In Rochester, restaurants stand in the shadow of the Mayo Clinic
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The first thing I notice about Sammi Loo's restaurants is the ambiance.
I pick up a Latte from Mezza9, her French-inspired cafe in Downtown Rochester decorated with lush pink flowers. From there, it’s a short walk to Bebap, a Korean-American concept that opened about two years ago.
Above the restaurant is 1928, a Shanghai-inspired cocktail lounge.
Loo is one of Rochester’s most well-known entrepreneurs in the restaurant industry. She’s someone who thinks about the whole package, from the concept to the food quality to the presentation.
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But sales at her businesses dropped 30 to 40 percent last year.
“I feel like we are facing a recession,” she said. “The spending power is low. People don’t want to spend too much money.”
As downtown Rochester grows, so, too, has its food scene.
The city ballooned from 85,000 people in the year 2000 to more than 122,000 people in 2024.
And while a 1993 article in the local newspaper might have highlighted Old Country Buffet and Cinnabon, entrepreneurs like Loo have raised the profile of the city’s dining scene.
These businesses literally stand in the shadow of Rochester’s Mayo Clinic, the state’s largest hospital. And their destinies are intertwined.
While restaurants in a city like Minneapolis might be busiest on the weekend, the Mayo Clinic keeps many Rochester businesses busy on a Monday night.
“We average right around 49 to 52 percent of our customer base Monday through Thursday are Mayo Clinic patients, and those are our busiest days of the week for the most part,” says Jennifer Lester. She owns Bleu Duck Kitchen in downtown Rochester.
“So that’s pretty significant. And if we didn’t have that, you know, I don’t know where restaurants would be, if you’d be able to survive.”
Bleu Duck is a “New American” higher-end concept, with brick walls and an urban feel.
That was tough to explain at first to customers when she opened the business in 2016. Despite the linen tablecloths, there was no black-tie dress code. People could show up in a hat and a T-shirt and expect a good meal.
Natalie Victoria has operated Victoria's downtown since 1997. It has a classic Italian restaurant feeling, with paintings of Venice and Botticelli on the walls.
While the restaurant has moved locations once, Mayo has always driven its business. Victoria says it’s important to make patients feel cared for when they leave the hospital, too.
“We're fortunate that we have the Mayo Clinic transient as our consumer; they probably have a little bit deeper of a pocketbook,” she said. “But it’s never easy. I mean, it’s always kind of like a jigsaw puzzle. There are some months that you do well and some ones that you don’t do well.”
In Minnesota, most hospitality businesses are seeing reduced profits, including restaurants and hotels, according to a recent survey from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Business owners pointed to higher costs of doing business.
In Rochester, Loo is focusing on banding together with other local businesses as a community.
“The Rochester community is amazing,” she said. “I feel like collaboration is very important, and I really want to have more collaboration in next year.”
