Lyndale Avenue
Bars, shops, snowstorms, and the 2021 Open Streets event along Lyndale Avenue South in Uptown Minneapolis
January 2, 2022
Lyndale Avenue South is a major commercial corridor running through Minneapolis's Uptown and Lyn-Lake neighborhoods, lined with bars, restaurants, specialty retailers, and storefront businesses that range from Planet Soccer and the Blue Door Pub to Bebe Zito Ice Cream and Hum's Liquors at 22nd Street. The avenue's mix of neon-lit facades, vintage beer murals, and street-level activity gives it a character distinct from other Minneapolis thoroughfares.
The corridor has seen considerable turnover alongside long-standing anchors: Beckett's Bar, which opened in 2024, now occupies a space that previously housed the Country Bar and Fool Me Once, while the LynLake Brewery holds a building known for its theater-like architecture. This set moves along the avenue across multiple years, taking in the annual Open Streets Lyndale event — where Ward 10 candidate Katie Jones campaigned in 2021 alongside community vendors and a mobile produce bus — as well as quieter moments like a cyclist picking through heavy November snow and outdoor dining chairs left out in winter cold. Graffiti on a billboard beside the brewery and neon signs burning after dark at Up-Down and Beckett's sit alongside the daytime retail life of Planet Soccer and the night trade at Chicago's Very Own on the corner of Lake Street. Taken together, these moments trace the commercial and social texture of one of South Minneapolis's most active streets.
