date: 1/17/12
location: minneapolis
grade: a-

if you grew up in minnesota and have nordic roots and/or have very fond memories of going to dayton's as a kid and getting their popovers, this place is so in your wheelhouse. if meatballs with lingonberry reads 'grandma' to you there's a very good chance that you will come back here again and again... well, unless you're the thrifty sort. (more on that below).

it does kind of look vaguely minnesota meets nordic (think grandma touches, in a good way)- this isn't your typical shea-esque cookie-cutter place, it's kind of a visual relief though aurally it's on the loud side. it's a bit hard to find as signage is tiny (and marvel bar signage is nonexistant). side note- parking is also tiny around that area and good freaking luck when there's twins games. be prepared to look around. they need to cut a deal with the people who own the huge lot behind the place.

anyway, the food. the table starts with a dish of butter, salt, radishes and well... ok, i'm going to call it matza. it's flatbread crackers, so nonjewish matza. the flatbread was the closest thing i've had to it anyway. and interesting and different way to start things off. i'd rather have the popovers with honey butter for everyone, but they probably make a killing on those things alone. they're $3 each, and everyone ordered one at some point in the meal.

a few people started with them. of the other starters, the celery root and apple soup, spiced walnut oil, rye crisps ($7) was the clear winner of the lot (and not just because the day was so freaking cold that any soup would be good). it hit the right notes in all respects. the house-smoked steelhead trout, scrambled eggs, pain de mie, and capers ($12) was a solid dish, but a bit overseasoned to some (not me, queen of salt that i am).

i was thinking of going for the trout as it seemed kind of close to the lobster and egg dish that i can't ever have (from bar la grassa), but my head was once more turned by mr. quack... and i had heard good things about their toast service. so it was the duck liver pâté with dried cherries and mustard ($10). which was quite good, but could've been better.

the toast rack, while cool-looking, pretty much serves to cool the toast down. and the pâté itself needed to be a shade warmer, it seemed straight out of the fridge. not sure if i'd order it again. it made me think of the superior duck rillettes and warm toast i had at tilia. the last portions were better than the first, but hey, it's hard to mess up duck liver.

what i would've liked to order somehow is smaller portions of a few different toasts- many of them seemed like they would be something i would like (such as smoked salmon and also the camembert). since i couldn't convince anyone else to order any of them i couldn't swap.

three of us waited until dinner to have our popovers. i used mine to mop up the last bits of my dinner- poached eggs and veg (caramelized brussels sprouts, sunchokes, and possibly something else i forgot) with sauce choron (like a bernaise with a shot of tomato in it) for $17. and while everything was good and locally sourced, etc., it just wasn't $17 worth of dinner.

they do smaller portions, even for entrees, and i had two eggs and small pile of veg and a spot of sauce. why was that $17 when someone had, as dinner, a marinated squid and cauliflower salad ($10)? it was about the same amount of food and squid cost more than eggs. so that was bothersome. so it was a good thing i got the popover to fill out the meal, which needed a shot of starch somewhere, and a tiny bit of salt and/or acid. it wasn't quite balanced. but it was an interesting take on a vegetarian entree and very seasonally appropriate.

i kind of thought the same thing about the meatball dinner mentioned above- you get a bit of mashed potato and pickled cuckes with your lingonberry sauce... and six meatballs. then again, this was the fourth time someone had come for the meatballs, so who knows. and the rockfish and fluke (market fish of the day) with manila clams, braised squid, fingerling potatoes, creme fraiche ($23) seemed large enough as did the house-cured pork loin and belly, braised cabbage with the thursday night pea soup that they make nightly ($20).

there are some innovative touches you don't see a lot of places, most notably the wine board- they sell half bottles and if one is open, they write the name of the wine on the board and sell it by the glass. as someone pointed out, that's a really good way to go through some of the higher end bottles that people may not want to buy by the bottle. and there's the supposedly kickass cocktail haven that is the marvel bar, which i can't say much about as when we wandered down seating was unavailable (very surprising on a tuesday, but then again the restaurant was packed, too) so we didn't stay.

service was excellent once we sat down, which kind of surprised me as they had been closed the first two weeks of january or so and neglected to mention this on their web site or reservation line at all (i had to call in to change a reservation detail).... and when i left two messages during this time (after finally looking on their facebook page and finding out why no callback) no one called me back when they were open.

also, when i got there, they decided to seat people who had gotten there after i did before they even acknowledge me. so host stand bad, table service- mad props even on the water refills and even though the server didn't take out the plates we didn't have a plate auction, they dropped them in the right place. nice. the server did know the menu cold, plus the wine list. that was all good.

since i am not of nordic stock and didn't hit dayton's for popovers as a kid, there's nothing that particularly ties me to this restaurant and this cuisine. it's not like i wouldn't come back, it's more like i'd go if someone else wanted to, but it doesn't hit my sweet spot/top tier of choice placces. odd, considering that though i gave it a lower grade than everyone, it was still not a very low grade.