Holiday cheer downtown:
Barrio, Hell’s Kitchen and Seven, and a toast to the ’burbs
TOAST TO HOLIDAY DOWNTOWN HOT SPOTS…and lucky for us, guaranteed to help us fight the winter wind chill. When you’re out for holiday shopping along Nicollet Mall or grabbing a seasonal show along Hennepin Avenue, take time for a happy hour pit stop in one of these cozy settings. First you can raise a glass of tequila and shout Olé at the new Barrio Tequila Bar, with more than 100 choices of that famous alcohol, just a stone throw and few feet away from their hot corner neighbor, Rick Webb’s Zelo Restaurant. If you love tequila you’ll be in heaven at Barrio! But bring your dinero. I spotted maybe 20 choices under $10 for tequila shots and more than 40 choices in the $10 to $20 per shot. But if you long for rare or aged tequila like an Extra Anejo, those can range as high as $50 and $65 per shot. Uffdah. Now that’s a hot shot! I stayed with their colorful tequila cocktails in the $9 range, while a friend tried one of their half-dozen margaritas priced about the same. Also be sure to try the small plates (nearly a dozen choices) and if you have time try one of the five large plates, including skirt steak, sautéed shrimp or roasted chicken. They also have a half dozen tacos in the $4 range, great with any tequila shot.
We can thank the creative team of Tim McKee and Josh Thoma (of La Belle Vie and Solera fame) for these tequila choices and a casual setting where they also boast a unique menu they call Latin street food. Solera has its tapas and tempting Spanish sherries. Maybe that’s where they got hooked on gathering a great number of selected beverages in one category—they also pulled that trick with rum this summer when they opened Smalley’s Caribbean Barbeque and Pirate Bar in Stillwater, which boasts dozens rums. It could take many visits to sample all their new labels on the Mall too. Cheers!
HEAD ON DOWN TO HELL…and you’ll find another hot spot with the newly transformed, subterranean Hell’s Kitchen at 70 South Sixth Street, previously home to Rossi’s Steakhouse. It was fun to peek in on the opening celebrations last month to see how they have adapted to officially being set up below ground. With many more dining rooms and two cozy bars, their breakfast-only format has expanded with menus for morning, noon and night service seven days a week, happy hour, a Sunday “Gospel Brunch” and “Hell on Wheels” take out and delivery menu. This new setting, just a block from their old street-level spot, now really suits their name. It looks better than hell and is rich, warm and cozy and a perfect getaway pit stop for any time it’s wintery and blistery weather.
It was great to see chef and co-owners Steve Meyer and Mitch Omer looking like proud papas in their new devilish digs, with one at each entrance greeting guests and handing out bubbling Champagne. I’d met these smiling and talented chefs years ago when they both had turns heading the kitchen at the Pickled Parrot in the Warehouse District. Both were a couple of mavericks, too (pre-Palin), known for their award-wining ribs, Steve’s hammer-slamming stone crabs each winter, and Mitch is an infamous mushroom hunter, too. They paired up for a stint at the Lowell Inn before they pulled Hell’s Kitchen together and now in this underground space they really think they have died and gone to—er, Hell, of course. They’re known for their “damn good food” and hard work. Almost everything is made from scratch, from their luscious award-winning peanut butter to even homemade ketchup, giving them about 70 “Best” awards in the seven years since they opened. Bravo!
SLIP INTO SEVEN for HAPPY HOUR…for more holiday toasting this month. Between 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. there’s a new “sinful happy hour” with $7 sinful martinis, perfect for after work or for pre-theater crowds on Hennepin Avenue. It’s a whole new game at the Seven Steakhouse, where they rolled out the new name (previously r.Norman’s) in October of this street level bar and two-tired dining room space in the historic three-story Stimson Building, which adjoins the Pantages Theater.
According to David Koch, who heads up The Koch Group, owners of Bellanotte and the Seven Sushi Lounge and SkyBar concepts above the steakhouse, the new name was a natural. “After we evaluated our successful summer with the top two floor concepts, we felt this fall was the time to initiate the new name Seven for our ground level steakhouse as well,” he said to FSN in Ocotber. “It’s a natural choice for building a stronger and more extensive Seven brand identity for our hospitality concepts, from our sushi to steaks to top of the line wine and spirits for our three-level complex.”
