Maria Cafe

What Maria Cafe does

Maria's Café is a privately held, single-location Colombian breakfast and lunch restaurant operating at 1113 East Franklin Avenue inside the Ancient Traders Market in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded by María Hoyos, who arrived from Medellín, Colombia in 1980, the business traces its origins to Maria's Breakfast Club, which she opened in 1993; the current café was established in 2007 following an invitation from the American Indian Business Development Corporation. The restaurant serves dine-in customers seven days a week from 8am to 3pm, offering Colombian specialties such as Huevos Pericos, Bandeja Paisa, Cachapas Venezolanas, chorizo, and arepas, alongside American breakfast classics, burgers, sandwiches, and Latin American weekend specials, with live music on Saturdays and Sundays.

The core product set includes Colombian breakfast items, regional Colombian dishes, a lunch menu of burgers and tortilla-based fare, beverages including Colombian Supremo coffee and tropical juices, and weekend specials. The café also operates a banquet and private event service across three seating areas with customized Latin-themed menus served plated, family-style, or buffet, plus a small retail line of house-recipe Colombian chorizo sausage sold for off-premise consumption. There is no proprietary technology platform; ordering and reservations are handled through the company website (mariascafe.com) and standard in-person service.

Revenue is generated through three streams: per-unit dine-in food and beverage sales at menu prices ranging from $2.50 for a single egg to $20.95 for the Paisa Bowl, banquet and catering bookings for groups, and a small retail product line. The customer base consists primarily of local Minneapolis-St. Paul diners seeking authentic Colombian breakfast and lunch, with no disclosed enterprise contracts or named institutional accounts. Marketing relies on the website, organic foot traffic from the Ancient Traders Market, customer testimonials via Google Reviews, and the live music draw on weekends. Headcount is in the 11-50 employee range per firmographic data; no outside investors, funding rounds, or parent company are involved, and ownership remains with the founder.

Name

Maria Cafe

Legal name

Maria's Café

Website

https://mariascafe.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1993

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Maria's Café is a privately held, single-location Colombian breakfast and lunch restaurant in Minneapolis's Ancient Traders Market, serving walk-in diners daily from 8am to 3pm, with ancillary banquet/catering and retail chorizo sales.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Casual Dining Restaurant

NAICS

Full-Service Restaurants (722511), Restaurants and Other Eating Places (72251), Restaurants and Other Eating Places (7225)

SIC

Retail-Eating & Drinking Places (5810), Retail-Eating Places (5812)

akta.pro primary industry

Ethnic & Regional Cuisine Restaurants (THAFACAD)

akta.pro secondary industry

Independent Neighborhood Cafes (THAFADAC)

Keywords

• Colombian restaurant
• Breakfast dining
• Latin American cuisine
• Private event catering
• Banquet services

Headquarters

HQ city

Minneapolis, MN

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Dine-in Food and Beverage Sales: Revenue generated from selling breakfast and lunch items directly to consumers at the restaurant. The menu features Colombian specialties, American breakfast classics, sandwiches, burgers, and beverages. Additional revenue from specialty items like retail chorizo sausage.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Maria's Cafe is a single-location Colombian breakfast and lunch restaurant in Minneapolis that serves authentic Colombian and American daytime fare prepared from scratch using fresh, local produce. In addition to walk-in dine-in service for breakfast and lunch daily, the cafe hosts private banquets and group events with customized Latin-themed menus and also retails house-recipe Colombian-style chorizo sausage for off-premise purchase.

