A new initiative from Highland District Council
Each month, the Highland District Council will feature a Highland Park resident, business or organization. Community Spotlight honorees may have deep roots in Highland Park or might be new to the neighborhood. Our goal with this initiative is to build community and showcase the good work happening around us.
We look forward to highlighting the positive stories and the people who make our neighborhood a more vibrant, welcoming and safe place to live, work and play.
Watch our enewsletter and social media for monthly Community Spotlight announcements.
Community Spotlight honorees
May 2024: Level Up – 2493 7th Street West
Level Up as a storefront is a place to stay up to date on the newest comics, board games, and trading card products. Not only do we keep up with the newest releases, we are also a place to trade and buy retro video games and consoles. Much more than this though, we are a community hub for all of the games and communities nerd culture has to offer. Nearly every day, our play spaces are full of folks enjoying their favorite things with others in the community that share those passions. We take pride in being a place to host these things, and we are so thankful for the communities that let us be the business that we are and will continue to be.
Level Up opened in 2022 in the Sibley Plaza shopping center, near Aldi.
What was the inspiration for doing the work you do?
The communities that call our store a “second home” for their games and passions. Without them we wouldn’t nearly be as involved in the space as we are and we are more than thrilled to give back in ways that we can. Continuing support for our players allows them to mirror that support back to us by sharing their positive experiences here with others and feed back into the community we are so happy to be a part of.
What’s your favorite thing about Highland Park?
How tight knit everything and everyone feels! Our business is working with others in the Highland Park area collaboratively to benefit the customers and regular visitors around here. We have positive relationships with frequent shoppers that are local to the area, and we are always looking to add more friendly faces to our community of Highland Park!
April 2024: Highland Foot and Ankle Clinic
Highland Foot and Ankle Clinic is a woman-owned small business operating one of the few remaining private Podiatry practices in the Twin Cities. They provide all types of foot and ankle care for the whole family. Their specialty includes management of heel pain, ingrown toenails, plantar warts, bunions, diabetic foot care, ankle sprains and many other pathologies. They provide minor surgical procedures in office and we are a DME supplier, including such things are custom orthotics and braces. They take all health insurances, but recommend you check with your specific plan to see if you are in network.
When did you first start your business/efforts in Highland Park?
Dr. Sarah Phelps Whittaker, DPM/CEO of Highland Foot and Ankle Clinic, started working as a Podiatry Associate in 2010 and took over the business in 2013. Ten years later (in March 2023), she moved down the street into the new Highland Bridge Medical Office Building.
What was the inspiration for doing the work you do?
Way back in high school, Dr. Phelps Whittaker was a Certified Nursing Assistant. It was then that she learned of her passion to provide attentive, compassionate care to people in need.
What’s your favorite thing about Highland Park?
According to Dr. Phelps Whittaker, the neighborhood is both diverse and close-knit with a charming boutique-feel. It has the feel of a small town in the bigger city. Highland Park is centrally-located with easy access to Minneapolis, Saint Paul and the MSP airport. There are also good restaurants and retail stores in the area.
March 2024: Emma Norton Services
Emma Norton Services is a nonprofit organization with a mission to provide people with transformational housing, healing, and possibility–realized through their own design–on their journey of recovery. Our new Restoring Waters development in Highland Bridge will provide supportive housing for 60+ women, individuals, and small families who have experienced homelessness and have a mental health, chemical health, and/or a chronic health condition. Restoring Waters also functions as the new organizational headquarters for Emma Norton Services and employees 30+ individuals on staff. We are thrilled to be moving into the Highland Park area with so many wonderful community amenities, businesses, public transportation, parks and green space, and more.
In addition to providing trauma-informed supportive housing for the people who live at Restoring Waters, Emma Norton Services is also planning to expand some of the resources on-site to serve the broader community later in the fall. The most significant of these is the Living Room Model, a form of mental health care developed by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). In a space designed to look like a living room, people experiencing a mental health crisis can meet with peer support specialists. The peer supports will help adults 18+ stabilize, develop a safety plan, and connect them with resources to address the underlying issues that brought them to a crisis point. Studies comparing the results of Living Room Model and emergency room visits have shown this model of care costs less money, while also reducing the likelihood of future mental health related hospitalization.
When did you first start your business/efforts in Highland Park?
Restoring Waters will be opening in April of 2024.
What was the inspiration for doing the work you do?
