A Minneapolis seafood bar with a rooftop in the heart of Uptown will end its 17-year run on Saturday.
The popular Stella's Fish Cafe & Prestige Oyster Bar posted to Facebook on Nov. 19 to tell customers the restaurant would be "closing our doors" on Nov. 26, saying goodbye to an enviable rooftop perch just off the intersection of Lake Street and Hennepin Avenue.
"We have appreciated being part of the Minneapolis lifestyle and appreciated being labeled the gold standard of rooftop patios," said the company in a social media post.
By 6 p.m., the note had drawn nearly 1,000 interactions on Facebook.
A year after Stella's opened, the Star Tribune in 2006 noted the restaurant notched the "best cityscape." A year earlier, the St. Cloud Times gushed about the "fabulous Uptown roof deck" and noted Stella's towered over Uptown, "which means shopping at Urban Outfitters and Calhoun Square, watching independent films and seeing plenty of hipsters."
In 2008, owner Bob Carlson told the Star Tribune where he'd sat actor Vince Vaughn when the "Swingers" and "Wedding Crashers" star dined at Stella's.
Stella's did not share the reason for its impromptu closing. Two months ago, the restaurant contended with media attention for a more ignoble reason: a viral video purporting to show a rodent rummaging through rice in the restaurant's window. At the time, Stella's management closed the restaurant to allow inspectors in. They reopened soon after.
Stella's is the latest restaurant in the commercial heart of Uptown to announce it will close within a matter of days. Two days ago, Williams Uptown Pub & Peanut Bar posted a sign on its 2911 Hennepin Av. location saying goodbye after many decades in business. Italian eatery Amore Uptown also announced earlier this week it would close, though a new restaurant is planned for its site.
National retailers including an Apple store, Urban Outfitters, CB2 and H&M all closed Uptown locations in recent years.
