Chow & Again

Giant Pastries and Sad Goodbyes

July 8, 2009

What a strange weekend. Happy 4th by the way, belated is better than not at all. Anyone been to Hans Bakery in Anoka on 5th...
One of my fave restaurants closed the other day, RIP Mortons. And one of my least favorites is about to close as well. I have it on good authority that it is not a matter of if but a matter of when. Bellanotte has been running on fumes, and like many other businesses around town it is pretty much dead, they just don't know it yet. So what moves into those spaces downtown? Bellanotte is humongous, and will be yet another vacant spot in the cavernous hole that is the Block E behemoth on Hennepin. Last I checked, the restaurant had 453 friends on MySpace, so maybe they will all want to check out the new restaurant that might take its place. Perhaps a NASCAR themed restaurant? Bellanotte honcho Dave Koch has moved his GM from Bellanotte over to 7 Steak house/Sushi/Ultralounge, another sign that the end is near for the Big B.

7, by the way, is also supposed to get a new chef at some point, but in today’s market that might not make a difference at all in whether that restaurant stays open. Steak houses are not exactly the niche business du jour, and 7 has a lousy rep for food. I'm not sure anyone can save this place. A very highly placed person who does business with the company told me the other day that 7 can indeed make it if they get some more distance from the Denny Hecker relationship and get a realistic business plan in place for each revenue center. I am less optimistic because resuscitation jobs are the hardest trick in this trade, but if 7 did indeed bow out before 2009 ends it would be a black mark on the downtown Minneapolis restaurant scene as a whole…this has been a really sad year.

And who will want to lease the Morton’s space, a room that was one of the worst in town? As much as I loved eating there, the room was depressing, all the way down in the bowels of a basement of a dungeon of a room. Very sad. And lots of hardworking folks in both restaurants are now out of work. To get even more strange, I also read yesterday that Oceanaire filed for Chapter 11. According to MSP Business Journal the company closed four of its restaurants and (Charlotte, North Carolina, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Seattle) will “pay its vendors for all post-petition purchases, and it anticipates no changes to employees work schedules, pay, or benefits, except at the closed locations.” The restaurant owes Coastal Seafoods more than 20K. And that’s not post petition dough either.

I wonder how much other restaurants around town owe purveyors like Coastal, local companies that essentially help bankroll restaurants by lending them food product to sell, getting paid for product weeks later. Or never, in some cases. How much did Bellanotte owe, or Morton’s? Companies who sell product to restaurants go into their business with their eyes wide open, and employees can see writing on the wall as well, but the whole thing seems sad in the extreme to me.

On a brighter note, Sea Change, Tim McKee’s new restaurant in the Guthrie will formally be open sometime after July 20th. I am also happy to note that I ate again at the Brasa in St Paul and the food there is just as deliciously awesome as you would hope, service was hip and efficient, and the large family meal table complete with Lazy Susan is as nice a touch as I have seen in a casual spot this year.]]>

Chambers New Home for D'Amico Restaurant

June 29, 2009

After 22 years, and untold droves of ecstatic diners, D'Amico Cucina served its last meal on Saturday evening. This morning, less than 48 hours later,...
This is great news for fans of the Cucina crew who—despite turning out a stellar, world-class product in every sense of the word throuhgout the last few years—have found numbers dropping and prospects for a revival dimming. The culprits: the new stadium, increased competition, the dimming of the fine-dining fire, the economy, etc. The new eatery will be Italian, Occhiato will stay on as chef, etc., etc.

Soooooo . . . why is JGV and his crew leaving Dodge? Well, let's remember a couple of facts: JGV is a restaurant company, hired by a local businessman (Ralph Burnet) to run the food-service side of his hotel operation. For example, Manny’s performs the same function at the W, the Graves has its own people and manages its own food service. Museums also farm out food service operations, which is how Puck and his people came to be at the Walker. As leases such as these reach renewal status, or as other thresholds of the deal allow, the relationship is re-evaluated and either moves forward, dissolves, or the terms change.

Here’s my guess: Term expires for Chambers Kitchen, or a deliverable was missed by JGV, or a number was not what it should be. One of those scenarios happened, and the Chambers Hotel smartly made a move rather than allowing Chambers Kitchen to die on the vine any further than it already had. The food had gone downhill and become uneven, the crowd and the scene at the bar was not what ownership had envisioned. JGV himself was not a presence here in the least, and my people tell me that the numbers (gross revenue, net profits, etc.) were all falling. What’s more, and this is important, the net profit at the end of the day needs to be divided between the restaurant and the hotel, so success from a dollar standpoint is more important than a single owner-operated eatery would need it to be. There are more mouths to feed, so to speak, and expectations are high. I would venture to say that D’Amico and Partners will find it easier to manage those numbers than JGV’s peeps did all the way from NYC. I also think that the success of the Manny’s move to the W from the Hyatt gave Ralph a good indication that in some cases, “going local” is the way to go. The difference, however, is that the D'Amicos are not opening a Cucina in the Chambers.

