Nope

Nope.

No trend here.

The exodus of restaurants from Minneapolis – with its onerous regulations, psychotic city offices, minimum wage laws and constant flirting with more mandatory benefits for part-time workers – is claiming high-end restaurants and, now,  long-time staples of the Minneapolis food scene:

After a 36-year run, Ichiban Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Bar is calling it quits.

“Thirty-six years is a long time to do anything,” said Keith Levit in a statement. Levit is son of founder Jack Levit. “We’ve been a staple in the community for much of that time and that’s something we’re very grateful for. It’s sad that it’s coming to an end here but we’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished.”

As the article notes, Nicollet Mall has seen three staple joints close in the past year or so.

No – no pattern here.

40 thoughts on “Nope

  1. In no time Minneapolis will turn into a western, more hip version of St. Paul.

  2. Sad that he didn’t give a reason why they were calling it quits. One would think that if someone had poured their heart and soul and guts and life and livelihood into a restaurant, and the city finally made it too onerous to do business, one would be utterly pissed and would make it known in no uncertain terms, exactly why they were quitting.

    I know I’d be shouting it from the mountaintops.

  3. I dunno Mitch. Ever eat there? Pretty stale decor and food to match. I’ve had better Sashimi in Charleston.

  4. Who are the people who won’t admit “incentive” even exists when it’s inconvenient? Especially when their policies create so much of it on the negative side …

  5. “Sad that he didn’t give a reason why they were calling it quits.”
    Could be that onerous regulation and a dismal business environment* are the reason. But if you are trying to sell the place, you probably don’t want to let the new buyer to know that. If they own the real estate or if the current owner didn’t want to renew the lease, some juiced in developer can come in and make that land more valuable by putting up a stack of indistinguishable one bedroom condos (oh you have children? you’re SOL, breeder! head to the burbs, ya RWNJ) and an artisnal coffee/muffin/cupcake/micro-brewery store on the ground floor so the millennials have a place to gather and re-live their latest tale of unemployment and Pokemon GO! adventures.
    That said – I have been to Ichiban once or twice in the past five years, and it looked pretty dated. As I noted to a friend who put up a 40th anniversary edition video of AC/DC playing “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Want to Rock & Roll)”; 40 years (or in Ichibans case – 36 years) is a heckuva long time ago for most people.

    *Jay-sus, are they ‘still’ trying to finish Nicollet? I went to a seminar at the Hyatt a year ago and the streets in that area were a mess of construction signs.

  6. My take is that Nicollet Mall exceeds the soullessness of downtown Pig’s Eye by a mile. And Swiftee is right; exactly why does the entire mall still look like a construction zone? It’s not like it takes that much work to rip up a street and put in trees and such–this is clearly as much of the problem as taxes and regulations, IMO. Least appealing downtown I’ve ever seen.

  7. DG,

    Alas, you’ve gone back to your old habits – making snide, dismissive, condescending claims that your facts (“ironically”) can’t support, and scampering away, thereby using my comment section as a metablog.

    I told you I wouldn’t tolerate it.

    So this time, in addition to needing you to start discussing the claims you make in my comment section, I’m going to need some answers from you.

    • You recently claimed you’d been “published” in the London School of Economics’ blog. I’ve asked you repeatedly; the “publication” was actually just a link to one of your articles on “Minnesota Progressive Project”. Am I correct? If not, please provide a link, either publicly or privately to me. it appears you are trying to stretch five pounds of bag over ten pounds of reality.
    • Another: many years ago, you claimed that Salem Twin Cities was in imminent danger of being sued into receivership, because of a scam being run by one of its paid programs. You made a big show of it, in fact. You made a big show of how one of your neighbors – an expert in corporate law, but naturally nobody we could talk to, of course – backing you up on this.
      . So – whatever became of that? That was at least seven years ago; any updates?
    • In 2012, you claimed that Rep. Cornish’s “Stand your Ground” bill – which passed both chambers of the legislature with a bipartisan majority – was “crap legislation”. When asked to substantiate the claim beyond the level of opinion, you provided some stats that, in fact, proved that Stand your Ground was excellent legislation that did exactly what I said it would; you just didn’t know any better. So – please either substantiate your claim with actual facts (and be prepared to defend your defense!), or admit you were talking out your ass

    I could find a lot more, but I have a life.

    God bless ya, DG, but I’m calling BS on you.

    Time to remind the science illiterate Mitch that correlation is not causation.

    From the announcement it sure sounds like Ichiban is closing for other reasons than Mpls regulation. In fact it has thrived under Mpls regulation.

