A new all-day diner just opened its doors next to Allianz Field in St. Paul, serving up eggs benedict, country-fried steak and sandwiches from morning through afternoon. The Midway Diner, led by chef Vincent Francoual, opened Monday inside the United Village development, bringing 120 indoor seats and 80 more on a patio to a stretch of the Midway neighborhood that has waited years for new investment.
The diner serves classic American breakfast and lunch fare at all-day hours, according to Pioneer Press. The menu leans into comfort-food classics, with eggs benedict, country-fried steak and a rotating lineup of lunch sandwiches anchoring the offerings. Inside, the space features floor-to-ceiling windows, midcentury Norman Cherner-esque chairs and a sprawling mural depicting the four seasons on Lake Superior, per the same report. The diner is located at 445 Simpson St. in St. Paul and can be reached at 651-523-3677, with a menu and updates available at thedinermidway.com.
Francoual holds the title of head of culinary at the Midway Diner and its sister restaurant, Picco Pizza and Gelateria, rather than executive chef, the Pioneer Press reports. He told the paper he wanted to be also in hospitality, rather than confined strictly to the kitchen — a distinction that shapes how he talks about the project. Francoual said the restaurants are designed to serve everyone, and that he expects the diner and Picco to gladly serve soccer fans heading to and from matches at Allianz Field.
A Chef's Long Road Back to the Midway
Francoual is no stranger to Twin Cities dining. For nearly a decade and a half, he ran the downtown Minneapolis fine-dining favorite Vincent, A Restaurant, before it closed in 2015, and he later helped open another downtown Minneapolis spot, Chloe, in 2022. Those credentials sit alongside a newer ambition: Francoual has said the United Village project is trying to update a neighborhood that neighborhood leaders describe as having weathered store closures and struggles with drugs and homelessness, according to CBS News.
When the diner first opened, it operated daily from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., with menu items priced at $15 or less, according to the Star Tribune. That schedule is set to expand soon: nighttime hours are planned to begin Oct. 5, when the diner will roll out a dinner menu and a full bar, the Star Tribune reports.
Picco Pizza Next in Line to Open
Just next door, Picco Pizza and Gelateria is expected to debut within the next month or so, per the Pioneer Press. Picco is planned to bake pies in a Ferrari-red deck pizza oven imported from Italy and to serve gelato sourced from Cossetta. Together, the diner and Picco represent the two local, non-chain restaurants at the heart of United Village — “there are no chains,” developer Bill McGuire has said, according to Twin Cities Business.
McGuire, the Minnesota United team owner, has spearheaded construction of the surrounding hotel, parking ramp, office building and community amenities that make up the rest of the site. The project sits adjacent to the 19,400-seat Allianz Field, on a development site covering roughly 34.5 acres, according to the Pioneer Press's earlier reporting on the stadium's Midway surroundings.
Construction Delays Have Dogged the Broader Project
Getting to this point has not been smooth. Construction across the United Village site resumed earlier in September after regulatory snarls nearly derailed parts of the project, the Pioneer Press notes. That impasse centered on a dispute between the city and McGuire over more than $300,000 in Green Infrastructure fees, which had temporarily halted construction of the development's eight-story hotel before work resumed. The hotel's eventual size has been described differently across reports — Twin Cities Business has put it at 158 units, while the Monitor has cited 160 rooms.
Those construction headaches have added to a project already described as a year or more behind schedule, according to Villager. Delays tracing back to COVID-19, shifting development plans, rising construction costs and city regulations have shaped the timeline for years, per Minnesota Monthly, which describes United Village as envisioned to be a walkable, transit-oriented development mixing office, retail, residential, entertainment and hotel space.
Not everyone in the neighborhood sees the investment as an unqualified win. Some residents and community groups have raised concerns that the development could push up housing costs and business rents or crowd out locally owned businesses, according to the Spokesman-Recorder. Those worries sit alongside the hope, voiced by neighborhood leaders, that new investment can help reverse years of store closures in the Midway.
For now, the Midway Diner stands as the first tangible sign that United Village is opening its doors to the public, with Picco set to follow and the diner's own dinner service arriving within the next week.
