As the Twin Cities’ premier jazz venue turns 40, we look at the people and plans for the next 40.
Photo by Caitlin Abrams
Lowell Pickett first opened the Dakota’s doors in 1985, and in the 40 years since, he’s been on the phone day and night, booking its intimate stage with globally important artists, from Prince to Aimee Mann to Arlo Guthrie to Lucinda Williams to Nachito Herrera.
But what’s the plan for the next 40 years?
“The Dakota has never been about me,” says Pickett, explaining that it’s the four dozen sound engineers, bartenders, ticket sellers, servers, line cooks, and everyone else who make our star of Nicollet Mall exert a special gravity upon the rest of the world’s stars. “It’s a team. The Dakota is and always will be a group effort of our employees.”
Employees like chef Asher Zulkosky, who’s leading the locavore kitchen once helmed by luminaries such as Ken Goff and Jack Riebel. For his part, Zulkosky is putting his mark on the restaurant by paring down the always-available options and debuting a chalkboard menu highlighting seasonal treats.
“Luckily, and sometimes unluckily, we have a literally captive audience,” explains Zulkosky. “Some audiences with some artists, they’re going to be really into new food and exploring the food scene in Minneapolis. And some nights, everyone in the room wants a burger and fries. The challenge is making everyone happy, but I honestly think we can.”
Look for Zulkosky’s new vegan vegetable entrées (he has a way with cauliflower) as well as seasonal extravagances like a domestic Wagyu steak with ramp butter, dried-ramp-leaf salt, and fiddlehead ferns.
To fill the stage, Pickett’s been training Benji Bloom. After starting in 2022 as Pickett’s assistant, Bloom has since displayed the music taste, audience understanding, and people-managing skills to become the club’s booking and programming manager. “The secret to my success is Lowell Pickett’s Rolodex,” laughs Bloom. “Lowell has more connections and relationships than anyone in the business. The Dakota’s reputation precedes me wherever I go.”
That said, Bloom has the instincts to make both artists and audiences happy. For instance, Bloom met MC Lyte’s agent at a conference and was offered Lyte paired only with a DJ. Bloom wanted Lyte to play the Dakota but first had to convince her agent that Lyte needed to do something more of the moment.
“We don’t want a track show,” Bloom recalls. “We need some sort of instrumentation. So, a drummer joined her, and she did an incredible live show.… It was sold out. It was a special night. She was happy. She played much longer than she expected, and the crowd was over the moon.” In the end, live instrumentation boosted the show from a taste of the past to a vital moment in the present, and Bloom and Pickett say that’s the key to the Dakota’s future and the standard that will be upheld.
(Bloom’s musical passions include hip-hop, and he’s part of the reason the club has recently presented GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan, Talib Kweli, and Musiq Soulchild.)
To support its employees and to ensure the future success of the Dakota, the club now has expanded ownership as well. In the early 2000s, right before the Dakota moved to downtown Minneapolis, Richard Erickson, of the Holiday stores family, became a partner in the business. Today, Erickson’s two sons are owners too: Lucas Erickson, the Minnesota-based founder of On Stage, a theater outreach program for students, and Tyler Erickson, the Brooklyn-based founder of the Bushwick reincarnation of The Turk’s Inn as well as giant roller rink Xanadu. (Yes, Minnesotans, you can claim beyond-hip Xanadu as the Dakota’s, and thus your own, distant cousin.) The future of the Dakota is being built for stability.
But also, the future is being built for a yearlong 40th-anniversary celebration. Chefs from the Dakota’s past, including Diane Moua (Diane’s Place) and Joe Rolle (Dario), will be in the mix. Big, big music names are currently working out details for visits (get on the Dakota email list; it’s where the news breaks first). An outdoor music festival is planned for right out front this September.
To mark its birthday, the Dakota is even going to auction off its famous Yamaha piano for the benefit of music-education charities. If you’re unfamiliar with the piano, about 125 artists who have played the Yamaha later rendered their signatures somewhere inside. Peek under the lid of the Yamaha, and the names you’ll find include Adele (from when she played a private event at the Dakota for Target), Diana Krall, and McCoy Tyner, a founding member of the John Coltrane Quartet.
“The Dakota has always been a boundary-pushing room, a spot that has launched and will launch important artists’ careers and a place that people just love to go to,” says Bloom in summation. “And it’s going to continue to be all of that for our future.”