Spring has sprung: Birthdays old and new to celebrate April—No foolin’
LOON CAFÉ BLOWS OUT 25 CANDLES FOR 25 DAYS…Wow! How time flies when you’re having fun, right? Can you believe it’s been 25 years since the nationally recognized Loon Café opened their doors in the old warehouse district in 1982. Located on the dark, quiet corner of Fifth Street at First Avenue North, the Loon was the first to bring fun, food and a nightlife into what was to become the gentrification of today’s sparkling Minneapolis Warehouse District. That was also long before they built the $100 million Target Center, which opened in October of 1990.
Loon founders Johnny White and Mike Andrews were the idea men who brought us the likes of the old Ichabod’s, Sargent Preston’s, and J.D. Hoyt’s just down the street on Washington Avenue. White went on to develop the Pickled Parrots while Andrew did his thing with Dixie’s as well. Now in their 60s and semi-retired, “the boys” winter away from the snow, but will be back full-strength to reminisce with friends and past employees in April. Operating partners John Stein and Tim Mahoney tell me the whole group will join in activities mid-month for some of the fun and a Grand Loon Reunion Party is scheduled for past employees to gather at the Loon on Saturday, April 21.
Stein, who was one of the sexy, single young bartenders in the early days, met and married his wife Kay at the Loon, and both are on site to meet and greet you daily. They are also having fun tracking down their past fellow employees, many of whom are flying in from out of state for the party. In the kitchen the friendly and familiar face of the story-telling Chef Brian “Skidad” Turner is still smoking up a storm. With 25 days of celebrating, that means the kitchen will be extra busy and there will be lots of chances to stop by and reminisce about the good old days, morning, noon or night. Every week will feature Loon favorites and specialty drinks, plus many nights will offer samplings and surprises to tie-in with the Twins opening games.
Take the New York Yankees, for example. While they’re here playing at the dome April 9 to 11, the Loon wants you to eat like you’re in New York. Chef Skidad will whip up his happy hour Coney Island dogs and their slow-smoked hot pastrami sandwiches for half price.
A special five-course Summit Beer dinner is also in the works for Tuesday, April 17, pairing the brews of founder Mark Stutrud’s 20-year-old Summit Brewery and menu favorites from the Loon. (The menu is still in the planning at this writing—check events at www.summitbrewing.com). The biggest and best buys of the month will be the third week in April when they roll back the price on a half-dozen favorites to the 1982 prices like the popular signature Pecos River chili, Minnesota wild rice soup, the grilled cheese sandwich, Loon nachos and the crazy, luscious “house favorite” Loon addict sandwich (a stacked grilled chicken sandwich topped with mushrooms, melted Swiss cheese, shredded lettuce and mayo on a toasted onion bun).
If breakfast is your bag, you can make an early visit any weekend between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. for one of their half a dozen breakfast entrees and they’ll throw in a side of free French toast and tempt you with their fresh-squeezed orange juice screwdriver and popular bloody Mary with a skewer of Skidad’s homemade beef jerky. Sunday nights during April will solve your burger cravings with their famous “Burger Loon” for the 1982 price. And, as a thank you for a quarter of a century of business, look for their fun Loon lottery scratch-off cards. Stein tells me they will offer more than 5,000 cards to customers this month with free menu favorites as prizes on return visits from soup and chili to beer, wine and sandwiches. Cheers!
APRIL BRINGS FIRST BIRTHDAY TO GUSTO IN HOPKINS…That’s Gusto Café & Wine Bar, at 922 Mainstreet in Hopkins, the new brainchild of longtime friend and foodie Chuck Venables. He has a wealth of talent and experience behind him from the days when I first met him back in the ’80s when he was the OMNI/Orion Room chef at the top of IDS. He went on to work in both the front and back of the house with food and wines from Manny’s to Buca to Sidney’s to California Café to most recently Cosmos as manager and wine expert. Now at Gusto, he has put all this knowledge into play, and pulled together his own dream version of a great wine bar with bistro favorites.
