--- title: "Esther’s Table: Bringing a Legendary Minneapolis Hostess Back to the Table" url: https://tiffanyhankendesign.com/2026/09/21/esthers-table-restaurant-design-capp-towers-history/ date: 2026-09-21 modified: 2026-09-28 lang: en author: "Samuel Koza" description: "How Tiffany Hanken Design turned a brand-new hotel restaurant into Esther Capp's home, with vintage finds, family photos and the story of Capp Towers." categories: - "Hotel Inspiration" - "Restaurant Design" tags: - "Creative Restaurant Spaces" - "Restaurant Design" - "Restaurants" image: https://tiffanyhankendesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/esthers-table-dining-room-portrait-wall-brick-arches-minneapolis-1024x683.webp word_count: 1554 --- # Esther’s Table: Bringing a Legendary Minneapolis Hostess Back to the Table Some restaurants serve dinner. The best ones invite you in. At Esther's Table on Nicollet Mall, Tiffany Hanken Design was asked to do something rare: make a hotel restaurant feel like you've been welcomed into the home of the woman whose name is on the door. Here's what makes it unusual: Esther's Table wasn't an empty room. The Sheraton Minneapolis Downtown had just completed a $40 million renovation, and the restaurant opened in 2025 as a polished, contemporary space. It worked. It just didn't yet feel like Esther. THD was brought in less than a year later, not to redesign it, but to deepen it. ## A 1963 Icon on Nicollet: The Capp Towers Motor Hotel The Capp Towers Motor Hotel at 1313 Nicollet Avenue South turned heads when it opened on April 2, 1963. The $6.5 million structure had 330 rooms and could accommodate 800 guests. A spindle-shaped design gave every room an outside view, and the building was believed to be the first of its size erected with pre-stressed, pre-cast concrete, according to a 2019 article summarizing t**[he history of Capp Towers on the Nokohaha blog](https://www.nokohaha.com/2019/12/03/capp-towers/)**. ![Esther](https://tiffanyhankendesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/esthers-table-bar-styled-shelving-skyway-minneapolis-scaled.webp)Esther's Table Bar with Minneapolis skyway access inside Sheraton Minneapolis. Photo by Russell Heeter Photography. Inside, it was theater. Roman arches ran throughout the lobby floor, and multicolored stained glass by Rochester, Minnesota artist William Saltzman glowed in the lobby. The Golden Table Restaurant was built around a gold-leafed 19th-century French antique table, and a domed cocktail lounge on the 14th floor looked out over the Twin Cities. That dome was an engineering statement: a transparent Plexiglas dome 50 feet in diameter and 22 feet high, held in an extruded aluminum structure. The rarest part of the story may be continuity. It is highly unusual for one family to own a hotel building continuously, but the Capp family never sold. The building has been a Holiday Inn, the Millennium, and now the Sheraton Minneapolis Downtown Convention Center after a $40 million renovation. More on this story by Jason DeRusha in Minnesota Monthly - **[First Look: Esther's Table in a Newly Remodeled Downtown Minneapolis Hotel.](https://www.minnesotamonthly.com/food-drink/first-look-esthers-table-in-a-newly-remodeled-downtown-minneapolis-hotel/)** ## Who Was Esther Capp? Esther's husband, Martin Capp, was a builder, not a hotelier. He became known for Capp Homes, neighborhoods of small homes in more than 30 states after World War II, and he built two Capp Towers hotels: one in St. Paul in 1960 and the Minneapolis tower three years later, **[where Esther's Table lives on ](https://tcjewfolk.com/2025/12/12/capp-legacy-lives-on-in-renovated-hotel-restaurant/)**today. Esther was the warmth behind the family. Her granddaughter described her as unpretentious, a home cook, and incredibly hospitable. She brought Jewish families arriving from the Former Soviet Union straight from the airport into her home, and her table was always full. She was a trailblazer with a free spirit people were drawn to, and a hostess whose gatherings people remembered. ![Historical image of Esther Capp - Esther](https://tiffanyhankendesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Esther-Capp-1024x678.avif)Esther Capp. Image credit: [Esther's Table Minneapolis](https://www.estherstablemsp.com/about-us.htm) ### The Brief: Make a Hotel Restaurant Feel Like Esther's Home The Capp family gave Tiffany Hanken Design access to decades of personal photographs of Esther with family and friends, along with pieces from her actual home. The mission was to let every guest feel her essence, as if Esther herself had set the table. The mandate was layering, not replacing: keep the existing design intact and build warmth, personality and Capp family history on top of it. ### The Design: Layering a Life Into the Room #### Room by Room: Where the Story Lives THD's work shows up in the places guests don't expect to be designed. - **The water station.** A functional amenity became the emotional center of the restaurant: an antique sideboard, curated accessories and a gallery wall crowned by Esther's portrait. - **The wine room.** The small room beside the bar became an intimate private tasting space with new furnishings, a rug, comfortable seating and layered decorative detail. - **The private dining room.** Existing artwork and furnishings were enhanced, privacy film was added to the windows, and antique pieces and collected objects made the room feel distinct rather than reserved. - **The bar.