Our culinary correspondent begins his search for the best restaurant in town
By Leo Mezzrow
Now that Goodfellow’s and 510 Groveland have closed, as have several other top restaurants in recent months, the recurring question can be timely repeated: Which is the best restaurant in the Twin Cities?
Conventional wisdom usually tries to answer this question with a few predictable answers that are based on the chef and his staff (rightly so), ambience, price, and image. This was why Goodfellow’s, D’Amico Cucina, Cosmo, La Belle Vie, and a few others, were always on the list.
But there are at least a dozen or more Twin Cities dining rooms that might be considered for the honor.
I suggest that the first standard is always the food, and thus the chef and his kitchen staff. Ambience, usually means decor, wait staff, and presentation. I would expand that to cover the total dining experience. I think price and image are overstated. Some of our best kitchens are good values, although expensive. Other “fine” restaurants are overpriced and pretentious.
During the next few months, I intend to devote some space to the discussion of our best restaurants, but I do not intend to be limited to only a few cuisines (French or northern Italian) or the usual stereotypes of fine dining.
To begin the discussion, I am going to break a few rules of the trade and talk about two brand-new entrants in the competition, Fugaise (308 East Hennepin; 612/436-0777) and Five Restaurant and Street Lounge (2917 Bryant Avenue South; 612/827-5555).
The unspoken rule, of course, is that a food reviewer should wait at least a month before visiting a new restaurant. That’s common sense because there are always glitches to be fixed, menus to be edited, and prices to be adjusted. But, in this case, I’m not reviewing. I am talking more about what makes the very best restaurant, and I think that in the current explosion of new cuisines, bistros, and dining experiences in the Twin Cities, it might be instructive to examine what the very newest restaurants are doing. It is also interesting to observe the special excitement of the first few days after a restaurant opens.
Both Fugaise and Five have talented chefs at their helms. Don Saunders (Fugaise) gained his reputation from his service at A Rebours in St. Paul. Stuart Woodman (Five) gained his in New York and, more recently, at Levain. Now in their own kitchens, I was intrigued about how they define a successful fine dining experience.
Fugaise is located in the resurgent East Hennepin area, where upscale housing and retail opportunities are attracting an increasingly sophisticated population. Two old-time ethnic restaurants, Nye’s and Kramarczyk’s, have been joined over the past several years by Bobino, Oddfellows, Pizza Nea, The Times, and Gardens of Salonica. The closest fine dining restaurant, however, has been Restaurant Alma, six blocks away on University Avenue near Dinkytown.
The attractive dining rooms at Fugaise feature an elegant, but minimalist decor. And the menu reflects this nod to simplicity. There are only six choices for lunch, and that includes soup, salads, and entrees. The dinner menu features only six appetizers and six entrees. Prices are moderately high at lunch and just plain high at dinner. Appetizers average $11; entrees average $26.
I found the most interesting of the former to be the warm skate salad with purple potatoes, haricot vert and hollandaise. The most intriguing of the latter was the squab with “lobster bisque” custard, potato Macaire, and arugula. It was all delicious. I have only tried lunch, which also had some original dishes, beautifully prepared, but pricey. I suspect that the folks at Fugaise will soon hear from their customers about the price, and they will also find that their very limited menu choices will have to be expanded.
Five is located in the old Fifth Precinct Police Station in Uptown, and joins a plethora of new kitchens in the area, including Tum Rup Thai, Stella’s, Amore Victoria, not to mention the already established Figlio, Lucia’s, Chino Latino, Barbette, and Passage to India. Actually, Five is in between the main part of Uptown and the Lyn-Lake business district, which features such stalwarts as J.P. Bistro, Emma’s, It’s Greek To Me, Machu Picchu, Fuji-ya, and La Bodega. We may be seeing the beginnings of a mega-dining neighborhood, especially with Eat Street and its many oriental restaurants on Nicollet Avenue only a few blocks farther east.
