Rock Star

In the red-rocks mecca of all things mystical, Lisa Dahl weaves her inimitable magic to build a multi-concept restaurant empire.

BY TRACY MORIN

Once dubbed “the culinary queen of Sedona,” Lisa Dahl strikes a commanding physical presence, at ease holding court before her hordes of admirers, customers and employees alike. With a former career in fashion retail, she’s also forever impeccably dressed, not a hair out of place—as if she were not juggling five different restaurant concepts in an obsessively hands-on manner; 380-plus staff members as the largest employer in Sedona, Arizona; a publishing career, with two cookbook memoirs under her belt; and constant recipe innovation as the executive chef, owner and CEO of Dahl Restaurant Group. We can only ask, what’s her secret?

“Umm….” She pauses to think. “Being fanatical?”

A Fresh Start

Dahl, born into a fashion-business family (her mother was also an entrepreneur), started her career in retail and wholesale in the San Francisco Bay area, and she always had a passion for making people happy. “I’d worked in restaurants in high school and always loved it, but I made my career in boutiques,” she recalls. “I decided to make the culinary business my career after the tragic loss of my son, who was killed in a robbery. I was guided to Sedona to start my life over—to get perspective, change my environment. Within one year, someone offered me a location to buy.”

Today, Dahl’s son, Justin, literally looks over every one of her locations— each features a dedicated shrine to the handsome young man, dishes are named in his honor, and his oversize portrait graces her most dramatic concept, Mariposa. (The word mariposa, Spanish for “butterfly,” celebrates the potential for rebirth and transformation; it’s a uniting symbol on everything from in-house art pieces to chef’s coats at her locations.)

But before all of that fell into place, Dahl had to transform herself, singlehandedly, into a restaurant owner and self-taught chef. She bought the location with her then-partner and opened Dahl & DiLuca in 1995—still thriving today. “I was not a professional chef, but growing up in the Midwest I always had an interest in healthy eating,” she explains. “In Indianapolis, in my 20s, I made vegetarian specialties for a health food restaurant, and every day they would sell out. At Dahl & DiLuca, my boyfriend was the executive chef, and I was the sous chef. People started falling in love with our food, and I haven’t really looked back.” At the time, Dahl recalls, Sedona was known for hikes and massages, not fine dining— but her concept launched a revolution to explode that perception.

Growing Pains

With a focus on “making great food and making people happy,” Dahl & DiLuca soon became the place to go in Sedona. Nine years later, an opportunity arose to repeat the feat when she was approached with a location in a then-undeveloped area, the village of Oak Creek—smartly positioned just south of Sedona, making it a gateway of sorts for visitors and already studded with sprawling resorts and sweeping red-rock views.

Dahl jumped on the chance and opened Cucina Rustica, defined by its rustic takes on Italian and Mediterranean dishes. “People thought I was crazy, opening in that part of town—they thought I would fail,” Dahl remembers. “But it was one of the prettiest parts of Sedona. Why wouldn’t people love it? We took a big risk. I don’t think there were any restaurants there yet, but I felt locals would support it.”

Dahl had to build the concept from scratch, working in an existing plaza but in a space that had never held a restaurant. Thanks to her fashion-maven’s eye, she revels in design and crafted a huge, open-space feel that evokes a sprawling Italian villa—perfect for large groups, parties and events—with a menu featuring Dahl’s interpretation of classic dishes. Soon, just like with Dahl & DiLuca, Cucina Rustica was the place to celebrate special occasions in Sedona.

But with growth came friction. Dahl and her partner were no longer on the same page when it came to vision and growth strategy. As would often be the case throughout her life, hardship opened the door for new opportunity. “I was able to

SCOTT YATES

find the freedom I wanted,” Dahl says. “It was hard to finance buying him out, but without that, I couldn’t have opened my first pizzeria.”

She’s also right at home amid Sedona’s mystical-leaning philosophies. “I mean, we were Leo and Aquarius,” she sighs. “We just weren’t aligned.”

Her pizzeria, Pisa Lisa, set up shop in a humble spot, a former Pizza Hut on a major route in West Sedona. She had always wanted to try wood-fired pizzas, so she purchased the smallest Mugnaini oven she could find, with five-pie capacity, to get started. But this concept didn’t quite enjoy the immediate smash success Dahl had come to expect. “I’ll be honest: We had a lot of challenges,” she says. “We started with a bang and had some hiccups. The product was delicious, but we weren’t knowledgeable about the pizza business, per se. It was very humbling. What we thought we mastered in fine dining was different in the fast-casual/pizza arena. I was worried. We faltered that first year.”

Divine Intervention

Dahl points to some “spiritual and business epiphanies” that helped turn around her “tanking” 2,500-square-foot business. Despite a lack of pizzeria knowledge, her strategies led to a strong comeback: On the exact day of Pisa Lisa’s one-year anniversary, revenue officially hit $1 million. “It still gives me goosebumps, because we were close to failing,” Dahl says.