Product overview

Maria's Cafe is a single-location Colombian breakfast and lunch restaurant in Minneapolis. The offering consists of a unified dine-in service that includes Colombian breakfast items (such as Huevos Pericos, Arepas, and corn pancakes), Colombian Regional Specialties (including Bandeja Paisa and various arepa preparations), a Lunch Menu with burgers and Mexican-style tortilla items, Weekend Specials featuring Latin American dishes, and a Banquet/Catering service for private events. Additionally, the cafe sells retail Chorizo Paisa sausage for off-premise consumption. All food is prepared from scratch using fresh, healthy, and local produce.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Colombian Breakfast Offerings Traditional Colombian breakfast items including Huevos Pericos, Arepas, Cachapas Venezolanas (corn pancakes), Calentao, and egg dishes served daily to walk-in diners.
• Colombian Regional Specialties Regional Colombian dishes such as Bandeja Paisa (Paisa Bowl), Empanadas, Arepas a la Venezolana with various fillings, and Chorizo Paisa served to dine-in customers.
• Lunch Menu Midday fare including Build Your Own Burger options, classic sandwiches, tortilla specialties (fajitas, burritos, quesadillas), and daily soups and salads.
• Beverages Colombian Supremo Coffee, specialty coffees (espresso, cappuccino, latte, mocha), tropical juices, Colombian lemonade, and Colombian Refajo.
• Weekend Specials Saturday special featuring plantains, black beans, scrambled eggs, sausage links and arepa; Sunday special with sauteed yucca, pinto beans, scrambled eggs, sausage patties and arepa.
• Banquet and Private Event Services Private dining and event hosting for meetings and group events in three seating areas, with customized Latin-flair menus, beer and wine service, and optional Latin music entertainment.
• Retail Chorizo Paisa House-recipe Colombian-style chorizo sausage available for retail purchase at the cafe, offered in pork or chicken varieties.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• American Indian Business Development CorporationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe American Indian Business Development Corporation invited Maria's Café to take residence in the Ancient Traders Market, providing the opportunity for the restaurant to establish its current location. This partnership was instrumental in enabling the café to open in its present venue.

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Wise Acre Eatery: Minneapolis farm-to-table breakfast, brunch, and lunch restaurant. Comparable Twin Cities scratch-cooking breakfast/lunch cafe competing for the same local daytime diner.
• Common Roots Cafe: Independent Minneapolis breakfast-and-lunch cafe serving a broad scratch menu with local sourcing. Highly comparable single-location Minneapolis daytime cafe competing for the same neighborhood breakfast diner.
• Boca Chica Restaurante: Minneapolis Mexican/Latin American restaurant with scratch preparation. Comparable Twin Cities Latin-cuisine independent restaurant competing for the same ethnic-food breakfast and lunch traffic.
• Corner Table: Independent Minneapolis neighborhood restaurant with a from-scratch menu and brunch service. Comparable single-location, owner-operated Minneapolis daytime dining positioning.
• La Mesa Mexican Restaurant: Minneapolis-area Latin American restaurant. Comparable Twin Cities Latin-cuisine positioning competing for the same ethnic-cuisine breakfast-and-lunch diner.
• Black Coffee and Waffle Bar: Minneapolis-based independent breakfast and brunch concept. Comparable Minneapolis daytime-dining positioning, scratch menu, and reliance on walk-in and local customer traffic.
• Hen House Eatery: Twin Cities breakfast-and-lunch cafe with a scratch, comfort-food menu. Comparable Minneapolis breakfast-destination model targeting the same local diner segment.

Regional players

• French Meadow Bakery & Cafe: Twin Cities bakery-cafe with organic/scratch focus and banquet space. Comparable Minneapolis organic-scratch cafe model with catering/event capabilities that overlap Maria's banquet offering.

Broad incumbents

• Snooze, an A.M. Eatery: Multi-unit breakfast and brunch chain with a creative daytime menu. Comparable breakfast/brunch daypart and scratch-cooking positioning, illustrating scale and marketing reach Maria's lacks.
• First Watch: National daytime-cafe chain specializing in breakfast, brunch, and lunch. Comparable breakfast/lunch cafe operating model at much greater scale, providing the dominant chain benchmark for category economics.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat1 record

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/maria-cafe

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Maria Cafe