Alma's New Cafe and Hotel Are Simply Stunning

It's not enough that Alex Robert's is championing a change in food, with locally sourcing both his fine dining Restaurant Alma and fast-casual Brasa eateries. He's now changing the way we can stay in Minneapolis. Above his restaurant and beside it were long offices and a coffee shop, respectively. Now, after much city wrangling and a lot of construction, both the cafe and the boutique hotel above it are open for service. We expected it to be tasteful, but the Nordic beauty of both is incredible.

Katie Cannon

Walking into Alma Cafe

The cafe opened for business last Friday with an impressive array of pastries, coffee and a full bar. Nick Kosevich and Ira Koplowitz of Bittercube bitters helped design the long, curved bar as well as write the cocktail menu and trained the staff.

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The bar is fully stocked.

Cocktails are imaginative and fun to explore. There's even one served in a speciall sourced gord, that's topped with a squash foam. It's squash-tastic.

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An interesting apparatus.

In addition to the cocktails, there is also the fine wine and beer selection Alma has built a reputation upon as well as some serious coffee selections.

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Carb heaven.

The expanded kitchen room behind the scenes means that pastry chef Carrie Riggs and her team have the freedom to creatively bake and fine tune classic pastries. From baguettes to croissants to crumbly scones, the freshly made selections are finally available on a daily basis.

Katie Cannon

Seats and creative storage space in the cafe.

Meanwhile, the sit-down aspect of the cafe is open all day and will complement the dinner service at the restaurant once it is open for service again. (It's still being remodeled.)

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Table for two.

Not only are there plenty of regular seats, there is also a private dining space available for special dinners and events at the back of the cafe.

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Keys to the hotel.

Upstairs, guest of the seven hotel rooms will be able to order from the cafe all day as well as enjoy a continential breakfast and coffee from downstairs.

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One of just seven hotel rooms above the new cafe.

The rooms, which were once just office space have been carefully fitted with sound-muting touches, finely finished floors and a lot of clean, white space.

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A sweet suite.

The rooms range from $205 to $275 a night, depending on the space.

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Restful room.

The rooms are uniform in their new North/Nordic style, but each has a variation, a little pop of color here, a warm touch of something there to give them unique style.

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Lounging space in one of the rooms.

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Different headboard cloth adorns each bed.

All of the rooms are now available online for booking.

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White and gold bathrooms.

Each room is outfitted with vintage-inspired tile and gold accented bathrooms.

The light pours into almost every space.

A specific scent.

For the hotel, a special scent was created that is uniquely woodsy and floral. It's both masculine and feminine at the same time and weaves its way through the bath and body products in each room.

Katie Cannon