The Co-op Creamery Neighborhood Café is now open! Introducing chef Lucas Almendinger, who we are proud to have creating, cooking, and concocting at Seward Co-op’s new café.

“Getting Lucas was a major accomplishment,” said Chad Snelson, the Co-op Creamery’s Production Manager. “He brings a whole new style with him.”

Though his culinary career began in South Dakota at the family diner, Almendinger has been deeply involved with some of the best Minneapolis restaurants, including, most recently, Kim Bartmann’s Third Bird on Loring Park. Before that, Almendinger was on the line at HauteDish and Tilia, helped open Union restaurant, cooked at Sea Change for a year, and headed up the redesigned Union Fish Market.

It was the opportunity to do something completely new that drew him to the Co-op Creamery.

“It’s going to be great because we have the opportunity to take high-quality, sustainable ingredients, but present them in ways that no one expects,” Almendinger said while testing recipes in the new kitchen at the Creamery Café.

He says the goal is to utilize the great ingredients that Seward shoppers want with new, wonderful tastes that haven’t been tried before.

“Those two things aren’t mutually exclusive,” Almendinger said. “Why should they be?”

Visit the Creamery Cafe’s website for the complete menu, including the fried chicken and kimchi rice bowl pictured below. Creamery staff is working on sourcing as many local, P6 ingredients as possible, balancing affordability with sustainability.