While Fugaise clearly has some adjusting to do, Five seems to have hit the street running. The menu is relatively small, but there are more than enough choices. Like Isaac Becker’s 112 Eatery, chef Stuart Woodman offers some unusual and original appetizers. The entrees, which range from $18 to $28 (a filet mignon is $36 and a nightly special averages $32), seemed quite imaginative (cumin-marinated tempeh, poached to order, with coriander-scented lentil stew; sauteed breast and thigh of chicken with Minnesota dirty rice, pork sausage, fava beans and Piquillo pepper sauce; grilled veal porterhouse with porcini stew and cassoulet). But I made a meal of three appetizers.
The beefsteak tomatoes pressed into “petals” with “pacotized” sorbet, and mache salad ($9) was just sensational, the chilled tomato flavors contrasted with the savory sorbet and the salty mache like a tomato novella. The duck salad ($12) was also brilliant. The sliced duck breast over stringy duck leg confit with preserved lemon and a lobster sauce (including chunks of lobster) came with a flavorful celery root slaw. If the tomato appetizer was a novella, this was a poem. Finally, I ordered the hand-made ravioli stuffed with a creamy polenta in a basil cream. This was an epiphany. Not only is this kitchen already in order, but they have taken great care out front, with a street level bar and a very friendly and knowledgeable wait staff. The wine list is well chosen, and wine by the glass is quite reasonable. There are desserts ($6 to $9), but everyone receives a complimentary hot cinnamon donut at the end of the meal, and I found that perfect and sufficient.
Both Fugaise and Five will be adjusted and refined over the next month or two. Diners may have an entirely different experience then than I had at their openings. Both are definitely in the running for the best Twin Cities restaurant.
Revisiting Alma
Restaurant Alma (528 University Avenue SE; 612/379-4909) has gone through more than a few changes and modifications since it opened two years ago. It once served the best lunch in town, but shifted to a dinner-only format. Their original a la carte dinner menu is now mostly prix fixe, although individual courses can be ordered from this menu. I had not been back for some time, but a recent visit demonstrated that chef/co-owner Alex Roberts and his excellent staff are still turning out superb meals.
For $39 (plus beverages, tax and tip) I had a first-rate meal, including a salumi plate of pate, prosciutto and fig, sliced soppresatta and cheese; a second course of wonderful duck confit, and a main course of American Kobe beef sirloin with Swiss chard, summer beans, sweet corn sauce, and pimenton. The latter was a bit small (although even domestic Kobe beef is pricey), but the meal was satisfying. This is another restaurant (like 112 Eatery and Five) where you can make a terrific meal from only appetizers. The marinated Hawaiian blue marlin with hot chilis and jicama, red beet farro “risotto” with black truffle oil, grilled quail with panzanella bread salad, and the spaghetti nero with crab, prawn broth, and summer squash were very tempting.
A St. Paul Brunch
The Saint Paul Hotel continues it hotel-wide refurbishing with the inauguration of its weekend brunch at the M Street Cafe (651/228-3855). M Street has been breaking the stereotype of the overpriced hotel restaurant by introducing delicious weekday breakfast and lunch buffets that are great values. Most serious Sunday brunches in the Twin Cities are now in the $25 to $35 range. At M Street Cafe, Saturday or Sunday, the buffet brunch includes carvery prime rib of beef, fresh sea bass, large shrimp (not jumbo or colossal, but still fresh with their own excellent hot sauce), eggs Benedict, malted waffles, sausage, bacon, specialty vegetables, breakfast potatoes, fresh fruit (including blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, canteloupe and other melons) with fresh whipped cream, a full salad bar, and a tasty potato leek soup.
If that does not fill you up, there are also mini-pastries for dessert. Beverages and taxes are extra. As with their weekday buffets, M Street has innovated by providing a hot station and chef at all times, insuring that buffet items are fresh. This is now the best weekend deal in St. Paul, especially on Sunday, when downtown parking is free and usually plentiful.