All that being said, as a diner, I am happy to see The Fratelli still keeping a downtown Italian presence in Minneapolis. As an industry voyeur, I am dying to find out the dirt on why JGV turned tail so quickly. Did they not want to fight for their turf? Did Burnet aggressively push them out in a way that is not being talked about? Interesting. But the big question is this: Thousands mourned the passing of Cucina . . . does anyone care that Chambers Kitchen is going? Not that we aren’t sad any eatery closes or that people might lose jobs or that a meal there a year ago wasn’t great . . . but do we CARE at all that it closes? Not me. I had higher hopes for a JGV restaurant here in MSP.
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Family Affair

June 22, 2009

Yes, just to set the record straight—since I have gotten a flood of e-mails about it throughout the last few days—my father-in-law, Bill Haas, is... Yes, just to set the record straight—since I have gotten a flood of e-mails about it throughout the last few days—my father-in-law, Bill Haas, is indeed the same Bill Haas running for governor of our great state. He announced two weeks ago. There is a bumper sticker on my car now that reads, “left wing Lindsay liberal Jews for Haas.” I believe it’s one-of-a-kind.

I am very publicly about as left-leaning as it gets, any more left-leaning, and I would fall over. My father-in-law served for decades, both as the Mayor of Champlin and later as State Representative, and is a staunch Republican. Dinner time at our house is a strict politics-free zone, but Bill is the most honest, caring, hard-working guy I know and would make a superb chief exec of our great state. There is a lot of ocean to cross, but if he should make it through to the primary, and if he should get the nod from his party, and if he should then win the general election, well, let’s just say I have an extremely aggressive series of public policy initiatives that I plan on pushing across his desk. I will do all my negotiating through his largest avenue of weakness: his grandson. Smart, don’t you think?

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Our friends Tim and Debbie got married last weekend and are honeymooning in Cali. The reception was at Create, the food studio run by my friend Philip Dorwart (who also blogs on this site) and his wife. It was my first time there, but boy was it a slick facility—and the food was delightful. It’s the perfect place to host a dinner or event.

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I know I don’t post recipes on this site any more, but I have to tell you that I got a new grill and rotisserie, and I put two ducks on the spit last week after marinating them with salt, white pepper, fresh OJ, ground star anise, and ginger juice (grate a bunch and squeeze ). I put them over low heat and roasted them for several hours, basting as I went with a reduction that is so insane I needed to pass it on.

Bring a bottle of good sake, 2 tablespoon grated ginger, 1 minced hot chile, and 4 cups fresh pineapple juice (puree and strain fresh, ripe pineapple) to a boil, and simmer until reduced almost to a glaze. Pull from heat, season with sea salt and lime juice, and baste your birds. You can reduce a little more and drizzle over the top before serving. Holy Moly.

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Anyone watching Top Chef Masters? I am obsessed and, of course, with this group of contestants, I get to cheer for my pals. Couple of issues. First, for many of these chefs, it’s the first time in years they are “losing” anything. My friend Tim Love (check out Lonesome Dove and Love Shack in Fort Worth next time you’re there) got waxed in the first week, and he has been on an amazing ten-year roll (deservedly) that was best summed up by the look of shock on his face when he left early along with Michael Schlow from Radius (and others) in Boston. Schlow cooked a birthday meal for my wife two years ago that remains her all-time fave, and trust me, she gets some killer meals . . . all my chef pals would much rather impress her than me.

Hubert Keller is a force and has the talent to win it all, but truthfully, so do all the contestants, which is what makes this “bring it hard or go home” thrill ride fun to watch. GE Bowles and Wiley Dufresne getting creamed in ANY food competition is staggering to contemplate considering the rules play to their strengths as chefs in the sense that creativity, unusual technique/flavors, edible puns, and culinary humor get noticed by judges in a grand way, but Ms. Tracht’s win last week proved that this group of judges appreciates subtlety and finesse above all.

My last meals at GE and WD-50 were so ridiculously, amazingly superb that when I saw them walk out for episode two and saw that they were facing off against Tracht, I almost screamed “walk-over” at my TV set. I have eaten at Jar in LA several times, and the food is farmhouse simple. Superb but simple and homey in the extreme, but I knew she would win the moment I saw those Frito-crusted shallot rings in the quick-fire challenge. Her focus and sensibility make her a serious potential winner in this thing because the judges are all in love with food that reflects her sense of restraint. And as hot as Gael Greene’s hats are, what the **&&*%$#*@*@* is up with the new host? She looks like she has about five active types of eating disorders and is so annoying, I can barely watch her. Kelly Choi? Where did she come from? Someone please find her some calories in a hurry. And unlike Padma, who—believe it or not—loves food, knows her way around a table, and is one of the all-time great stone-cold foxes, this new Padma ‘wannabe’ is anything but.

