{"id":51167,"date":"2026-10-13T15:29:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T15:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/51167\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T15:29:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T15:29:14","slug":"skyway-revival-minnesota-monthly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/51167\/","title":{"rendered":"Skyway Revival | Minnesota Monthly"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am a creature of the Minneapolis skyways. Every weekday for the last 23 years, I\u2019ve parked in a skyway-connected parking ramp, walked to my office, or walked to lunch\u2014spending part of nearly every workday in the hamster tubes one floor above ground-level.<\/p>\n

By my estimation, I\u2019ve spent more than 5,523 days visiting our skyways, including one night in October 2022 when I was stranded in one of them because the doors on either side were locked.<\/p>\n

If you are one of the tens of thousands expected to return to your office with either a little or a lot more regularity, you will notice changes. So many storefronts are vacant. So many dark restaurants, dry cleaners, and banks. And yet, after the forest fire comes sprouts of new life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since January of this year, 14 new skyway coffee shops and restaurants have opened, with additional announcements for three new restaurants. Nearly half of them are existing businesses or entrepreneurs that are already in the downtown area\u2014doubling down on the area and an expectation that if you build it, the people will come.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re also seeing a trend of big-name chefs downtown: David Fhima\u2019s Mother Dough Bakery, Kamal Mohammed\u2019s Parcelle and PaperBoy, and Gavin Kaysen\u2019s new Bellecour in the Wells Fargo Center.<\/p>\n

Still, the skyway is a fascinating collection of dreamers: from the families that have been operating for decades to the food hall restaurants hoping to make it big.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Dave'sDave\u2019s Downtown<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Dave’s Downtown<\/p>\n

The Legacy Family<\/p>\n

Dave Barnier first fell in love with downtown Minneapolis in 1986, opening Butler Express in the Butler Square building. Today, when you visit Dave\u2019s Downtown in the Forum Building skyway at Ninth and Marquette, you\u2019ll find at least two of Dave\u2019s kids behind the counter. \u201cI\u2019ve worked here since I was 16 years old,\u201d Alex Barnier tells me. \u201cI always had great memories, and I just like the people. You see some of the same people every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Life was great in the skyway until 2020, when COVID shut down most of the in-person office work. \u201cIt was tough,\u201d says Steve Barnier. \u201cWe lost over 50% of the businesses up here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave\u2019s survived, stayed open during the pandemic on a skeleton staff, and today, it\u2019s almost back to where it used to be. Wall-to-wall people looking for a buffalo chicken wrap, patty melt, turkey burger, or southwest chicken Caesar salad. They do breakfast, too, and they get to live a lifestyle that\u2019s every restaurateur\u2019s dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad had nine kids, so his goal was to be home by supper every night,\u201d Steve says. \u201cI can go to my kids\u2019 activities. Other restaurateurs? I kind of don\u2019t tell them,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work really hard, but we don\u2019t have those grueling nights or weekends. You\u2019ve got a kick-butt Monday through Friday and keep busy with catering and foot traffic. I\u2019ll take it,\u201d says Alex.<\/p>\n

