Photo by Cailtlin Abrams
man with a picnic table full of food and drink
It’s an early fall morning, and Tim Niver sits with me in his Lowertown St. Paul restaurant, Saint Dinette. The restaurant is closed, and Niver’s not there to mix drinks or make a cheffy cheeseburger. In fact, the accomplished restaurateur is there to make something like he’s never made before: a podcast.
Yep, Tim Niver, one of the Twin Cities’ most storied hospitalitarians, is sitting at a dining table, microphones splayed atop it, ready to interview me, a food journalist. Welcome to Niver Niver Land.
The J. M. Barrie–inspired name of his podcast is apropos of a man who has spent his entire career facilitating whimsical culinary escapes. He was general manager of Marcus Samuelsson’s Aquavit. His first solo restaurant, Town Talk Diner, birthed a generation of cocktail makers and cooks. And these days, Niver’s Peter Pan is transporting diners to the wondrous worlds of Mucci’s and Saint Dinette.
As prolific a restaurant guy as Niver is, he might be an even more prolific Twitter provocateur. And it’s that penchant for pulling no punches that has him talking to me and, for subsequent episodes, a cast of other local food personalities, ranging from Justin Sutherland to Jason DeRusha, for your entertainment pleasure. He’s doing it with the help of food podcast vet Matt Gundrum, whose podcast Food Under Fire is what got Niver interested in the medium in the first place.
“When Matt ended his podcast, which I enjoyed being on, we both thought that maybe we could do something cool together,” says Niver.
Niver Niver Land aspires to get into some of the massive challenges and stark realities facing the restaurant industry. Niver is a serious guy, but he doesn’t take things too seriously, and the topics for each episode will be loaded with stories and tangents, which should make it all the more entertaining.
His first episode, the one I’m in, is about feedback—something people like Tim Niver get a lot of. We talked about everything from guests giving feedback and how restaurants handle that to what kind of feedback you get from a James Beard Award—in our opinions. Hey, in the whimsical world of Niver Niver Land, the restaurant owner gets to give the diner his feedback for a change.
