128 Cafe

Rating:

The upcoming Oscars have me thinking about Jill Wilson.

Pretend, just for a moment, that the Academy Awards include a category for Best Performance by a St. Paul Restaurateur. I'm fairly certain that Wilson would at least make the short list of nominees, if not hear Scarlett Johansson or Seth Rogen announce her name from the stage of the Kodak Theatre, following the words, "And the award goes to. ... "

Wilson first fell in love with the 128 Cafe as a customer and then as a server. When co-owners Brock and Natalie Obee called it quits last June after an admirable 11-year run, Wilson stepped in and bought it lock, stock and recipe. Cafe 128, version 2.0, reopened in November.

So what's so special about the 128? Plenty. Under the Obees, it was one of those just-under-the-radar finds that develop small but rabid followings. Wilson not only took over the lease, but she obviously intuits the qualities that made -- and still make -- the 128 that rare neighborhood magnet.

Starting with the unmatched setting, a pair of intimate, side-by-side rooms on the ground floor of a century-old apartment house across the street from the University of St. Thomas campus. It's a real sweetheart of a place, but during the past few years the Obees had accumulated enough deferred maintenance so that it was beginning to resemble Minnesota's transportation infrastructure. No longer. Wilson's investment -- her own version of a 7 1/2-cent gas tax increase -- has brought the space back where it belongs. The main dining room's fetching knotty pine essence glows anew, and the secondary dining room has been fluffed and buffed so it longer feels second-best. The place virtually defines cozy -- heck, it's practically cuddly -- and there isn't even a roaring fireplace in sight.

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