For some people, owning a business is the culmination of a lifelong dream. For others it’s borne of necessity. Then there are those who never gave the idea much of a thought, until their passion intersected with their life journey.
That’s what happened to Laura Axelson.
Even though she earned a degree in English literature from Belmont, and later worked in finance, Axelson had long been keen on preparing wholesome meals. It started in college as a challenge to herself and eventually led her to work for the Center for Living and Learning where she prepared meals for the residents.
Then, about a decade ago, she would chat with other young mothers as their children played, attended birthday parties and the like. A recurring theme would be how difficult it was to provide their growing families with meals that are nutritious, tasty and convenient.
Those discussions struck a chord.
“The conversation would always come back to how the moms couldn’t feed their families the way they wanted to,” says Axelson. “They wanted to feed their children pure food to protect their precious bodies. But providing organic foods that were gluten free and unrefined took a lot of work and didn’t always mesh with a young family’s busy schedule.”
Axelson offered to help by curating desirable ingredients and recipes that were sure to satisfy picky eaters. But that was just half the battle. Turns out what the moms really wanted were healthy meals that were ready to eat.
“What I found was that an unserved market existed that was willing to pay for meals that were prepared in advance,” she says. “And I knew I could help fill that space.”
And with that, in 2016 Axelson founded Dinner Belle, a subscription-based prepared-meal service. At Dinner Belle, Axelson uses the finest and freshest ingredients available from local sources and delivers a pre-determined quantity of meals on a weekly basis. Meals are delivered fresh, on ice and packaged in glass containers that are collected the following week and sanitized so that they can be reused.
Initially Axelson rented space one day a week at Crumb de la Crumb, a former coffee shop and bakery in Bellevue that was owned by Lorie and Jason Burcham. About a year later she relocated the business to Citizen Kitchens, a shared commissary in The Nations that served as the base of operations for eight years.
“It was a good space for us for a long time, but we were growing and needed to expand,” Axelson says.
That expansion took place last year when Dinner Belle’s first retail location opened at 8120 Highway 100 in Bellevue, across from Kroger. “I wanted to be near my (Bellevue) home and when my real estate agent showed me the space, I knew it was the right place,” says Axelson.
Dinner Belle customers simply go online to review the menu and place their orders by Thursday evening for the upcoming week. Meals will be delivered in time for dinner on Tuesday. If you’re not sure if a subscription is right for your family, Axelson has added a grab-and-go case where various items are available in compostable containers so, once again, there’s no waste. Axelson says that Dinner Belle has saved upwards of 100,000 containers from going into landfills.
Dinner Belle food is gluten-free, not to promote a particular lifestyle but merely to provide that option. “We’re not here to judge anyone’s diet; occasionally my family enjoys pizza or fast food!” says Axelson. “But you really won’t notice that the food is gluten free. We use a lot of the food you would eat even if you weren’t trying to be gluten free, like rice, corn and potatoes. Our beef and poultry are sourced from local farms, and we use local honey, maple syrup, agave nectar and, occasionally, dark brown unrefined sugar.”
Axelson has six full-time employees including kitchen manager Amy Smith, a trained chef and culinary school graduate who has been with Dinner Belle since the beginning.
The menu changes with the seasons so for fall expect recipes featuring apples, squash, pumpkin and lots of cozy, cooler-weather spices.
“I really love serving people and I’ve had so many customers tell me that Dinner Belle has changed their life,” says Axelson. “They’ll say that it’s so delicious, they feel so much better, and it just makes them happy to eat our food.”
It’s not just for young moms and their families anymore.
"I really love serving people and I’ve had so many customers tell me that Dinner Belle has changed their life."