** Historic photographs, memorabilia and decorative objects were layered above and around the bar, turning it into a focal point tied to the Capp family. - **The bar lounge.** A rug and residential-feeling seating soften the space so guests linger instead of passing through. - **Esther's own belongings.** Personal objects, including her handbag, are tucked into the room as unexpected details. Her presence is tangible, not thematic. - **Elevator and waste bin wraps.** Custom photographic treatments turn utilitarian surfaces into storytelling, carrying the narrative beyond the dining room. - **Living greenery.** Plants and trees were selected with hospitality greenery specialists, balancing softness against the realities of maintaining live plants in a high-traffic restaurant. ***See the full i[nterior design project for Esther's Table](https://tiffanyhankendesign.com/project/esthers-table-restaurant-design-minneapolis/)*** ![Esther](https://tiffanyhankendesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/esthers-table-signage-greenery-minneapolis-683x1024.webp)Photo by Russell Heeter Photography. ![Table set for two with wine and entrées beneath a portrait of Esther Capp and an antique sideboard at Esther](https://tiffanyhankendesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/esthers-table-dinner-for-two-esther-capp-portrait-683x1024.webp)Photo by Russell Heeter Photography. ![Brass bar canopy at Esther](https://tiffanyhankendesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/esthers-table-bar-shelving-vintage-objects-greenery-683x1024.webp) Photo by Russell Heeter Photography. ### Sourcing the Soul: Inside a THD Vintage Hunt Anyone can order a dining room. Ninety days, one vendor, forty matching chairs, and a space that looks like the last four restaurants that opened downtown. It photographs fine. It also disappears. For Esther's Table, the work started somewhere less convenient: pegboard walls in Minnesota antique malls, glass cases of Italian brass frames and cobalt glass, a folding cart of hammered copper. That hunt wasn't the finishing touch. It was the research. Because a hostess in 1962 didn't buy her dining room in a set. She inherited the sideboard, brought a painting home from a trip, kept the copper kettle because it belonged to someone. The room accumulated. That's the feeling we were sourcing for — and it can't be ordered. Every piece had to clear four tests. - **Provenance over polish.** A hand-signed oil on canvas board, found leaning on a pegboard wall, costs less than most hotel-grade wall art and carries what no reproduction can fake: someone made it, and someone kept it. ![Signed vintage oil painting of fishing boats sourced for Esther](https://tiffanyhankendesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Signed-vintage-oil-painting-of-fishing-boats-sourced-for-Esthers-Table-restaurant-interior-design-scaled-1-768x1024.webp)A signed oil on canvas board, found on a pegboard wall for $48. Original art at reproduction prices. - **Regional memory.** A Dan Patch bourbon decanter from Savage, Minnesota — the world's fastest pacer — is a small piece of local history sitting in a Minneapolis dining room. Locals recognize it. Everyone else asks. ![Dan Patch bourbon decanter from Savage, Minnesota found during vintage sourcing](https://tiffanyhankendesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Dan-Patch-bourbon-decanter-from-Savage-Minnesota-found-during-vintage-sourcing-scaled-1-768x1024.webp)Dan Patch, Savage, Minnesota. Local history guests recognize and ask about. - **Material warmth.** Copper, brass, aged mirror, hand-blown glass. These age visibly and hold lamplight the way plated finishes never do. They're the antidote to the everything-is-six-months-old feeling that makes a new room read as temporary. ![Vintage Italian brass frames and hand blown art glass in an antique shop display case](https://tiffanyhankendesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Vintage-Italian-brass-frames-and-hand-blown-art-glass-in-an-antique-shop-display-case-scaled-1-768x1024.webp)Italian brass frames with curved glass — the kind of detail that makes a new room feel inherited. - **Frame language.** The gallery walls work because the frames disagree. Gilt, burled wood, gesso, ornate brass, plain black. A matched set reads corporate; a collected wall reads like a home — and lets family snapshots hang beside still lifes and travel prints without falling apart. ![Antique oval portrait frames and mirrors collected for the Esther](https://tiffanyhankendesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Antique-oval-portrait-frames-and-mirrors-collected-for-the-Esthers-Table-gallery-wall-scaled-1.webp)Mismatched frames are the point. Matching sets read corporate; collected walls read like home. Then the harder half of the job: making all of it survive a restaurant. Antiques carry the story. Commercial-grade millwork, lighting, and upholstery carry 170 covers a night. Getting both into one room is the craft. It's also the core of how we work. **A THD refresh is an act of authorship, not a style application.