In the tradition of great Stillwater-area restaurants, the Bayport Cookery takes its place among our best dining experiences

By Leo Mezzrow
The old political slogan “A chicken in every pot!” seems to be amended in the Twin Cities today to add, “and a restaurant on every street corner!” The phenomenon is without precedent in my memory. New bistros, deli, white tablecloth, and ethnic restaurants are opening daily—not only in the downtowns, scattered business districts, and shopping malls, but virtually every neighborhood seems to be the site of some local culinary activity. It is very difficult for your food critic to keep up with all the activity. It’s a good thing that many or most of the new dining rooms emphasize healthy foods and cooking. (I haven’t stepped on a scale in months.)

The best news is that the natural and necessary spirit of competition is producing new restaurants of increasing quality. Before turning to more of the new bistros, I decided to finally make my way to one of the surviving top local kitchens, one of the few I had missed in my quest to eat in every worthy restaurant that we have.

Stillwater was for many years the home of three of the Twin Cities best restaurants. The Lowell Inn was the oldest of these, and with its sale by its previous owners, it has gone into some decline. La Bonne Vie recently closed down, and is about to reopen in Minneapolis at the former site of the 510 Groveland. Still luminous, however, is The Bayport Cookery (328 5th Avenue North, Bayport; 651/430-1066).

Owner/chef Jim Kyndberg and his small but very professional staff operate what I think is the only two-star Michelin equivalent restaurant in Minnesota. It does not have the physical splash of some of our Twin City hotel restaurants, nor the self-promoting elegance or hipness of some of our downtown dining rooms, but it does have a rural understated stature once you step into its unassuming front door. I was reminded of walking for the first time into Le Francais, the great restaurant in Wheeling, Illinois, near Chicago, and one of the superb restaurants in provincial France and Italy. The decor has lots of wood and old bricks. There are a few well-chosen works of art. There is a front patio, and a rear patio with a garden. Tables are beautifully yet simply set, and are spaciously arranged in the dining rooms. A sense of charm and graciousness seems present at all times. I came early on a weekend night, and soon enough the restaurant was full. It is a place where reservations in advance seem almost mandatory. The seatings here are at specified times.

Of course. the food is the primary aspect of the total dining experience in a restaurant, and I knew from its Web site (bayportcookery.com) that the current menu featured dishes of the autumn harvest. There are three ways to dine at The Cookery. You may select whatever you want from its a la carte menu that includes as appetizers split pea ravioli, wild rice soup with pheasant confit and chanterelles, an organic greens salad, tuna carpaccio with celery root rémoulade and smoked paprika oil, and veal sweetbreads with porcini. These range from $7 to $11.

A la carte entrees include lake trout with polenta, Creekstone New York strip sirloin with wild mushrooms, Fischer Farms pork chop with kale and pear chutney, and Wild Acres pheasant with lentils and pinot-cherry sauce. These range from $18 to $26. This is a restaurant that features locally grown, mostly organic produce, meat, fowl, and fish.

The second way to dine here is to choose the five-course menu with or without a wine pairing. The autumn harvest menu consists of pumpkinseed-encrusted ahi tun with sweet potatoes and late harvest mushrooms, a pumpkin soufflé topped with a ricotta hazelnut whipped cream, braised pork crepinette with cabbage and leeks, Hill and Vale lamb with a gratin of sunchokes, zucchini and apple rosemary jus, and finally, a chai-spiced honey cake with pumpkin anglaise.

This menu is $55. If you add the wine pairings (in order, a Beckman Rousanne from Santa Ynez Valley, a Gainey chardonnay from Santa Barbara, a Rodney strong Russian River Valley pinot noir, a Ferrari-Carano Sienna Sonoma County, and an Andrew Rich Les Vigneaux from Willamette Valley), the cost will be an additional $30. This meal will cost you about $105 with tax and tip.

I chose the third way to dine at The Bayport Cookery which is to choose any of the three courses above for $35, and they throw in a glass of any wine from their list. I selected the tuna, the pumpkin soufflé, and the lamb. As I struggled to choose the best wine for this assortment, my waiter offered to serve me a smaller portion of the wine pairings with each dish instead of a full glass of just one. No sooner had I ordered than another waitperson (at The Cookery you are served seamlessly by the full waitstaff of three) arrived with the first of three complimentary small courses. This one was an amusee of a small wedge of king salmon on a home-made Yukon potato chip with a light tomato sauces.

Then came the tuna course, cooked as I requested, and superb. The pumpkin soufflé may have been the peak moment in a meal consisting only of superlatives. It was light, very pumpkiny, and its accompanying ricotta hazelnut whipped cream was sublime.

Then I was served a complimentary carrot sorbet with toasted coconut. By the time the main course, the Hill and Vale lamb, arrived I was already dazzled, but of course this finale did not disappoint. Thick slices of fine lamb with a world-class sunchoke gratin were as good as it gets. I am not fond of zucchini served in most restaurants, even good ones, because chefs usually send out the cliché of flavorless zucchini slices and think they did their job. Not so Mr. Kyndberg, his sous chef Matthew Jensen, and others in this kitchen. They served the zucchini as a julienne, gently sautéed with a touch of salt. So simple, and even this cliché is a marvel at Bayport Cookery.

I had not selected the dessert course, and really had no room for one, but a complimentary chocolate truffle dusted with finely ground espresso bean was served. I did order a pot of their excellent jasmine green tea, and gladly paid the bill of about $45 for the best-from-the-menu meal I think I have ever had in this state.

The drive to Bayport is an easy one, even from Minneapolis. I am not tipping my hand yet in my quest for the best restaurant in the Twin Cities, especially with such promised powerhouses as Masa and La Belle Ville about to open, but you can be certain that The Bayport Cookery is, to use the phrase, a contender.

A New Success, Modestly
I have previously noted the new La Fugaise on East Hennepin, which opened with an excellent but small and pricey menu more than a month ago. A block away, much hidden on the corner of Northeast First Avenue and Fourth Street, is Mairin’s Table (23 NE 4th Street; 612/746-4272; www.mairinstable.com), a cozy neighborhood bistro with no pretenses and good serious food at very reasonable prices. It’s an especially good value for dinner when a virtually identical menu, at almost the same prices as lunch, is served and the entrée portions are larger. I ordered the signature “upside down” meatloaf that came with a perfectly chilled and tasty Caesar salad, skin-on garlic mashed potatoes and artfully arranged asparagus and baby carrots. This came to $13 plus tax, tip and beverage. On a winter night, this attractive and small dining room will be a popular spot in this hip new neighborhood.

A Taste of Argentina
For 30 years I have championed new ethnic cuisine kitchens in the Twin Cities, and I am pleased to report that we can add a new (and significant) one to our repertoire. El Gaucho Argentine Grill (2402 E. Franklin Ave.; 612/338-9778) is our first parillada or Argentine grill, and it’s terrific. Alas, the steaks are not the special beef they produce in Argentina (it isn’t imported), but the local beef is cooked authentically in the gaucho style with all the accompaniments, sauces, and seasonings from the southern hemisphere. The best item on the menu is probably the costeleta asado, a large T-bone steak served with potatoes and a salad for $12.50. There are also excellent Argentine appetizers including matambre arrollado (cold flank steak), empanadas (turnovers) and poached beef tongue at very low prices, as well as veal, pork, and chicken entrées, gaucho side orders, and desserts from Buenos Aires. It’s a small dining room, but the service is friendly and the cuisine is authentic. Prices are the same for lunch and dinner.