Every Tuesday here on Drivetime with DeRusha, we do to DeRusha Eats, interviews with local chefs or restaurateurs or food producers to try to bring you interesting people doing cool stuff in the Twin Cities and across Minnesota.
This week, there are two people doing something a little different, a dinner and a show with no ticket, no cover needed at the Dakota. Lowell Pickett and Chef Remy Pettis joined Jason DeRusha to explain what is happening at the Dakota in downtown Minneapolis, the longtime local music venue and restaurant that is once again packed and bringing people downtown following a shutdown during the pandemic.
You can find all of DeRusha Eats segments here.
Jason DeRusha: Remy, you're back in the kitchen and Lowell, you're running the show in the front of the house?
Lowell Pickett: Well, we've got a whole group of people are running everything. I just try to stay out of the way, but every time I go back in the kitchen, it's always a pleasure to see Remy standing there organizing things and overseeing things and I love eating that food.
DeRusha: The Dakota, Lowell, has been around for 35, years now?
Pickett: 37, in fact, in October, I think it'll be our 37th anniversary.
DeRusha: And how long have you been on Nicollet Mall in downtown?
Pickett: In Minneapolis since October of 2003. So I guess that's 19 years.
DeRusha: I moved here in April of 2003 so I remember what a big deal it was when you guys moved right down across from us, over at the TV station into that Target headquarters building. Has it been a good move?
Pickett: Oh, it's been a great move, a great move. I mean, one of the first nights we were there, because we were in Bandana Square in St. Paul for a long time, one of the first nights we were there, we were just packed and I was walking around talking with people by finding out how they heard about us. And, one table I said to him, ‘how did you hear about us?’ Said, ‘oh, we're just walking by.’ And that was such a foreign concept to me because for 18 years in Bandana Square, nobody ever just walked by. To be that close to hotels and that close to the center of vitality in the city, it was a great thing. It is still is a great thing. We love it there.
DeRusha: Remy, you've been the chef at the Dakota Jazz Club since July of 2021. And you had owned your own place Bardo, which was a terrific restaurant right near downtown. What's it like working in a music venue where I presume the vast majority of people are coming to see the show?
Remy Pettis: Yes, definitely. It's a great change. It's different than what I've ever done before and being around the music every night, and being around all the musicians, it just is a different vibe than anything I've ever done before, so it feels new, it feels fresh. But I'm still getting to do the same things that I've always done.
DeRusha: And you've always had a real love and real relationship with musicians and music?
Pettis: Definitely. And at the end of my restaurant Bardo, the last phase was actually transforming into a bit of a music venue and we kind of jokingly talked amongst ourselves as being a minnie-Dakota. So when I got the call from Lowell last summer, it was just, it just made total sense.
DeRusha: Lowell, for you when you were trying to reopen and think about the kind of food and the kind of chef, Remy came to mind right away? Reopened, we say, because you were shut down during the start of the pandemic, right?
Pickett: We were closed for a year and a half which is a long time to be closed. We originally closed on March 14 or something, 2020, and it was right before St. Patrick's Day. We closed for two weeks, we told everybody we're off for two weeks. We paid everybody through those two weeks. Then, you know, things stretched on, it went a little longer than two weeks. We spent the whole summer getting ready to reopen and trying to decide what we wanted to do and how we wanted to approach it. And Remy was a natural. Just love Remy's food.
If you look at the history of the Dakota, when we first opened, it was a restaurant with music in the bar and over time it sort of evolved into something else where the music became more and more prominent. And it was never designed to do that, it was just sort of, what can we do next? What's going to be exciting? Well, let's have some more music. But food was always a central part of what the Dakota.
When it opened, Ken, Goff was one of the founders, one of the creators of regional cuisine. We were written up in the New York Times for food talking about Midwestern regional cuisine. Ken was with us for quite a few years. When Ken left, Jack Riebel, who was one of the great chefs that the state has ever seen.
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DeRusha: And before Jack passed last year, he and I would talk quite a bit about his time at the Dakota. Because for a chef, there's nothing you like better than having people love your food. When you make people happy, that's what it's all about. But there is something special. Remy when you are serving your food to musicians who, let's be real, most of the food that musicians have on the road is garbage. You don't get a world class chef making the pre-show meal?
