Gavin Kaysen is having a busy fall. The chef behind Minneapolis-based Soigné Hospitality Group, which includes concepts like Spoon and Stable and Demi, has opened three new restaurants over a three-week stretch.
The first was Bellecour, a casual, French-style bakery and cafe in Edina, a suburb just outside of Minneapolis. It opened November 18, serving breakfast, lunch, and drinks, from traditional coffees to beer and wine.
Beginning at 7 a.m., the menu features a variety of pastries and dishes like quiche, French toast, omelets, and a breakfast sandwich. Lunch options include French onion soup, salad Lyonnaise, and a classic jambon beurre.
A second Bellecour location opened on December 6 in the North Loop neighborhood of Minneapolis, adding bistro-style dinners to the bakery and cafe elements.
Bellecour North Loop transforms into a full-service restaurant at 5 p.m., offering wine and cocktails alongside a menu that draws inspiration from the classic brasseries and cafes that Kaysen has visited in France.
Bellecour in Edina is a French-style bakery and café open for breakfast and lunch. | Sarah Corder
“This is the food I’ve loved cooking and eating for decades,” Kaysen said.
Select starters include a seafood tower loaded with oysters, shrimp, mussels, and tuna crudo, Burgundy escargot with garlic herb butter and puff pastry, and fried duck wings confit with sauce à l’orange.
Larger dishes include cod with lentils and vadouvan curry, steak frites, and a burger topped with raclette and sauce périgordine, a traditional French sauce made with black truffles and Madeira.
“With two locations, we’re really focused on making sure each one serves the needs of its own community,” explained Kaysen. “In Edina, mornings and daytime are especially strong. People want great coffee, excellent pastries, and a lunch spot to settle into, so those hours make sense there. We’ve heard from people in Edina that they need a daytime place for meetings and a family-friendly place to hang out.”
The North Loop location has similar daytime energy. But the neighborhood — which is also home to Spoon and Stable and Demi — can accommodate more fun places to go out in the evening, hence the expanded hours and menu.
“I’ve wanted to open a concept, specifically a French bistro, that moves from day into night for a long time, and the North Loop is the neighborhood that felt like the right fit for it,” said Kaysen. “It’s where we built our roots.”
The Merchant Room serves dry-aged steaks, handmade pastas, and seafood. | Aura Groupe
Right after the Bellecour openings, Kaysen opened another restaurant across the country. The Merchant Room debuted on December 8 at the new Naples Beach Club, A Four Seasons Resort, in Naples, Florida.
This is his second project with Four Seasons following the 2022 opening of Mara, a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant at Four Seasons Minneapolis.
The Merchant Room is a New American brasserie located off the hotel lobby. The design was inspired by Naples’ flora and fauna, and includes a hand-painted mural with scenes of flamingos in a misty mangrove. The dining room features wrought iron and wood tables with cognac leather seats, and the scalloped oak bar has vintage-inspired bamboo and rattan seats with natural linen upholstery. Wicker birdcage chandeliers are suspended from the ceiling, and Gulf views are easily accessed via a wall of windows or by stepping onto the al fresco terrace.
The restaurant opens for breakfast and then moves to an all-day menu, with options like salads, a burger, and prawns a la plancha. Dinner features Gulf seafood, steaks that are dry-aged in house — including a 45-day rib eye and porterhouse — and handmade pastas like cacio e pepe bucatini and rigatoni with pork ragu and broccolini.
“It has been a goal and dream of mine the past couple of years to expand our footprint beyond the state of Minnesota, and for this first extension, what better place than Naples, where a lot of Minnesotans regularly vacation,” said Kaysen.
“It’s important to me that we’re creating food that tells a story in a place that feels soulful and welcoming,” he added. “And at the same time, we have to make strategic decisions that allow these restaurants and the people in them to thrive. Our partnership with Four Seasons is a great example of the right opportunities coming together with intention.”
Looking ahead, Kaysen said that he’s “excited to continue to expand our footprint and bring the community and hospitality that encapsulates Soigné to many more places, but it’s about that intentionality for me. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next.”
Kaysen’s Soigné Hospitality Group also runs Spoon and Stable, Demi, and Mara, all in Minneapolis. | Sarah Corder
Before any of this was possible, he needed to have the right team in place for such an ambitious opening schedule.
A couple key players are Alexandra Motz, who was one of the first team members to join Soigné Hospitality Group and is now director of pastry for Spoon and Stable, Demi, and Bellecour. Zachary Byers is the new head sommelier for the entire group. He comes from Denver, where he spent nearly a decade at restaurants including two-Michelin star The Wolf’s Tailor and one-Michelin star Beckon.
“In a lot of ways, the logistics don’t change whether you’re opening one restaurant or five — what makes it possible is having the right team,” Kaysen said. “The hardest jump is actually going from one to two restaurants, when you don’t yet have an executive team or real resources. Trust in my team, underscored by constant communication, makes it possible for me to remain extremely hands on in everything I do, regardless of location. We’ve built this incredibly strong team that has gone through multiple openings together, and that trust is what gives us the ability to take on this task of opening three restaurants at once.”
Kaysen acknowledges that opening three restaurants back-to-back is very intense, and there’s basically no time off, but the upside is that he gets the concepts out into the world faster.
“If you spread openings out, you end up doing the same work repeatedly for 15 months,” he said. “When they happen close together, you stay in the mindset, you’re working from the same checklists, and when something comes up you can address it across all the projects at once. You get to learn and apply things across each project as you go, which is a unique opportunity and lesson. We felt confident doing it this way because we knew the team was in place to support it.”
