Forum Cafeteria (Minneapolis)

The Minneapolis Forum Cafeteria was located at 36 South 7th Street[1] originally constructed in 1914 as the Saxe Theater, later the Strand Theater.[2] A 1930 reconstruction created a cafeteria with a stunning Art Deco interior of black onyx and pale green tiles, sconces, chandeliers, and mirrors with a Minnesota-themed motif: pine cones, waterfalls, and Viking ships.[3]

Forum Cafeteria
The Saxe Theater in 1914, a decade and a half before it became the Forum (for which the exterior remained mostly unchanged)
General information
Address36 South 7th Street
Town or cityMinneapolis, Minnesota

The cafeteria did not outlive the era of fast food and closed its doors in August 1975. Threatened with redevelopment, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 1976.[4] Three months later the old Forum opened as Scottie's on Seventh, a disco nightclub that retained the Art Deco style of the Forum. When the venue was again threatened with demolition to make way for the Minneapolis City Center project, preservationists brought suit; the developers were ordered to disassemble the 3500 pieces of glass and reassemble the Art Deco interior within a new space in City Center.[2]

Thus relocated to 18 South 7th Street, Scottie's on Seventh reopened in 1983 but closed in 1985. It got delisted from NRHP in 1987. Several restaurants have since occupied the space since then: the Paramount Cafe, Mick's, Goodfellow's from 1996 to 2005, The Forum, and most recently Il Foro which opened in June 2015 and closed in May 2016. In 2018 a brand-new restaurant, Fhima's,[5] opened in this space with a French-Moroccan influenced menu.

References
  1. "Announcing a new and finer forum". Minneapolis Morning Tribune. November 7, 1940.
  2. Nelson, Rick. "Finding the Forum: A history". Minneapolis StarTribune. Retrieved November 3, 2012.
  3. "Restaurant Orders Takeout: Scotties Moves Again". Preservation Matters. 8 (2): 6. February 1992.
  4. Russell W. Fridley, Director, Minnesota Historical Society, letter to Brett Smith, 8 February 1979
  5. "Fhima's". Fhima's Minneapolis. Retrieved August 3, 2019.

44°58′38.86″N 93°16′23.65″W

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