Photo by Caitlin Abrams
A selection of pastries available from the Mother Dough Bakery counter in the Capella Tower lobby
A selection of pastries available from the Mother Dough Bakery counter in the Capella Tower lobby
For some 130 years, one person or another in chef David Fhima’s family has been nurturing a particular sourdough starter, known in bread circles as the “mother dough.” To keep it alive over three centuries, as it moved across continents, they kept it safe and fed it fresh flour. Why? Because the particular community of microbes found in this dough impart a flavor unique in the world, and without it, no one could make bread just like Mama’s.
Could anyone in 19th-century Morocco—the place where Fhima was born in 1961 to a Jewish Costa del Sol mother and Catholic Sicilian dad—ever have imagined that this mother dough would bubble into a starring role in two new downtown Minneapolis spots in 2022? Of course not, but truth is stranger than fiction.
Mother Dough Bakery has taken over the two Peace Coffee locations in Capella Tower, which were vacated during the pandemic. “My dad used to say, ‘In bad times you make good deals; in good times you make bad deals.’ So, we’re making good deals,” Fhima explains.
The ground-floor lobby—with its huge modernist gas fireplace for customers to gather around, long pillowed benches, and cozy tables—offers all-day snacks and good coffee, tea, wine, and beer. Think shaved prosciutto and butter on a baguette made with that revered starter, served beside a cold sauvignon blanc, or salade Niçoise with Dough pinot noir, from the Oregon winery that makes “dough-nations” to support restaurant workers. The java is from Folly Coffee Roasters, the high-quality two-person operation in St. Louis Park.
On the skyway level, the bigger second Mother Dough is slated to open this month—more a glamorous patisserie, such as you might find in Paris, says Fhima. It will sell pain au chocolat, cookies, coffee, challah on Fridays, and likely French food to go—think quarts of soup or beef bourguignon and bags of salad for those looking to bring home dinner with a loaf of Mother Dough bread.
“My sourdough takes seven days, the baguette three days from a poolish”—a very wet dough that develops complex flavors—says Fhima. “I am bringing downtown my best I’ve ever done to get downtown back to where it needs to be, if that is possible.”
Vision, hustle, flour, water, and a little something lively from Great-Great-Great-Grandma, which was valuable in a world before skyscrapers and is possibly even more valuable because it is so much rarer today.
Mother Dough Bakery, 225 S. 6th St., Mpls., 612-354-2025, fhimasmpls.com/mother-dough-bakery
