Finding the right co-pilot

Mercantile Dining & Provisions, owned by James Beard Award-winning chef and local restaurateur Alex Seidel, is following closely behind Root Down in sales at DIA despite having just opened in Concourse A in 2022. Last year, the sitdown restaurant, marketplace and coffee bar did $14.5 million in sales, according to DIA’S gross sales report from December.

“Mercantile is one of the only independent restaurants with three meal periods a day in the country,” Seidel said. “It’s been known for its breakfast, lunch and dinner at Union Station for the last 10 years, so it’s clearly built for travel.”

Seidel was first approached by a DIA concessionaire 10 years ago, not long after he’d opened a different restaurant in town, Fruition. But he didn’t feel like he’d found the right partner and walked away from the deal. “There’s a lot of people telling you what you want to hear,” he said.

Seidel was finally sold by Tastes on the Fly, another concessionaire that operates Modern Market and Little Man Ice Cream among other concepts in DIA, along with 25 or so other restaurants in four other airports, including those in San Francisco, Boston and New York (JFK).

“Before we opened Mercantile at the airport, the executive chef, the GM, the assistant GM and the sous chefs all spent time down at the Mercantile in Union Station, training for a month and a half leading up to the opening,” Seidel said. “Huy [Pham, Taste on The Fly’s minority partner] has become a friend,” he added. “I was cooking in Mexico and he came down to support me, and that’s a real partner, not someone just looking to make a buck off me.”