The Hottest New Brunches in the Twin Cities Right Now — Eater
from the Eater Staff
Helmed by three Travail alumni — pastry chef Alex Althoff, chef Nat Moser, and creative director Sarah Julson — Dahlia does roving pop-up brunches at restaurants around the Cities. Menus change weekly, so check Instagram for the latest details, but expect savory dishes like sausage-stuffed breakfast sandwiches and sourdough focaccia French toast offered alongside Dahlia’s delicate pastries: jammy Bloody Mary croissants, raspberry lemon cruffins, or shimmering creme brulee doughnuts, for example. The pop-up makes frequent appearances at Oro by Nixta, Marty’s Deli, Guacaya Bistreaux, and other local spots.
Looking ahead: 10 Minneapolis restaurants we can't wait to get into in 2024 — Star Tribune
Every pop-up menu the Dahlia team has released has had us falling all over each other for another bite of the gold leaf-adorned doughnuts, flaky pain Suisse and savory Danishes.
These Travail alums have been building anticipation ever since they announced they were branching out on their own. Sarah Julson, Nat Moser and Alex Althoff left the Robbinsdale restaurant group in 2022. Althoff was executive pastry chef and Moser (Althoff's husband) was head chef at Nouvelle Brewing (and Pig Ate My Pizza before that). Julson served as creative director.
Dahlia will one day be a full-service daytime cafe with an emphasis on the food we like to eat in the morning — and all day long. They haven't found an address yet, but they're actively on the hunt and we're ready to follow wherever they lead.
A Look Ahead at the Most Anticipated Restaurant Openings of 2024 — Eater
Justine Jones, editor of Eater Twin Cities
I’m can’t wait for both Diane’s Place and Vinai, and whatever the Dahlia team does creating a lunchy, brunchy, daytime spot. I’m also excited about Jade Dynasty coming to the old Fuji Ya spot at Lyn-Lake — hell yes to a new dim sum spot, we need more! Coastal Seafood’s new St. Paul bar seems really promising, too. If there’s one thing I could snap my fingers and conjure for the Cities’ dining scene, it would be the kind of casual, (relatively) affordable oyster bar you can find on the coasts. Maybe this is the place.
The 15 Hottest New Restaurants in Minneapolis and St. Paul Right Now, May 2023 — Eater
Welcome to the Eater Twin Cities Heatmap, a collection of exciting new restaurants that have opened or re-opened in the last six months or so. Despite the long-tail challenges of the pandemic, Minneapolis and St. Paul’s resilient restaurant community continues to find creative ways to introduce diners to fantastic food. This month, the map highlights four new spots: Oro by Nixta, La Bodega Taco Bar, AltBurger, and Centro in Highland Park.
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Helmed by three Travail alumni — pastry chef Alex Althoff, chef Nat Moser, and creative director Sarah Julson — Dahlia is an exciting “pastries and savories” pop-up. On a technical level, these baked goods are superb: The croissants are feather-light, the biscuits crumbly and moist. They’re a canvas for unexpected flavors, like a jammy Bloody Mary croissant, or a donut lacquered with a shimmering creme brulee glaze.
The 15 Hottest New Restaurants in Minneapolis and St. Paul Right Now, April 2023 — Eater
Welcome to the Eater Twin Cities Heatmap, a collection of exciting new restaurants that have opened or re-opened in the last six months or so. Despite the long-tail challenges of the pandemic, Minneapolis and St. Paul’s resilient restaurant community continues to find creative ways to introduce diners to fantastic food. This month, the map highlights eight new (and new-ish) spots: Juche, Kruse Markit, Big Biscuit Bar, Mee-Ka Pop-Up, Eat Street Crossing, Pinoli, Bolé Express, and Dahlia.
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Helmed by three Travail alumni — pastry chef Alex Althoff, chef Nat Moser, and creative director Sarah Julson — Dahlia is an exciting “pastries and savories” pop-up. On a technical level, these baked goods are superb: the croissants are feather-light, the biscuits crumbly and moist. They’re a canvas for unexpected flavors, like a jammy Bloody Mary croissant, or a donut lacquered with a shimmering creme brulee glaze. Note that Dahlia doesn’t have a physical storefront, so don’t drive out to Robbinsdale and expect to find a bakery there. It’s essential to keep an eye on the website or Instagram for details on upcoming locations.
Where to Get a Lovely Whole Cake in the Twin Cities — Eater
Every special occasion requires an equally special cake. With all due respect to cake slices — an immaculate dessert in their own right — there’s something irresistibly festive about ordering a whole cake in all its frosted glory. These Twin Cities bakeries offer cakes in all styles: layered with pastry creams, dripping with chocolate ganache, or painted with bright frosting flowers. Here are 19 places to get a lovely whole cake in the Twin Cities.
