Sarah McKenzie

For over four years, neighborhood, business and city leaders have worked to make Loring Park's stretch of Nicollet Avenue's "Eat Street," more attractive to conventioneers and prospective developers.

The makeover's signature elements include two, 12-foot-tall salt-and-pepper-shaker-shaped kiosks. One stands near the Convention Center and another on the corner of Grant Street and Nicollet Avenue. To some, the blank gray kiosks have resembled strange alien pods plunked on the side of the street.