The Dripping Root is less than a year old—it'll have its one-year anniversary on May 29—but owner Catiesha Pierson is celebrating a little early. Over the weekend, she announced some exciting changes are in the works at her Minnehaha Avenue juice bar, including breakfast, brunch—and a 2,000 square foot expansion into the space next door.
Before the adjacent space was even available, Pierson had mentioned to the building's owner that in a few years, if the previous tenants didn't renew their lease and she was was able to get The Dripping Root off the ground, she'd be interested in taking over it.
"There are just so many other things that I wanted to be able to offer, and our kitchen is literally barely big enough for two people to work in at the same time," Pierson tells Racket. In their current home at 4002 Minnehaha Ave. in Minneapolis, there's "no space to even be able to add a toaster for avocado toast if I wanted to."
So when the building owner reached out a few months back to say the space was available now, she made a list of pros and cons. Cons: She'd only just started and was still figuring things out. Pros: She really, really needed the space.
Pierson felt that The Dripping Root was capable of doing so much more, not only on the food side, but by being more involved in, giving back to, and helping to build a stronger community. She wanted to have more space to gather, and to increase visibility and diversity in the vegan/vegetarian community; The Dripping Root is the only Black woman-owned juice bar in the state.
When the expansion is ready, the food menus will be fairly streamlined. "I’m talking waffles. Paninis. Salads. Flatbreads. Toasts as the mains," Pierson says. She wants to serve up food that's "quick, beautiful, and delicious." It'll also be 100% meatless and largely vegan—no eggs—with some gluten-free options and an expanded selection of smoothie bowls. Maybe, if we're lucky, we'll even see some vegan soft serve.
To help achieve her goal, Pierson set up a GoFundMe where you can donate to help the juicery move into its new space. (They've raised almost $4,000 over the last few days.) "Don’t mark my words on timeline, but my fingers are crossed for fall of 2022," she says.
Pierson says that the last year (almost) has been such a delight, and she feels incredibly supported by the community in Longfellow and beyond. Her juice bar is a place of joy, happiness, and energy, and she's excited for more people to visit as it comes to reach its full potential.
"Having more space to play means more juice, means more options, means more opportunity, means being able to build something super special in my neighborhood, means me being able to create more space for what I don’t think there is enough of, which is diversity within the vegan/vegetarian restaurant community," Pierson says.
"Plus, who doesn’t like a good ol' breakfast and brunch?"
