“Did you know that the corner of 26th and Lyndale Avenue South is the longtime home of three of the Twin Cities’ highly notable women-owned restaurants?” I asked Carrie McCabe-Johnston, the chef and owner of the most prominent of the group, Nightingale. It’s a farm-first, warm, and detail-focused spot open since 2012, and one of my absolute favorites, but sometimes it flies under the radar, in the way of old reliables.
“Oh. I guess I didn’t know that,” said McCabe-Johnston. “Is that important?”
Maybe! The other two restaurants are organic and local pioneer French Meadow, founded in 1985 by Lynn Gordon and recently purchased by Marlene Leiva, and brand-new Dreamstate, by Kirstin Wiegmann and Jeff Therkelsen—it’s their second vegan spot, joining Powderhorn’s Reverie, which they opened in 2019. McCabe-Johnston noted that Lucky Cat, the record store next door to Nightingale, is also woman-owned, by Michele Swanson. Then I added that Once Upon a Crime, the historic mystery bookstore steps down 26th, is family-owned and run by a woman, Devin Abraham, and Aldi, the other anchor of the corner, has a woman CEO, Atty McGrath…