His new cafe is nestled into one of those great old, historic Hopkins brick buildings, at the corner of Tenth and Mainstreet, which previously housed an antique shop. The space has wonderful floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides and a grand high ceiling. He saved the best of the past including an elegant, black metal chandelier overhead and added a wall of glossy black tiles behind the bar: a very sexy and inviting showcase for his dozens of wine and spirits bottles. You’ll find Chuck wears all the hats, typical of a small business owner, but mostly he’s in the kitchen in his chef whites creating the plates du jour and his famous homemade pies. Like the wine poster behind the bar boasting Mondavi’s La Famiglia (the family), Chuck was proud to point out his family support at Gusto from his daughter Courtney, who waits tables, to his wife Denise, the evening greeter at the glass host desk. In fact, this showcase display also boasts shelves of handmade jewelry Denise designs and sells at Gusto. Artwork throughout the restaurant is by local artists. The works are for sale, as well as some beautiful pottery along the windows created by Venables’ son, Noah.
It all makes for a friendly neighborhood setting and the neighbors have been coming in droves. The menu has been the greatest lure, with Chuck’s lunches of homemade soups and fancy salads, which can be topped with grilled chicken or smoked salmon, and hot panini sandwiches. I also loved the dinner menu with its addition of small plates—bacon-wrapped dates, bruschetta, garlic shrimp, mussels and cheeses—perfect for pairing with your own choice of wine flights. He also has three wine flights of selected whites and reds.
Main course offerings run from gnocchi to grilled pork chops to steak au poivre. And save room for those desserts—one of Chuck’s favorites too, like molten chocolate cake, and freshly made blueberry pie. All change daily. And if you like homemade infused liqueur, ask for his peach flavored grappa and lemoncello. Yummy. Hmm, maybe he’ll even have birthday cake this month. Cheers to you, Chuck.
SPILL IS NEW APRIL BABY ON THE BLOCK…Yes, just say Spill. That’s my nickname for the new Spill the Wine, another restaurant dream come true for a foodie couple in town, Karl Greeman and Katie Milburn, who have done their homework, gained experience and lived the dream of opening their own shining spot along the avenue someday. They have both been in the biz—Karl from Don Pablo’s and a dozen years in California with Sheraton Hotels, to local experience back here from Buca to Tejas, and Katie from years at Bar Abilene.
Now, April brings the birth of their new dream wine spot along the avenue at the corner of Eleventh Street and Washington Avenue South. You’ll recognize this historical, red brick building on the corner that housed Frank’s Plumbing for all the years I was growing up. The Spill space has great glass windows, high metal ceilings and two floors of action. Inside you’ll spot more of the old Frank’s, thanks to Greeman’s use of colorful, graphic billboard panels the store had used for sales slogans outside the building. It was fun to see the bar base siding is a stunning collage of the Frank’s red and gold panels—almost a look of the old scrolled Ringling Circus lettering.
Greeman promises more fun than a three-ring circus, with their three circles of action. They have a split entrance with two rooms at the front—a bar side that will seat more than 60 and dining room space for seating more than 80—which will also showcase the open kitchen. Plus, an off-sale wine and spirits store at the back of the building—Uffdah! That really will be a three-ring circus. Cheers. Keep your eye on the display kitchen, too. That open counter will give Chef George Vatafu, a native of Bucharest, Romania, a real stage for his talents. I learned he has European training and vast experience from his travels from the Netherlands to Abu Dhabi to London with InterContinental Hotels. Lucky for us, he married a Minnesota girl, and moved to Minneapolis (not unlike other transplanted chefs in town—i.e. Vincent Francoual of Vincent-A Restaurant and Stewart Woodman of Levain/Five and soon-to-be-in-his-own-hot-spot with wife Heidi). Spill was not yet open at the time of this writing, but they will feature an American Bistro menu with continental influences and wine from regions all over the world. They will also cater on the second floor. Bravo!
