Hopkins sweet exchange: Angel Food Bakery owner takes over Amy’s Cupcake Shoppe

After nine years of serving sweet treats in downtown Hopkins, Amy’s Cupcake Shoppe‘s owner Amy Brace has sold her beloved bakery to Katy Gerdes of Angel Food Bakery.

In an Instagram post sharing her decision, Brace said, “Navigating through two years of COVID just to be diagnosed with breast cancer in October of 2022 was devastating, to say the very least. Through chemo, radiation and many surgeries, it is time for me to take some much-needed rest and healing time. I have decided to step away.”

Gerdes will take over operations while retaining the Amy’s Cupcake Shoppe name and its recipes. “Hopefully we can do justice to the amazing things Amy Brace and her team have built here,” said Gerdes in a statement.

Gerdes opened the first Angel Food Bakery in downtown Minneapolis in 2012 after an eye-opening trade show visit with family, where she realized many bakeries operate from the same mixes and products. She built a devoted following for her scratch-made sweet breakfast treats, specialty cakes and doughnuts. An outpost of Angel Food Bakery at the MSP Airport has become a popular travel pit stop at Terminal 1.

Angel Food Bakery’s flagship location in St. Louis Park’s Texa Tonka strip mall also operates an ice cream shop, Frio Frio, that offers fresh flavors, ice lollies and icy cocktails.

Edwards Dessert Kitchen [200 Washington Av. N., Mpls.] will close on June 29. What began as an unlikely brick-and-mortar sweets concept from frozen food company Schwan’s grew into a boundary-pushing dessert-centered restaurant and cocktail bar.

Opening the restaurant as its second-in-command chef, Jasmine Weiser Kaysen rose to lead the kitchen and stewarded its vision for much of the restaurant’s seven years of operation.

From its earliest days in the fall of 2018, there was a sugar-fueled excitement that a restaurant born out of a company known more for frozen products than fresh cooking could deliver such a high caliber of dishes.

Awarded three stars by Star Tribune critic Rick Nelson, he raved, “The technical acuity was off-the-charts impressive.” More recently Sharyn Jackson praised the Paris-Brest as a “light-as-air puff pastry, crunchy with a coconut crackle, that sandwiches voluptuous coconut-brown sugar mousse.”

In a farewell statement, EDK wrote, “We’re grateful for the incredible support of the community, and we’ve enjoyed bringing you delicious creations and quality service over the years.”

Following the bitters and canned cocktail company’s bankruptcy filing this April, Dashfire has announced that its Elusive Botanical Bar cocktail room will close on June 28.

Elusive opened in 2022 inside the Thorp Building, featuring a production area and bar and a room for cocktail classes.

Dashfire filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which allows a company to reorganize its finances while shielding it from creditors’ claims.

The bitters and canned cocktails products will continue production.

The team behind the ice cream shop that captured Minneapolis’ collective imagination is expanding to “the good land.” Bebe Zito Milwaukee is slated to open later this year inside 3rd Street Market Hall.

Not only will the Milwaukee outpost serve the creative flavor combinations co-founder and chef Ben Spangler is known for, but this will be the first time the shop will delve into bakery and coffee offerings. “I’ve been a pastry chef for over half my life,” said Spangler via a statement. “I’m excited to incorporate some decadent baked goods to Bebe Zito!”

Bebe Zito co-founder Gabriella Grant-Spangler said she was thrilled with the opportunity to bring their ice cream shop to the city where she attended the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.

Bebe Zito grew from a popular pop-up to ice cream shop in the Wedge neighborhood in Minneapolis. There are now three locations, including a full service shop in Woodbury and inside the Market at Malcolm Yards food hall in Minneapolis.

3rd Street Market Hall first opened at the dawn of 2022 with an open-air market environment of eateries, beer and cocktails - it is Wisconsin, after all.

Spice Village is slated to open in Apple Valley this summer, featuring a full-service restaurant and grocery store. The venture in Apple Valley Town Square (7520 149th St. W.) is tailored to meet the needs of all kinds of diners including sumptuous vegan, vegetarian and omnivore options, as part of the Indian and Asian fusion menu. That means fresh chapatis, biryanis, tandoori, Indian-spiced wings and more.

Meanwhile, the grocery store will stock pantry staples along with hard-to-source ingredients.

Is Minnesota begging for drive-thru chicken salad? There’s a business group that’s betting on it. Mpls./St. Paul Business Journal reports the Coffey family has signed a franchise deal to bring 10 locations of Chicken Salad Chick to Hennepin and Ramsey counties.

The restaurants feature, as one might deduce, chicken salad in various riffs served on croissants, bread, with crackers and beyond.