It's official: Birchwood Cafe will not reopen — unless someone buys the name, recipes and building, which are for sale in a package deal for $2 million.
Minneapolis' groundbreaking Birchwood Cafe is for sale, recipes and all
The restaurant has been closed since 2021.
June 14, 2023 at 5:56PM
Tracy Singleton's groundbreaking Seward restaurant, which tapped into seasonal and locally produced ingredients before it was a trend, closed in summer 2021 after what Singleton called a "labor dispute" in a Star Tribune story.
The conflict that led to the Birchwood's closure unfolded after a disagreement about block party permits. Three-quarters of the staff was laid off.
"It's kind of like a prairie fire. When a farmer wants to regenerate the soil, you burn everything down ... then you can plant seeds and the seeds will flourish because the soil is so fertile," Singleton said at the time. "That's what I want to do with Birchwood."
But the storied farm-to-table restaurant, beloved for its savory waffle, never revived.
When it opened in 1995, it immediately became a leader in the movement toward using more local, sustainable and organic ingredients.
Singleton had been a career server in restaurants, and worked at the legendary Lucia's Restaurantin the late 1980s, an experience she described as "transformational." When she received a small inheritance, she used it to start her own business inspired by Lucia's ethos of cooking scratch-made food using fresh ingredients from local farmers.
With business partner and baker/chef Susan Muskat,Singleton purchased a commercial building, the Birchwood dairy, in a then-quiet corner of Minneapolis. The duo rehabbed the space, opening a coffeehouse for breakfast and lunch. But demand was so high, they wound up keeping it open for dinner, too. (Singleton bought out Muskat in 2003. Steve Davidson came on as a partner in 2013.)
Chef Marshall Paulsen joined the Birchwood in 2007 and ushered in a new era for the restaurant's ambitious kitchen.
The Birchwood's recipes for "Good Real Food" are part of the sale, as are fixtures, equipment and the brand name, according to Racket, which first posted the listing.
The 4,144 square foot building is located at 3311 E. 25th St.
Singleton was not immediately available for comment.
"This place has been a source for food, and for community, and for goodwill, long before I was born," she told the Star Tribune on the occasion of the Birchwood's 20th anniversary, in 2015. "The cafe makes up only 22 percent of the life of the Birchwood name. I often wonder if the Birchwood sits atop some especially fertile ground, or a magic well that unicorns drink from, given how blessed we've been in our 20 years here."
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