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Dahlia’s cakes are dreamy and romantic — they look a little more like Monet’s Water Lilies than dessert. Made with either two or four layers, they’re frosted with buttercream in a simple color scheme, though pastry chef Alex Althoff accepts requests for design, color, and flavor. Cakes range from $50 to $120 depending on size.
Where to Find Decadent Doughnuts in the Twin Cities — Eater
Minneapolis and St. Paul have a fantastic doughnut scene. Some of the Cities’ best shops have been around for decades, wafting the sweet, tantalizing scents of fried dough, sugar, and cinnamon over their neighborhoods across generations. Others are newer to the scene, innovating these classic pastries with cereal and candy toppings, doughnut vending machines, and chewy rice flour blends. From dense, crackly old fashioneds to raised doughnuts stuffed with rich creams and curds, here are some excellent spots for decadent doughnuts around Minneapolis and St. Paul.
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Dahlia operates as a roving pop-up, so don’t drive out to Robbinsdale and expect to find a bakery here. To snag these artful, square-shaped doughnuts, keep an eye on Dahlia’s website or Instagram for upcoming pop-up dates. Flavors range from chocolate caramel to passionfruit vanilla bean. The creme brulee doughnut, stuffed with banana cream, is lacquered with a shimmering glaze.
The 5 best things our food writers ate in the Twin Cities area this week — Star Tribune
Doughnuts from Dahlia
One of the new restaurants I'm most excited about for 2023 doesn't even have a location or opening date yet. Luckily, I've already been able to sample the food, thanks to the robust number of pop-ups they've been holding around town.
The restaurant/pop-up is Dahlia, a collaboration of three Travail alumni who aim to bring full-service, daytime fine dining to the Twin Cities. Pastry is at the center of the operation, with pastry chef Alex Althoff as one of the Dahlia trio. This week, the team was at Dangerous Man Brewing for the northeast Minneapolis brewery's 10th anniversary celebration. The David Bowie-themed party called for glitter, and Althoff coated each of the four huge, square doughnut selections in a sparkly sheen.
My favorite of the bunch (they were $20 for a box of all four) was the coffee hazelnut (top left), though brown butter (bottom right) was a close second. The doughnuts went surprisingly well with Dangerous Man's collaboration with nearby Nixta — a Mexican corn lager. And after trying and kind of liking chili cheese dip beer last week, a doughnuts-and-beer combination doesn't sound so outlandish. (S.J.)
Dahlia's next pop-up is Jan. 29 at Barrel Theory, 248 E. 7th St., St. Paul, with both sweet and savory selections and beer pairing recommendations. On Feb. 11, they'll be at Falling Knife Brewing Co., 783 NE. Harding St., Mpls. Stay tuned for more at eatatdahlia.com.
Look for fresh ideas, familiar faces on the Twin Cities restaurant scene in 2023 — Star Tribune
Ones to Watch
Sometimes we come across new makers and are so excited about their stories and ideas that we want a front-row seat to whatever comes next.
Dahlia: A daytime cafe from three former Travail staffers will inject a full-service, fine-dining flair into breakfast and lunch. Alex Althoff, Sarah Julson and Nat Moser plan to open Dahlia in 2023 or 2024, possibly in northeast Minneapolis — but have already been selling out their dessert-centric pop-ups.
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A Look Ahead at the Twin Cities’ Most Anticipated Restaurant Openings of 2023 — Eater
Em Cassel, editor and co-owner of Racket
Oh man, I have to name a few. I can’t wait to see what ex-Travailians Alex Althoff, Sarah Julson, and Nat Moser do with Dahlia. I’m so excited that an Animales brick-and-mortar is in the works (need those ribs in the winter!). A last-minute addition to this list — good thing I turned in my responses to your survey late!!! — is the forthcoming Ann Ahmed restaurant in the old 4 Bells space. (Mpls.St.Paul Magazine had the scoop just this week.)
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Restaurant news: 3 Travail alumni will open Minneapolis daytime cafe — Star Tribune
Three former Travail staffers are bringing their fine-dining pedigree to breakfast and lunch.
Sarah Julson, Nat Moser and Alex Althoff left the Robbinsdale restaurant group this summer. Althoff was executive pastry chef, and Moser, Althoff's husband, was head chef at Nouvelle Brewing (and Pig Ate My Pizza before that). Julson served as creative director.
After riding out the pandemic, they each felt there was another path on the horizon.
"During that time, we all got to step up in our own ways and we all came into our own, and it just came time that we need new experiences and see what else the world can bring us," Julson said.
After traveling to other cities and noticing a trend in restaurants that hadn't made its way to Minnesota yet, they had an idea.
