Midway Diner opens in United Village

On Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, leaders and staff gathered to cut the ribbon of the Midway Diner at United Village. Two days later, the ?? also opened.

Chad Kulas, Midway Chamber Executive Director: When I started working at the Midway Chamber in 2015, the big talk, if you can remember back then, was, are we going to get a soccer stadium? And, of course, being St. Paul, we all said, nah, Minneapolis will get it. They always get everything they want. We're not going to get it. And then within a few months, guess what? We got it. And we not only do we have the stadium, but for a lot of us, we've also been here for other openings, including the giant loon statue called the Calling, and we've got the playground. And this is a really exciting part of this project: these two restaurants. ... I think this intersection is so important. It's one of the most important in the whole metropolitan area. ... This really is the gateway to the Midway, and a gateway, in many ways, to St. Paul. For a lot of people, this is the first thing they see when they come into St. Paul. So to have people get introduced to our city by coming off the interstate and seeing not only the stadium, but the loon, the restaurants, these new beautiful office buildings – I couldn't ask for more, and I'm so pleased. And that's why we have a good crowd here today because everybody else is also very excited.

St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her:  I'll share a little bit of like why this intersection actually matters so much to me. I'm a kid whose family started at Mount Arie Homes, and when they made it, they lived in Midway, in Frogtown. And this is still home to many of my own relatives and my own family that are here. That green building behind us. When my father moved up here to take his first job  here in Minnesota, they were in that green building. When I think about when my one of my uncles opened up his first restaurant. It's not there anymore, but it was near the Turf Club, right over there.

... I'm so grateful for Dr. McGuire and his team for not forgetting about the Midway area. That people who live here deserve beautiful things too. People who live here deserve to have nice places to go to. People who live here deserve to be in spaces in which honor who they are and the past of where they've come from or where they're going. This is the vision for that, and so I'm so grateful for everyone who came together today to make sure that this happened.

That's something that started from a long time ago. The vision about a stadium and what that means. When I look at the plans that Dr. McGuire has for this neighborhood, people usually don't invest in that way in neighborhoods that are often forgotten. And the fact is, is now that when people come here, they will remember the Midway. They will make sure that when they leave, that not only did they say they came to the most diverse intersection of our city, but they experienced great food, great entertainment, and great spaces for their children to play and places to stay because they will remember that the Midway is all of that. And so, thank you all for every single person who made this happen."

Chef Vincent Francoual: Hospitality is a word that sometimes overused. Here we're not joking around with it. ... And for me, it's a it's kind of an opportunity of the lifetime. I think it is also for Saint Paul, Minneapolis, but also for for the whole the whole community and neighbor. It's a mix of everything, but it's all about the community. ... And we're glad we have the restaurant, but this is much bigger than the restaurant. So, welcome, and we hope to have you soon in our place. T

Dr. Bill McGuire, owner:  I was hesitant to talk much, but I finally, in the end, suggested to myself that maybe this was a great opportunity for us to reflect on things, talk about some challenges, and with that, some opportunities. ...

Thanks for coming. The opening of the two restaurants we see here, as Vincent talked about, familiar, accessible, top quality, beautiful buildings, magnificent setting, really manifest today more than any of us could imagine. ... Midway is an important community. It's built on some tremendous historical achievements, education, creativity, trade, culture – all of them bound together in our minds by perhaps the greatest value, and that's love. These are really the pillars of the Midway, and the basis upon a lot of what we try to build, try to envision, comes about. There are also the words that form what we call the pillars of the Midway and are going to be on that building you see with 30 yards to my left, with red vertical columns that will go away soon. That is the new Midway Community Hall. One of the things we heard in past years was we need a place for people in the community to do things, and so it's for the community. And you will see a piece of art, what I call a piece of art, expressing these pillars in the not too distant future. The Midway, as you know, sits pretty much in the middle between the two largest cities in our state, and it fittingly serves as the gateway to what is undoubtedly Minnesota's most important and most loved event – the Great Minnesota Get Together – and it also bears a distinguished history within the state. There is probably, in my mind, no better place to showcase community values, community vitality, the creation of opportunities for the betterment of all. ... 

Adecade ago, if you think about it, that this superblock where we're now standing was a sea of, frankly, unkept asphalt, full of loose shopping carts and way too much trash. There were chain link fences that were probably among the most prominent things to literally millions of people who drove by or walked by on their way to the state fair. You know, people wanted better. There were no trees. There were no sidewalks. Look at us today.

