Restaurant Week from Lurcat to Chambers, familiar faces & spring tea at the Ivy, UP Show faces

Restaurant Week from Lurcat to Chambers, familiar faces & spring tea at the Ivy, UP Show faces

CHEERS TO RESTAURANT WEEK…Loved the excuse to dine day and night last month during Restaurant Week and hope you did, too. What a timely stimulus package for one and all. This popular annual event makes it politically correct to serve discounted prices, offering more “bang-for-your-buck” without looking desperate for business. The places where I stopped for lunch and dinner were thrilled with the business and many spots had already decided to turn the one-week, multi-course meals into special offerings all month long. (This was the trend successfully touted in New York City earlier this year.) That was the case over at Café Lurcat as we learned after our Sunday night supper—General Manager Ann Grant told us they would stretch their dinner specials throughout the month and Executive Chef Adam King was planning to offer varying selections of the three-course, $30 dinners each week.

After a delicious dinner at their sister operation and flagship, D’Amico Cucina, another evening, I learned D’Amico operations from Masa in Minneapolis to Campiello in Eden Prairie also extended their specials—a grand idea all around. I also found La Belle Vie continued their three-course dinner special all month in their lounge, making March maybe one of the best times this year to “fine-dine” around town. (But don’t forget La Belle Vie always offers a 4-course, $40 tasting menu in the lounge.)

Meanwhile, I headed over to Chamber’s Kitchen with Jill Skogheim, who operates the three 5-8 Clubs in town and loves a good deal on a meal too. We made a Restaurant Week lunch stop and chatted with Executive Chef Chris Damskey on his fresh “Jean-Georges” approach. It was great to see his lunch menu is as tasty as ever with super small plates and small prices (from $7 to $15), with one of the best offers being a new bento box dubbed a “20 minute express lunch,” perfect for those on the run. Maybe it should be called a bento tray, since it’s served spread out on a bamboo tray with a wide array of choices. Chris offers his melt-in-your-mouth chicken and coconut soup, and a crisp salad to a delicate tempura batter-dipped salt and pepper walleye, two chicken satays with a chili lime dip plus a dessert course thrown in (ice cream or sorbet) priced at—hold onto your socks—just $15. Now that is a real stimulus package! But they don’t stop there. Another very nice addition is their warm welcome at the Ninth Street lobby door where lunch guests are now offered complimentary valet parking. Yummy! The nicest deal downtown! Out at the Bloomington Chophouse (located in the Bloomington Hilton) where free parking abounds, I hear they even extended their $10 special, the three-course soup, entrée and dessert Restaurant Week lunch all month “due to popular demand.” I love it.

Of course Restaurant Week (er, month) may have come and gone but the Happy Hour and early evening specials linger on around town if you just look. It doesn’t hurt to remind our readers some of the ongoing tips and tempters I’ve tried in the last few months that give you a great bang-for-your-buck. I salute Cosmos over at the Graves 601 Hotel and Executive Chef Stephen Trojahn for maintaining their popular pre-theater (read: early bird) prix fixe three-course Dinner for $35. It’s always on the menu at Cosmos with three choices for each course, served between 5 and 7 p.m., every day. It’s a winner! They also cut their valet price in half for dinner guests to $7. Down on the hotel’s street level, the new Bradstreet opened this winter with Chef Jesse Spitzack heading up the open kitchen and a 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. format, Tuesday through Saturday, featuring fancy cocktails and small plates for less than $10. (More after I catch a visit.)

