Downtown Retail & Restaurant News

[alexschief]

Also in "Downtown is Back" news, the Five Guys has unlocked their street-facing entrance.

They've locked the street-facing door again, downtown is no longer back.

[Bakken2016]

New Starbucks Pickup in City Center


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[Rube Dali]

DQ in US Bancorp Plaza is closing on Friday.
https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-li ... tly-friday

[Tcmetro]

Rosenthal Furniture at 5th St N & 1st Ave N is closing.
https://www.fox9.com/news/downtown-minn ... n-business

[Bakken2016]

Lumi, a Turkish restaurant opening at 921 Nicollet Mall soon


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[Silophant]

Fifth time's the charm!

[seanrichardryan]

#cursed

[alexschief]

Another contestant enters the arena!

[twincitizen]

"Mad Chicken, a Wisconsin-based fried chicken chain, will open its first Minnesota location in a downtown Minneapolis building once occupied by American Army Navy Surplus Store." - 1st Avenue & N 4th St


P.S. I'm going to merge this thread and the "Downtown Restaurant News" into a single thread, while also archiving everything from before March 2020. There's too much good historical conversation about the state of downtown retail circa 2012 to actually delete it, but I think it will be good to have a single thread going forward, and not have it be 200 pages long

[amiller92]

"Mad Chicken, a Wisconsin-based fried chicken chain, will open its first Minnesota location in a downtown Minneapolis building once occupied by American Army Navy Surplus Store." - 1st Avenue & N 4th St


P.S. I'm going to merge this thread and the "Downtown Restaurant News" into a single thread, while also archiving everything from before March 2020. There's too much good historical conversation about the state of downtown retail circa 2012 to actually delete it, but I think it will be good to have a single thread going forward, and not have it be 200 pages long

Good news. I was concerned it was going to continue to be empty for awhile.

[Silophant]

David Fhima is opening another Mother Dough in the old Men's Wearhouse space in US Bancorp Center next spring. Every time Mother Dough is in the news I laugh at how committed everyone remains to the idea that the Capella Tower street level and skyway level spaces are totally independent entities.

[Rube Dali]

Eli's Downtown location closed on June 30th. Eli's East remains open.
https://m.startribune.com/elis-downtown ... lmob=y&c=n

[trkaiser]

I was so sad to hear that - had my first date with my now-husband at that wonderful place. I highly recommend the Cranman drink at the NE location. It's up there with the All Saints Saturnalia as the best drink in town.

[Bakken2016]

Walked by Mayo Clinic Square yesterday, an Insomnia Cookies is going in where the old Starbucks was facing 1st Ave.

[Silophant]

In "downtown has never been more back" news: time for another steakhouse.

[Bakken2016]

https://www.downtownvoices.news/posts/m ... esota-shop

This is open now as of 3/11/25. They are open til 2am on weekends, and are planning on expanding that to all days of the week.

[HuskyGrad]

The DGX at 5th and Nicollet has liquidation signs in the windows ahead of a closure.

[twincitizen]

Owamni is leaving the Waterworks Pavilion, reopening in the Guthrie's restaurant space which has been vacant since 2020. They're seeking a larger space due to their runaway success. MPRB will seek a new tenant for the pavilion.

IMO the park pavilion should have something a little more approachable, similar to Bread & Pickle, Painted Turtle, Sea Salt, etc. A full-service restaurant just doesn't feel right to me.

https://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/ ... eater.html

[MNdible]

Yeah, this seems like it could be a real win-win. Activate the Guthrie space, and get something that's a better fit for the park facing space around Water Works.

EDIT: Now the park board just needs to act quickly so they can get somebody in that space for next summer, which should be no problem since they're a bastion of efficient bureaucracy striving towards a unified mission.

[Silophant]

There's an MSPMag article that clarifies that Onwamni was chafing at the MPRB leasing setup of 12% of gross revenue. That works better for a seasonal, weather-dependent place like Sea Salt than a year-round, full-service restaurant, of course, but I think that's as it should be. It's great that Owamni is a runaway success, but a park restaurant is a park amenity, it shouldn't be something you need to score a reservation to months in advance.

Milwaukee has two or three beer gardens in its lakefront park, which has always struck me as something Minneapolis should have somewhere, whether by a lake or the river.