Nautical Bowls, a new smoothie bowl franchise, opened the doors to their first Minneapolis location in Dinkytown on Sept. 9. The Dinkytown location is the first of three coming to Minneapolis.
Bryant and Rachel Amundson funded Nautical Bowls in Minnetonka in 2018. One of the company’s values is to have access to a “quick meal without compromising your healthy lifestyle,” according to the company website.
Bryant is a University of Minnesota alumni, so choosing Dinkytown for their first Minneapolis location was an easy decision, said Lori Weinke, the general manager of the Dinkytown location.
“Our relationship with the community is really important to the company,” Weinke said. “They wanted to open a store in Dinkytown because of the founders’ personal connection to the University.”
The team of workers is nearly all University students, providing the company with an increased connection to the University, Weinke said.
The store offers a range of bases for the smoothie bowls –– such as acai, pitaya, mango and blue majik ––and toppings from goji berries to cocoa nibs. They also have a number of signature bowls on their menu, like the Nauti Bowl which is made with an acai and pitaya base, topped with granola, banana, cacao nibs and peanut butter.
In addition to their signature bowls, the Dinkytown store will be launching a Goldy Bowl, which the franchise has never done before, according to Weinke. The bowl will have a maroon and gold base and will launch later this year.
Nautical Bowls started an ambassador program to further build their connection with the Dinkytown and University communities. Current ambassadors are from a number of sports teams; the restaurant is working to get ambassadors from an adaptive sports team and other organizations outside of sports on campus, according to Weinke.
Parker Fox plays basketball for the University and is one of the student athlete ambassadors.
“It’s a great healthy but easy option. You can get your fruits, grains and such in an easy meal,” Fox said. “For me, as a student athlete, I don’t have a lot of time to make food all the time.”
As an ambassador, Fox said he posts about the store on social media to bring attention to the new location.
Other Dinkytown franchise owners were excited to welcome Nautical Bowls to the area, among them is Kent Kramp, vice president of the Dinkytown Business Alliance (DBA) and owner of Raising Cane’s in Dinkytown.
Kramp said he is hoping the location will bring more people from other Minneapolis neighborhoods to Dinkytown.
“There’s not one in Northeast, there’s not one in Downtown, so we can bring people from other local areas to Dinkytown that maybe haven’t been here in a while,” Kramp said. “Nautical Bowls can draw people in from further out than just the students in the area.”