Shobi Dahl, the co-founder and former CEO of the wildly successful Dave’s Killer Bread company, is wearing butterfly-shaped sunglasses and six-inch heels at the front door of the Lake Oswego mansion Dahl saved from the wrecking ball.
Looking like a movie star from the golden age of Hollywood, Dahl says confidently that the 19,444-square-foot trophy home filled with crystal chandeliers illuminating museum-quality antiques no longer suits “who I am or how I want to live anymore.”
Dahl, 40, identifies as nonbinary and describes their past self as “a very closed-off masculine person.” The once highly paid executive became a drag burlesque artist this year with the stage name Mona Trombona. Also changing: A home address.
The three-acre, gated estate alongside the Willamette River that Dahl transformed over seven years is “a reflection of who I used to be,” they said. The Mediterranean-style mansion is on the market at $11.5 million.
In 2016, a year after selling the family’s Dave’s Killer Bread company for $275 million, Dahl bought the rundown, repossessed Lake Oswego property and turned it into a showcase of opulence. Designing and perfecting the interior, one decorative ceiling at a time, “was the only way I allowed myself to be creative,” they said.
Decisions to have a Versailles-like dining room, a throne in the ballroom and a party wing with slide-away walls that open to the pool were intentionally made “to show off my success,” said Dahl. They pause in the mansion’s grand foyer, between a curving staircase and bronze statues of Spanish cavaliers fronting the elegant living room. “Now I can’t be defined by things anymore,” they said.
After going through a yearlong profound transformation, “I’m finally giving myself license to be an artist and I’ve found I love performing on stage,” said Dahl, a barrette holding their short, Marlene Dietrich hairstyle in place. “I want people to get to know me and my art, not all of the things I have collected.”
In September, Dahl will be on stage at Portland’s Funhouse Lounge, Misfits Bar + Lounge and Escape Bar & Grill performing as Princess Peach from “The Super Mario Bros.” movie, Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz,” a gender-bent Prince from “Purple Rain” and a sexy Mrs. Claus. Mona Trombona’s drag burlesque acts include surprising reveals and unexpected twists, and the inviting sound of the trombone.
The Mansion
Shobi Dahl succeeded as an entrepreneur and angel investor for startups by seeing an economics degree earned in 2005 as a way to study human decision making. “It’s not about money,” Dahl told fellow graduates of Willamette University.
After graduation and while working full-time for the family’s NatureBake company, which grandfather Jim Dahl started in 1955 in Milwaukie, Shobi Dahl bought a 1960s ranch-style house in East Portland’s Montavilla neighborhood.
Dahl renovated the home, which cost $235,000, to make it “colorful, vibrant and fun.”
In 2005, the same year the ranch house was purchased, the family bakery launched Dave’s Killer Bread brand, named after Shobi Dahl’s uncle Dave Dahl. As revenues skyrocketed, Shobi Dahl sold the ranch house and bought a larger property on Southeast Waverly Drive in Milwaukie. Over time, a home theater, game room and racquetball court were added.
Dave’s Killer Bread, the largest organic bread company in North America, was sold to Flowers Foods for $275 million in 2015. The next year, Shobi Dahl saw a boarded-up, vandal-prone tear down – “this thing,” Dahl said, gesturing to the Lake Oswego mansion that is now for sale. “It was not a habitable home when I bought it, but it looked like a fun project.”
Construction crews labored for two years demolishing and rebuilding faulty sections of the mansion. Then craftspeople and artists went to work executing Dahl’s ideal of displaying financial achievement. The Biedermeier-style decor in the living room is a less adorned version of French Empire, yet still relies on gilded surfaces, a pair of antique secretary desks and a Louis XIV-era longcase clock.
Dahl monitored high-end auction houses around the world and when a piece from an estate in Manhattan to Chicago stood out, they bid on it. “It was a slow process,” they said.
Fantasy features designed by Dahl include a “Narnia”-forest playroom and treehouse sleeping area fenced in by real birch trees, a crow’s nest reading room on the top floor and a moody den filled with rare medieval armaments.
The library is Dahl’s favorite room because it’s a calm, relaxing place. “I watch the sunrise here, drink tea and meditate,” they said. “I will miss this room, but I will be able to make new traditions and tranquil places for myself in a new home.”
Once the mansion sells, Dahl knows their next home will be less complex. “There is a wide range of styles I appreciate,” they said. “I would not do well in an all-white, hyper modern house, but absent that, I’m pretty flexible. I love intentional form and function, deliberate beauty in every choice.”
Dahl said simplifying life is freeing.
Broker Justin Harnish of Harnish Company Realtors likens his listing of Dahl’s property at 12850 S. Fielding Road to waterfront mansions in South Beach, Florida, owned by Jennifer Lopez, Oprah, Shaquille O’Neal and other celebrities.
Standing in the mahogany-paneled whiskey library, Harnish said he is marketing the unincorporated slice of Clackamas County as a very private resort.
The pool house is set up for year-round catered events with an indoor barbecue. Tiered landscaping leads to the boat lift and water dock. More than 12 collectible cars can be exhibited in two garages.
Who will be the next owner? Harnish told The Oregonian/OregonLive: “The person who will love this home is one who wants space both indoors and outdoors without being far from town, one who wants to have access to a deep-water dock on the Willamette River, one who appreciates the splendors of life and who will enjoy the everyday magnificence of this estate.”
— Janet Eastman | 503-294-4072
jeastman@oregonian.com | @janeteastman
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