Toast the holidays, blow out the candles and cheer another year and ‘Damn Good Food’
BLOW OUT THE CANDLES…for more birthdays all over town last month. It was fun seeing all the salutes to “Restaurant Anniversaries” in FSN Editor Mike Mitchelson’s November cover story last month. I have to keep the ball rolling with a few more salutes to some of my favorites. Two of our most talented chef/owners in town, Vincent Francoual and Tim McKee, not only toasted their restaurant birthdays with elaborate and irresistible wine dinners, but also shared the fun part of their work—cooking in the kitchen—with some of their “best-chef-friends.” But the best part for dinner guests? We got the fruits of their multiple and creative labors with each course. And it’s not true that too many chefs in the kitchen can spoil the broth. (Lucky nobody served broth.)
VINCENT’S TURNED 8 YEARS OLD…with lots of festive specials including a wine dinner this fall at Vincent—A Restaurant in Minneapolis. Chef/Owner Vincent Francoual opened his doors back in 2001 and by the looks of this cute photo of him in the kitchen back then he felt like a kid in candy store. I love a happy chef and when I found this in my files, I recall taking it when they opened. Happy Birthday Vincent! His cozy corner spot on Nicollet Mall, across from Orchestra Hall, offers great visibility for him, and the summer sidewalk café has been a nice addition in recent years.
To celebrate his eight memorable years, he hosted a wine dinner with three other great chefs that wowed us, who backed him up as the “talent team” in the kitchen—a real “who’s who” of chefs here in town. Also it was fun to see their heads peeking thru the open kitchen so you could see who was cooking at the time and I spotted some familiar faces. Chef Vincent invited Russell Klein from Meritage in St. Paul, Stuart Woodman from Heidi’s over on 50th and Lyndale and Ferris Schiffer from the Minikahda Country Club overlooking Lake Calhoun. Biggest surprise? They had a drawing for a gift card to each of these restaurants as well. Bravo! Delightful and delicious!
LA BELLE VIE CELEBRATED FOUR YEARS…in Minneapolis this fall, but I count even more candles. Although Tim McKee and his team count the four years since opening at the old 510 alongside Loring Park as their anniversary date, I still like to count the years since they conceived this baby back in Stillwater in 1998. It was the birth of the La Belle Vie concept, and I consider the Minneapolis venue a “moving” experience, making them 12 years old in 2010.
McKee and partners Josh Thoma and Bill Summerville have had lots to celebrate this year, and they just keep growing and growing—getting bigger and better all the time. Not only did we all cheer for Tim being honored at the James Beard Awards in 2009 with a Best Chef” medal for our region (a first for a Minnesota chef, too) but they continue to receive more kudos and “Bests” in many categories around town and they also picked up the new Zagat Award honors too.
To celebrate their special Fourth Wine Dinner, McKee and his Chef friends tempted us with wine and hors d’oeuvres in the lounge, followed by a five-course dinner with wine pairings by Summerville in the dining room. So who were Tim’s chef friends in the kitchen? Well, I’ll tell you they were all very low key and nobody was ever really presented to the dining room, but courses were prepared by McKee and his La Belle Vie chefs Mike Decamp and Diane Yang along with guests Isaac Becker of 112 Eatery fame and the new Bar La Grassa, (in a partnership with Josh Thoma) and the new kid on the block at the Guthrie complex, Chef Erik Anderson who heads up the new Sea Change (another McKee operation). Birthday Cheers to you all and Happy Holidays too.
TOAST TO TRYG’S FIFTH BIRTHDAY, TOO…One more birthday cake will be sliced as I turn in this copy over at the classy, copper-roofed Tryg’s, named after owner Tryg Truelson. He’s a second-generation operator, following in his family footsteps and in their footprint as well.
Located just a few blocks west of Lake Calhoun, the site always brings a little touch of nostalgia for me because I recall the old Nora’s on this site, and the fun miniature golf course that used to be out back. This five-year old, modern design-awarded venue (read Shea Design) grabs you from the outside, and then the moment you step inside. I plan to peek in on his birthday weekend to see what they’re serving. It’s also the season to gather by their blazing fireplace, which greets you when you step into the two-story high copper ceiling lobby, at the entrance. That will take the December chill out with a little help from one of their hot coffee drinks. Also good to see on a recent stop for their early bird $15 suppers, (comfort food like Nora’s from meatloaf to short ribs) that Tryg has added a row of booths along the middle of the dining room where the stark, cold long banquets used to be. Cheers—I love a cozy booth, and Happy Birthday.
