Stone Soup
Photo: Art Sidner
New Ulm: Stone Soup
Of all the cities in the U.S., food industry veteran Jeff Dahms chose New Ulm to launch the prototype of his neighborhood café, Stone Soup, located at 512 1st North.
A Minnesota native, Dahms graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in New York in 1994, worked in top restaurants in New York City, Memphis, and Key West, and spent ten years with a large food service management company. His last corporate port of call was Indianapolis, where the itch to try out an idea and be his own boss became too strong.
He said in a Connect Business Magazine interview, “I’d been developing this concept a few years before starting in New Ulm this June. For it to succeed, I needed a small community with a lot of foot traffic, a vibrant downtown, and lots of local support for small businesses. What I do here wouldn’t translate to a strip mall. It’s more a neighborhood café. New Ulm just had that ‘vibe’.”
Dahms makes nearly all menu items from scratch. Stone Soup serves soups, salads, and sandwiches, including a popular Minnesota chicken and wild rice soup and a hot pulled pork barbeque sandwich on pretzel roll.
He said, “Most of our food is grab and go. We are an alternative to fast food yet still have quick service. I have tried recreating the intimate feel of a European café. What I like best is the one-on-one interaction. I think customers enjoy having an opportunity to talk to and see the chef in action rather than the guy behind the curtain.”
Working for a large corporation to owning a small business has been challenging. With the former, Dahms could rely on a large human resources department, for example, rather than having to do everything on his own.
His goal is to have Stone Soup cafes in other cities years from now, perhaps in downtown Mankato or downtown St. Peter, which also have some of the “hustle and bustle” he noticed while spying out New Ulm.
Stone Soup
Hours: M-F 10:30 am to 5:30 pm, Sat. 10:30 am to 2:00 pm
Address: 512 1st North
Web: cafesoup.com
