Ann Ahmed's journey to creating transportive, spontaneous restaurants
Ever since she was little, Ann Ahmed would find herself spending late nights in the kitchen.
Now a James Beard Award semifinalist with three restaurants across the Twin Cities metro, Ahmed draws from those moments — after her mother came home for work and the two of them spent time together in the kitchen — when cooking and creating.
"That's where my passion or my calling was, really, to be in the kitchen," she said.
Born in Laos, Ahmed moved to Minnesota when she was 5 years old. When she was in her teens, Ahmed's mother sent her to live with her grandmother. There too, she naturally found herself in the kitchen.
"I wouldn't necessarily call them teachers," she said, laughing. Her mother and her grandmother were busy parents, just trying to get through the day. But eventually her grandmother caught the potential in her, and started to give her little tasks.
"Watch me and you need to learn from it," her grandmother would tell her.
That hands-on experience shaped Ahmed's cooking style. She describes herself as a tactile learner; she likes to see and smell and touch while she creates.
"It was a lot of tasting, you know, because nothing was really written. I had to memorize the flavors and the taste and the texture and the way it looked," Ahmed said.
And the homey environment that she grew up in has made its way into her restaurants. The foundation of all her cooking is a sort of memorable comfort: food that's meant to be remembered and shared amongst friends.
"My dream was really big"
Ahmed started her restaurant journey in 2005, with a spot called Lemon Grass in Brooklyn Park. It took her a long time to gather the courage to branch out and open a second spot. But 13 years later, she flipped an old Perkins in Golden Valley and turned it into a "sexy Asian restaurant in the suburbs."
"Finally I get to open the restaurant of my dreams," she recalled. "Everything that I've ever fantasized about what my future restaurant would look like was everything that I put into Lat 14."
She wanted it to be moody, to be romantic. She wanted to combine the flavors found on the 14th parallel: Filipino, Cambodian, Thai cuisines with her own Laotian roots.
And then suddenly, as she says, "Khaluna came along."
The pandemic had hit in March of 2020. A month prior, Ahmed had been on a chef's retreat in Laos, and she'd come back inspired and ready to create. But she and her family were forced inside, all while her mind was racing with ideas. Ahmed, her husband and two twin children would go on rides around the city, and her husband spotted the restaurant for sale on 40th Street and Lyndale Avenue.
At first, she thought the building was ugly. But with some prodding from her husband Ahmed decided to check it out and she eventually put in an offer.
"You know when you're stuck at home and all you could do is dream and fantasize. My dream was really big," she said.
She dreamed of glamorous, tropical lounges in Asia. Luxurious, open air restaurants. If she was to build a restaurant during a global pandemic, she wanted it to be transportive. She wanted her guests to feel like they could have an escape.
Shortly after, it was Ahmed's husband who nudged her into making a third restaurant. He likes to look at property for fun, and noticed a two-story building for sale in Loring Park.
"He likes to like manifest the idea of like 'what does my wife dream of? How can I make it a reality for her?' I love it," Ahmed said.
It would be the largest location she'd open. With two stories, Ahmed was initially worried that the size of the building would swallow her. But she couldn't help but dream and think up ideas to fill the space, and she wanted to get people excited about eating out again.
She named it "Gai Noi," which means "little chick." It's what she calls her playful location. The restaurant takes no reservations, and she wants it to capture the spontaneous feeling amongst friends to just go out and see where the night takes them.
"I feel like people just want to be spontaneous. And just live life. Let's create a restaurant that just allows them to live," she said.
A new venture
Aside from her restaurant business, Ahmed has been working on a new passion project: group tours to her Laotian homeland.
She's been leading classes for years at her restaurants, and saw there was a pattern amongst her guests. They wanted to learn more about her, learn more about Laos.
"I feel like Minnesotans have always had that curiosity of like 'who are these Lao people? What does Laos look like?'" Ahmed explained.
So she decided that one day, she'd lead a group there, show them around and take them to her favorite restaurants. Her first tour was in January of 2025. The group met artisans, learned about basket-weaving, textiles and about the country's spiritual history.
Next year, she'll lead her second tour, and also take her restaurant staff, to help them gain a better understanding of the cuisine they work with.
"I'm hoping that this trip, going to Laos will help them to slow down and to reflect and to really connect with everything that they've been doing here in Minnesota and to really kind of have it make sense for them on their own terms," Ahmed said.
A future with "purpose"
Ahmed doesn't know what the future will hold; there's no master plan of opening up more restaurants. She wants to be realistic, build her restaurants steadily. And she's conscious of what she's sacrificed in order to get her career where it is today.
Ahmed was pregnant when she had her first restaurant, Lemon Grass. When the opportunity for Lat 14 came, her twins were still infants.
"And so that being in the limelight really made me make a lot of difficult choices of like, what's going to come first? And I would have to say that I chose the restaurant first," she said.
Now that her twins are 10 years old, she's cherishing her time with them. Her daughter has just started showing interest in cooking and taking on tasks in the kitchen.
"I still want to respect my space as an individual, as a person. You know, before I'm a mom, I was myself. Before I was a wife, I was myself. And so that is a challenge I am always facing," Ahmed said.
For now, she's taking it a step at a time; enjoying the communities she's built around each restaurant — in Loring Park, south Minneapolis and Golden Valley.
If there's an opportunity though, she says she'd definitely entertain the idea, but only if it fits "my purpose."
