Let Them Eat Artisanal Wagyu

Last week, Minneapolis Mayor Frey Took to social media to declare his vaccine mandate – which he implemented as the Omicron wave had already peaked in Minnesota – a raging success, with his phone clogged, clogged, he told us, with photos of people at jam-packed restaurants.

We must only conclude, then, that “Seven”, The long time downtown tent pole restaurant with the best rooftop in the history of Minneapolis hospitality, closed because of overcrowding concerns.

Or not:

Worries about crime in downtown also contributed. “I can’t get staff to be excited to work downtown, because they don’t feel sale” he said.

You may find Karen responding “but restaurants close all the time, and it’s got nothing to do with draconian, misguided, on scientific emergency orders!”

And Karen would be wrong:

Finally, Patterson said city-ordered requirements on masks-wearing and vaccinations dealt the business a final blow. “We’ve seen a big decline even in the past few weeks,” following the revival of an indoor mask order by Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. On an average Friday night, he said, Seven could generate at least $25,000 in sales; after the mask order, Friday receipts dropped to $5,000.

With absolutely Marie Antoinnette like timing, the mayor got perhaps the puffiest puff piece in the puffy history of a puffy magazine this week; This is the week that the mayor appeared in Vogue magazine, as one does:

The mayor’s first term, which culminated in a hard-won reelection in November, gave him endless reasons to pace. Beyond Frey’s brio, he is an exposed nerve. “From the global pandemic to the economic downturn, the murder of George Floyd in our city, the subsequent unrest,” Frey speaks solemnly, “it was a lot. I don’t think anybody, including the former me…fully comprehends what this has been like.” Frey gestures to photos from four years ago, when he took office as a “bright-eyed, bushy-tailed 36-year-old.” He drank Red Stripes and sampled hot sauce with the local press. Now, like presidents gone gray in the White House, “I’ve aged a decade, easily,” Frey tells me, citing crow’s-feet, stress pimples, and trauma he hopes will manifest as post-traumatic growth. “This is a time that changed me forever.”

Speaking of changing:

from Vogue: “Frey, photographed at home in a Rag & Bone sweater with his wife, attorney and advisor Sarah Clarke, in Tory Burch and Altuzarra, and their daughter, Frida. Photographed by Alec Soth, Vogue, March 2022.” Photographs in March 2022?

Glad to know the mayor and his family are doing all right. It must be a tough time for them.

16 thoughts on “Let Them Eat Artisanal Wagyu

  1. We’ve been seeing businesses leave, vacancies go up ever since the light rail in Saint Paul. In Minneapolis, following a baseball game, the streets have been empty for a long time. The vacating hastened following the civil unrest in 2020 and everything since. We’re continuously told that online businesses are taking away brick and mortar shops. Yet, I only have to go as far as Roseville to see no vacant buildings and thriving brick and mortar businesses. People who support the policies that have made St Paul and Minneapolis what they are now surely must see the same thing that I do- they have to be doing business in the suburbs, too, since there is barely anything left here. Yet, they never quite connect the dots.

  2. Carjackings and shootings just add to the overall ambiance and vibe of Minneapolis. If Minneapolis ever comes close to what it once was, it’ll take at least a decade.

  3. mjb003:
    Yup. Two restaurants close to my house in Bloomington, seem to be attracting good crowds. Cowboy Jack’s, Lucky 13 and even Applebee’s are also crowded, with an hour wait at Lucky’s on Saturday night.

  4. My wife and I have a standing appointment on Monday evenings in Eagan. We like to go out to eat afterwards, and usually we don’t have any trouble getting seated. The last couple of months, though, every place we’ve tried has been full, with an hour wait. Weird.

  5. You might find this twitter thread from Bill Glahn from just about a year ago interesting:

    The mistake is believing that the decline of Minneapolis is due to incompetence, poor governance, bad luck, or forces beyond their control. Decline is a choice. In this instance, decline is a strategy.

    And the end goal being …. A city that better matches the interests and goals of the people in charge.

    The goal of the last crop of leaders was to create a “luxury city” along the lines of New York and San Francisco. A walkable city for empty nesters full of interesting restaurants.

    What went wrong do you estimate?

    Empty-nester progressive condo owners don’t share the same goals as the wokerati.

    I am gonna think about that. Sure are a lot of “luxury condos.”

    The more luxury condos, the greater the demand for public safety, walkable streets, and functioning services. The wokerati have no ability or interest or providing those items. Too “conservative. ”

    The current skyline and downtown housing boom is evidence of their success. But that success brought new expectations for public safety and functioning services.

    Two different and incompatible visions are in conflict. New Detroit is winning, luxury condoland is losing.

    Somewhat later a a mini-twitter thread arose around the Curley Effect (which I’ve mentioned before):

    The reason why Detroit and Newark never recovered is that the people in charge of the ruins preferred to rule over the ashes

    A model of the Curley effect, in which inefficient redistributive policies are sought … by incumbent politicians trying to shape the electorate through emigration of their opponents or reinforcement of class identities.

  6. Boss, take a short trip north to Eagan to visit Volstead House. Note, hard to find unless you know exactly where it is. You will not regret it.

    Oh, and I think this article has potential to be incuded as a defitniion of a “puff piece” in the dictionary.

  7. Sure gives me extra confidence in his leadership by knowing the brands of clothing he wears.

  8. The people who are middle class and higher pay close attention to their property value. The bourgeois are very careful with their money because it is a status marker for them. We aren’t talking about Lords and Ladies, here. All of their status is based on their capital and earnings.
    The death spiral of a city begins when property values start to decline.
    Economic decline is easy, and it is fast. Economic growth is slow and difficult.

  9. I can’t decide whether Frey is separated at birth, at least politically speaking, from Richard Hatcher or Coleman Young. As a person who grew up near Gary and who went to college 90 miles from Detroit, I’d argue that the huge declines in those cities started as marriage rates plunged and unwed parenting exploded. Marriage tends to lengthen one’s time preference and incentivize long term thinking-single life just the opposite.

    So what Frey is doing is really a double Hatcher/Young. The city’s been building its life around SINKs and DINKs for a while, and now with the epidemic, they’re flipping the bird at them, too. I don’t think it’ll end well, and I don’t think Mayor Hatcher is going to like the results after a while.

  10. “Unfortunately the elements for success simply are not available in downtown Minneapolis, and haven’t been for a long time, the restaurant said in a statement.”

    Pshaw. The elements for success have never been better. This guy’s problem is, he’s following the wrong business model.

    Providing a wholesome and elegant dining experience for White people is old and busted.

    He needs to gut the place, and re-emerge as a “Night Club”, featuring VIP seating (slightly elevated and cordoned off with velvet ropes, naturally), and the hottest Rappers in the biz. Hire all the White girls put out of work when the strip clubs closed as hostesses, to mingle with the crowd.

    Call it “Minks”, or “Suave”.

    Place will be packed.

  11. In Saint Paul you can open up your very own prostitution meet-up den if you buy a “rap parlor” permit. Cost is $369/year.
    An Adult Conversation/Rap Parlor (Class B) is defined as a conversation / rap parlor which excludes minors by reason of age, or which provides the service of engaging in or listening to conversation, talk, or discussion, if such service is distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on “specified sexual activities” or “specified anatomical areas.” No obscene work shall be allowed.
    https://www.stpaul.gov/departments/safety-inspections/open-operate-expand-business/business-licenses-and-permits/conversation-rap-parlor-license

  12. I think a SITD commenter get-together at Volstead might be fun one of these winter days.

  13. Pingback:  Mayors | Shot in the Dark

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