    In a larger — and smarter economic context — you should be taking a look at how many new restaurants start up each year, how many close after what length of time, and how many other restaurants are thriving. Mpls has won awards for being one of the best business cities in the nation. A simple look at something like this – tripadviser – shows just how successful the restaurant biz is, listing 1417 restaurants in Minneapolis. You mention 3 closing, with no supporting evidence that any of those three closed for regulatory burden reasons.
    https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g43323-Minneapolis_Minnesota.html

    As usual, you cherry pick a tid bit, take it out of the important and substantive context, and then try to use the misleading results to push your failed conservative economics premise. The reality is that our economy has consistently done better when more regulated, not less. And that tends to be true of those other nations which are economically as or more competitive than we are.

    There is ample evidence that the anti-regulation policies are not good for the economy, not good for business, certainly not good for workers or for those who live in and around where they operate. The ONLY thing these anti-regulation policies accomplish is wealth and income redistribution to the upper wealthiest. They are exploitation laws, nothing more.

    Facts are not your friend; economics is not your strong suit. Propaganda on the other hand appears to be your new metier, and misleading easily duped readers.

    DG, you’ve had your clock cleaned on facts consistently for the past umpteen years.

    Answer my questions above.

  8. DG, takes a lot of nerve on your part to suggest facts aren’t someone else’s friend. Now the reality here is that while three restaurants closing in Minneapolis is not a huge deal, three long term restaurants closing along Nicollet downtown is. Older restaurants have found their “formula” and are far less volatile, after all, and there simply aren’t that many restaurants in the area–especially as you go towards the river from Ichiban. It is a commercial dead zone as far as I’m concerned.

    And a big part of the regulation is the construction there–sorry, but the city has made it unattractive to go there.

    And economics? OK, Ms. supporter of the jobless recovery and its architect, we bow down to your great knowledge of how to get people to work. Seriously? One would think that the past 7 years would give your side of the aisle a touch of humility, but no such acquaintance with reality appears to be forthcoming from you.

  9. DG,

    Alas, you’ve gone back to your old habits – making snide, dismissive, condescending claims that your facts (“ironically”) can’t support, and scampering away, thereby using my comment section as a metablog.

    I told you I wouldn’t tolerate it.

    So this time, in addition to needing you to start discussing the claims you make in my comment section, I’m going to need some answers from you.

    • You recently claimed you’d been “published” in the London School of Economics’ blog. I’ve asked you repeatedly; the “publication” was actually just a link to one of your articles on “Minnesota Progressive Project”. Am I correct? If not, please provide a link, either publicly or privately to me. it appears you are trying to stretch five pounds of bag over ten pounds of reality.
    • Another: many years ago, you claimed that Salem Twin Cities was in imminent danger of being sued into receivership, because of a scam being run by one of its paid programs. You made a big show of it, in fact. You made a big show of how one of your neighbors – an expert in corporate law, but naturally nobody we could talk to, of course – backing you up on this.
      . So – whatever became of that? That was at least seven years ago; any updates?
    • In 2012, you claimed that Rep. Cornish’s “Stand your Ground” bill – which passed both chambers of the legislature with a bipartisan majority – was “crap legislation”. When asked to substantiate the claim beyond the level of opinion, you provided some stats that, in fact, proved that Stand your Ground was excellent legislation that did exactly what I said it would; you just didn’t know any better. So – please either substantiate your claim with actual facts (and be prepared to defend your defense!), or admit you were talking out your ass

    I could find a lot more, but I have a life.

    God bless ya, DG, but I’m calling BS on you.

    Try some serious reading for a change Mitch. You might start with this:
    http://www.epi.org/publication/regulation_employment_and_the_economy_fears_of_job_loss_are_overblown/

    http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-budget/270970-regulations-are-good-for-good-businesses

    http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/209329-regulations-can-be-good-for-business-look-at-clean

    Since your links will inevitably be partisan cherry-pickings of the data, I may get to it.

    But please answer the three questions above forthwith.

    Thanks.

  10. Let’s not even revisit all of businesses along the third government subsidized choo choo train that had to close or move to satisfy stupid and economically ignorant DemocRAT actions. If I had my way, every one of the ignorant bastards that vote for these boondoggles on rails, should be tied to said rails around January 15th and left there for a few hours.

  11. Mitch,

    http://www.startribune.com/boom-town-record-number-of-restaurants-open-in-2014/280080432/

    Why are a record number opening? A separate article in 2015 noted a remarkable number of new openings at the end of 2015 as well. Do you have any data on the total number of restaurants or is your conjecture here nothing more than unproven (and seemingly unfounded) sophistry?