\"PaperBoyPaperBoy Deli\u2019s Kamal Mohamed and Yon Hailu<\/p>\n

Courtesy of PaperBoy Deli<\/p>\n

The New Generation<\/p>\n

It was a trip downtown to do some printing that convinced Kamal Mohamed that there was opportunity in the skyway. \u201cIt was two years ago, and I was like, \u2018What\u2019s going on?\u2019 The demand and the supply didn\u2019t match,\u201d he says. The combination of working from home and safety concerns had so many people avoiding the office post-pandemic, he says, and potential skyway business owners were scared to touch it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, I just saw some places that, you know, people only had 30 minutes for lunch, and they were spending 20 minutes in line because so many places were closed,\u201d Mohamed adds. He officially opened PaperBoy in Baker Center in January 2026. It\u2019s a Tuscan-inspired sandwich shop that has built customers from word of mouth\u2014an advantage of opening in an office building where one customer can go back to the office and tell two dozen people how great it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cEighty percent of our business is return customers and the same people coming back, day in and day out,\u201d says chef and co-founder Yon Hailu, who also embraces the skyway life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a weird dream,\u201d he tells me. \u201cI grew up running around the skyways. I lived downtown for part of my high school years, and I used to go to the YMCA right down the street where Parcelle is now in that building.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parcelle Organics opened this spring on the ground level of LaSalle Plaza; local developer Hempel bought the building and has been aggressively recruiting local restaurants to fill spaces. B\u00eap Eatery, Gray Fox Coffee, and Green + The Grain all are now open on the skyway level. Mohamad says he doesn\u2019t worry about bringing the skyways back to what they were\u2014he wants to create the new version of skyway and downtown life.<\/p>\n

\u201cCould we have a farmers market, on a Friday night from 9 p.m. to midnight? Why does it have to be during the day? Sometimes you just want to walk around, maybe have a nice date at night, and pick out flowers,\u201d he says. He\u2019d like to open a market perhaps next to PaperBoy to sell his Gallant Tiger crustless PB&J sandwiches. \u201cMy next step is to bring grocery items, snacks, and things that most people in the skyway haven\u2019t seen. Small consumer-packaged goods that are not in Target yet, or can\u2019t get in, and use that as a proving ground,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"BurgersBurgers from Skyway restaurant Two Mixed Up<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Two Mixed Up<\/p>\n

The Dreamer<\/p>\n

Unconventional spaces are Ernest Williams specialty. Two Mixed Up started in the B-Dale Club in Roseville in 2021. Now, they\u2019re at Graze Food Hall and in a space that has been a number of different restaurants in the Deluxe Building. \u201cThe thing I\u2019ve learned is to have patience and think outside the box,\u201d Williams tells me after a lunch rush. \u201cWe have this space that we have to take care of. We have to make sure the customers feel welcome.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

At Graze, his burgers are the most popular item, and in the skyway, it\u2019s the Philly cheesesteak and the chicken mac and cheese drizzled with buffalo sauce. \u201cWhen the food is good, word spreads fast,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

One thing Williams doesn\u2019t have to worry about is paying a set amount of rent. He launched late last year, with three months of free rent, and now he pays a fixed percentage of sales. It lowers the risk for an entrepreneur, but it doesn\u2019t eliminate it. \u201cStill a risk, for sure,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

New in 2026<\/p>\n

barra, 950 Nicollet Mall<\/p>\n

Cardigan Donuts, U.S. Bank Plaza<\/p>\n

Champa Cafe, 330 Second Ave. S.<\/p>\n

Confetti Blossom, LaSalle Plaza<\/p>\n

Dunn Brothers Coffee, Gaviidae Common<\/p>\n

Erbert & Gerbert\u2019s, LaSalle Plaza<\/p>\n

FRGMNT Coffee, SPS Tower<\/p>\n

Mother Dough, U.S. Bancorp Center<\/p>\n

PaperBoy, Baker Center<\/p>\n

Parcelle, LaSalle Plaza<\/p>\n

Sota, 510 Marquette<\/p>\n

Still Grind Coffee, 811 LaSalle<\/p>\n

Sushi Mix, U.S. Bank Plaza<\/p>\n

Two Mixed Up, Deluxe Plaza<\/p>\n

Yen Sushi, LaSalle Plaza<\/p>\n

Coming Soon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am a creature of the Minneapolis skyways. Every weekday for the last 23 years, I\u2019ve parked in a skyway-connected parking ramp, walked to my office, or walked to lunch\u2014spending part of nearly every workday in the hamster tubes one floor above ground-level. By my estimation, I\u2019ve spent more than 5,523 days visiting our skyways,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[71,4075,4073,4071,4074,4072,68,38513],"class_list":["post-51167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota","tag-food","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-dining","tag-minnesota-food","tag-minnesota-grocery-stores","tag-minnesota-restaurant","tag-restaurants","tag-skyway"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117434316456901609","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}