DES MOINES, Iowa — As long-time businesses like Americana decide to close its doors and leave the downtown area, a Des Moines staple is deciding that downtown is where its next move will be. Black Cat Ice Cream announced Wednesday that it will open its second location at 1301 Locust Street, where the old Ritual Cafe stood.

Back in July, Black Cat had to abruptly close its Drake Neighborhood location due to building safety concerns, and continued operations at their Valley Junction storefront.

Now, they’re re-entering the downtown scene as other businesses, like Americana, are deciding to leave.

“It’s challenging down there, and post-covid downtown, things have changed a lot since last we were there, but also a lot of it has remained the same. There’s still a lot of great restaurants. There’s always activity around there. It’s just sort of a hub. So, for me, like, I know there will be challenges, but we’re really adaptive. We like to become a part of the community. So, we’ll find ways we can, you know, partner with people and, you know, just try and become a part of, of everything that’s going on down there,” said Alex Carter, owner of Black Cat Ice Cream.

Carter said he’s excited to reopen a shop where Black Cat started, originally operating out of the Gas Lamp building.

“I mean, the World Food Festival just got over. We look forward to that next year. There’s always something going on where we’ll have an ice cream shop located in between the sculpture park and the mall and public library, which I think is a fantastic place for kids and families. So, I expect to see a lot of foot traffic around there,” said Carter.

That foot traffic has come a long way since the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Greater Des Moines partnership annual report for 2024 showing that workday foot traffic downtown was up seven perfect from 2023.

Despite the increase, other restaurants downtown are still feeling the impacts of major employers moving out of the area.

“Largely nights and weekends are back to pre-pandemic levels downtown. But lunches remain soft when people are only working downtown two or three days a week. It’s really hard to navigate how many people you’re going to staff for a lunch and you know what sort of revenue you might be able to achieve given those changes and work patterns,” said Chris Diebel, founding partner of Bubba Southern Comforts.

Bubba has been operating downtown for nine years, surviving the pandemic slump, and the changing downtown landscape. Diebel says the key to survival, is staying relevant with customers.

“You have to be really lean and mean with your operation, and you constantly have to think of ways to reinvent your offerings. So, we’re looking at seasonal menu changes. We’ve started a new steak night on Mondays, it’s gone really well, and all of those things are our stuff that we have to contemplate to remain relevant and to drive some additional revenue when we’re not seeing the same traffic patterns as we were pre-pandemic,” said Diebel.