The Good Table | written by: Pamela Dey Vossler
Granola Bar co-founders/co-CEOs Julie Mountain (left) and Dana Noorily at the Darien restaurant / / Photos courtesy: The Granola Bar
How does a three-year-old’s birthday party become all manner of the most intriguing iterations of gorgeous granola (including a rosemary parmesan that is to die for, especially in a Caesar salad), and a bistro as irresistible and inventive in its American cuisine offerings as this granola that inspired it? …How does it become The Granola Bar, one of Darien’s newest and most appealing eateries?
It starts with two Westport moms ever-so-slightly (ok, perhaps a bit more than ever-so-slightly) in need of an outlet for the smarts, creativity and drive that brought them success in the New York City careers they left for motherhood in the ‘burbs.
Not that they didn’t love being moms. With three children for one and two for the other at the time, family was their priority. Still…
“We found each other at this party,” said Julie Mountain of her Granola Bar co-founder/co-CEO Dana Noorily. “We started to talk because there was some really crazy food pickiness going on among the kids,’” she continued, laughing as she recalled that first conversation in 2010 with Dana, a fellow foodie, as it turns out, who had moved from the City to Westport in 2008, just like her.
They knew the food they wanted—simple but delicious
The Granola Bar: At the intersection of healthy and indulgent – food you know, with a twist that’s hard to resist
They started talking food. Julie invited Dana to lunch and shared her idea for a granola company. “I wanted to flip granola on its side,” explained Julie. “I felt that granola could be luxurious, a beautiful product instead of something like birdseed,” she continued.
So they started experimenting, conjuring different granola recipes in their home kitchens while their kids played. They packaged their creations in mason jars and sold them to friends.
“(Granola) felt like something that we could do and still manage being full-time moms, but also have this outlet that wasn’t all consuming, except it became all consuming,” said Dana, laughing at the irony.
“At that point, we had both stopped working. I didn’t realize what a successful career Dana had had (in finance) and that we were both craving working again,” said Julie, who had also left a flourishing career, hers in the music industry.
“So we created what we thought would be a light hobby, except two voracious workers met. And then it was unstoppable. We were very compatible work-wise. We were just laughing all day and working and it didn’t feel like work,” said Julie, the ying to Dana’s yang. Julie is spontaneous, reactive. Dana is more measured. But they run the business together, in lock step.
The Granola Bar in Darien, located behind Ten Twenty Post
They began as fellow moms, rather than friends, “Now there’s no word for what we are,” Julie said of how close the two and their families have become as they turned those first batches of granola for friends into cases they sold to Stew Leonard’s, Whole Foods and more than 100 other stores. Next came a food truck then front-of-house operations (e.g., the public part of a restaurant).
Not that Julie or Dana knew, back then, what the term “front of house” meant.
But they knew the food they wanted—the simple but delicious avocado toast / egg bowl / salad / smoothie fare of the community cafes of their NYC days—and the atmosphere they wanted to serve it in, which didn’t exist in Fairfield County at the time. They knew to listen to their customers.
“There is no ego in our company. Our food is straight from the consumer’s mind,” said Julie.
Collaborative, “hive-minded,” rather than chef-driven is how they describe the inner workings of The Granola Bar. Their executive team is staffed with trained chefs who weigh in as well.
So they shut down wholesale operations and brought the granola manufacturing they’d outsourced back in house where the nine flavors they now sell are handcrafted daily. They created a menu in keeping with the quality and originality of their granola line and opened The Granola Bar flagship store in Westport for breakfast and lunch. That was 2013.
Ten years and five locations later, they expanded into evening, taking what they knew worked well in the other day parts into dinner, first in Rye and now at 1020 Post Road in Darien, to rave reviews and “Best of” accolades.
You can’t not have fun with these women, and, by association, in their restaurants. They lift the energy in any room with humor, originality and the force of their own friendship. They are real with an ability to conjure all the other fun places you’ve ever been in the spaces they’ve created through the food and drinks they serve, the music they play, the décor and vibe.
They cover the expected then take you on an adventure into the unpredictable.
The Bar Caesar: Shaved Brussels and cauliflower with parmesan rosemary granola and lemon anchovy dressing
They cover the expected then take you on an adventure into the unpredictable—things you know but with a twist that’s hard to resist, and all at the intersection of healthy and indulgent …like lattes made with turmeric, a parmesan-crusted avocado grilled cheese, cashew queso, everything bagel pigs in a blanket, grilled peach and ricotta toast, tuna tartar tacos, a ginger margarita or their signature New York Happy Meal – a martini and French fries, to name just a few favorites—all available to share. No FOBO* here.
“I knew that our community would appreciate their energy, creativity, and hospitality,” said David Genovese, Corbin District developer and owner of the building in which The Granola Bar is located, of Julie and Dana who he convinced to come to Darien. “They have brought a different kind of venue to Darien that can be enjoyed from morning to midnight, a place where you can meet for coffee, breakfast, a healthy lunch and …a New York Happy Meal! I mean, come on, martinis and French fries? What’s not to love about The Granola Bar?!” he added.
Oh, the places granola can go! We thank our lucky taste buds, and the stars aligning for great nights out, that it came to our town.
*Fear of Better Options
