By Stephen Rowe, co-owner of Dario

Dario opened in late January of this year, and for a restaurant, that is traditionally the slowest time of the year. Folks are less willing to get out of the house and there is usually a post-holiday malaise that falls over Minnesotans. Add this to being located in an area with bad optics since the pandemic, and we could have potentially had a problem. However, co-owner Joe Rolle and I loved the North Loop and instinctively knew it was the right neighborhood for our first restaurant.

Our experience being downtown has been great so far. This year, perhaps because of the weather, we didn’t experience a winter lull. From opening, we have had a steady flow of guests in and that has only ramped up as the spring turns to summer. Our location, which seemed like a challenge when we first approached our landlord in 2022, has proved to be a great place to be located. I think it is easy to forget that just a few seasons ago, the streets of downtown, specifically the North Loop, were not as full as they are right now. The general public’s perception of downtown was bleak, and a lot of that came from the streets being empty and the constant headlines about various property crimes. Meanwhile, the businesses that figured out how to survive the pandemic were rebuilding and new operators, like us, were planning how we would do business in this new environment. We firmly believed that tenants in the office buildings would return, and people would start coming back downtown. It was just a matter of when.

Flash forward to today, we have Twins home games and playoff basketball acting as a reintroduction to the city for many folks, new restaurants like ours and Porzana, music venues like Berlin, and the spectacular summer festivals that draw people to come and visit. It gives the public a sense of transition out of the pandemic years, a reason to feel relieved and to seek out opportunities for leisure in the neighborhood.

Our restaurant, Dario, which is tucked off Washington Avenue North and Third Avenue, is right behind the Twins stadium and the new North Loop Green development.  This project, which promises to bring events downtown, was built with the intention of standing out and creating an impression. With Dario, our thought process with the design of the restaurant was that if we are going to be off the beaten path, we must be different. Being different helps us because for many this feels like a fresh start for the area, and we can be an illustration of that impression. To see the resurgence of people in the area so soon is a relief, and I can say that we are happy we chose this location in downtown Minneapolis, and even happier to be situated here in the North Loop.