Photos by Eliesa Johnson
Jamie Malone serving wine
When she closed her beloved and softly elegant Grand Cafe last year, Jamie Malone was left with one thing: her particular skill set. That’s about it. So she took those skills and parlayed them into one of the most beautiful and successful meal kit operations seen in the Cities.
While she and her team became adept at creating that restaurant experience in a box—through luxurious additions of flowers and personal notes, witty graphics, playlists, and such—there was always this lingering hope that the pink-hued world of Grand would come back someday.
And while it won’t, its soul has, in a way. “I’m rethinking it all,” Malone says, “and I want to take what we learned from meal kits and create something that can have equity.” Instead of signing a restaurant lease, Malone has signed a building lease in the North Loop and launched three significant brands.
The Wkndr is the evolution of the meal kit. The box is built around a theme, maybe a trip through Los Angeles, and on Fridays, your delivery includes not only boxed food but also a printed magazine with gorgeous photography that tells the story of the food and the theme. “It’s a creative deep dive into something that feeds you, feeds your mind, your inspiration.” It’s not a screen; it’s paper. It’s not takeout; it’s a meal.
The Paris Dining Club is the next level up. It can be a meal kit in the form of a full dinner that you build and have dropped off at your house on a Friday, ready for your fabulous dinner party at some point in the weekend. You can opt in for the beef Wellington or her famous pike quenelles, which come with easy reheating instructions. But Malone wants you to have the full experience, as always, so she’ll also provide her signature gold-rimmed pink coupe glasses, the iconic goose-footed egg holder, and other bits of tableware to help make the meal special. Just pack it up afterward, and the team will come grab it.
All of this sprouts from her Petite Atelier, which is a creative space and dining studio. “It’s a workshop, and it gives us the chance to dig into stuff we want to do creatively in an environment we can control,” she says. “We can do different events and gatherings here in ways that we couldn’t really before. The goal is to play restaurant two nights a week, maybe, and then see where it takes us.”
For Malone, this isn’t just about a reset creatively; it’s about building a business that supports creativity. “The margin shift is incredible with this business model. Being able to control what we need for staff and dining space, knowing everything we need to prep ahead of time—that’s created a system we needed to survive. And I feel like we are connecting directly to the consumer in a new way.” petiteateliermpls.com
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Scallops
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Toasting at dinner
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Quail with carrots
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Beef Wellington
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Champagne glasses
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Jamie Malone