    If you have much knowledge of industry you know restaurants (by and large) operated on some of the smallest margins in business. So, were there a pervasive headwind, MANY restaurants would be closing and few would open to replace them because the business environment wouldn’t support it. Frankly, the stories from the Strib paint a different picture, they suggest a thriving environment where new restaurants are popping up to replace those which cease operating, whether that’s through failure, fatigue, or any other of a host of reasons including (tada) that the EXPERTS feel the market is oversaturated by new restaurants.

    http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2016/05/23/minneapolis-restaurants-failing/

    Not over-regulation, not too high wages, not too high taxes, but simply, too much competition and on a sub-text, that while there is employment, the jobs don’t pay as well…. but hey, at least Donald Trump can enjoy a fine meal while we all watch. I find it ironic to hear about a “jobless recovery”, when it’s nothing of the sort, it’s just a wage-less one and that wage-less environment is perfectly aligned to the positions which the right wing stakes out, give the money to the top, the average worker is stupid if they don’t demand (and get) better pay. Stratification of wages in accordance with Reaganomics has created a tiny uber rich class, and a small well-off class while everyone else sucks air. The consequence has been (including since 2008) that most folks live paycheck to paycheck. Small wonder there are fewer people eating out.

    Next time, try some research before you offer up explanations. The simple math is there’s been explosive growth in the numbers of restaurants without an attendant growth in customers, so, the money gets spread around and those who are close to the edge slide off.

  12. Also, I’m shocked that you haven’t commented on Melania Trump’s plagiarism. It’s the biggest story of the day.. but.. crickets.

    I’m certain you’d have been equally silent if that had been Michelle Obama who had stolen entire concepts from a speech given by Nancy Reagan…yep .. certain.. fair and balanced.. and truthiness besides.. all good.

    Nothing to see here, nothing to see.

  13. Pen,

    You’ve said nothing to condemn pedophilia. Crickets.

    Hmmm. Iiiiinteresting.

    ————

    Pretty absurd, huh? Turning “Pen didn’t say anything” as “Pen’s silence says something!”. Right?

    Been sick this last couple days. Haven’t been watching the convention. Don’t really care any more about Melania’s speech than I did about Moochelle’s. Zzzzzzz. WGAF.

    But I have a question for you, Pen: haven’t you been mocked enough for your “You are suspiciously silent on…” statements?

    Not writing about something yet is neither approval, nor disapproval. It is just silence.

    It’s not that complicated, Pen.

  14. Pen, look at the dateline for your claims. It’s from 2014. Half of the restaurants are not even in Minneapolis, and I’ve found a few that are closed, and at least a couple that never appear to have opened. Plus, the article does not really establish that it’s a record–just claims that it is. Typical depth of research for you, but don’t you think you can do better?

    And plagiarism? Powerline covers it well. Not nearly as big a deal, say, as Joe Biden’s clear plagiarism of Neil Pinnock, nor Barack Obama’s plagiarism of Deval Patrick in 2008. It’s a few phrases that if Melania is guilty, so is Michelle, they’re so commonplace.

  15. Peevish
    the “big story of the day” as you put it, boils down to this – Mrs Trump uses the same boilerplate platitudes that Mrs Obama used, just like every low rent commencement speaker before them.
    The only story is that Mrs Trump is just as banal as Mrs Obama only she doesn’t look like a Klingon.

  16. I’m pretty sure Michelle cribbed this bit from someone else, too:
    “Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.”

  17. Pingback: In The Mailbox: 07.19.16 : The Other McCain

  18. Pen, platitudes are now copyrighted? Interesting.

    But before you go any farther, let’s talk about how disqualifying plagiarism is. Should plagarism disqualify one for the being a candidate for the Presidency or the Vice Presidency itself? Does a history of plagiarism in school count against a Democrat? Heaven forbid that the President himself could be a plagarist!

    Yes, we certainly, absolutely must be concerned about the utterances of a candidate’s spouse and scrub every word they say for all nuances. After all, what could the hidden meaning in something like “… for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country…” be? I mean, it’s not been said by someone else before, like the platitudes cited, so it must be some sort of code that we need to deconstruct to properly understand!

  19. NW,
    maybe peevish is tired of DG too, problem is he’s stuck with her as his blog-wife because there isn’t a no-fault divorce in blog-world!

