Editor Renée Stewart-Hester visited Elosie for a restaurant preview in October. Photos: Renée Stewart-Hester
The team behind The Grocer’s Table is opening a new concept in a familiar spot.
“What was going on between those four walls felt really special and unique. I knew I could never really replicate that,” Lindsay Pohlad says about The Grocer’s Table. The restaurateur didn’t want to stretch herself between two places at once, “… But when the opportunity came to take the space next door, I thought, ‘OK, I can be in two places at once because it’s under the same roof,’” she says.
The Grocer’s Table—a New England-style food market, café and wine & cocktail bar—has had a warm welcome from the community since it opened in June 2020. “I would say it’s definitely become and continues to be a gathering place for people, whether it’s colleagues meeting up for coffee or families coming in for lunch or just meeting a friend for a cocktail or a glass of wine,” Pohlad says. “We have regulars that visit us on a daily basis, and it’s just continued to be, I think, a nice energetic hub for the town.”
Now, Pohlad wants to try her hand at a different concept. “… something that’s more evening-centric that focuses on that old-school hospitality of full service, [has] a really great cocktail [and] wine program, as well as an elevated food program,” she says.
Pohlad says she always jokes that her work in the hospitality industry is her fourth child in addition to her three boys. “When contemplating a fourth [child], we always had a hopeful girl name picked out,” she says. “That name was Eloise, after my husband’s grandmother. Hence, the name of this restaurant is my metaphorical fourth child, Eloise.”
The name isn’t the only way grandma Eloise Pohlad is represented in the new restaurant. “There’s a lot of throwbacks in this space,” Pohlad says. “Eloise’s era, her time was really in that post-World War II … almost that Casablanca era. There’s a lot that we’ve put into the space to make it feel as though there’s some history to it.”
Eloise will have a collected aesthetic with mismatched chairs, navy undertones and patterns on patterns. “Whereas people often say they’re sitting in their friend’s kitchen at The Grocer’s Table, I wanted [Eloise] to feel a little bit more like you’re in your friend’s dining room,” Pohlad says. “It’s a little bit moodier in feel, a little bit darker … I wanted the space to feel chic, yet comfortable.”
The menu will also pay homage to Eloise. “There will be some nods to what Eloise used to order and love to cook when she was in her heyday,” Pohlad says. Diners can still expect the same from-scratch, seasonal ethos of The Grocer’s Table, but Pohlad says the dishes—composed by The Grocer’s Table’s head chef Craig Johnson—will have bolder flavors and global influences.
And what is Pohlad looking forward to with Eloise?
“I would just say welcoming the community into a totally different space is going to be really fun. The people who have come and supported The Grocer’s Table for the last four years, it’s going to be really rewarding to see them come into a whole new space and to be able to enjoy it in a different way.”
Eloise is set to open early fall 2024. Follow it on social media to stay up-to-date.
Facebook: Eloise
Instagram: @eloise.wayzata
