As Minneapolis mourned another black life senselessly taken by police brutality, peaceful protests turned into riots when police officers started tear-gassing and shooting rubber bullets at protesters on Lake Street. Many businesses in the area were damaged or lost in the early morning hours of May 29th, 2020. Midori's Floating World Café is a Japanese minority-owned restaurant located a block away from the 3rd precinct and was unfortunately caught in the crossfire. 


On the third night of protests, a fire was started in the back of the building, causing many to fear the worst. While the fire did not cause extensive damage to the structure, all of the building windows were smashed, and the interior was decimated. Specialty kitchen equipment shattered, dishes smashed, shelving units and sinks ripped from the walls, food removed from refrigerators and freezers and mashed into the debris. Beer and syrup were splashed across the floor, destroying important business documents. Parasols, lamps, and fabric panels were ripped from the ceiling. A chair was discovered with its legs embedded firmly in the west wall, having been thrown at some point during the night. This devastation follows immediately after two months of loss as Midori’s restaurant struggled to make ends meet under the restrictions imposed by Minnesota’s COVID-19 lockdown.