Photos by Caitlin Abrams
Mayor Jacob Frey and Stephanie March
The mayor debates macroeconomics with the author.
There may be one other person in Minnesota who eats out as much as I do, and apparently, it’s the mayor. When I first asked for an interview with new Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, I’d assumed we’d be stuck in some City Hall conference room, drinking pod coffee under fluorescent lighting. As it happens, on a recent Thursday night, I found myself kicking back with the mayor and a few Red Stripes in the far more relaxed setting of Pimento Jamaican Kitchen on Eat Street.
Frey and his wife Sarah eat out, or order in, almost every single night. “My best nights, my best experiences in Minneapolis, have been intertwined with our food and bar scene,” he told me as we cracked a couple of beers and dipped into hot sauces. We sat in the front of the room, just inside the garage door window, while his driver/security guy sat a few tables away. The restaurant got louder as happy hour hit full swing; luckily we are both loud talkers. Soon, other diners—also known as voters—began to drop by the table to meet the man and shake hands. While a server hauled more braised pork to our table, Frey recalled his own gig as a lunch server in Detroit. These were the post-college days, when Frey was trying to become a professional runner (he finished fourth in the marathon at the Pan American Games). He won less recognition for waiting tables. “I wasn’t very good,” Frey said. “I made no money.”
This is the stuff I came for. Hospitality is personal, after all, which may partly account for all the citizens who came forward to testify in last September’s epic seven-hour-long public hearing over the minimum wage. That issue played a large role in the election, which ended up giving Frey the top job, even though he voted alongside then-Mayor Betsy Hodges.
In the end, the City Council approved a new Minneapolis minimum wage of $15 an hour. Most independent restaurants had pushed for a tip credit, which would have allowed employers to account for their tipped employees’ total income in meeting wage guidelines. Hodges, however, fought that proposal. Frey and the rest of the council instead voted for a graduated implementation of the wage for small businesses, who won’t have to pay the full $15 until 2024.
Frey looks back at that debate and sees a bit of a mess. “I think one of the morals here is that major legislation shouldn’t happen in an election year,” he said. “What I can say is that if it ain’t working, we’ll change it.”
Frey hopes the next debate leans less on political wrangling and more on macroeconomics. “What we need to have is very objective, clear evidence of the impact—positive, neutral, or negative—of the minimum-wage increase. I’m actually glad the Federal [Reserve] Bank is conducting a study,” Frey said. “Look, if I’m screwing up, I want to know it. Let’s see what the raw and objective evidence shows.”
I doubt that small restaurants, which often operate with low margins, will feel soothed by a study slated to stretch out over years. But, to my ears, the tone in City Hall feels less politically charged and more open to truly listening.
Jacob Frey and Steph March at Pimento Jamaican Kitchen
The spread at Pimento Jamaican Kitchen
The foodist in me observed the mayor’s hot sauce choices. Grabbing the oxtail out of our communal platter of meat, he dipped between the Kingston Kick (HOT!) and the MN Nice sauce (medium). Eat Street, with all the different flavors and family-owned shops, reminds Frey of Queens, New York, where he once lived. He’d like to see more areas like this in the new Minneapolis.
“Restaurants grow and succeed based on demand,” Frey said. “And when you’ve got more people, you have more people that eat out. That’s where success happens. We are seeing a density of population suddenly in the city, people are living and eating here. That, more than anything, will help restaurants.”
After my verbal volleys on tipping culture and the threat to hospitality, Frey raised a salient question of his own: Was there any rum in the house? You know who gets served faster than a food editor? The mayor. In seconds, we had Mason jars full of Ting and rum to quench the fires.
When I mentioned that restaurateurs often gripe about how difficult it is to do business in Minneapolis, with the permitting and licensing issues as blockers, he got kind of quiet. “I feel like we have a lot of work to do, if that’s the case. I think it takes too long for us to go through the process. I think we’re overzealous sometimes,” he said.
Then Frey nodded to Tomme Beevas, the owner of Pimento Jamaican Kitchen, and proposed a bolder idea. “He was going through the renewal process for his liquor license, and I was like, dude, you know the next step! Legalize marijuana! Nothing goes with Jamaican food like a good smoke.”
Did we just hear the slogan for Frey’s 2022 reelection campaign?
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