Casper & Runyon's Shamrocks

There was a time when St. Paul was synonymous with a giant sign luminously glowing crimson in the night. It said schmidt, but it verily belted out “blue collar,” and to this day, a trip down West 7th Street evokes a gritty factory-town feel replete with clapboard houses and triangle-shaped brick façades (cue the Springsteen). But here the story changes because Michael Moore didn’t make a movie about St. Paul. After some lean years, things have taken an upturn. If you hit the triad intersection of Randolph, 7th, and Osceola—just blocks from the old brewery doors—you will see a newer, neon-green sign blazing: Shamrocks. Go inside and you will see another large neon sign: cheeseburger. What it doesn’t say is that this cheeseburger, like Fort Road (the older moniker for 7th Street), has some serious St. Paul DNA—the owners also own the hallowed hamburger grounds The Nook. Those juicy cheeseburgers that made The Nook a favorite are helping to bring some of the old swagger back onto Fort Road. The burgers are so good that you might want to be part of the revival. It’s just too bad they don’t serve Schmidt.

995 W. 7th St., St. Paul, 651-228-9925