Emma Norton Services was originally founded in 1917 to provide housing and opportunity to young girls seeking education in the Twin Cities. Over the years our mission has evolved, informed by what we see in our community, and what we hear from the people we serve. This is how we came to serve homeless people, primarily women, starting in the late 1980s as homelessness for women and families grew in our community. Our current building was built in the 1960’s and no longer meets the needs of the residents we serve. We knew we needed a new building that served more people and fostered stability and healing. We embraced the opportunity to develop–in partnership with Project for Pride in Living–a new residence in Highland Bridge.
For Restoring Waters specifically, we were inspired by a number of things. We were inspired by a growing body of research on the impact of physical spaces on recovering from trauma, and the concepts of trauma-informed design and architecture. We were inspired by innovative approaches to mental health care, like the Living Room Model. Most of all, we were inspired by the thousands of people who we’ve walked with on their recovery journeys, and their dreams for what a healing home looks like. To learn more and get involved, please visit www.emmanorton.org.
What’s your favorite thing about Highland Park?
If we had to pick just one thing, it would be the presence of so much accessible nature. Direct access to nature is incredibly valuable for people healing from trauma. People living and working at Restoring Waters will be able to walk to a number of different parks and green spaces within a few minutes, and have access to gorgeous walks along the Mississippi River. We also appreciate that care was taken in design to make a neighborhood that doesn’t just exist alongside nature, but works to restore man-made damage done in the past. When we named our building Restoring Waters, we did not yet know that a part of the Highland Bridge development project was restoring Hidden Falls Creek, but we think it’s a beautiful coincidence. We have also been incredibly impressed with how welcoming everyone has been–even before we officially move in!
February 2024: Cold Front
Cold Front is your friendly neighborhood ice cream, coffee and soda shop who prides ourselves in offering top quality products while keeping the low key neighborhood feel. They serve Chocolate Shoppe Super Premium ice cream (at least 12% butterfat content) made for over 65 years in Madison, Wisconsin. Cold Front’s coffee is locally roasted by Backstory Coffee Roasters in West St. Paul, and they make our own unique soda syrups with fresh ingredients. They also offer on site ice cream service with our “Cold Front Mobile” ice cream cart. You may have seen them at summer events hosted by Highland District Council.
When did you first start your business in Highland Park?
February 14, 2015
What was the inspiration for doing the work you do?
“Keeping the neighborhood happy,” says Kyle Farizel, Owner/Operator. “We want to be the familiar place you go to grab a delicious treat, whatever the cause.”
What’s your favorite thing about Highland Park?
According to Farizel:
“As both a business owner and a resident of Highland Park, I have to say my favorite thing is my neighbors. The people are the core of what makes up a community and I’m grateful to be surrounded by a lot of friendly people. Through working behind the counter at the shop I’ve had the joy of meeting and building relationships with so many great people. From surface chats about the weather to deep conversations about the meaning of life and the universe, these interactions keep me going on a daily basis.”
January 2024: Potsticker
Potsticker is a small, Asian restaurant with a warm, cozy ambiance that opened in September of this year. We offer meticulously hand folded-potstickers in a variety of authentic flavors. We make our own dough and our own fillings. We even use special spices like star anise and Szechuan peppers to enhance our cooking oils. We serve potstickers the way they are served in China, and they way they were meant to be prepared. We are one of the few Asian restaurants in the area to provide an extensive craft cocktail menu, fine wine list and specialty Asian beers, sake, soju and more.
When did you first start your business in Highland Park?
September 20, 2023
What was the inspiration for doing the work you do?
I always believed potstickers were underrepresented in the United Stated. They had become a frozen appetizer, and that just wasn’t good enough. So, after living here for decades, I decided to do something about it.
What’s your favorite thing about Highland Park?
I love the community and the supportive people within it. Before Potsticker, I would have never imagined the strong support that I’ve received from our neighbors. Our residents long to support small business and I’m amazed at the love Potsticker has received in just two short months.
December 2023: Soul Lao
We offer food from our Lao background, bold flavors, and a food experience that brings conversation and good memories for all adventurous foodies looking to have the best kept secret at your service. Our team is small but we offer a lot when it comes to the passion we have for Lao food and food in general. Behind our pass through window you can catch us singing, joking, keeping the energy high and focused on giving our customer the full experience “Soul Lao” has to offer. With our rotating playlist jamming, soup season, and rotisserie dreams becoming reality we try to give it 100 percent each day.
When did your business open in Highland Park?