ONE MORE CHEER FOR COOPER, THE NEW PUB ON THE BLOCK…Now open out at a busy corner of the new West End Shops in St. Louis Park, located at Park Place Boulevard just West of Highway 100, off Highway 394). We all have our hands held high with a Guinness toast to Kieran Folliard of the sparkling eyes and Irish smile to say, “Welcome to the suburbs.” This friendly barkeep and restaurateur brings a wee bit of the Irish to spots all over town, now under his Irish umbrella he calls Cara Irish Pubs. He’s given his blessings and good luck to three pubs in town—so far—beginning with Kieran’s Pub some 15 years ago on the corner of Fifth Street and Second Avenue in downtown Minneapolis back in 1994. Next came the Local with its 80-foot bar at the corner of Tenth and Nicollet Mall in 1997 where he started using the great Irish Slogan, “Ceade Mile Failte” or a “Hundred Thousand Welcomes.”
A few years later came the Liffey over in St. Paul, located at the Holiday Inn just a “puck throw” from the Excel Center on Kellogg and West Seventh. But the new Cooper is the first of his bustling urban pubs to be found in the ’burbs. The name does double-duty as a salute to the old Cooper Cinerama Theater, as well as to a “cooper,” the name given a barrel maker. I peeked in for a “hello” and toast to Kieran and the new digs, and was in awe of the grandeur and frosted glass panels and crystal chandeliers overhead.
After dark, it looked like a sparkling night at the Paris Opera with an endless, meandering bar snaking its way through the huge room, giving room for little pockets of tables and people in conversation in there very own space. The glamorous ceiling art of reclining women over the bar is done in the Belle Epoch period style of decor so famous at the turn of the century (and I mean 1900, not 2000). You’ll think you’ve stepped back a hundred years into downtown Dublin. More after some serious dining, but I did sip a wee bit of beverage, sampling their famous Big Ginger for just $6. This popular signature drink is a generous pour of Jameson Irish whiskey over ice, topped with ginger ale and garnished with lemon and lime. Very refreshing and it sure brought out the Irish in me. Sláinte (an Irish toast to your health).
THREE CHEERS TO “DAMN GOOD FOOD”…and I mean it! Not just any damn good food you might find around town, I mean the original, unthinkable, unmistakable “Damn Good Food”—the new hot, hot cookbook from Hell’s Kitchen, written by the crazy, creative, one-of-a-kind chef and owner, Mitch Omer.
When you pick up this new book, you’ll feel dammed if you do, and dammed if you don’t. It will totally absorb your time. I could not put the book down and I could not close my mouth. What a surprise! This is much, much more than a cookbook! Not just because the recipes are terrific and he reveals all—I mean all the famous Kitchen recipes (157 of them) from their renowned homemade peanut butter to their “I can’t live without” caramel pecan rolls, but because Mitch also reveals his gut-wrenching, wild, rollercoaster lifestyle from an easy going ’50s childhood in Iowa thru his drugy/bi-polar tempestuous ’60s, ’70s and through the ’80s while he was searching for his sanity, as told to our own Ann Bauer. What a team! She, the local writer, reporter, author with the acerbic wit and wise eye (past editor of Minnesota Monthly magazine) and he, the storyteller who loves to tell it like it is—and says he doesn’t like “to do anything half-assed.” Wow! A real mouthful on every level with colorful powerful pics and quotes to match.
The book’s Web site says, “Ann Bauer poignantly tells the story of Mitch Omer, a wildly creative, award-winning chef, who hurled through most of his life setting fires, breaking limbs, drinking 24/7, getting fired, abusing drugs, gaining 200 pounds and barely avoiding suicide until he was finally diagnosed as bipolar. Properly medicated for the past several years, his wild ride settled down enough to open a successful Minneapolis restaurant, lose 170 pounds, enjoy a sane marriage to his third wife and provide hope to others.” I love what Jacques Pepin said too, comparing him to bad-boy Bourdain who first made news with his book “Kitchen Confidential.” Pepin says, “Mitch Omer’s life makes Anthony Bourdain’s look like he was an altar boy.” ’Nuff said.
I first met Mitch more than 25 years ago, way back in the ’80s when he and Steve Meyer (his current partner in crime) were chefs at Pickled Parrot. Fun to read reminders of his other local history from the early beginnings of the New French and Pracna on Main to Rudolph’s and the Parrot and then the Lowell Inn in Stillwater, too. You may recall he opened Hell’s Kitchen in 2002 with partner Meyer and his wife Kim, along with Mitch’s third wife Cindy Gerdes (they married in 2001). She truly is now his rock, the woman behind and beside the man. Like a recipe in the book, she has prepared herself for a life with 19 parts dreamlike experiences and one part nightmare. Not bad odds she says (page199 in the book says it all). But he’s not dead yet and this guy’s passion and energy never quits, although he did quit drinking—after treatment in 2007. I could go on an on, but suffice it to say, this book is must gift for any foodies or cooks you love this holiday season—but not for sissies either. It’s tough but rewarding. And a word of warning for those of us who like to indulge: “Moderation in all things.” Er, unless it needs more butter. (256 pages at $27.95, available on their Web site: http://hellskitcheninc.com/vmchk/Gifts/Damn-Good-Food/flypage.tpl.html)
