis, according to the store’s current owner, Jim Hudson.   The founder, Lew Olson, built the building on the corner in 1949 and ran Olson’s Ace Hardware  until 1965 when his daughter Doris took over.  Several different owners ran the business until Jim and Lisa Hudson bought it in 1995. Having moved from its longtime location next to Buster’s on 28th (formerly the Lake Inn) into a larger building on 29th Avenue South and 42nd Street, Hudson’s Ace Hardware store has expanded and their helpful staff will help you find exactly what you’re looking for and even tell you if you don’t really need it.

Across the street from the hardware store is the neighborhood’s newest business, Nokomis Pet Clinic, where veterinarian Amos Deinard recently opened his own clinic, a longtime dream for him.  Dr. Deinard grew up in
Minneapolis but went to school in California and worked in San Francisco and New Orleans before returning to Minnesota.  He and his wife were looking for a small building they could purchase and are happy with the way the
neighborhood has welcomed them.  Nokomis Pet Clinic opened in early 2009 and treats mainly dogs and cats and the occasional guinea pig.
Perhaps the oldest business at the intersection, Buzz’s Barber Shop, has been on the corner for at least 50 years.  Business has fallen by about 10 percent over the past year, according to Don, who bought Buzz out 10 years ago (Buzz still mans the first chair two days a week).  “Barbers are a dying profession,” Don said.  “Kids don’t grow up going to men’s barbers anymore. They go to the mall with their moms.”  But repeat customers are the shop’s mainstay: the guy on the chair when I walked in said he’d been coming in for 40 years.  “The corner’s doing well,” said Don.  “The economy could be better, but SENA is doing a good job bringing pedestrian-friendly businesses to the area.”

A Baker’s Wife is a local bakery owned by a local guy.  Gary Tolle grew up in the neighborhood and attended Minnehaha Elementary, Nokomis Middle School and Roosevelt High School.  After high school he went to New York City to attend the Culinary Institute and worked at several posh hotels for eight years.  The lure of the city waned and Gary moved back to Minneapolis, where his seven siblings lived, and opened A Baker’s Wife on 35th Street and Minnehaha in 1987.  After five years the bakery moved to its present location where it has become a landmark, noted for its fine pastries and fabulous butter cream cakes.  Despite the poor economy, “People still gotta eat,”  he said.  “People have cut back on buying for the whole office but still buy something for themselves.”

Next door to the bakery is Buster’s on 28th, taking over the space occupied by the Lake Inn for many years.  Since it opened in 2007, the restaurant has been a success, with waits as long as two hours  on weekend nights.  The owners pride themselves on serving more than 30 varieties of beer, and all food is prepared fresh daily.  They use locally-made tortillas for their nachos and bread from A Baker’s Wife for burgers and sandwiches.

Despite a few vacant storefronts—the old hardware store space is vacant, as is the space formerly occupied by the Agape Art Gallery and the Help-U-Sell business on the southeast corner—the consensus on the corner is that it’s thriving.  Other longtime businesses include Dokken’s Grocery, Karizma Kuts, Flag Foods and Bill’s Chinese.