Pop-up bakery Dahlia moving into MN Nice Cream shop in Minneapolis

It all started with an Instagram post: a “closed” sign on the door of MN Nice Cream, a soft-serve shop in northeast Minneapolis.

Owner Katie Romanski had just shifted the shop to evening-only hours for the fall, and got the idea to post a classified ad for the modern age. Would someone like to use the little shop during the day when she wasn’t?

The trio of owners behind Dahlia, a pop-up bakery with sold-out events across the metro, had the post forwarded to them at least 25 times.

“People sent it to us being like, ‘You should do this,’” said pastry chef Alexandra Althoff. “Some of our really near and dear trusted friends in the industry.”

“Even our accountant was like, ‘This could be perfect,’” said chef Nat Moser.

The Dahlia team connected with Romanski, and within three weeks announced a new partnership. After a final month of pop-ups in November, Dahlia will move into the MN Nice Cream space at 807 NE. Broadway St. by January, serving breakfast and lunch Thursday through Sunday. The menu will flip back over to MN Nice Cream in the afternoon.

“It happened really fast,” Althoff said. “It was just like this no-brainer for both of our brands.”

“It’s a big commitment, it’s a big risk, and it’s overwhelming,” Althoff said. “Then this popped up, and it makes a lot of sense right now in this kind of world and economy” to share some of the overhead required to run a shop of their own.

Romanski was surprised by the response to her post. She had gotten more than 50 messages within an hour.

“Clearly there is an appetite for collaboration and something unexpected,” she said. “It was a big wow moment and really confirmed that people are excited to see local businesses join forces.”

Ten years in at MN Nice Cream, Romanski was also excited to try something new.

“When Dahlia reached out, I knew instantly,” she said. “It’s big pastry energy meeting big ice cream energy and it just works.”

With only minimal seating, and a small patio in warmer months, the cafe will have a menu similar to what fans came to love from the pop-ups: flaky pastries and sandwiches easy to grab and go. But Moser plans to expand lunch with some soup and salads.

“We want to keep a very small, condensed menu that will change and rotate, but there’s only so many offerings we can have without having seats,” he said.

Even settling into a regular, daily menu, Althoff plans to continue weaving seasonal ingredients and other surprises into her pastries, which often changed from pop-up to pop-up. The BLT croissant, for example, will always be a September special. She’ll also continue to do custom cake orders.

“We are excited to have a home and get to have a little bit more ‘this is us’,” she said.

To support the move, Dahlia is launching a “Pastry Punch Card,” where fans can prepay for pastries as a form of crowdfunding.

“Doing a pop-up model is very, very, very stressful,” Moser said. “We’re tired of hauling stuff around. Just the amount of time that it takes.”

Althoff agreed. “We’re very excited to move to this next step and see how we expand and grow as a company — when we don’t have to carry everything around the city.”