Downtown St. Paul Has a Grocery Store Again. Here's What It Doesn't Replace

The Lunds & Byerlys at 10th and Robert had a deli, sushi and a Caribou Coffee. After it closed in March 2025, downtown went without a grocery store for 18 months. When the doors at 115 E. 10th St. opened again on Thursday, Sept. 24, the line ran down 10th Street before opening time, and the store behind those doors was an Aldi.

A shopper put the trade-off simply to the Pioneer Press on opening day: "It's going to be different because Byerly's had a deli, it had sushi, it had a Caribou Coffee shop. I don't think Aldi will have any of these, but it'll be a lot cheaper to get snacks." That sentence describes how downtown now gets fed. Aldi handles cheap staples from midmorning to evening. The early hours, the fresh tortilla and the made-to-order sandwich are coming from a handful of small counters that moved into spaces dark since the pandemic. Five weeks after the Aldi opening, it's clear how the two groups split the day.

Two thousand items, starting at nine

The Aldi took at least seven months to build out. Matt Lilla, an Aldi regional vice president, told the Pioneer Press the company stripped the old Lunds "to the concrete floor and the studs." What's there now is the chain's newest store design. Lilla said it's the first in Minnesota with the full set of digital message boards, a format so far rolled out in Manhattan and about 10 other locations. It's Aldi's fifth store in St. Paul.

The number that matters for daily errands is how much it stocks. The same report says a traditional major grocer can carry upwards of 50,000 stock-keeping units, while Aldi sells about 2,100. Lilla also said about a third of the store's products were cheaper as of opening day than a year earlier. The narrow selection is deliberate, and it's what keeps prices low.

Then there's the clock. The store is open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week, with no early-morning hours. If you want coffee before a 7:30 meeting or eggs for a weekday breakfast, Aldi isn't open yet.

Before nine, the old lunch counters

The places that open before Aldi share a pattern, and the Pioneer Press's August roundup of downtown arrivals documented it. Most of them moved into storefronts with a long food-service history that had sat empty for years.

Read the hours column top to bottom. The small counters open before Aldi does and close before most people leave work. Aldi covers the afternoon and evening. Between them, downtown has food from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

River Valley Coffee sits across from City Hall in a lunch counter that, according to the Pioneer Press, had been empty since Aroma's Pizza closed in 2020. It started with a short list of classic coffee drinks and planned to add pastries, cold brew and possibly boba once students at the neighboring St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists returned.

At Landmark Center, Jenni's Cafe is run by Joe Ruhland, an executive chef and manager for 20 years, and his wife and co-owner, Jen Ruhland. The sit-down breakfast and lunch menus include sandwiches made with humanely raised meats and pasture-raised eggs, fair trade lattes, pastries and ice cream. The couple also runs a food truck, Smokin' Jenni's. If you're reading this the week it posts, the cafe is closed: Jenni's is shut for a remodel Oct. 26 through Oct. 30 and reopens Monday, Nov. 2.

A few counters were already open before this wave. HepCat Coffee at Osborn 370 Plaza held a grand reopening in January after a remodel that turned its service counter toward the lobby seating and expanded the cafe's footprint fivefold. Owner Terry John Zila told the Pioneer Press business was up 20% since the remodel. HepCat serves pastries and breakfast and lunch sandwiches. In the Town Square building, Kim Reid and Steve Fiebiger turned their food truck into Steven D's, a lunch counter serving burgers, grilled chicken and homemade soups.

The deli counter moved to Prince Street

For the deli that opening-day shopper missed, the closest match downtown is Galvan Foods and Tortilleria at 308 Prince St. The corner storefront that used to house the Black Dog Cafe is now an indoor farmers' market, small grocery and deli. Galvan makes about 3,000 tortillas a day by hand, using organic flour or heirloom corn from local farms or single-origin suppliers in Mexico. The menu covers burritos, tacos, ice cream tacos, handmade corn chips, guacamole and Mexican coffees.

On hours, the St. Paul Farmers' Market site says the store is open "7 AM - 3 PM six days a week," and its calendar runs Tuesday through Sunday, so Monday is the day it's closed. That calendar keeps the store's hours going into December, past the end of the outdoor market. Galvan opens two hours before Aldi, so a weekday breakfast run can stop on Prince Street first.

Why these storefronts filled in

The Pioneer Press credits part of the refill to the Downtown Alliance, a partnership between City Hall and big downtown employers such as Securian and Ecolab. Its four-year-old Grow Downtown program negotiates leases for startup businesses with property managers, sometimes as low as $1 a month for the first six months, plus utilities and insurance. The goal is to lower the cost of trying a first storefront for food truck operators, online sellers and pop-ups. The same report notes that owners have come downtown by several routes, not only through the program.

Two of the operators above started on wheels. Steven D's began as a food truck, and Jenni's owners still run one. These businesses opened at a small scale and a modest cost, and that helps explain why their hours fit around office schedules.

The calendar changes in November

Downtown's weekend food options get smaller next month. Here are the dates on the official schedules:

1. Through Saturday, Nov. 21: The outdoor St. Paul Farmers' Market at 290 E. Fifth St. runs Saturdays, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
2. Through Sunday, Nov. 22: Sunday hours are 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Nov. 22 is the last regular Sunday of the season.
3. Monday, Nov. 2: Jenni's Cafe reopens at Landmark Center after its remodel.
4. After the outdoor season: The indoor store at 308 Prince St. stays on its Tuesday-to-Sunday schedule, and Aldi stays open daily.

From late November, a Saturday morning grocery run downtown means Galvan when it opens at 7 and Aldi from 9.

After eight

Once Aldi closes, downtown's evening food options thin out. On St. Peter Street, Meritage has taken over the former Artists' Quarter jazz club and opened a basement lounge called The Pearl Speakeasy. The Pioneer Press described its short menu as rotating spreads served over toasts, cheese and charcuterie boards, plus oysters. Downtown St. Paul's event listing has The Pearl on Fridays from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., with dates from Oct. 23 through Dec. 18. Upstairs, the Meritage bar opens at 4 p.m. and the dining room at 5 p.m., Thursday through Sunday, with Sunday brunch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

On Tuesdays, the chefs behind SoYen Desserts run an occasional dinner pop-up called SoYen PM from their counter on the Wall Street side of the Northwestern Building, 275 E. Fourth St.

Two more openings are still ahead. Gambino's Coal Fired Pizza, from Tono and Andrea Pizza owners Shaz Khan and Antonio Gambino, is planned for 512 N. Robert St. As of Racket's Oct. 1 report, it was still in the works with no opening date. In the former Woolworth's building at 428 Minnesota St., the civic salon With Love plans a lounge, cafe bar, auditorium and meeting rooms, with an opening expected in early 2027.

If you're watching how these small counters reshape the blocks around your building, David K Wells III Real Estate follows that street-level change closely across St. Paul. Contact David & Wren to discuss your next move.