I am a creature of the Minneapolis skyways. Every weekday for the last 23 years, I’ve parked in a skyway-connected parking ramp, walked to my office, or walked to lunch—spending part of nearly every workday in the hamster tubes one floor above ground-level.
By my estimation, I’ve 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.
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.
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—doubling down on the area and an expectation that if you build it, the people will come.
We’re also seeing a trend of big-name chefs downtown: David Fhima’s Mother Dough Bakery, Kamal Mohammed’s Parcelle and PaperBoy, and Gavin Kaysen’s new Bellecour in the Wells Fargo Center.
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.
Courtesy of Dave's Downtown
The Legacy Family
Dave Barnier first fell in love with downtown Minneapolis in 1986, opening Butler Express in the Butler Square building. Today, when you visit Dave’s Downtown in the Forum Building skyway at Ninth and Marquette, you’ll find at least two of Dave’s kids behind the counter. “I’ve worked here since I was 16 years old,” Alex Barnier tells me. “I always had great memories, and I just like the people. You see some of the same people every day.”
Life was great in the skyway until 2020, when COVID shut down most of the in-person office work. “It was tough,” says Steve Barnier. “We lost over 50% of the businesses up here.”
Dave’s survived, stayed open during the pandemic on a skeleton staff, and today, it’s 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’s every restaurateur’s dream.
“My dad had nine kids, so his goal was to be home by supper every night,” Steve says. “I can go to my kids’ activities. Other restaurateurs? I kind of don’t tell them,” he laughs.
“We work really hard, but we don’t have those grueling nights or weekends. You’ve got a kick-butt Monday through Friday and keep busy with catering and foot traffic. I’ll take it,” says Alex.
Courtesy of PaperBoy Deli
The New Generation
It was a trip downtown to do some printing that convinced Kamal Mohamed that there was opportunity in the skyway. “It was two years ago, and I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ The demand and the supply didn’t match,” 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.
“However, 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,” Mohamed adds. He officially opened PaperBoy in Baker Center in January 2026. It’s a Tuscan-inspired sandwich shop that has built customers from word of mouth—an 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.
“Eighty percent of our business is return customers and the same people coming back, day in and day out,” says chef and co-founder Yon Hailu, who also embraces the skyway life.
“It’s kind of a weird dream,” he tells me. “I 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.”
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. Bêp Eatery, Gray Fox Coffee, and Green + The Grain all are now open on the skyway level. Mohamad says he doesn’t worry about bringing the skyways back to what they were—he wants to create the new version of skyway and downtown life.
“Could 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,” he says. He’d like to open a market perhaps next to PaperBoy to sell his Gallant Tiger crustless PB&J sandwiches. “My next step is to bring grocery items, snacks, and things that most people in the skyway haven’t seen. Small consumer-packaged goods that are not in Target yet, or can’t get in, and use that as a proving ground,” he says.
Courtesy of Two Mixed Up
The Dreamer
Unconventional spaces are Ernest Williams specialty. Two Mixed Up started in the B-Dale Club in Roseville in 2021. Now, they’re at Graze Food Hall and in a space that has been a number of different restaurants in the Deluxe Building. “The thing I’ve learned is to have patience and think outside the box,” Williams tells me after a lunch rush. “We have this space that we have to take care of. We have to make sure the customers feel welcome.”
At Graze, his burgers are the most popular item, and in the skyway, it’s the Philly cheesesteak and the chicken mac and cheese drizzled with buffalo sauce. “When the food is good, word spreads fast,” he says.
One thing Williams doesn’t 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’t eliminate it. “Still a risk, for sure,” he adds.
New in 2026
- barra, 950 Nicollet Mall
- Cardigan Donuts, U.S. Bank Plaza
- Champa Cafe, 330 Second Ave. S.
- Confetti Blossom, LaSalle Plaza
- Dunn Brothers Coffee, Gaviidae Common
- Erbert & Gerbert’s, LaSalle Plaza
- FRGMNT Coffee, SPS Tower
- Mother Dough, U.S. Bancorp Center
- PaperBoy, Baker Center
- Parcelle, LaSalle Plaza
- Sota, 510 Marquette
- Still Grind Coffee, 811 LaSalle
- Sushi Mix, U.S. Bank Plaza
- Two Mixed Up, Deluxe Plaza
- Yen Sushi, LaSalle Plaza
Coming Soon
- Bellecour, Wells Fargo Center
- Coronado Crepe & Macaron Co., Gaviidae Common
- EGGFLIP, U.S. Bancorp Center
