Best restaurants in St. Paul and Minneapolis for the Republican National Convention (RNC)

I was prompted to post this list having read the very inadequate overview of restaurants in the Twin Cities by Raymond Sokolov recently published in the Wall St. Journal. While the Twin Cities cannot be reasonably compared to New York, San Francisco, London or Paris, the general quality of restaurants at the higher end compares very favorably to most U.S. cities of similar size. I have listed the restaurants in order of merit for each city and also used a star rating system (Minnesota stars) loosely based on the Michelin ranking of New York City restaurants. To standardize my rating scale, I have used recent meals I eaten at Jean Georges (3 Michelin stars), Le Bernadin (3 stars) and Daniel (2 stars). In general, there is more breath and depth to the restaurants in Minneapolis than in St. Paul.

St. Paul

Heartland (*). Excellent regional cuisine featuring elk, bison and venison in addition to the usual suspects. The food is inventive and the wine list excellent. The only potential drawback is that it is located about 5 miles from downtown St. Paul.

Meritage (*). Comfortable bustling bistro located about 2 blocks from the convention center serving meticulously prepared bistro food. The predominantly French wine list is good and the food is reasonably priced. Downtown.

I Nonni. Located in Lillydale next to MSP airport so perhaps not a realistic option for most conventioneers. Serves good basic Italian food in an attractive. They have an excellent wine list almost exclusively Italian and a superb sommelier. 10 miles from Downtown.

St. Paul Grill. I think of this as a steak/chop house rather than a full service restaurant. It is a warm bustling downtown establishment with a very lively classic bar. Stick to the grilled meats. The hash browns are excellent. Wine list is good and predominantly American. Downtown.

Restaurante Luci. This is a small noisy but very enjoyable Italian trattoria located about 5 miles from downtown.

Other downtown restaurants worth a visit.
Sakura. Basic Japanese food in comfortable surroundings. Good sushi. Rudimentary wine and sake list. Pazzaluna. Attractive central location about 1 block from convention center. Pleasant place to eat though the food is neither inventive nor exciting. Kincaids. It is not clear whether the owners of this establishment want it to be a bar or a restaurant.

Minneapolis

La Belle Vie (**). Opulent setting, wonderful service and superb food. Both the menu and the wine list, which is excellent, have a distinctively southern French character. If you cannot get a reservation in the restaurant, the bar, in which you can sample the restaurant menu, a special tasting menu or the regular bar menu, is a great second choice. Close to Downtown.

D’Amico Cucina (**). This has been a Minneapolis culinary landmark for almost two decades. Inventive modern Italian food and excellent service. The wine list, which is almost exclusively Italian, is superb. The tasting menu is both a bargain and a real treat. Downtown

Vincent (*). Located opposite Orchestra Hall in Downtown. This French restaurant is actually owned and operated by a Frenchman. Excellent food served in a very convivial setting. The bar with its special menu is also well worth a visit. Downtown.

Fugaise (*). Imaginative food with a French influence served in a somewhat stark dining room. Both the food and the excellent wine list are competitively priced. Located about 1 mile from Downtown.

JP American Bistro (*). Very under-rated establishment. Interesting America take on bistro food. I have never had a bad meal here. Good reasonably priced wine list. Located 2-3 miles from Downtown.

Heidi’s. Reasonably priced neighborhood restaurant in south Minneapolis. Excellent imaginative menu and a good wine list. 12 miles from Downtown.

Restaurant Alma. Both the food and the wine list are good at this neighborhood restaurant near the University of Minnesota. 4 miles from Downtown.

Cue at the Guthrie. Although I would generally rather fast than risk a meal in a theater restaurant (DB Bistro Moderne expected), this restaurant is well worth a visit. The food is excellent and the expansive dining room of the Jean Neuvel designed Guthrie theatre is spectacular. About 1 mile from Downtown.

Saffron. If the though of Middle Eastern food makes your eyes glaze over you should try this restaurant. Very imaginative menu and a good wine list. Downtown.

Solera. Wonderful Spanish tapas served in a dining room at the back of a very lively bar. Excellent mostly Spanish wine list. Try som of the large selection of sherries. Downtown.

