Roll in 2009: Holiday awards toast generations old and new, and Niman news on your plate

A TOAST TO MURRAY’S HOSTING MRA Awards…As we wrapped up 2008 I wanted to add my personal kudos to a few families in our group of award winning industry leaders who were saluted at the Minnesota Restaurant Association annual Holiday party just before Christmas. My copy deadline for December FSN caused me to miss the chance to cheer on the D’Amico & Partners for their much-deserved Restaurateur of the Year Award. It was also great seeing the 83-year old Michael’s Restaurant legend, Charlie Pappas from Rochester, Minn., be added to the Hall of Fame after operating his family hot spot for 57 years—it’s always the perfect place to dine whenever you are in Rochester. Super to see his son, Michael, honoring him and placing the red ribbon and medal over his head and seeing the whole family of cheerleaders in the crowd. I learned that today Michael’s is run by the next generation with six more Pappas family members in roles of managers and owners. Bravo!

It’s that “generation to generation” of growth in the food industry that always moves me. Here we were celebrating the theme, “An Industry Classic” in the classic Murray’s setting founded in 1946 with the sparkling Marie Murray’s grandson Tim Murray (who is also MRA president) on stage as host for the evening. I remember meeting Marie back in the late 1970s when I was writing for Skyway News and she was a real dynamo. Tim’s proud papa, Pat, was spotted across the room as well, making sure that the Murray family’s hospitality was equally shared with all the guests—along with their famous garlic toast. By the way, Pat was named to the MRA’s first Hall of Fame celebration in 2005 when they saluted a multiple group of talented pioneers in our industry—including movers and shakers David Fong, Bill and Jack Kozlak and the late Henry (Ember’s) Crystal and Nick Mancini.

The D’Amico brothers, Larry and Richard, are also a second generation hospitality team, having been hooked growing up in Ohio, where their mom and pop ran an Italian restaurant and were teethed on marinara, pasta and family dining. They had their parents in town in the past at many of their various openings over the years and I remember meeting them at both the kickoff of D’Amico & Sons—which really saluted their generations of growth—and the great party at their festive Lurcat opening, too. You could really see the family pride on both sides and their father always had a sparkle in his eyes for his boys who “stayed in the biz.” Now, with more than two decades in business, which also includes their flagship D’Amico Cucina, Campiello, and their newest concept, Masa, where they have strayed from marinara to mole. They now boast 18 restaurants here and in Florida, and a successful catering operation at multiple locations and bring in over $50 million dollars in revenue annually. I’d say that’s a lot of pasta.

SPEAKING OF PASTA…I was also surprised to learn after all these years that their partner and CFO, Paul Smith, who now has to look after the prices of pasta (ye ole bean counter, as we used to say) is another second generation dude in the Twin Cities restaurant industry with Italian roots in the kitchen. I never put two and two together with all the “Smiths” in town, but this baby-faced, 48-year old D’Amico partner is the son of Al and Lucille Smith of St. Paul, who brought us the delightful Ristorante Luci off Cleveland Avenue 20 years ago. I remember that opening when Lucy Smith herself was the chef in the kitchen and Al would greet you—with two of their 20-something kids, Steve and Maria, chopping garlic in the kitchen with mom. As I recall, papa Al was one of those international 3M execs stationed overseas, in this case Italy, for more than a decade.

The Smith kids grew up in Italy, absorbing garlic and basil seasonings into their bloodstream. Lucy learned to cook “real Italian” before we knew it was more than red sauce and pizza. So when they returned to St. Paul, it just seemed natural to share her joy of cooking with her very own, small Italian trattoria here in the land of bland Swedish meatballs. They opened a one room, 13-table restaurant on Cleveland Avenue in 1988 and have always focused on fresh, quality ingredients (some provided by local farmers) that are simply made. Even today they continue to offer daily a four-course tasting menu for food lovers like a prix fixe called prezzo fisso. It includes a daily antipasta, plus choice of salad or soup, the daily pasta and a fish course, all served in reduced portions at $29. Good timing in today’s economy, eh?

