main street

Hopkins is blessed to have such a great little downtown. There is something for everyone. Shops, restaurants, bars, a movie theatre and arts center.Every suburb should have one!

I am from a small town and Main Street Hopkins feels like home. Lots of shops, bars, restaurants, and other small businesses that are a mix of old and new. You can get a nice stiff drink and play some pool at Main Street Bar or you can hang out with a more hip crowd at Wild Boar.

Visiting from England, I wanted to see Hopkins and the pleasant shops that I had heard were along main street. I enjoyed walking up one side and down the other, and popped into every single Antique shop. A lot of them are mall type antique shops with many owners inside but I did find an interesting one further up called Vestige that had lovely quality antiques. Every shop I visited I was made to feel very welcomed and I enjoyed the different types of antiques. Th erest of the town had nice small shops and some nice eateries I believe but I was not stopping for food I was on a mission. Certainly worth visiting the main street area, and you will find all types of antiques from cheap to high end and that to me is a sig of a healthy good street for all to enjoy.

Main Street Hopkins was once the coolest area to be seen in your classic car. There was a time when people cruised back and forth down this main street in Hopkins to see and be seen. Those days are long passed. These days the cops will pull you over for trying to drive up and down the main street repeated times. The nice part is there aren't tons of people in cars gawking at you as you shop one of the many nice stores on this main drag. The bad part is it is not what it once was. Although you will see the occasional street rod rolling down the strip.

Many unique stores, lots of fun second hand antiques( you never know what you will find). Even take in a movie at the $2 movie theatre and then grab a drink at the many bars, or at the wonderful ice cream shop. Great fun for the whole family and a good way to spend an afternoon!

For many years, Main Street has offered up good sandwiches, burgers, soups and chef salads. Prices are reasonable. If you go later in the day, there is often live entertainment, with the occasional surprise at finding a new up and coming local artist. The bar/restaurant is housed in a brick building which offfers a good ambience.

I ordered the prime rib rare. It wasn't even pink!!! I'd had problems with ordering medium rare, so I ordered RARE!!! It was barely medium!! Also, I think their chicken has been processed! Their soups are good.

I lived in Hopkins three decades ago when it had a very elderly, anti-teenager grumpiness that not only spawned "cruising" guidelines and limits but the addition of traffic wiggles and parking bays to the entire downtown Main Street (to minimize the ease with which kids could torment the locals by committing the horrible and rare adolescent act of hanging-out). Oh sure, there were indeed genuine problems and occasional illegal activities like anywhere else, but reactions by vocal neighbors and the city were fueled by fear. And, no I wasn't a teenager then). Since moving to Minneapolis long ago, we've visited Hopkins several times a year, often participating in the Raspberry Fest or visiting the Hopkins Center for the Arts, which opened in 1997 and dramatically changed the tone and tourism value of the community (plus it’s home to Stage Theatre Company and an excellent concert series featuring great acts from Leon Redbone to McCoy Tyner). And I’m thrilled to report that in spite of the uneven retail success on the main drag that plagues every small town, downtown Hopkins nowadays has a great community of antique malls, big-city-like bars, surprising restaurants (Brazilian and Japanese venues downtown), and teenagers cruising their mobile devices rather scaring the seniors. Before I soured on Hopkins during my three years living there in the early 80s, I always thought it would be a great town in which to retire. I’m pleased to report that largely because of the good work by the school district, the city, the opening of a multiplex, and, okay, an endless assortment of great beers on tap up and down Main Street, I think that way again. And you don’t need a car to cruise the heart of downtown (leave it in a free lot or the free parking garage).

Hopkins is trying hard to build a downtown with an arts center, movie theater, nice strolling to shops. But for anyone who actually grew up in a town or village, this is not very remarkable.

Hopkins has a wonderful mix of fun, one of a kind and unique shops. If you are tired of the chain stores, this is the place to visit often. I find different things every time I shop in Hopkins and I love the cafes too! Free parking always makes me glad that I can take my time browsing.

There is a small parking garage that makes things easy. The taverns in the area have bands on the weekend. Some of the old brick buildings and just fun to go to and hang out, eat and have drinks with your buds.