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Dinkytown is a commercial district within the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood in
Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...
,
Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
. Centered at 14th Avenue Southeast and 4th Street Southeast, the district contains several city blocks occupied by various small businesses, restaurants, bars, and apartment buildings that house mostly
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
students. Dinkytown is along the North side of the
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in statu ...
East Bank campus.


Notable landmarks

Notable landmarks include the Dinkydome (a former theological seminary converted to a food court which sometime later was converted into loft space), the Loring Pasta Bar (formerly Gray's Campus Drug and also the building where
Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
lived in Minneapolis),
Al's Breakfast Al's Breakfast is reportedly the narrowest restaurant in the city of Minneapolis, at a width of . Al's Breakfast is crammed into a former alleyway between two much larger buildings and is located in the city's Dinkytown neighborhood near the Unive ...
(arguably the city's smallest restaurant) and the Varsity Theater. It's also the location of the second store opened by Richard M. Schulze called "Sound of Music", which later became
Best Buy Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...
, and is now closed.


Notable establishments

Several notable establishments include Vescio's Italian restaurant (now closed), which opened in the 1950s, Annie's Parlour, and The Book House. The former
Marshall-University High School Marshall-University High School was a public junior high and high school serving grades 6–12 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The school was founded in 1968 through a merger between John Marshall High School (a Minneapolis public school) and Unive ...
on the corner of 14th Avenue and 5th street was closed in 1982 due to changing city population demographics, and was purchased and converted into the University Technology Enterprise Center (UTEC) for startups. The building was razed in 2013, and today the location is home to The Marshall, an apartment building for University students. The Chateau co-op built their
brutalist Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by Minimalism (art), minimalist constructions th ...
-style 22-story apartment in 1973 at 13th Avenue Southeast and 5th Street Southeast. Due to apartment building construction, popular dinkytown establishments like
Dinkytown Wine & Spirits Dinkytown is a commercial district within the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Centered at 14th Avenue Southeast and 4th Street Southeast, the district contains several city blocks occupied by various small businesses, restau ...
and McDonalds recently closed.
Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...
,
Five Guys Five Guys Enterprises LLC (doing business as both Five Guys Burgers and Fries, and simply Five Guys) is an American fast food restaurant chain focused on hamburgers, hot dogs, and french fries, and headquartered in Lorton, Virginia, part of Fa ...
, and the Kollege Klub Bar are notable establishments today.


History

The name Dinkytown is of uncertain origin, although it was in definite use by 1948, when the Dinkytown Business Association formed. Stories regarding the origin of the name include * The streetcars, called ''Dinkys'', that used to provide transit throughout the area. * Similarly, the locomotive tenders at the nearby railyard were called Dinkys due to their compact size. * The theatre in Dinkytown had only four rows of seats, and for years was known as "The Dinky Theater." Shortly thereafter, it was just "The Dinky." * DINKYs ("Double Income, No Kids Yet") * It's a small (dinky) town-like area; everything is within walking distance. * The Loring Pasta Bar, previously Gray's Drug on 14th Ave. SE and 4th St. SE has the name of an early owner carved in cement over the doorway: "Grodnik," meaning a small (or dinky) town. The name of the early owner was Louis Grodnik. He owned a haberdashery at that location and built the building. His brother, Hela Grodnik, always claimed that he was the one who named the area when he said that "This is getting to be a real 'Dinky Town." Grodnik then went on to work for another brother, Jacob Grodnik, at Grodnik Jewelry at 7th and Hennepin in Minneapolis. Louis also owned a haberdashery at 4th and Hennepin known as "Grodnik and Fassbinder". * Then-
Gopher Pocket gophers, commonly referred to simply as gophers, are burrowing rodents of the family Geomyidae. The roughly 41 speciesSearch results for "Geomyidae" on thASM Mammal Diversity Database are all endemic to North and Central America. They are ...
football player Frank "Dinky" Rog, whose large group of friends spent time in the area during the late 1940s and early 1950s. * Another conjecture which has been made is that "Grod" means "town" as in Stalingrad and that "nik" is the diminutive form. Hence small or dinky town.


References


External links


Official Website of the Dinkytown Business Alliance
Current resources for the Dinkytown community (formerly the Dinkytown Business Association).
Marcy-Holmes Neighborhood Association
Dinkytown is a commercial district, and one of the 5 character areas, of the Marcy-Holmes neighborhood.
Lileks.com -- University of Minnesota pages
€”contains information and reminiscence about Dinkytown, by
Star Tribune The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...
columnist
James Lileks James Lileks is an American journalist, columnist, author, and blogger living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is the creator of The Gallery of Regrettable Foods website. Career Columnist Lileks began his writing career as a columnist for th ...

The Dinkytown ProjectDinkytown Hub
Contains information about Dinkytown including a complete list of all businesses.


Further reading


Designation Study for Dinkytown Historic District
* * {{Minneapolis neighborhoods Neighborhoods in Minneapolis Student quarters University of Minnesota Academic enclaves