Downtown's Skyway Got a Wave of New Places to Eat This Year. Most Close Before You Get Home

One night in October 2022, the writer of Minnesota Monthly's "Skyway Revival" got stranded inside a Minneapolis skyway because the doors on both sides were locked. The writer has walked the system every weekday for 23 years and estimates having spent more than 5,523 days up there. That same piece, published this October, counts 14 new skyway coffee shops and restaurants opened since January 2026, with three more announced.

So the second floor is filling back in, but on office terms. Nearly every new counter is open on weekdays and closes by mid-afternoon. The corridors that lead to them answer to building owners, not to a citywide schedule. If you live downtown, most of this year's skyway revival happens while you're at work, and the doors around it can lock before you get home.

A list of openings with a lunch-hour clock

Here's what opened this year in the skyway buildings, using Minnesota Monthly's 2026 list and the hours each business posts on its own site as of early November.

The rest of the 2026 list fills out the map. It includes Cardigan Donuts and Sushi Mix in U.S. Bank Plaza, Dunn Brothers Coffee in Gaviidae Common, Erbert & Gerbert's and Yen Sushi in LaSalle Plaza, PaperBoy in Baker Center, Sota at 510 Marquette, Still Grind Coffee at 811 LaSalle, and Two Mixed Up in Deluxe Plaza. Racket also flagged Konbu Nori, a sushi counter on the second floor of 330 Second Ave. S. with onigiri, ramen, hand rolls and rice bowls. That makes it the second 2026 arrival in the same building as Champa Cafe.

Look at the hours column. barra closes at 1. Parcelle and EGGFLIP close at 2. Champa, FRGMNT and Mother Dough all stay open later Tuesday through Thursday than on Monday and Friday, which fits the hybrid office week. Only one spot in the table posts Saturday hours, and none posts Sunday hours.

Why the new tenants keep office hours

The owners explain the logic themselves. Kamal Mohamed opened PaperBoy, a Tuscan-inspired sandwich shop, in Baker Center in January 2026. He told Minnesota Monthly that the opening came out of a mismatch he noticed downtown: "people only had 30 minutes for lunch, and they were spending 20 minutes in line because so many places were closed." His co-founder, chef Yon Hailu, told the magazine that 80% of their business comes from return customers, "the same people coming back, day in and day out."

The longtime operators run on the same rhythm. Dave Barnier opened Butler Express in Butler Square in 1986. Today his family runs Dave's Downtown in the Forum Building skyway at Ninth and Marquette, and his son Alex described the business to Minnesota Monthly as "a kick-butt Monday through Friday" kept busy by catering and foot traffic, without "grueling nights or weekends."

Landlords are making those weekday businesses easier to open. Ernest Williams opened Two Mixed Up in the Deluxe Building with three months of free rent, and now he pays a fixed percentage of sales instead of a set rent. At LaSalle Plaza, local developer Hempel bought the building and has been actively recruiting local restaurants. Parcelle Organics opened on the ground level this spring, and Bêp Eatery, Gray Fox Coffee and Green + The Grain are on the skyway level. Nearly half of this year's openings came from businesses or entrepreneurs already working downtown. These are operators betting on the daytime crowd they already know.

Lease terms and owner habits both point to the lunch rush, so the hours do too.

The doors keep the city's hours only on paper

Even when a counter stays open late, you might not be able to reach it. Minneapolis city code sets public skyway hours of 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays, 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays, and noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays. Meet Minneapolis's skyway guide describes how it actually works: most connected buildings are open until 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and closed on weekends, and each building sets its own hours.

The city looked at this gap in 2025. The City Council adopted a legislative directive in June 2025 asking staff for information on skyway governance, enforcement of the existing hours, and coordination among public and private operators. On September 2, 2025, the Business, Housing & Zoning Committee received and filed the staff presentation. It was an informational briefing, not a vote on new hours rules. The staff presentation says the Downtown Skyway Advisory Board was dissolved at the end of 2017. It also says the Minneapolis Downtown Council has been recruiting for a Skyway Subcommittee. City records also describe enforcement as mostly complaint-driven through 311. City-owned skyways generally keep the code hours, and the city-owned links around parking ramps close from midnight to 5 a.m. In July 2026, the Minneapolis Times reported that no final ordinance had followed that briefing.

Two neighboring buildings can show how different this gets. SkywayAccess lists 100 Washington Square as open weekends from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Next door, 111 Washington Square is listed as closed on weekends to everyone but tenants.

What the new second floor offers after work

Inside these limits, a few of the 2026 openings reach past the lunch hour.

• Confetti Blossom, LaSalle Plaza. It's open until 6 p.m. on weekdays and is the only spot in the table above with posted Saturday hours, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• FRGMNT Coffee, SPS Tower. It stays open until 6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, which is late enough for coffee on the walk home.
• Mother Dough, U.S. Bancorp Center. David Fhima's bakery counter is open until 4 p.m. midweek, so bread for dinner works if you leave work early.
• Two Mixed Up. Besides the Deluxe Plaza counter, Ernest Williams also serves his burgers at Graze Food Hall.

Before you count on a weekend route, check the building. The Star Tribune has pointed readers to Skyway.run, an interactive map that lists building hours along with restaurants and shops. SkywayAccess keeps a building-by-building hours list and notes that those hours can change. If a city-owned link is locked during posted code hours, 311 is how the city takes complaints.

The next openings follow the same office pattern

The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal reported in mid-October that the EGGFLIP x SUSHIFLIP combo had opened at U.S. Bancorp Center, and its posted hours end at 2 p.m. on weekdays. Two more names have been announced for the system. One is Gavin Kaysen's Bellecour in the Wells Fargo Center, which the Star Tribune reported in June as the chef's third bakery location. The other is Coronado Crepe & Macaron Co. in Gaviidae Common. Bellecour and Mother Dough show something new for the skyway, chef-driven bakeries, but they are still bakeries in office towers.

The clearest idea for evening use comes from one of the operators. Mohamed told Minnesota Monthly he would like to see a skyway farmers market "on a Friday night from 9 p.m. to midnight." He asked, "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 has also talked about opening a small market near PaperBoy to sell his Gallant Tiger crustless PB&J sandwiches, along with packaged goods most skyway shoppers haven't seen. For now, that's a plan, not a listing. Today, the new skyway closes by mid-afternoon on most weekdays, and on weekends the building owners decide which doors open.

If your daily downtown routine depends on which buildings connect and when, that's useful to know before you choose a tower to live in. When you start comparing buildings for your next move, David K Wells III Real Estate can help you look at skyway connections and hours along with everything else. Contact David & Wren to discuss your next move.