Dahlia, a full-service restaurant, will apply the team's hospitality chops to daytime dining.
"Alex and Nat both love brunch, and there's not a huge existence of that in the Twin Cities right now," Julson said. "We feel like the level of hospitality that's given for dinner service isn't always applied to lunch and breakfast service. We're excited to come have a coffee, or a drink, and just enjoy the daylight."
Expect a pastry program that highlights Althoff's baking ingenuity; she's the inventor of Nouvelle Brewing's pizza croissant, among many of Travail's other hit desserts during her four-year tenure there. There will also be a full menu, bar program and coffee program. Just no dinner.
"Everyone else has that kind of under control," Julson said.
The team is "taking it slow," and will roll out catering, baking orders (beginning with Thanksgiving pie pickups) and pop-ups in physical restaurant spaces before an eventual 2023 or 2024 opening, possibly in northeast Minneapolis, where all three of them live.
Those events will be announced on social media, @eatatdahlia, and via a newsletter. Sign up at eatatdahlia.com for updates.
The name Dahlia comes from Althoff's favorite flower. "The symbolism of dahlias is hardiness, and dignity and creativity," Julson said. "All the things we are trying to encompass and what we want this business to be."
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Ex-Travail Trio Want You to Enjoy a Leisurely Lunch at Dahlia — Racket
Maybe it’s the pandemic, or maybe it’s the natural end result of the fast-casual boom, but it just seems like there are fewer and fewer places where you can get a nice lunch in this town.
That’s been particularly frustrating to Alex Althoff, Sarah Julson, and Nat Moser. The three longtime Travailians—chef Moser and creative director Julson worked on assorted Travail Kitchen & Amusements projects for about eight years apiece, executive pastry chef Althoff for four—just don’t see the same hospitality you get at dinner service applied to daytime meals.
“We feel like there’s something missing here in the Twin Cities,” Althoff says. “I can’t find anywhere to go to brunch. I’m like, ‘I’ll just cook an egg sandwich at home. Drink a beer.'”
Althoff and Moser are married, and their favorite meals are shared when they have a day off together: waking up, getting ready, doing chores, and then going out to eat lunch together. So soon, along with Julson, they’ll take matters into their own hands with Dahlia.
“It’s going to be very daytime-oriented, so breakfast and lunch, heavy pastry program,” Julson says. “We love savory foods and rich foods, so that’s kind of where our menu is headed.” You can for sure expect the lovely, hand-rolled, sourdough croissants Althoff spent two and a half years perfecting during her time at St. Genevieve, pictured above.
“I think breakfast and lunch especially are thought to be really light meals… and not that heavy’s the right word, but we want it to be much more bold,” Julson says. You can get a sense for what’s to come from their branding, which makes a bright and splashy statement—”less of that soft patisserie tradition.”
Dahlia will be a space where people can stick around as long as they want, like a coffee shop that’s also a full-service restaurant. “Not like traditional restaurants, where you’re turning the tables fast and getting as many people in as possible just to pay the bills,” Moser says. To sustain that laid-back energy, Dahlia will also offer catering and wholesale pastries.
And for now, that’s where they’re starting: with a series of pop-ups and catering as they make plans for their future restaurant.
As for the name Dahlia? “Dahlias are the best flowers on the entire planet,” Althoff says. She has a dahlia tattoo, and her garden dahlias are a point of pride (and frequent subject on her personal Instagram). They’re beautiful and hardy, and symbolize commitment and kindness—their steadfastness captures perfectly what the Dahlia trio want for their restaurant.
Speaking of Instagram, that’s the best way to follow along with their journey for now. It’s where they’ll be announcing more info about their first pop-ups and do more giveaways, like the cake contest they’re running now. It’s also where you’ll find early info about their forthcoming Thanksgiving drop—without giving too much away, it might have a little something in common with the popular family meals they’ve prepared at Travail these last few years.
Rather than trying to do too much too soon, Althoff, Moser, and Julson want to approach Dahlia in a way that feels scalable and sustainable, really emphasizing work-life balance in a way that the industry… just hasn’t, for all the talk there was about it during the pandemic.
“We want to leave a footprint on the industry altogether as far as the way we run the business,” Moser says. “That’s the biggest reason why we want to start small.” Sure, they could take out a big loan right off the bat to start building their dream restaurant, but “we want to start slow, and, if it makes sense, keep going.”
If all goes well—and with these three industry vets at the helm, we imagine it will—the future Dahlia restaurant won’t be far off, bringing the Twin Cities a place to “celebrate the opportunity of the day, eat lots of good food, have a drink or two, a cup of coffee, and then continue about your day,” Althoff says.
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