Street Factory Media
Muddy Waters is the latest restaurant to close amid the economic pressures associated with COVID-19. The staple of Lyndale Avenue was a favorite of many artists, journalists, food service professionals, and other creatives keeping the Twin Cities vibrant. It started as a beloved coffee shop in a different location, and eventually became a go-to restaurant and bar.
“My first visit to the new Muddy Waters had my heart beating faster (no coffee involved) with a revelation: this is it! This is the paradigmatic new Minneapolis restaurant, the restaurant that could open every six blocks throughout the entire city,” Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl wrote for Minnesota Monthly in 2011. She was right.
My take? Somehow Muddy’s had nooks for every sort of adventure. You could dress up and hit a booth, casually glance at the Vikings game at the bar, spend an entire weekend out on the patio, or conduct an afternoon meeting over coffee. The food, the drinks, and the staff all met you where you were at for that moment. And they continued once the pandemic hit with a curbside window with panache.
This past Saturday, though, the announcement came in that the restaurant was closing. In the post, co-owners Sarah Schrantz and Paddy Whelan said, “We are heartbroken, but resolute in the knowledge that Muddy Waters is not, and cannot, be a place. Muddy Waters is people. And these people? Still here. You’ll find them all over town, still practicing radical empathy and clear eyed but pragmatic hope for what we face in this moment.”
Our hope is that this won’t be the last we’ll hear from them, or a lot of others in transition right now. If this was a place you frequented, make sure they hear from you, too.
We will be closing our doors tomorrow evening for the last time. We want to thank minneapolis for loving us for so…
Posted by Muddy Waters on Saturday, May 2, 2020
