A group of friends who play together in a summer baseball league are stepping up to the plate to open a new batting cage facility in Rochester.
The business, D-BAT Rochester, is set to open this spring at 4430 19th Street NW in the space formerly home to Bounce World.
The 16,500-square-foot facility will feature five traditional hitting cages, four pitching machine cages, and two pitching lanes.
In addition, D-BAT Rochester will also house a fully-stocked Rawlings Pro Shop with baseball gear ranging from gloves to grip tape.
Garry Marta, one of the partners on the project, said D-BAT will offer membership options, as well as opportunities for people who want to come in for a round or two. While there are other batting cage facilities in the area — such as The Yard, Rochester Athletic Club, and Rochester Batting Cages in Pine Island — all currently require a monthly membership.
“The [existing] facilities in the area do a great job of honing skills — preparing high schoolers and such to take them to the next level,” said Garry Marta, one of five partners with D-BAT Rochester. “While we have the tools to do that as well, our focus will be mostly centered around kids — introducing them to the game. When you put children in a fun, positive setting they understand what’s so great about baseball.”
Marta said the business is targeting late March for a soft open.
The other partners in D-BAT Rochester are Luke Kroeplin, Scott Yokiel, Zach Jones, and Matt Jewison. The latter owns Anytime Fitness in Rochester.
A healthy food option
A popular Twin Cities salad chain is making its way to the Med City.
A representative from Crisp & Green confirmed to us via email that the company does plan to add a location in Rochester. They declined to provide additional details because a lease had not yet been signed.
With a focus on healthy living, Crisp & Green offers a “sustainable chef-crafted menu” featuring salads, grain bowls, and smoothies.
The first Crisp & Green opened in 2016 in Wayzata, with a second location coming a year later in Minneapolis’s North Loop. The fast-casual chain now has 10 locations in Minnesota, with nine more in the pipeline. It also has franchises open or planned in 13 other states across the U.S.
Stay tuned for additional updates.
Aloha! Another option for coffee
A Hawaiian coffee company is hoping to make a splash on the mainland with the opening of its first Midwest franchise.
The build-out of a new Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii location is happening now at 1529 Highway 14 East, next to Little Caesars. Todd Heins, co-owner of the Rochester franchise, said the goal is to open in late April or early May.
The business will join a handful of other coffee shops in the southeast part of town, including Due North, Caribou, and Moka.
Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii was founded in 1989 “with a goal of sharing American-grown, premium Hawaiian coffee,” according to its website. It now has 24 locations in the U.S., U.S. Virgin Islands, and Japan.
As for the Bad Ass name, according to company lore, that comes from a term used by locals to describe the donkeys of Kona, Hawaii that once carried the coffee beans down the steep mountains of the Big Island.
“The native people of Kona named these hard-working donkeys the ‘Bad Ass Ones’ because of their reliably strong, but stubborn nature in carrying their precious cargo,” the company writes on its website.
Sean Baker is a Rochester journalist and the founder of Med City Beat.
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