Where you shop matters!
Lake Street is a diverse and every changing commercial. It’s also long been a place for BIPOC and immigrants entrepreneurs to get their start. We encourage you to make a conscious effort to support these businesses and take a stand against racial inequity in our community. Whether you’re purchasing furniture, ordering take-out or looking for a new gym, consider supporting a BIPOC or immigrant-owned business on Lake Street!
FEATURED BUSINSSESES
Du Nord Craft Spirits
2610 E 32nd St.
Du Nord Craft Spirits is a small batch distillery producing artisan gin, vodka, liqueurs and whiskeys.
Tweak the Glam Studio
611 W Lake St.
Tweak the Glam Studio is an upscale beauty boutique & training center for lash extensions and microblading.
Trio Plant Based
610 W Lake St.
Trio Plant-based is a 100% plant-based restaurant in LynLake that makes and serves delicious comfort food.
Lake Street is Diversity
“We love the diverse rich polycultural street that we are part of. As we drive down Lake Street, we feel like we are part of creating a home here.”
- Meena Natarajan, owner Pangea World Theater
Pangea World Theater
711 W Lake St # 101, Minneapolis, MN 55408
Lake Street boasts an amazing diversity of culture, language, artists, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. And Pangea Theater—located on the corner of Lake and Lyndale—is a microcosm of the communities on Lake Street.
Owners Dipankar Mukherjee and Meena Natarajan—both from India—have been creating plays and local arts programs for nearly 20 years in their current location. This work has built partnerships with artists, organizations, businesses, and the city of Minneapolis to help foster collaborative spaces between our multiple communities contributing to the economic vitalization of Lake Street.
“We love the diverse rich polycultural street that we are part of. As we drive down Lake Street, we feel like we are part of creating a home here,” Meena said. The biggest challenge the theater faces is keeping pace with the growing demand for culturally-diverse art. “Our programs are so vibrant and well attended that we are bursting out of our current space on Lake Street and have been for the last five years,” Dipankar explained. “We are interested in pursuing our own space for performance and rehearsals.”
No matter what their future brings, Dipankar and Meena are committed to highlighting those voices who are not generally heard and creating a vision of togetherness when various forces in our surroundings divide us. “Our ultimate goal is to counter patterns of displacement and strengthen immigrant and indigenous communities,” Meena said.
Find more information about Pangea World Theater on their website or follow them on Facebook.
Katar River Restaurant & Bakery
2751 Minnehaha Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55406
Katar River Restaurant & Bakery officially opened its doors on Minnehaha Avenue in September 2008. But Sara Wordofa, restaurant owner and operator, has been cooking meals for family and loved ones for decades.
Born in Arsi, Ethiopia, Sara learned how to cook from her mother at a young age. And since then, she has used her cooking skills for good. Starting at the age of 19 in a Kenyan refugee camp, Sara cooked nourishing meals for people in the camp to keep them healthy. Now nearly 20 years later, she continues providing delicious, authentic Ethiopian meals to the Twin Cities community.
And the demand is growing—allowing Sara to expand to an additional production location and develop an automatic machine for making injera. Sara’s favorite part about having her business on Lake Street? “Lake street is the center of everything with a diverse population,” she said. “You can come by car, bus, bike or train. Everything is here.”
Find more information about Katar River Restaurant on their website.
“Lake street is the center of everything
with a diverse population. You can come by
car, bus, bike or train. Everything is here.”
- Sara Wordofa, owner of Katar River