Today’s PiPress had a fair attempt at an article today about the cultural community in downtown St. Paul. and if it’s enough to attract people to live there.

After laying out some of the good things happening in Lowertown (French Press Café, 4th St. Station, LoTo), it simmered down with this paragraph:

While thousands descend on Lowertown two weekends every year for the St. Paul Art Crawl, there’s little evidence — anecdotal or otherwise — that people moving into downtown’s new condos are stepping out to soak up downtown’s arts offerings. Some attribute that to the dearth of street-level shopping and dining, particularly at night, that would lead people on foot to discover clubs, galleries and theaters that otherwise remain hidden.

Now while I won’t argue there aren’t hoards of people roaming Lowertown after 5 p.m., there actually is a lot going on here after the commuters go home on the weeknights.

There are a few hundred of us in downtown St. Paul who actually do partake of the activities, restaurants, art and music down here.

Peiken’s article neglected to mention a few highlights some “us locals” make a conscious effort to visit:

–Black Dog Coffee & Wine Bar – a great place to meet someone for coffee in the morning/afternoon or have a few beers with friends sitting on their cushy couches in the evening. They have live music some nights.

–The Hat Trick Lounge – recently rebranded to target 20-30 year-olds who live, work or play downtown. This club has some incredible local bands come through, including a very talented cover band, Invisible Citizen, made up of McNally Smith students. They have free wings on weekends and pitchers are $9.50

–Kelly’s Depot Bar – another small town bar with an outdoor patio, personable waitstaff and $9.75 pitchers.

–Station 4 - mentioned in the article but not given props for it’s fantastic booking, and if it’s a local band, you can often check their respective Web sites for free passes

–Gopher Bar - everyone should make at least one mandatory stop to the Gopher on a weeknight after 9 p.m. (it’s not open Saturday night or Sunday). The bartender isn’t friendly and neither are the regulars, the jukebox isn’t very good, but pitchers are $6.50 and the “Best Coney’s in Town” are indeed pretty tasty

–MN Museum of Art’s Art Here 1st Fridays are fun but unfortunately are postponed this month but should resume in January

–LoTo sucks and is getting worse. I know it well, as I live above the restaurant. Every time I go the service is BAD. I’m talking extremely slow, wrong orders, forgotten desserts. Drinks are expensive, and although it’s a stylish place, they recently installed flatscreen TVs haphazardly and completely ruined the ambiance – the only thing going for it after crappy food, bad service and expensive drinks.

–Now if you want a good meal for a good price that will impress a date or satiate a group of friends, check out Trattoria da Vinci for some authentic Italian cuisine (if you’re lucky, you’ll get a real live Italian waiter, too). The last few times I’ve been there they’ve had a musician playing classical acoustic guitar (live music regular on Fri./Sat.)

–The article also neglected to mention “Music in Mears” concert series that ran this fall in Mears Park each Thursday. The series (sponsored by “The Current” and St. Paul After Hours) brought out lots of us downtowners.

–Lowertown Wine & Spirits – the only liquor store in downtown with the most personable owners you’ll ever meet. They’ll deliver your booze straight to your downtown door for $5. They have ice, soda and other mixers, too. It’s all at a reasonable price when you factor in the gas money to drive to the creepy Big Top on University.

–Imagine walking to the St. Paul Farmer’s Market on Sat. or Sunday mornings (complete with live music)

–Blink Bonnie Subs recently opened their second location on 7th St (across from the Gopher Bar) in addition to their location in the Union Depot and both are open on the weekends.

–Christos is the Greek restaurant in the middle of the Union that is open on the weekend if there aren’t weddings.

–Yes, there are groceries in Lowertown. The Mears Park Market is a quaint little place that’s open until 8 p.m. Mon-Sat., has deli sandwiches, meat, fruit, frozen food and a pretty good selection of groceries.

There’s hundreds of other things to mention that make downtown St. Paul life worth living outside of Lowertown and not in the skywalks (Great Water Brew Pub, Wild Times, Science Museum Imax, Key’s Café, Jimmy John’s, Walgreen’s, Fujiya, the small art galleries, tea shop, etc).

I personally like that there aren’t thousands roaming around downtown. As mentioned in the article, St. Paul is actually a lot like Des Moines, Ia, and some of us are glad.