The team behind NOLO's Kitchen & Bar is betting that downtown Waconia is ready for a Twin Cities-style dining room. The Hoffs, known for their North Loop spot, are planning Olive & Elm, a new restaurant slated for the ground-floor commercial space at the Wilford, the recently completed five-story apartment building in the lakeside downtown.
The move would drop a recognizable Twin Cities dining name into a downtown that has been steadily filling in with new housing and retail, giving Waconia residents another place to linger after a day on the lake.
According to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, the Hoffs, identified as the brothers behind NOLO's Kitchen & Bar, intend to call the Waconia concept Olive & Elm and will occupy the Wilford's ground-floor retail bay. The Business Journal report, written by J.D. Duggan and published May 13, names the Hoffs as the project team behind the new restaurant.
Wilford's Retail Was Built With Restaurants In Mind
City planning records show that the Olive & Second mixed-use project, which ultimately became the Wilford, was approved as a five-story building with 92 apartments and roughly 4,277 square feet of commercial space along Olive and Elm streets. According to City of Waconia materials, the developer sought variances and amendments to fit the building into the downtown block and to coordinate parking and alley access, signaling from the start that the ground floor was expected to host an active tenant.
Another Twin Cities Name Heads For The Suburbs
Olive & Elm fits into a growing pattern of Twin Cities restaurateurs looking beyond Minneapolis and St. Paul proper, chasing neighborhood and lakefront downtowns that deliver steady local traffic. Nolo's partners and chef have already been branching out, including a General Sports Bar planned for Edina, as reported by the Star Tribune. The Waconia project lands squarely in that same playbook.
What NOLO's Playbook Could Mean For Waconia
NOLO's Kitchen & Bar is a North Loop mainstay. Its website lists chef Peter Hoff and the restaurant's home at 515 North Washington Avenue, and the group also runs a rooftop and a basement bar above and below the main dining room. Per NOLO's Kitchen & Bar, the concept centers on modern American comfort food and a crowd-friendly bar program, a formula that could translate neatly to a lakes-edge clientele in Waconia.
Next Steps And What It Means For Downtown
Details on opening timelines, menu specifics, or staffing were not included in the early reports, but city documents show that the developer and the City Council have already been working through parking, alley access, and other public-realm adjustments tied to the project. The addition of a full-service restaurant to the Wilford's retail bay is expected to extend activity into the evening hours and give the new apartments a built-in hangout, while also catching spillover from lake traffic, according to the City of Waconia.