Pettis: Right. And having them appreciate it is extremely valuable. And they talk about it on stage sometimes. It’s one of the most rewarding things in this business that I have experienced myself.
DeRusha: Is there a kinship of both parties to this, the chef and the musician being artists?
Pettis: Sometimes, it depends on, you know, everybody's different. But yeah, there's definitely some bonds that have formed just by meeting people and people coming back into the kitchen and saying how much they appreciated stuff. We have a lot of musicians from Louisiana and we have some Cajun dishes on our menu and they come back and tell me how authentic it tastes and how this isn't Minnesota food. It's rewarding. It's fun.
Pickett: One group was interviewed by a publication one time and then he was talking about the Dakota. He said, ‘you want to go to Minnesota to the Dakota in February’ and he said, ‘Minnesota in the winter? Absolutely not.’ Then there's a pause and he said, ‘but then I remembered the food.
Hugh Masekela, the great South African trumpet player, told me one time, he called me over and he was very stern. He said, ‘you can't feed musicians this food.’ And I was terrified because I was so intimidated by him and by his presence and so excited that he was at the Dakota. And I said, ‘well what's wrong Mr. Masekela?’ And he said, ‘tomorrow night we are going to a university in Wisconsin and they're going to feed us white bread sandwiches. It’s not fair to feed food that is this good to musicians
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DeRusha: People have come downtown perhaps more than we saw over the last year. We saw and continue to see people coming downtown for Twins games, for concerts. What have you found? Have people been returning to downtown?
Pickett: Yes. It's been a gradual progression because at first people weren't sure if we were there, if we were open. As people have discovered that were there, and as more businesses in our neighborhood have opened up. The Local is open now kitty corner from us. Barrio is open. There's a new restaurant right next to Barrio, Orchestra Hall is in full swing and we've done a few things to make it easier for people. We’re offering valet parking now, which we didn't used to do.
DeRusha: That's a big issue that always has been for many people about downtown, and parking can be a little intimidating for people who aren't used to coming downtown.
Pickett: Well, we have choices. There's a ramp right across the street now that one can park in the ramp, go up the elevator and come right across the skyway into basically the entryway of the Dakota. Or they can use our valet parking. Over the last month we've had a number of shows that have just been packed. Bacon Brothers, Steve Earle, or Kamasi Washington. An incredible guitar player Thursday night, Julian Lage. On a Thursday night we have two shows, one at 6:30 and one at 8:30. The first show is nearly sold out. The second show is very heavily sold. So we're seeing increasing crowds and we're seeing an increasing number of people coming earlier so that they can have dinner. And I credit Remy with that because I love eating his food and more and more people are coming early and having dinner first and enjoying the show.
Pettis: Now we're doing Monday nights where you can come without buying a ticket. There's music, but it's more background music and it's a more of a lit dining room where it's more of a traditional restaurant type of service Mondays. The first one was yesterday and it was wildly successful, exactly what we were hoping it would be. There was a lot of people that said, you know, I always wanted to come here, but I don't want to spend a bunch of money on a ticket and then a bunch of money on dinner. So they can just come in and they can have a dinner and have a nice Monday night. We had a great turnout and the staff was energized and the guests were excited and it was just a great feeling.
DeRusha: And so you can make reservations Monday nights? Is it all at the same time or how does it work?
Pettis: We’re treating it as the same way as if you were buying a $0 ticket, so you buy a ticket and then you can come whenever you want. We have your table. We open at 5:30 and the last seating is at nine o'clock.
Pickett: Jason there's something else that kind of really struck us as we thought about what we've all gone through over the last couple of years and people missed certain things in their lives. We all did. The opportunity to hear live music, the opportunity to go to a restaurant and sit down and enjoy great food with a group of people. Hearing live music and dining are two of those universal experiences that everybody in the world appreciates and in a sense, you know, it's struck us how important they both are to our lives. And at the Dakota we blended them into one environment. You can sit and hear world class music either played by great musicians that live here in the Twin Cities or touring musicians that are coming through of any genre. We don't place one above the other. We think that you should be able to have the best food possible and listen to the best music possible all in one environment. And to have those two things that are extraordinary, that are such communal, universal experiences, it means more to us after having gone through that year and a half.
The Dakota is located in downtown Minneapolis at the corner of Nicollet and 10th Streets in the Target Headquarters Plaza. You can see upcoming shows and buy tickets here.
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