St. Paul City Council Special Meeting: 2025 Business Awards (Nov 25, 2025)
St. Paul City Council Special Meeting: 2025 Business Awards (Nov 25, 2025)
The St. Paul City Council convened a special meeting on November 25, 2025, to celebrate the ninth annual St. Paul Business Awards. With Council Members Yang, Johnson, and Kim excused, the meeting honored five outstanding local businesses recognized for their longevity, innovation, community empowerment, and dedication to the city. Council President Aker opened the proceedings by emphasizing the importance of recognizing business owners who have long expressed a desire for formal appreciation from the city.
Consent Calendar
- The Council unanimously adopted the resolution to honor the 2025 recipients of the St. Paul Business Awards. (Vote tally: 4 in favor, 0 opposed).
Public Comments & Testimony
- Selection Committee Members: No members of the selection committee (comprised of past winners) were present in the audience to be recognized individually, though their contribution was verbally acknowledged.
- Business Owners and Staff Testimony:
- Katie Juan (Italian Pie Shop): Expressed profound gratitude, attributing the business's survival through COVID and the passing of previous owners to her staff and the wonderful community. She stated the staff is "amazing" and emphasized the community's support.
- Callie Terry (Life Juices): Expressed that the reward lies in community recognition. He articulated a position that urban retail opportunities should reflect neighborhood demographics to prevent capital flight, stating his goal was to "flip the script" on the neighborhood's existing retail mix of payday loans and liquor stores. He emphasized the importance of bringing youth into the ecosystem and educating them on healthy options.
- Annie Rose (Lost Fox): Expressed honor at the recognition and a commitment to opening a space that "grows with the community" rather than having the community grow around it. She stated that working with the city and having community space has benefited everyone.
- Rachel Anderson (Vikings and Goddesses Pies): Expressed that the award validates the team's decade-long journey of bootstrapping a business from $100 to over $1 million in annual revenue. She reiterated the business's core mission of empowering women and minorities, noting 83% of their employees are women non-English speakers, many of whom have been with the company for years.
- Katie Armender (Roots Wellness Center): Expressed that the times are "very challenging" with rising fear in the political climate. She stated the organization is dedicated to providing culturally responsive, trauma-informed mental health services and launching an alternative response to police, emphasizing that equity, health, and public safety are "intertwined."
Discussion Items
- Traditions Award: Council Member Sarah Jost presented the award to Italian Pie Shop (1670 Grand Ave), citing its 20-year legacy, family ownership, and commitment to community engagement and local donations.
- People's Choice Award: Council Member Anika Bowie presented the award to Life Juices, highlighting its innovative self-service kiosk, urban agriculture integration, and role as a health-conscious anchor in Ward 1 that counters predatory retail.
- New Kid on the Block Award: Council Member Molly Holman (speaking for Ward 2) presented the award to Lost Fox, praising its 3.5-year growth, cozy atmosphere, and status as an anchor institution in Lower Town.
- Alice O'Brien Award: Council Member Molly Holman presented the award to Vikings and Goddesses Pies, recognizing the woman-owned bakery's mission of storytelling through food, equity, and inclusive hiring practices.
- Good Neighbor Award: Council Member Molly Holman presented the award to Roots Wellness Center, honoring its culturally specific care, sliding-scale access, and advocacy for community health equity and public safety.
Key Outcomes
- Five businesses were officially recognized: Italian Pie Shop (Traditions), Life Juices (People's Choice), Lost Fox (New Kid on the Block), Vikings and Goddesses Pies (Alice O'Brien), and Roots Wellness Center (Good Neighbor).
- Council Member Anika Bowie noted that Life Juices is the "first store" she has seen with a full self-service kiosk outside of another country.
- Rachel Anderson confirmed her business's financial milestone of exceeding $1 million in annual revenue, up from a $100 start.
- The selection process involved over 94 nominations and 22 eligible businesses reviewed by a committee of past winners.
- Matt Wheeland and Ari Newman (Clear Channel Outdoor) committed to showcasing winners on six digital billboards throughout St. Paul.
- The resolution to honor these recipients was passed unanimously.
Meeting Transcript
The special meeting of the St. Paul City Council to Order. Roll call, please. Here. Coleman. Here. Jost. Here. Johnson. Kim. And uh Yang and Celps Present Maker. Here. Four present, three absent, those being Council members Yang, Johnson, and Kim, and they are excused. Do you read the presentation? Oh, yes, sorry. Thank you. Um, do we have it? What's the number? Um, honoring the twenty twenty-five recipients of the St. Paul Business Awards. Wonderful. Well, welcome everyone to our special St. Paul City Council meeting. I was just telling someone as I was walking down the hall that um it is really nice to be going to something that is truly all good news and all a celebration. We could use it today and in this time. So thank you all so much for being here today. Um huge welcome to the especially the winners um and guests of the ninth annual St. Paul Business Awards program, um, along with all of your family and friends. Um, we are this recording of this meeting is going to be available on our website, so anyone who's not able to join us in person today can see this momentous occasion for posterity uh on our website forever forward, so just know that. Um, we really want to commend the the winners this year and the nominees. We uh started this program nine years ago because um when those several of us had been campaigning that year, and we had heard when we were talking to business owners, you know what, we don't need anything special, but we just want to feel like the City of St. Paul appreciates what we do. We want to feel recognized, and we don't feel that. And um and the council came together and said, you know, how hard would it be to have a way of saying formally thank you to all of the business owners who make our community great on a regular basis. And that's how the St. Paul Business Awards um came into being. This year we are once again recognizing five outstanding businesses in the following categories the Alice O'Brien Award, the Good Neighbor Business Award, the New Kid on the Block Award, the People's Choice Award, and the Traditions Award. And we'll say more about all of those as we move along in today's program. I just want to acknowledge that this would not happen without a team. The process starts with the business being nominated online by the public. After the nomination, the business is invited to apply for consideration for the award. The applications are then sorted and they're reviewed by a selection committee that is actually made up of past business award winners. So those of you who are winning an award today, just get ready. You might be asked to be part of a selection committee in the future, paying it back forward, I'm not sure. And so I do want to please help me thank those who are part of the selection committee this year. Without their help and commitment to supporting St. Paul businesses, this recognition of these five winners would not be taking place today. So was anyone, anyone in the audience right now, someone who was on the selection committee? If so, could you stand so we can recognize you? Let's recognize them anyway.
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