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As the Driveby Tourist, I started an Eat Street Minneapolis series. I live in the nearby suburbs, so my trip starts with a “driveby” suburbia and continues into the city. A beautiful October day to search for my one dessert of the week! Of course, the best way for more experiences is to have a lunch entree at one place and then a dessert at another. This day, The Copper Hen Cakery & Kitchen became the dessert place for this week.
And it was perfect! By the way, their dessert specialty is a “boozy cake.” It’s baked in a Mason Jar and includes a pipette of liqueur in each cake. All this makes The Copper Hen one of Minneapolis’s best places to eat!
The Copper Hen Cakery & Kitchen opened on May 1, 2014. Initially, it opened as a counter service. Their business planning indicated they needed to provide a full-service menu to serve wine and beer. Despite Danielle’s background as a pastry chef, they dove into the whole menu and brought in a highly skilled team to make nearly all the food from scratch in their kitchen. The counter service quickly evolved into table service and a full bar. The most recent expansion brought the seating capacity to 140. And, naturally, you want the link to their main page. Their regular hours are listed on their page.
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In fact, Danielle’s background includes making wedding cakes, which led her to want her own place. She and her husband, Chris, decided to go full blast. After the obligatory business and financial planning (Chris is a CPA), they found the Copper Hen location on Eat Street and became one of the best bakeries in Minneapolis!
Farm to Table
As planned, they provide fresh food with locally sourced ingredients as much as possible. Since they do breakfast (and brunch) plus all the baking they do, eggs, eggs, and more eggs make it through their delivery door! That’s how the name came about. Because Copper has a rustic look and reminds us of farms and with the extensive use of eggs, what else could it be but The Copper Hen? Their average purchase of eggs per week is 30 cases, which works out to over 4000 eggs a week!
Bakeries in Minneapolis
With Danielle’s pastry chef experience, wedding cakes are still a big part of their offering. They also host 25 to 30 weddings in their restaurant every year. That’s in addition to the wedding cake, and bakery delights they serve at weddings at other locations. And they are very well known for other bakery greats! (Check out the Copper Hen dessert menu.)
Does The Copper Hen look like a farmhouse table?
My dessert for the day. Best skillet dessert I’ve ever had! Decadent! Of course, I could have had lunch. Indeed, their entire menu tempted me—an enjoyable afternoon experience on a great October day. I must come back for a full lunch or dinnerI certainlyly hope you will eat here at the Copper Hen as well. As a side no,e; they also own Grey Fox Coffee in downtown Minneapolis.
Copper Hen Interesting facts
Reality
In 016, The Copper Hen struck gold on CNBC’s “Restaurant Startup” show. After breezing through two preliminary rounds, they “won the gold” on the episode of finalists. On the show, storied international restaurateur Joe Bastianih puts restaurant owners through their paces to “show their stuff.” He liked what he saw and negotiated an investment. Initially, the investment was $200,000 for a 20% ownership stake. While that investment earmarked funding for a rooftop patio, negotiations with the landlord led to delays. The deal was renegotiated to be $50,000 for a 10% sha,re and it funded a “creative cocktails” program for The Copper Hen Cakery & Kitchen.
Want to see a shop for my road trip photos? You can have them printed as wall art or puzzles. They also work on coffee mugs, t-shirts and more! So, take a look. Maybe you'll see something you will like!
Want to know more about Eat Street? Here’s more to the story.
But wait, here’s more – The post is named “The best places on Eat Street”.
Classic Rock Recollection
“Sugar, Sugar” by The Archies
Oh sugar, pour a little sugar on it honey
Pour a little sugar on it baby
I’m gonna make your life so sweet, yeah yeah yeah
Pour a little sugar on it oh yeah
Yeah, Pour a little sugar on it honey
Pour a little sugar on it baby
I’m gonna make your life so sweet, yeah yeah yeah
Pour a little sugar on it honey
Songwriters: Andy Kim / Jeff Barry
(And, of course, eggs as well! Couldn’t find a classic rock
song that included both sugar and eggs!)
#thedrivebytourist #eatstreet #copperhen
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