  20. Kel, if you believe that Bill Clinton’s relationship with Epstein was anything other than professional, well, you would have to be so crazy that you believe that Bill Clinton enjoyed sexual relationships with young women who were his intellectual and social inferiors.
    While he was married to Hillary! Talk about crazy!
    There aren’t even words for that craziness.Well, there won’t be words for it once Hillary overturns Citizens United. No words that can’t be banned by the feds, anyhow..

  21. What? Peev have not interjected with claims of DTJr clear cut plagiarism yet? It was lifted word for word. Pshaw! ( sarcasm off )

  22. For the record, Minneapolis does not have any “minimum wage laws”, just the same state minimum wage law we all have.

  23. Sure, a proposal that might or might not be on the ballot, and might or might not pass, and might or might not effect the business, caused them to close.

    Or they might have closed because they worried that President ‘Make America American again’ was going to close all of the foreign restaurants.

    That point is simply that Mitch said Minneapolis has a separate higher minimum wage law, which is untrue. So casual disregard for the facts is how your party got the Cleveland train wreck.

  24. Most economic affects occur on the margins. Raise costs (labor is an economic cost), and businesses that were just making it close down. Lower costs and some businesses will become viable.
    Profit margins on restaurants aren’t good. A lot of people are attracted to the restaurant business because restaurants have a lot of cash flow, and a potential operator might be optimistic about scraping another 1% profit out of revenue. But the business is difficult to scale, and a fixed location can be as much of a curse as a blessing.
    My wife was in the restaurant business for thirty years. I know a little about the business as an observer. A restaurant that lasts two decades has had a good run.
    In my opinion, if you really know the restaurant business, you can make more money using your expertise to lease restaurant locations and equipment than you can by operating a restaurant.
    But some people love the cook, feed, and socialize end of the business . . .

  25. “So casual disregard for the facts is how your party got the Cleveland train wreck.”
    The convention wasn’t that bad. Melania’s speech was good. I liked the band.
    Anyway, democracy is messy. The Democrats have tried to fix this by, ironically, removing as much democracy from the candidate selection process as possible.

  26. Casual disregard for the facts….do you mean like “if you like your doctor, you can keep him”, “if you like your insurance, you can keep it”, “Benghazi was related to a YouTube video”, “it depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is”, …..

  27. RickDFL alerts me to the fact that after Trump is elected, we are entering a four year period in which leftist reprobates will mock the GOP, and we will be forced to endure it in silence.

    Those SCOTUS picks better be real humdingers.

  28. That being said…we’re not there quite yet:

    So casual disregard for the facts is how your party got the Cleveland train wreck.

    No, 8 years of a lying, incompetent President Community Organizer running roughshod over the constitution, leftist monkeywrenchers turning perverts of every description loose on society, a doubling of Bush’s debt, a foreign policy that can only be honestly described as a disaster of historic proportions, a federal bureaucracy that is running wild…that is what elevated Trump.

  29. Casual disregard for the facts….do you mean like “if you like your doctor, you can keep him”, “if you like your insurance, you can keep it”, “Benghazi was related to a YouTube video”, “it depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is”, …..

    “They’re the JV team”, “Gun violence is overwhelming us”, “If I had a son, he’d look like (fill in blank)”, “there are Two Americas!”, “If he had been white, he’d be alive…” (before any facts were known)…

  30. Wow. That touched a nerve. I will simply note that whether Minneapolis does or does not have a minimum wage law higher that the state is a simple, uncontroversial, easy to find fact. The ensuing litany of alleged ‘facts’ is not. Your failure to get the former right detracts from your claims about the latter.

  31. Note that except for Yuma and Ocean City, all of the time ten areas for unemployment are in California. Just sayin’.

    Regarding the issue of minimum wage, notice that our host did not say city minimum wage, although I did demonstrate that efforts to impose that are on the table and are (AHEM) a shade more likely than Donald Trump shutting down ethnic restaurants. So sorry, Rick, but learn to read for comprehension.

  32. People really can’t see a trend here?
    http://www.startribune.com/cafe-levain-closes-pilgrimage-closing/388611031/
    Three more Minneapolis restaurants close.

    This on the same day that my friend, Susan Segal, who is the Minneapolis City Attorney says the city charter does not allow my fellow asylum inmates to vote on a $15 minimum wage. Of course I wish she’d been as concerned about the charter when it came to lining the pockets of the Wilfs but I digress.

    Connecting the dots is not that difficult here friends. Higher minimum wage means fewer jobs. Econ 101. But i did take that course in the 1970’s when the unicorn population was much lower.

    PassOut

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