5 YEARS IN SAINT PAUL:
A LOOK BACK, AND A LOOK FORWARD
From the Desk of Jeff Metzdorff
From the start of Jeff until age 16, I lived in the country. To clarify, you can indeed grow up in rural Minnesota and still be considered a ‘town-cat’. If your house was inside the city limits of your town of 2,000 (or 200) you were in-town, which seemed fancy, and exciting, and modern. So as a country kid, the city always fascinated me. The city was mysterious, and loud, and lit up. I needed to be in the city.
By some miracle I was accepted into a college of my own choosing and moved to Saint Paul in 2001, and it's been home ever since. Over those years I've come to realize that although a city by definition, Saint Paul certainly has its Saint Small quirks. At some point, when people ask where I'm from, I'll stop saying New Prague and answer Highland Park–but I'm not there quite yet. I didn't go to Cretin. I don't have a familial connection to St. Thomas. And the naming convention of the streets still makes no sense to me.
But as we approach 5 years of owning a business in our capital city, I’m feeling more comfortable in who we are and where we’re going. And with that it’s time for a change.
In 2013 my wife Bekah and I opened Mill City Running. Shoestring budget, Craigslist fixtures, the whole bootstrapping story. Tons of work, tons of fun. Over the next 7 years we forgot how stressful it is to open a store and started to ruminate about a second location, and in June 2020 we found the spot. The former home of the Cleveland Wok came up for rent (people weren’t excited about buffets in 2020) and we jumped at the opportunity to lease the space.
From December of that year until today, Saint City Running has brought its own brand of chaotic good to the corner of Cleveland and Ford. If you’ve waited in a line of 30 sweaty runners for your Quixotic Coffee on a Saturday morning, that’s on us. Our stated goal has always been to Keep Saint Paul Running, and we’re excited to say we’re going to be able to continue that mission into the future, just under a new name. This December we will be renaming Saint City Running to Mill City Running. Outside of our staff, you’re the first to know.
Why the change? Truthfully, running two separate brands is hard! We worked to make the connection that Saint City Running is Mill City Running and vice versa, but it was always an uphill battle. Over the years, we’ve had more than one Saint City Running customer sheepishly admitting they usually shop at a different store called Mill City Running, but they just happened to be strolling by and needed a new pair of Cliftons.
After 5 years, we’re proud of the store and the brand, but we’re going to bring it all under the umbrella of Mill City Running. For those paying close attention, you may have noticed us already referencing our two locations, Northeast and Highland. To put it plainly, we’re still (and always will be) the same locally owned and nationally known Mill City Running. Nothing changes but the name and sign out front (new signage coming soon!). You’ll still get Pete captaining the ship, slap-happy Monday Night Runs, sketchy basement bathrooms, and no parking (sorry). We’re thankful for these first five years and excited for the next five. Thank you for your patronage and we’ll see you around Highland.
—Jeff
PS: If you really want a story ask me about when we almost opened a store in Woodbury.
