Fun City Dogs
BY DEBRA KEEFER RAMAGE
Service organizations – Fun City Dogs, The Bond Between, ReUse, and ReStore
Fun City Dogs (2200 E. 25th St.) has to be the best doggy daycare in the city, and also the most fun. Just watching the doggies play on their webcams is some of the best entertainment around! They’re open seven days a week, with a loving and well-trained staff. And if you want to pamper your pooch, their grooming services include luxury baths, blowouts and full spa treatments.
The Bond Between (The BB) is the new name of a wonderful resource for pets and their owners, incorporating the People and Pets Together food shelf and Secondhand Hounds pet rescue. Located at 2501 Minnehaha Ave., the pet food shelf of The BB fed 2,300 animals in 2023. It’s open to Minneapolis pet owners for monthly use. Check the website at www.thebondbetween.org for opening hours and ways to donate.
The ReUse Warehouse Store at 2620 Minnehaha Ave. is a sales outlet of Better Futures Minnesota (BFM), a nonprofit serving previously incarcerated men by providing job training in deconstruction and building maintenance. When renovating or deconstructing buildings, lumber, flooring, furniture and appliances are often retrieved in saleable condition. You can buy these items at ReUse and save money while supporting a worthy cause.
Down the street at 2700 Minnehaha Ave. is the Minneapolis ReStore outlet, part of Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity. This home improvement outlet is open for public shopping for quality donated building supplies, furniture and more, with proceeds going to support their programs. You can also donate items or volunteer. Check their website at restore.tchabitat.org for upcoming sales, donation guidelines, and volunteering opportunities.
Katar River’s coffee ceremony
Places to eat, drink and hang out
Katar River Restaurant and Bakery is a popular Ethiopian restaurant located at 2751 Minnehaha Ave. The chef/owner, Sara Wordofa, learned to cook as a girl in Ethiopia, and began cooking for crowds in a refugee camp in Kenya at age 19. They serve a full menu of Ethiopian dishes and baked goods (dine-in, delivery, and catering), and on weekends from noon to 6 p.m. you can also partake in an Ethiopian coffee ceremony. They’re open every day from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Mi Mexico Querido’s Mini Tacos Dorados for $7.50 was one of Racketmn.com’s Em Cassel’s Best Budget Bites in April. In addition to appetizers, they serve full-size tacos, caldos (soups), tortas and more. Located in the previous Dumpling space at 4004 Minnehaha Ave., they’re open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.
All Square’s name is a great play on words. Their menu consists primarily of craft grilled cheese sandwiches, which are square. And they’re staffed by formerly incarcerated people in a work skills program, who are “all square.” Read more about their multifaceted program on their website and visit them at 4047 Minnehaha Ave. for some elevated grilled cheese with gourmet accompaniments.
Minnehaha Scoop is a seasonal ice cream stand and a beloved pillar of the community.
Delicious vegetarian food from Katar River
They serve ice cream from Chocolate Shoppe, Rosati Italian ices, and fresh popcorn. Choose from an amazing array of ice cream flavors, including favorites like old-fashioned vanilla and butter pecan, to imaginative combinations with fun names like Kitty Kitty Bang Bang and Exhausted Parent. Outdoor picnic tables give a great view of the neighborhood.
The newest location of mini-chain Cafe Ceres is in the Wakpada Apartments just south of 46th Street. Cafe Ceres is co-owned and operated by Shawn McKenzie, a nationally known pastry chef who is also Rustica Bakery’s executive chef. I recently dropped by the bright, plant-filled space and had a delicious pistachio croissant.
Offerings at Fractal Cactus
Retail shops on Minnehaha
There are loads of retail establishments along Minnehaha, but we only have space for a couple of them. The first is the uniquely cool Fractal Cactus. Scott Adam opened his shop at 3750 Minnehaha Ave. in 2019. Before fully re-opening after the 2020 pandemic shutdown, they had appointment-only shopping for a time, to avoid crowding. You can still make an appointment for Tuesdays, when they are otherwise closed, to get the full benefit of Scott’s amazing knowledge of succulents. Their regular hours are Wednesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
A new shop on Minnehaha Avenue is CannaBabe MN, just north of 40th Street. Part of the local explosion of weed dispensaries, CannaBabe is different. Some of the others I’ve visited have a “bro culture” vibe. But CannaBabe feels women-centered, and in fact does not even bill itself as a dispensary, but as a “boutique, event space, and lounge.”
MPD Third Precinct buildings – the old and the new
We can’t talk about Minnehaha Avenue without mentioning the Third Precinct police station, both the former site and the new one. You can find information on the old site by visiting the webpage for the city’s “Minnehaha 3000 Team” (tinyurl.com/DKRatSSP-3rdPre) which has a video on the current plan as well as a PDF to download. Email questions and comments to [email protected].
A similar information page exists for the new site at 2633 Minnehaha Ave., now called the Community Safety Center (tinyurl.com/DKRatSSP-CSC). To summarize, they plan to close the purchase before June 1, and to open the facility in early 2025.
