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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