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Make sure to pencil in September 25 and 26 as Mpls.St.Paul Magaine holds our second annual Taste! event. This year, we will be the first public event in the new TCF Bank football stadium, which is amazing btw, and I can't wait for the first Gopher home game. The beneficiaries of our event this year are Junior Achievement and U of M Athletics, and the focus is on local culinary talent. The two-day food and wine party should be pretty fun.

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Legends

June 16, 2009

Tonight is the final episode of Bizarre Foods. I am a mess.The episode is my Survivor Show, shot on location in the Mexican jungle, where... Tonight is the final episode of Bizarre Foods. I am a mess.

The episode is my Survivor Show, shot on location in the Mexican jungle, where I was left to fend for my myself for 48 hours after two days of training with Myke Hawke, one of the world’s great survivalists and Special Forces guru. I lived to tell the tale. Don’t miss tonight’s show.

My new series, Bizarre World, starts in September.

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My pal Dan Buettner is applying his Blue Zones longevity secrets to an entire town and measuring the results. As he told me over breakfast last week, he is giving Albert Lea, a statistically average American city, an extra 10,000 years of added life expectancy. Here is the front page story running in the USA Today Life Section. If all goes according to plan, I will join Dan one day in August to cook a Blue Zones lunch for the whole town.

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Brasa in St Paul on Grand Avenue is finally open . . . thank god!

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Tim McKee is working on his new restaurant, Sea Change, in the Guthrie (formerly Cue) and will be formally open in July. Until then, the restaurant is open with McKee’s staff running the show before the formal change. Molly Mogren wrote a great pre-pre-pre-view based on her chance to sit in on a staff meal tasting. This new eatery should set a new standard for fish and shellfish in Minnesota.

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Two years ago, I was in Virgin Gorda walking down the beach with the family, and we met some cool folks with kids of their own. The lady looked oddly familiar, but I didn’t pay much attention to it. Each day on the beach, all our kids would play together, and every afternoon, the other mom would play guitar with the kids. After a few days of this, we realized it was Jill Hennessey of Crossing Jordan fame. Well, Jill and her husband e-mailed me to say her first album will be available as of today through iTunes, Amazon, and in stores at Borders. You can also hear some music and get information at Jill’s website. Her new career is not the typical vanity project you find some celebs doing these days (see Eddie Murphy’s “Party All the Time”); it is amazingly good.

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Last week, I logrolled with three-time world champ Shana Martin in Madison; hit Solley’s in Milwaukee for a butter burger; ate in the kitchen with Homaro Cantu at Chicago’s Moto; played guitar at Legends with Buddy Guy; toured Ben and Jerry’s in Waterbury, and sampled the 2010 secret flavor they are working on; ate chowder and lobster at Newport’s Black Pearl; cooked with Ken Oringer at Boston’s Toro; ate a 22-course meal at Oya; and conducted the Boston Pops. All of this was for my web series Appetite for Life. The first six shows are up on the site; the ones I shot last week roll out next month.

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My pal Bill Gurstelle has a new book and the NYT loved it. I think you will, too.]]>

Wolfgang's In Town

June 10, 2009

Last month I let you know about a taco truck I love in LA and asked the question, why not here? Check out this video... Check out this video from CNN about the taco truck being a Twitter hit. I maintain the position that here in Mpls./St Paul, we are a perfect market for mobile food vendors of all species, especially in this fragile economy. If the local city governments would make it easier for entrepreneurs to open businesses such as these, it would be a huge boon to our downtown areas and extended metro neighborhoods. Check out this link to a NRN article on the mobile food truck craze.

Why, after all the success of one or two vendors here in the Twin Cities, are we making it so hard on young entrepreneurs? I don’t get it. Talented chefs can get in the mobile game for a fraction of the price of opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant. Even Milliken and Feniger are going mobile. This is exactly the type of cool business model that the our cities could support. Imagine mobile hot chocolate and mini donut vendors on Nicollet Mall in December. Dumpling carts at the lakes in the Spring? C’mon people, let's make this happen. It’s the right idea at the right time.

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Speaking of right ideas, my friend Lenny Russo has always been long on opinions and doesn’t give a rat's ass about political correctness of any type, a major reason I love his letters to my sites and the private e-mails we share. He has started a new blog, and you should check it out.

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If you don’t already know, chef Wolfgang Puck will be at 20.21 at the Walker Art Center this Thursday evening, June 11. A special tasting menu with wine pairings, created by Puck and 20.21 executive chef Asher Miller, is available from 5:30 to 11p.m. that evening. Reservations can be made at 612-253-3410.

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The Minnesota Farmers Union and Food Alliance Midwest are once again co-presenting the seventh annual Minnesota Cooks event at the Minnesota State Fair on Tuesday, September 1. This event brings together local farmers, chefs, celebrities, and the community for cooking demonstrations and discussions about sustainable food production practices and the farmer-to-consumer connection. Brenda Langton is co-hosting, and the chef lineup is as always very impressive. Mark your calendars.]]>