Steigauf Brothers

About Steigauf Brothers

On the coldest mornings, fog stands up off the Mississippi beneath the High Bridge, and the snow on Cherokee Heights lies blue in the last hour before sunrise. That is when Steigauf Brothers is out — headlights sweeping the West Side, blades dropped, steel scraping down to clean concrete one driveway at a time. Saint Paul winters arrive in shifts, a clipper one night and a slow foot of powder the next, and the work is to meet each one before the city wakes. There is a craft to it: reading the wind that reloads a sidewalk, banking a pile where March melt will drain away from the garage, leaving an approach so crisp it looks drawn with a ruler. When the sun finally clears the river bluffs, the streets they have touched are simply ready.