Why Allianz Field's New Restaurants Opened Before the Garden Next Door

Shortly before Vincent, A Restaurant closed in downtown Minneapolis in 2015, Bill McGuire stopped in and showed chef Vincent Francoual blueprints for a soccer stadium, according to the Pioneer Press. Francoual said he didn't have the bandwidth to join then. Eleven years later he's head of culinary at the first two businesses on the grounds of United Village, the development around Allianz Field, which you can actually walk into and order from.

Those two restaurants opened this fall, and the hotel, office building and acre-sized garden planned around them did not. Every parcel connects to one shared stormwater system under the site. The pavilions cleared their fees for it without a fight, while disputes over that same system stopped the hotel for more than a week and cost the garden a second planting season.

Two pavilions on Simpson Street

The Midway Diner, at 445 Simpson St., opened at the end of September. It has 120 seats inside, including a long zinc bar, 80 seats on the patio, and a mural of the four seasons on Lake Superior. The Star Tribune described an Americana menu with prices of $15 or less, with dinner service and a full bar planned to follow. The diner's reservation page now lists hours from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Across the walkway, Picco Pizza and Gelateria at 455 Simpson St. bakes pies in a Ferrari-red deck oven brought in from Italy and serves gelato from Cossetta. Its own site says it's open from 3 p.m. and stays open 90 minutes after Loons games.

Francoual told the Pioneer Press the pair isn't meant as a stadium amenity. He wants the development to work like the central plazas that draw civic life in European cities. "It's not only restaurants; it's trying to update a neighborhood," he said.

Those two pavilions are a small slice of the plan. The City of St. Paul describes United Village as a phased redevelopment of the 34.4-acre site at Snelling and University avenues. Phase 1 calls for a hotel, an office building, two restaurant pavilions, a sculpture garden and open space. The pavilions are the only buildings from that list open so far.

The fees behind the hotel's pause

The whole United Village site, Allianz Field included, drains into an underground pipe-and-tank system built in 2018 with public and private money. Each new parcel owes the city a "Green Infrastructure" connection fee before its permits are released.

Matt Wagenius, a spokesperson for the mayor's office, told the Pioneer Press that the United Village team had paid those fees "without issue" on the office building and the restaurants. The eight-story, 158-unit hotel on University Avenue went differently. Its footings and foundation were in place when work stopped for more than a week in early September over more than $300,000 in disputed fees. McGuire's position was that his earlier spending on the stormwater system should count toward future hookups.

Under the compromise, McGuire agreed to pay the fees into a reserved account that the city won't spend for now, and both sides agreed to keep talking while construction continues. "We asked for a path to resolution, and we have it," Mike Hahm, the developer's community liaison, told the Pioneer Press.

The pause drew a response from the neighborhood. On Sept. 2 the Union Park District Council's board voted, with one dissent, to send a letter to the mayor, two council members and the Department of Safety and Inspections asking the city to move the project forward. "This area is in dire need of investment," read the letter, signed by council president Sarah Dvorak, as quoted by the Pioneer Press.

The garden that missed its second spring

Bailey Gardens is the clearest case of permits setting the calendar. It's planned as a tree-lined horticultural garden of about an acre linking the hotel to The Calling, the loon sculpture at the southeast corner of Snelling and University. It takes its informal name from Newport-based Bailey Nurseries, a key partner in the $1 million project. The Villager reported that sculptures by Kim Kyung-Min are planned for it.

Stormwater and other permitting questions have kept it from being planted for two years running. People describe where it stands in different ways:

• The developer: Hahm said the window to plant before winter has closed. He acknowledged that he and McGuire had said publicly the garden wouldn't happen if it missed this year, and added, "I'm not saying it's not going to happen."
• The watershed district: Elizabeth Hosch of the Capitol Region Watershed District said her board approved the permit with one condition, and that "the ball is back in the development team's court."
• The mayor's office: Wagenius said the garden will have to wait until 2027. He said the office has "heard no indications of Bailey Gardens being abandoned indefinitely," only a wait for spring planting while final fee questions are settled.

Hahm also explained why the delay matters to the budget. He put construction inflation at about 10% a year, so a $1 million park costs roughly $100,000 more for every year it waits.

Where each piece stands this fall

The office building was already running behind its original schedule before the fee dispute. Twin Cities Business reported a summer 2026 target for it in February. The four-story TreeHouse sits on the western edge of the site, near the extended Shields Avenue and Asbury Street. Plans call for a French-style bakery and a bank branch on the ground floor and room for roughly 250 to 300 office workers upstairs. That ground floor would be the third food stop on the site and the first one aimed at weekday morning traffic.

What match night looks like on Nov. 7

After Wednesday's Oct. 28 match against Sporting Kansas City, Minnesota United has one regular-season home date left. That's Saturday, Nov. 7, against the San Jose Earthquakes at 6 p.m. It's Decision Day, and the club has said the postseason schedule will be announced afterward.

Before Nov. 7, the Midway's food and drink options for match night have shifted in three ways:

1. On the stadium grounds. The Midway Diner and Picco both sit right beside the pitch, and Picco's posted hours run 90 minutes past the final whistle.
2. On Vandalia Street. Lake Monster Brewing ended its taproom run at Vandalia Tower, 550 Vandalia St., in August. Barrel Theory Beer Company has moved from Lowertown into that space and announced a larger taproom with a patio. Its taproom page lists Saturday hours of noon to 11 p.m. King Coil Distillery, at the same address, has temporarily closed its cocktail room.
3. On University Avenue. Mandalay Kitchen, the Karen, Thai and Burmese restaurant at 383 University Ave. W., reopened in October after months of repairs and remodeling, with returning favorites and new dishes.

For the morning after, Bewick Cafe at 1340 Thomas Ave. W. in Hamline-Midway has taken over the former Groundswell space. Chef Nicole Pederson-Bates and Andrew Bates run it as an all-day cafe. It's open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day except Tuesday, and dinner is listed as coming soon. If you followed the August Lowertown calendar, Barrel Theory's move is one thread connecting the two parts of town.

What next spring settles

The biggest open question for the Midway is the 160-by-120-foot space between Simpson and Pascal streets. The Villager reported it as the proposed site of the "Apostrophe," a covered skating pavilion that could also host warm-weather markets. It's still a plan, not a project with a start date.

The stormwater system under the site serves all 35 acres, so every remaining piece will hook into it. The next concrete markers fall in 2027. The mayor's office expects trees to go into Bailey Gardens in spring 2027, and the Pioneer Press reported that the hotel, ramp and office building are likely to open sometime that year.

If you own a home near Snelling and University and want to know how the market is treating your street while United Village fills in, Blake Halverson can put together a free home valuation based on recent sales nearby. For more on the city's neighborhoods, see our St. Paul neighborhood guide.