Businesses feed each other and the neighborhood with new spaces

Reporting and photos by LOREN GREEN

In 1986, Tom and Rita Magnuson opened Carbone’s Pizza near Cedar Ave. and Minnehaha Pkwy., just north of Lake Nokomis. The pizza joint has been a neighborhood institution ever since, offering in-house, take-out, and delivery options for pieces of four decades.

Back in 2012, Tom and Rita retired and sold the business to their son Dan Magnuson and wife Jess. They have kept the restaurant running with minimal change until last December, when the restaurant moved across the street.

In a modern space more focused on the dine-in experience, Carbone’s has better parking lot access, more street visibility, and more customer comforts inside.

“We had a good product, a great delivery and takeout business,” says Jess, “but we were missing on the dine-in. We wanted to get families in from the neighborhood with small children.” They had no plans to leave Nokomis, and with the former Coldwell Banker Realty building next to Bergan’s Supervalu vacant, they saw a chance to upgrade without hurting their loyal base.

The new building replaces their previously 90-seat location with room for 160, including a beer and wine bar and an outdoor patio that overlooks Hiawatha Golf Course.

The space is open, inviting, and modern. There are TVs to watch a Twins game during happy hour, a patio to take in a summer day, and a fireplace inside for the cooler months. The goal, Jess explains, wasn’t to change what worked, rather it was to bring in more of the neighborhood.

While they added the bar, it’s beer/wine only instead of catering to a nightlife scene. “The biggest thing for us,” says Jess, “is we wanted to create the environment where people from the neighborhood come on a weeknight and grab dinner with friends and family. It’s doing exactly that,” she adds. Families on bikes, dog walkers, and others from the neighborhood stop by, and bike racks are on order to help draw lake traffic. They plan to add bocce ball courts to the patio in 2016. The patio has been a popular stop for local softball teams, Jess notes.

Previously zoned for office use, the building was gutted and remodeled by Smart Associates (who also designed LynLake Brewery and The Kenwood) to give a new feel. Ripping out cubicles, they installed a commercial kitchen, a glass garage door to the patio, and a cozy bar alongside booth and family table seating options.

The Magnusons also own their new building and, while they could have used the entire structure as restaurant, they opted to rent out the adjacent space. Tenant Cork Dork wine store, who was their neighbor across the street, is leasing the 1,300 sq. ft. space, a sizable increase from their previous 550 ft. store.

“Carbone’s relationship was a big factor,” Cork Dork owner Russell Fay says about the move. They had shared an entryway and many customers across the street, and he was ready to add more footage to his store. They considered the corner spot a better location, and it was a natural progression to follow the pizza restaurant.

While his old store lacked windows and elbow room, Fay now has natural lighting, wider aisles, and room for a beer cooler. Still primarily a wine store, Cork Dork sells a limited selection of beer and spirits at varied price points. While the store is larger, the concept behind the store hasn’t changed. Fay is a former wine purchaser for restaurants, and Cork Dork won’t sell a beverage they don’t personally approve.

“It’s our job to weed through all the junk,” he says, in what he refers to as “the world’s smallest wine warehouse.”

Cork Dork is uniquely anti-shelving, with makeshift displays of their products via cleverly cut wholesale boxes and signage. The product and customer service take priority.

For both parties, the move is paying dividends. “We’re only five months in but it’s been successful for sure,” Jess reflects, noting increased business.

Cork Dork agrees. “The three of us in this parking lot—Carbone’s, Bergan’s, and myself—we all complement each other,” notes Fay. “It’s three businesses that are feeding off each other and feeding the neighborhood.”

Firmly rooted in south Minneapolis, both the Magnusons and Fay are looking forward to what happens in their former space, currently for sale. “I do think it will be another restaurant,” Jess says with no hostility toward the idea.