August 28, 2023
What was the inspiration for doing the work you do?
Our inspiration is our family. The journey has always been about the process never the destination, this is what held us to our “quality versus quantity” motto. We challenge ourselves and continue to add to our menu to give more opportunities to share memories & shape our skills as young chef learning from one another.
What’s your favorite thing about Highland Park?
The connection this plaza has to our family, the people, our neighbors & the support we’ve received has been a huge wind under our wings. We love that we get to open our world to this community, it’s been a long road and we’re just getting started as a brick and mortar restaurant.
November 2023: Wandering Leaf Brewing Company
Wandering Leaf Brewing Company was designed to reflect the beautiful Minnesota environment, and created to showcase both well-loved brews and introduce visitors to new and exciting varieties, featuring up to 16 beers made on-site as well as a variety of plants and greenery, including a living plant wall. The brewery offers a rotating taplist of hand-crafted beers with a wide variety of beers to cater to every beer drinker and highlight the love of the outdoors all year round. For non-drinkers, there are several NA options such as hop water, craft soda, kombucha and sparkling tea.
When did your business open in Highland Park?
April 27, 2023
What was the inspiration for doing the work you do?
Creating a safe space that is inclusive and fun for everyone!
What’s your favorite thing about Highland Park?
Sense of Community and a passionate community that supports and is proud of their local businesses!
October 2023: Friends of the Mississippi River
Friends of the Mississippi River (FMR) is a St. Paul environmental nonprofit that works to engage people to protect, restore and enhance the Mississippi River and its watershed in the Twin Cities region.
Each year FMR works with community partners to create and install a water quality-themed mural near a storm drain at a park in St. Paul. These murals serve as reminders that our city landscape connects to the river through storm drains and that we can all work together to keep our water clean. This year, we installed our Water Mural at Highland Park’s Mississippi River Gorge Overlook.
To create the mural, FMR engaged the talents of St. Paul artist Precious Wallace. Wallace is an artist and creative who has been making art since her adolescence. She went on to create a remote design studio named King P studio where she has done design work for nonprofits, corporations, agencies and many entrepreneurs. You can see more about her and her studio at https://www.talkprecious.com/about-1.
As part of the mural creation process, FMR invited community input at the Spirit of Water Festival at Hidden Falls and workshops with youth. As Precious puts it, the community process “allowed us to really see what other people imagined for the dream mural, and how they wanted to actually educate the community on not putting things down the storm drains because they affect our Mississippi River.”
FMR identified a storm drain at the Mississippi River Gorge Scenic Overlook in the 600 block of Mississippi River Boulevard South as a great location for a mural. FMR was grateful that the Highland District Council approved that mural location and Precious’s proposed mural design. On August 7, 2023, Precious painted a bright, colorful mural, with support and assistance from her assistant, FMR staff, and youth from FMR’s Environmental Stewardship Institute. The mural’s message? “Just Water — No Waste.”
When did you first start your business/efforts in Highland Park?
This year, Friends of the Mississippi River is celebrating our thirtieth anniversary of engaging people to protect, restore and enhance the Mississippi River. Our storm drain stenciling program — which enlists volunteers to paint the message “Keep ‘Em Clean — Drains to the River” near St. Paul storm drains — is active in Highland Park, so it’s likely that Highland Park neighbors and business owners may have spotted FMR volunteers spreading the word about water quality or seen one of our messages near a storm drain.
What was the inspiration for doing the work you do?
The vision behind FMR’s work is of a river where water is clear, clean and safe to swim in, where fish and wildlife are healthy and abundant, and where scenic bluffs and cultural treasures are protected. We’re inspired to make the Mississippi more accessible to all and to nurture a community that embraces our role as the river’s stewards.
For artist Precious Wallace, water offers deep inspiration for her life and work. As she puts it, “Often times my spirit goes towards the water, because being a true Capricorn, that I am, I often need fluidity in my life or I need to release something back to the Earth, some type of way, and water does that for me…” Wallace says she hopes that her mural design will encourage people to be considerate and not put litter or other pollutants near or down the drains.
FMR is very pleased and excited that our latest water mural in Highland Park and our collaboration with your community can be a part of making our visions a reality!
What’s your favorite thing about Highland Park?
Highland Park has so many wonderful places to enjoy being close to the river — Crosby Farm, Hidden Falls Park, Uŋčí Makhá Park, and so many wonderful walking and biking trails to explore.