So today we're looking at these two great facilities. Right there, iconic Allianz Field, an internationally recognized architectural great stadium, where really about a week ago, almost 20,000 people from mostly Canada and the U.S. descended upon our area to watch their two respective men's national teams do battle. Only three or four days ago, we had young boys and girls, soccer players from two St. Paul high schools, play each other in that field in front of four or 5,000 people. And last Saturday night, which was almost as good a night as this one probably was. (except for the tie) 19,000 or so people descended on the area to watch that game, to watch professional soccer between Houston, Texas, and St. Paul, Minneapolis, in a game, and those people got here through by walking, by riding bikes, by coming in busses, by driving their own cars or cars they leased, by coming on a light rail system that should be a virtue in any community, a system that we've already probably spent $2 billion on, and it's getting used. This is a testament to this sort of transportation-oriented approach and development. And those people all walked around before and after the game and spent their money in this community, to the betterment of all the businesses that are here, so it's a pretty good testament to that.

Across the lawn behind me is a significant, and obviously very beautiful and striking office building. Early next year, it will start filling with some 300 people, all new to the Midway, representing at least three of the most interesting and rapid-growing, fast-growing businesses in the state of Minnesota. Those are people coming here because what they see and what they anticipate, what the area represents, and an understanding of how great it is to be able to work in a place where all this is around- - t's sort of the 15-minute city for those of you who are familiar with the term, where we think about with a 15-minute walk, you can get to anything you need, anything you want. It's a model for a lot of the great places in the world, and it certainly can be a model for us. On the north side, to my left, you see going up a new office building. It'll open next summer.

I believe, in all sincerity, that it will be the coolest, most interesting, and exciting hotel in the Twin Cities, if not the same. It will be a different animal. It will not be what you expect, and it will be something that fills an immense need for this broad, our broad community, as well as something that provides an aspiration to the entire community about what they are about and what will happen.

Elsewhere, as just mentioned and referred to, you have great art, art that is sort of integral to the community, not a place you go to see, but a place you go and live with it. And art is important in our life. You have the great calling by Andy Scott, sitting over here at the busiest corner in the state of Minnesota. 12 million or 15 million people going north a year in cars, seven or eight million going east-west on University Avenue, and all that's around it. ...

On the back side of this building's (soon to be the front side)  is a 140-foot-long, 15-foot-tall mural by our legendary great and present here Ta-coumba  Aiken, "Spirits on the move." ... So, all of this really speaks to what we see, and I will say that in a number of artist residences around the globe right now, there are other great pieces of art in store. In fact, where I am now standing, in three weeks you will see three sculptures that I promise you will make you smile, make your children and friends' childrens elated, and tell a great story about other values and virtues in our lives.

The journey getting here really started slightly over a decade ago with Mayor Chris Coleman, whose vision was to bring professional soccer to ... our state.... with a stadium that could really be an attracting point and center a larger development. There it is. It was also, I'm sure, as you know, and we are generally proud to say, built privately without taxpayer funds. ...

There are plans we could drag out, and pictures we can show you for another one-acre public park and garden right over there. There are other plans for an outdoor amphitheater right back there that can bring weekend markets, festivals, events, winter ice skating, music, art shows, movies, anything one might like to a community and attract people here to help make it happen. We have plans. Maybe we can pull it off for a music venue, an indoor venue, smaller, but something unique that also would come with associated retail and offices. It's right over there, there is housing – not the housing we're used to, but perhaps more exciting and energizing housing that reflects a lot of virtues and needs in our environment. And of course, as Chad mentioned, there is the – I don't know what the right adjective for, but across the way, now an empty lot. What's what's the much maligned CVS house sitting there directly across that majestic loon sculpture,Tthe Calling? So lots to do. All are on the drawing board, hoping to be let loose.

The question to me now is: Are we going to grab the opportunity and continue forward to fulfill that vision of over 10 to 12 years ago, or are we going to fail to secure it and complete what is possible and what so very many people want to see? ... Are we going to stop kicking the can down the road and act decisively, quickly, and take advantage of what's there? That's what I would like everyone to ponder, and hopefully everyone to support as we look forward and we celebrate Vincent, all the staff, and everything that's represented here today. So thank you very much.