I remember they wanted to call their new spot Lucia’s (Lucy in Italian) but Lucia Watson had already opened her own little café in Uptown back in 1984. So, they went for Ristorante Luci. Some years later they added a sister restaurant just down the street, Luci Ancora. Forty-two-year-old son Steve Smith now heads up the kitchen at Ristorante Luci, with Maria managing while Chef Jim Kohler offers more of the Smith philosophy and their popular presso fisso over at Luci Ancor where sister Daniela Smith manages. The rest is history. Paul Smith brought his Italian knowledge of food and wine to the D’Amico team when he was recruited more than two decades ago. With his Italian expertise (he is a wine enthusiast and avid collector) he helped set the standard for their all-Italian wine menu at Cucina. Ciao and a salute to the great Smith genealogy too.

MORE NEWS FROM NIMAN…Niman Ranch that is, along with news from the folks at Specialty Meats & Gourmet who now represent Niman Ranch meat products here in Minnesota. California-based Niman has been a leader in quality meats—ahead of its time—since way back to 1972 with its promise of “family farmers raising livestock traditionally, humanely and sustainably to deliver the finest tasting meat in the world.” They are even more visible in this day and age with their Web site and online sales across the country. But now they will be available wholesale to restaurants here thanks to Venison America and their aforementioned Specialty Meats & Gourmet division.

Lucky me, I had the opportunity to attend a sampling of some of the Niman products at Cooks of Crocus Hill with the SM&G team and their Sales Manager Jim Copley. They even had guest Chef Stephen Trojahn from Cosmos in the kitchen with some of his roasted favorites for sampling. And what a fine sampling it was. I caught Stephen at the oven door pulling out some birds, which he explained were a “poulet rouge fermier,” which is a French red chicken. It is the highest quality chicken available and a product you must be licensed by the French government to raise (the Niman birds are raised in South Carolina.) Atop the stove he had huge bundles of foil-wrapped meats he had prepared for us, including slow-roasted beef top sirloin, and herb-roasted pork shoulder. We also had a chance to try the sous vide lamb shoulder and Niman’s applewood-smoked bacon, which was served on crunchy little mini BLTs at the event.

Niman’s also had a great speaker named Paul Willis, the first Niman pig farmer, from Thornton, Iowa who started the Niman pork division. He not only raised quality pigs, he reared a daughter who loved the farm and today is the sales and product coordinator for Niman Ranch. His Willis pork had been called the best tasting pork in the United States and is now Niman pork. It is found at great restaurants around the country. In fact, one of his stories explained how we have gone from the bland “other white meat” of the ’80s when so many barn-raised pigs grew up on concrete and were groomed to be dry and fatless, back to today’s small farm pigs being raised outdoors without stress, which creates soft, succulent fat and the lean is more plentiful than you usually find. This naturally fed pork builds up a layer of fat under the skin like in the old days when pork had flavor. We all know fat adds the flavor, hence our love for bacon, right? Well, when chefs tasted his pork chops from the famous ZUNI and Slanted Door Restaurants in San Francisco, the ZUNI chef said, “This is the best pork chop I ever had in my life.”

Trojahn agrees, so do chefs around town that have started ordering some of the cuts. According to Copley, Restaurant Alma has added the Niman Ranch hanging tenderloin to their menu and it is a huge hit. They have started working with Stewart Woodman over at Heidi’s—he will be serving the same all-natural, humanely raised veal (where Stewart is also adding a new chef’s table for eight). At Grecco’s on the St. Croix in St. Croix Falls, Wis., Chef Justin Grecco is going through more foie gras than anyone. But the most popular Niman item? You guessed it: applewood-smoked bacon. This month, watch for a new Web site too at www.WildSausage.com, which will feature every meat sausage you can imagine, from wild boar Italian sausage and alligator andouille, to Niman chorizo and SM&G’s own elk brat recipe. Bravo!