Executive Chef Alex Dayton
Barcelona Wine Bar
Minneapolis native, Chef Alex Dayton, boasts a culinary career spanning over two decades, with a deep expertise in Mediterranean cuisine resulting in a menu that showcases a modern approach to traditional methods. Driven by a relentless desire to learn through hands-on experience, Dayton chose to forgo formal culinary education and immersed himself in demanding Michelin-starred restaurants throughout San Francisco, including Benu and Flour & Water, where he cultivated a passion for pasta and the art of working with flour. Upon his return to Minneapolis, he served in local kitchens such as Piccolo as the Chef de Partie and Tenant and Red Wagon Pizza as the Chef de Cuisine before opening his own venture, The Dough Room in Wayzata. He also launched Aliment Pasta Company, bringing freshly-made pasta to the Twin Cities. Dayton’s current menu at Barcelona embraces time-honored techniques with focuses on stone ground flour, whole-animal butchery, responsible sourcing, and natural fermentation. He treats local ingredients and produce in unexpected ways, pairing traditional Spanish recipes with these expressions of his environment to create bold, dynamic, and flavorful dishes. You can often find him in the dining room, personally taking guests through the menu as they choose what to try first.
