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Food & Drink

Ex-Travail Trio Want You to Enjoy a Leisurely Lunch at Dahlia

Hospitality-driven, daytime-oriented, pastry-forward. We like the sound of that.

left: dahlia's colorful, bold, squiggly logo. right: a gorgeous, gooey, ham and cheese croissant, looking flaky and magical
Those lovely, hand-rolled, sourdough croissants? You better believe they're on the menu.
Dahlia

Maybe itโ€™s the pandemic, or maybe itโ€™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.

Thatโ€™s been particularly frustrating to Alex Althoff, Sarah Julson, and Nat Moser. The three longtime Travailiansโ€”chef Moser and creative director Julson worked on assorted Travail Kitchen & Amusements projects for about eight years apiece, executive pastry chef Althoff for fourโ€”just donโ€™t see the same hospitality you get at dinner service applied to daytime meals.

โ€œWe feel like thereโ€™s something missing here in the Twin Cities,โ€ Althoff says. โ€œI canโ€™t find anywhere to go to brunch. Iโ€™m like, โ€˜Iโ€™ll just cook an egg sandwich at home. Drink a beer.'โ€

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, theyโ€™ll take matters into their own hands with Dahlia.

โ€œItโ€™s going to be very daytime-oriented, so breakfast and lunch, heavy pastry program,โ€ Julson says. โ€œWe love savory foods and rich foods, so thatโ€™s kind of where our menu is headed.โ€ 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.

โ€œI think breakfast and lunch especially are thought to be really light mealsโ€ฆ and not that heavyโ€™s the right word, but we want it to be much more bold,โ€ Julson says. You can get a sense for whatโ€™s to come from their branding, which makes a bright and splashy statementโ€”โ€less of that soft patisserie tradition.โ€

Dahlia will be a space where people can stick around as long as they want, like a coffee shop thatโ€™s also a full-service restaurant. โ€œNot like traditional restaurants, where youโ€™re turning the tables fast and getting as many people in as possible just to pay the bills,โ€ Moser says. To sustain that laid-back energy, Dahlia will also offer catering and wholesale pastries.

And for now, thatโ€™s where theyโ€™re starting: with a series of pop-ups and catering as they make plans for their future restaurant.

As for the name Dahlia? โ€œDahlias are the best flowers on the entire planet,โ€ Althoff says. She has a dahlia tattoo, and her garden dahlias are a point of pride (and frequent subject on her personal Instagram). Theyโ€™re beautiful and hardy, and symbolize commitment and kindnessโ€”their steadfastness captures perfectly what the Dahlia trio want for their restaurant.

Speaking of Instagram, thatโ€™s the best way to follow along with their journey for now. Itโ€™s where theyโ€™ll be announcing more info about their first pop-ups and do more giveaways, like the cake contest theyโ€™re running now. Itโ€™s also where youโ€™ll find early info about their forthcoming Thanksgiving dropโ€”without giving too much away, it might have a little something in common with the popular family meals theyโ€™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 industryโ€ฆ just hasnโ€™t, for all the talk there was about it during the pandemic.

โ€œWe want to leave a footprint on the industry altogether as far as the way we run the business,โ€ Moser says. โ€œThatโ€™s the biggest reason why we want to start small.โ€ Sure, they could take out a big loan right off the bat to start building their dream restaurant, but โ€œwe want to start slow, and, if it makes sense, keep going.โ€

If all goes wellโ€”and with these three industry vets at the helm, we imagine it willโ€”the future Dahlia restaurant wonโ€™t be far off, bringing the Twin Cities a place to โ€œcelebrate 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,โ€ Althoff says.