![Jeff O'Neill carried three orders for delivery out of the kitchen at Taco Cat in the Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis Thursday night. ] JEFF WHEELER • jeff.wheeler@startribune.com Digital document delivery hasn't completely eliminated the career of the bike messenger, but the numbers of people making a living at it are fewer. Jeff O'Neill is one of three bike messengers working for Metro Legal Services in downtown Minneapolis. He was photographed Thursday evening, August 20, 2015 delivering](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/7ENEKY5MWG3ZILGCM4CJFE7G3E.jpg?&w=1080)
After seven years delivering tacos by bike, Taco Cat is closing.
The taco takeout business with a food truck and a stand at Midtown Global Market will serve its last meals at the end of September, when its lease on the Market space runs out.
Co-owner Tristan Jimerson said there were multiple factors at play, but the main reason to call it quits was safety for himself, his co-owner Daniel Laeger-Hagemeister, and their employees.
The co-owners "work in the restaurant every day we're open," Jimerson said. "We're definitely in there, and neither of us wants to die for this company. We don't want our employees to get sick. It's really hard to ask anyone, 'Hey, do you want to risk your life to deliver food for people?'"
Taco Cat only reopened about a month ago, after closing down at the beginning of the pandemic. That time off gave the owners a chance to reevaluate the business.
"Once we were closed, we were trying to figure out what the future looked like for the restaurant," Jimerson said.
He didn't like what he saw ahead: slow summer business, no booth at the State Fair, and — brutal for any restaurant, pandemic or not — the looming winter months.
With the lease about to expire, it made sense to close up for good, Jimerson said. The business had no outstanding debts. "We're able to step back and walk away on our terms," he said.