The steakhouse also rolled out an inviting happy hour menu in November, honed by new Executive Chef Craig Johnson. He is a Minnesota native who studied at the Western Culinary Institute in Portland before coming home to work with the D’Amico team from Campiello to Café Lurcat. He also was sous chef the Dakota with Ken Goff and in 2006 opened Jimmy’s on Shady Oak Road.
When I took a look at the new happy hour menu it was fun to see at least a dozen of their Seven signature items for $7 stand out, from mini reubens and beef skewers to lamb lollipops, oysters and a super East Coast style lobster roll. Delish! They also have sushi items for their guests at the steakhouse bar, too. For even more bang for your buck, you can go for the “3 for $3” plan. You select from any 12 items and build a trio of flavors, then pair with one of the new sinful martinis and you’ll know you’re in heaven. Oops, heaven or hell? Your call. It all sounds good to me this holiday season.
CHEERS TO SECOND ROUND AT SANTORINI…Raise your glass with a holiday toast and a big welcome for the new Eden Prairie Santorini, which opened their doors last month. This Nicklow family operation, headed up by Tony Nicklow, closed their St. Louis Park Santorini last month after 14 years off Highway 394. This move also makes room for another venture he has planned for the St. Louis Park site—a 140-room Hyatt Summerfield Suites Hotel.
I recall that just over a decade ago, this Eden Prairie site was home to the suburban Pickled Parrot, but now there are new blue sparkling lights and Greek pillars outside and a stunning marble-top bar inside, as well as louvered window openings, cozy booths around the fireplace, new drapes and a carpeted private dining room. The biggest news is the introduction of the second generation of Nicklows, now taking on the day-to-day operations. After 40 years in the hospitality business, brothers Bill, Jimmy and Tony all have sons who grew up in the restaurant business. Tony’s son John and Jimmy’s son Christian will be the assistant GMs here, working with Tony. The menu will remain a mix of their Greek and American favorites, and Chef Dino and his team have been joined by Chef Jacob Schloner to help direct this larger property. Don’t forget the flaming saganaki. Opah!
NAMESAKE OF DENNY’S IS A HOLIDAY HIT…and, every December they make second generation father and son news, too. Even though baker Denny Hirman sold his Denny’s 5th Avenue Bakery to his son Kevin back in 1998, he has made it a tradition to come back each holiday season to help in the baking rush, and the customers love to see him. Since he opened back in 1969, Denny has officially designated Christmas his favorite holiday. He gets out those Georgia pecans and candied red and green cherries along with his famous fruit cake recipe and goes to town, making hundreds of fruit cakes and dozens of his classic rosettes, dusted with powdered sugar. I love his giant rosette iron which makes 20 molds at one time. Wow. That’s some piece of equipment (shown in the photo).
When I stopped by the bakery last month I was in for a few surprises. I learned this Bloomington bakery supplies great breads and buns for folks all over town from Jax Café to Joe Sensor’s to FireLake Grill, as well as the Timber lodge Steakhouses and even the onion bread down at Morton’s Steakhouse. And not only are the Hirmans getting ready for the holidays the old fashioned way, they are also getting ready to celebrate their 40th Anniversary coming up in 2009. Bravo!
They never say no to a customer’s requests, either. For instance, the 5-8 Club, currently celebrating their 80th Birthday. Kevin and his bakers came up with the three-foot wide, 20 pound burger buns used last month for the challenging 100 pound giant Juicy Lucy, made by the 5-8 Tavern & Grill in Maplewood to try to break a record for the Guinness Book of World Records (which is still being decided). Pretty daunting, I’d say.
Denny learned from the best with jump start at the Falcon Heights Bakery in the early 1960s, then three years at Wuollet’s at 50th and Penn, and three years at Jerry’s in Edina before striking off on his own. By the mid 1980s, Kevin was learning from the master and doing what dad was doing. When they moved the bakery to its current location in 1980, they added the “5th Avenue” to their name and have been growing ever since. This past summer Kevin more than doubled the old space and I’m wondering if he may have kids at home to pass this on to another generation for the next 20 years. Cheers and good will to one and all, and Happy New Year for 2009.