** We find the story that's already in the building — a founder, a family, a neighborhood, a name — then go looking for the physical evidence of it. For Esther, that evidence turned up in Minneapolis, Boston, and France, and sometimes on a pegboard wall with a handwritten $48 price tag. The payoff is the part operators care about. A room built from sixty-year-old objects can't be copied by the concept opening two blocks over, because no one can buy the same forty pieces. And it ages forward instead of backward, because it was never trying to look new. ## Designing for 170 Covers a Night A collected, residential look is easy to photograph and hard to operate. Every antique in Esther's Table had to survive a working restaurant: traffic patterns, cleaning, sightlines, privacy, guest comfort and long-term maintenance. The project also ran through a full cast of stakeholders, including hotel ownership, brand standards, the restaurant concept team and outside partners who maintain the greenery. Delivering a room that feels personal inside those constraints is the part that takes commercial experience. Below is a before and after of the bar area. ![Esther](https://tiffanyhankendesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/esthers-table-bar-before-refresh-minneapolis-768x1024.webp)Esther's Bar "BEFORE" ![Brass bar canopy at Esther](https://tiffanyhankendesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/esthers-table-bar-shelving-vintage-objects-greenery-683x1024.webp)Esther's Bar "AFTER" Photo by Russell Heeter Photography. ### The Vibe Esther's Table feels less like a hotel restaurant and more like a dinner party already in progress. The room is warm, layered, a little glamorous, and deeply personal. > "I believe the most memorable restaurants make you feel as though you've been invited into someone's world… When we refresh a restaurant, we're not trying to change its story. We're helping people feel it." > > — Tiffany Hanken, Founder & Principal Designer ## Visit Esther's Table Esther's Table is at 1313 Nicollet Mall inside the Sheraton Minneapolis Downtown, serving breakfast, lunch, happy hour, and dinner. [Reserve a table →](https://www.estherstablemsp.com/) ![Overhead view of a marble table at Esther](https://tiffanyhankendesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/esthers-table-menu-pasta-salmon-overhead-1024x683.webp)An overhead look at dinner service on the marble tabletops at Esther's Table in downtown Minneapolis. Photo by Russell Heeter Photography. ## Is Your Restaurant Ready for Its Next Chapter? THD's Restaurant Refresh process helps established restaurants evolve without losing their soul. [Explore Restaurant Interior Design →](/restaurant-interior-design/) Contact Tiffany Hanken, by clicking below. [![Restaurant Refreshes with a sense of story by Tiffany Hanken Inteior Design](https://tiffanyhankendesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/05-checkerboard.webp)](https://tiffanyhankendesign.com/contact-page/) ## Frequently Asked Questions **Q: Why does Esther's Table feel more like a dinner party than a hotel restaurant?** A: The room is designed to feel like you were invited into Esther Capp’s world, not dropped into a generic hotel dining space. Tiffany Hanken Design layered in family photographs, portraits, hand fans, small antique mirrors, and pieces from Esther’s actual home, then paired them with warm details like cognac leather banquettes, live lavender on every table, and a private lounge with velvet chairs. That mix is what makes the space feel personal instead of corporate. **Q: How did Tiffany Hanken Design use Esther Capp's family history in the restaurant design?** A: THD built the concept around Esther’s life story and the family’s archive. The Capp family shared decades of personal photographs and pieces from Esther’s home, and those details became gallery walls, a portrait wall, and antique furnishings that feel collected over time. That matters because the design is not just decorative, it gives guests a sense of who Esther was: hospitable, unpretentious, and deeply connected to family. **Q: What are the most important design details in Esther's Table?** A: The strongest details are the ones that make the room feel lived in. Original brick arches frame the Nicollet Mall windows, black-and-white marble floors anchor the space, and a brass-ringed bar with globe lights adds glow. On top of that, THD used vintage frames, a painted portrait above a hand-carved antique sideboard, a brass bar cart with a vintage hammered decanter, and old-world art in the private lounge. Those layers do most of the storytelling. **Q: Can this kind of restaurant refresh work for an existing restaurant without losing its identity?** A: That is exactly the approach THD describes for established restaurants. The goal is to refresh the space without changing its story, which is why Esther's Table keeps the architecture’s strong bones while adding personal layers tied to Esther Capp. Tiffany Hanken says memorable restaurants make people feel invited into someone’s world. For operators, that means updating atmosphere can work best when it reinforces what already makes the place distinct. **Q: What should restaurant owners copy from Esther's Table if they want a warmer dining room?** A: Start with collected details instead of matching furniture sets. Esther's Table shows how gallery walls in vintage frames, antique sideboards, live lavender on tables, and mixed pieces sourced across Minneapolis, Boston, and France can create warmth fast. The practical lesson is that personality beats symmetry here. If you want guests to linger, build around one clear story and repeat it through art, lighting, seating, and tabletop details.