New owners, restaurants foresee better times ahead for Plaza del Sol

Frederick Melo, Pioneer Press
·3 min read
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In 2020, Henry Jimenez learned that the owners of the once-popular Plaza Del Sol indoor food bazaar and destination eatery on Payne Avenue were facing foreclosure. As the executive director of the Latino Economic Development Center on Margaret Street, Jimenez wasn’t about to let longstanding East Side restaurants and other clients lose their commercial home.

The LEDC purchased the property and did its best to help food counters there weather the dog days of the pandemic, even if it meant finding them new locations.

Last October, a final tenant — the longstanding Moler Barber School — moved out into a larger, more comfortable headquarters on Arcade Street, leaving the Plaza Del Sol vacant for several weeks.

Then came December, and some fresh energy. Manuel Rutiaga relocated Gorditas El Durango from a Minneapolis supermarket damaged in the Lake Street riots of May 2020 and opened shop at 990 Payne Ave., bringing with him loyal customers who drive in from as far as Chaska and Hudson, Wis., to try his gorditas, or “chubbies,” the rough equivalent of a stuffed Mexican Hot Pocket.

“We were the first ones,” said Rutiaga with pride on Friday, after shaking hands with St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum.

NEW VENDORS, CUSTOMERS

About a month ago, Jamin Benitez opened Beniz Tamales, a restaurant he operates with his wife, daughter and two cooks. Benitez, like many recent Mexican-American immigrants in the Twin Cities, hails from the south-central Mexican state of Morelos, and many of his countrymen flock to his restaurant at 990 Payne Ave. for home cooking. He’s now weeks away from launching Coco Loco, an adjoining ice cream and fruit drink stand. A cell phone store is on the verge of opening, as well.

Jimenez is happy to see new vendors and customers, but he’s eager to give the longstanding Plaza Del Sol a fuller makeover.

While leading Carter and McCollum on a tour of the sizable building on Friday, he explained that LEDC is about $4 million into a $7 million capital campaign to fully remodel the structure, which has a sizable backroom that could be transformed into a commercial kitchen, and a spacious upstairs that could accommodate weddings and other special events, as well as future LEDC offices.

“We’re about 60 percent of the way there,” said Jimenez, who would like to see construction begin within nine months. Every day that passes, he said, those remodeling costs climb. “We need to get to the finish line, and there’s a sense of urgency for us to get it done.”

Jimenez said his economic development center already maintains a commercial kitchen at 3rd Street and Bates Avenue in St. Paul that is oversubscribed, with 19 active tenants renting time by the hour there and some 25 applicants in the wings. Existing clients range from bakeries, empanada makers and ice cream stands to a school lunch provider. Potential clients are lining up to roll out taco trucks.

‘DREAM BIGGER’

Over a lunch of tamales, tortillas and Mexican fruit drinks, Jimenez told Carter and McCollum that Payne Avenue and other corners of the East Side are under-resourced, and need to get better organized around seeking federal, state and local appropriations.

To complete an extensive remodel of Plaza Del Sol, he’d need to relocate tenants, ideally to LEDC’s Bymore commercial building about one and a half blocks away, which could also benefit from some investment and upkeep, he said.

Through McCollum’s efforts, the House has already approved a $1 million federal appropriation for the Plaza Del Sol, but the legislation still needs Senate approval.

“Half of my job is just telling people to dream bigger,” Carter told Jimenez as lunch wrapped. “But this is a big vision. And we support this vision.”

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