The neighboring Bellanotte, which celebrated its fifth birthday last month, has been a leader in the multi-course lunch deal the past few years. Executive Chef Amber Severtson offers a super three-course, $10.95 lunch menu with a half-dozen entree choices and a delicious tiramisu for dessert. Meanwhile down the block, Seven Steakhouse has also added a weekday Seven Happy Hour with oodles of fun small plates and martinis for $7 each, plus $3 small plate choices with a trio of temptors. And, back at Lurcat, if you haven’t tried its bar menu for happy hour, put that on the your list for $6 to $10 choices—including my favorite, the Lurcat mini butter burgers and their famous deep-fried, to-order mini-donuts sprinkled in cinnamon sugar. Can’t be beat and more fun than the state fair with a glass of champagne. I also heard Jax Café has continued their great Live Lobster Sunday night suppers through the spring and summer season. From 3:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Bill Kozlak and his team serve up a 24 ounce whole Maine lobster, priced at just $30, and the dinner includes soup or salad, potato, and veggie. (Just book ahead to reserve your lobster).

FAMILIAR FACES NOW GREET YOU AT THE IVY…With just one year under their belt, the Award winning Hotel Ivy and their unique Porter & Frye Restaurant have had their growing pains and are now rolling into spring with lots of new, friendly and familiar faces and a fancy Tea Time on the docket. What a pleasant surprise to hear my old buddy Chuck Paton, who first welcomed us to the famous Rusty Scupper back in the early ’80s, became the new GM just before the Christmas holidays. His friendly face has been well known in hospitality circles for decades. In fact, with more than 25 years in the biz, the 50-year-old Paton has really done it all. Following the Scupper he managed the old Pronto for Parasole and the late, great Azure at Gaviidae for the D’Amicos. For the last 11 years he was with Morrissey Hospitality, heading up the St. Paul Hotel, Pazzaluna and other properties. For the last 24 months with Morrissey, he was dealing with the hectic pace and a 12-hour ’round-trip commute rolling out “Famous” Dave Anderson’s Keylime Cove indoor water park just west of Chicago. “I never saw my wife except on weekends for the past two years,” Chuck recalls. “And I was eager to face a new challenge closer to home.” This Starwood luxury property, recently named a winner of the Mobil-Four-Star Award for 2009 (the first ever for a Minneapolis Hotel) must seem like heaven to Chuck—hard work but prestigious to boot. Evidently property owners Jeff Laux and Gary Benson gave Chuck an offer he couldn’t refuse, so it would seem to be a match made in heaven on both sides.

Chuck is diplomatic and service-oriented so he will give a friendly face and the smile of “Minnesota Nice” to the property, and we’ll love seeing him on site as guests come and go. He’s a great hospitality man and team leader who says the word “No” is rarely used in his vocabulary. Along with Chuck came new restaurant changes as well. We all heard that January 2009 brought on the restaurant’s transition. I was out of town when I heard Porter & Frye Executive Chef Steven Brown had left. Then in February, we heard Chef Joan Ida took the lead in the kitchen while husband Scott Ida took on front of the house duties as well. A dynamic duo for sure! Not a surprise since both had worked with Chuck in the Morrissey era—Joan as opening chef at the Tria Restaurant in North Oaks, and Scott was a manager at the St. Paul Grill when Chuck was operating the hotel. Joan was most recently the opening chef for The Lake House in Forest Lake after a year in Hong Kong, where she helped open a new property. Scott was most recently manager at Nick and Eddie, where we have since spotted Steve Brown in the kitchen. And the musical chairs go ’round and ’round, eh?

As for the tea? Chuck tells us every afternoon between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. time will stand still as the Ivy brings a modern take on a classic tradition. It will be a wonderful alternative to a noisy Happy Hour or Small plates and Martinis. For $15 guests will be offered their choice of five, premium Harney & Simons loose leaf tea selections. The tea plate served to each guest includes a beautiful array of over half a dozen savory and sweet mini sandwiches, cakes, tarts, tortes, scones and such. We also were served a small cone-shaped cornet of dried beet that was stuffed with a creamed cheese. Works of art. Add a glass of sherry or glass of champagne to your tea service and the whole deal is $22 per person.

UP SHOW: SMILING FACES WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS…Everybody knows a picture is worth a 1,000 words, so in wrap-up of my April Tidbits column, I’m leaving space for fun people photos of familiar faces.