Cosmos. Modern restaurant and menu in a new downtown hotel. The vertical food is so close to the edge that it sometimes falls off. Interesting dining room and a very lively bar. Downtown.

Chambers. Good ‘international’ food served in the very noisy dining room of a newly opened and fashionable hotel. Downtown.

Murray's Steakhouse. Minneapolis culinary institution. Decor and service are both a little retro but good.

Manny's Steakhouse. Recently relocated to a new location. This is a steakhouse with attitude which is sometimes better than the food. Excellent wine list mostly U.S. Downtown.

Oceanaire. Original establishment in what has now become a seafood restaurant mini-chain. Fresh fish and excellent wet bar. Very large pours for wine by the glass. Good wine list. Downtown in the Hyatt hotel.

Dakota Jazz Club. Deceptively good food for a jazz club. Worth a visit. Downtown.

Lucias. Another very popular neighborhood restaurant. The food, which might be described as regional, is good and the wine list adequate. Located about 3 miles from Downtown.

112 Eatery. One of the most popular restaurants in Minneapolis. Though I do not share in the general enthusiasm for this restaurant the food is good, the prices very reasonable and the surroundings pleasant. Downtown.

Kitchen Knives and Other Weapons

There is nothing more frustrating than trying to work in the kitchen while handicapped by a set of bad knives. You may remember the last time you tried to cut and chop with the knives provided at a holiday rental property. Good knives are expensive but they are a joy to use and last for decades. Also, contrary to the impression given by many knife manufacturers, one does not need a large butcher's block filled with them. In fact, those of us not in the restaurant business rarely need more than five different kitchen knives: (i) chef, (ii) carving, (iii) boning, (iv) paring and (v) bread. One could even dispense with the boning knife and get a combined carving/bread knife which would reduce the number of essential knives to three.
(i) The chef's knife is the most important knife in the kitchen and usually has a blade between 8" and 10" in length. This knife is used for most general purpose chopping of vegetables and cutting of meat, fish and poultry. If you are going to spend money on any kitchen knife, this is the one. (ii) The functions of the carving knife are obvious. The carver is usually longer than a chef's knife. If you want a combined carver/bread knife you will need a knife with a serrated edge. However, in my experience, a serrated edge does not make for a good carving knife and I recommend buying a dedicated carving knife with a straight edge. (iii) The boning knife is relatively short and is used for meat and poultry; its edge is concave as opposed to the convex shape of most other knive blades. (iv) A paring knife is between 3-6" long and is useful for a variety of kitchen jobs. (v) The bread knife is long, serrated and sharp; it can also be used for cutting soft fruit and is ideal for tomatoes.

How to choose a knife. As with most kitchen equipment, you get more or less what you pay for and it is well worth making an investment in a tool that with proper care will last for decades. I suggest that you confine your choices to products made by reliable and high quality manufacturers of which there is no shortage. Until relatively recently, the majority of high quality kitchen knives sold in the U.S. were made in either Germany or France. With the increasing popularity and availability of Japanese knives, the first major decision one now needs to make is whether one wants a European or a Japanese knife. It is important to distinguish between the western-style Japanese knives discussed here, which are based on the familiar European model, and 'original' Japanese knives that are used in Japan and by sushi chefs around the world. European knives tend to be heavier, not as sharp, and less expensive than their Japanese counterparts but have the great advantage of being relatively easy to maintain. Japanese knives are usually light, delicate, esthetically pleasing, and with a very sharp blade which holds for a long time; however, these knives are expensive, need special care because of a tendency to chip, and are difficult to sharpen properly. Therefore, if one wants a good knife that requires minimal care and attention, I would recommend buying a European knife. The following manufacturers all make good quality knives: Wusthof, Henckels, Victorinox, Merrermeister, Sabatier, Viking, Chicago Cutlery, Culinary Instituate of America. My personal favorites are Wusthof, Henckels and Merrermeister. On the other hand, if one places a high value on esthetics, one is willing to expend the effort required for proper care and sharpening (ideally with whetstones), and comfortable with forsaking the dishwasher entirely, then the Japanese knife is the way to go. There is a bewildering number of manufacturers that produce Japanese knives including: Shun, MAC, Hiromoto, Masamoto, Global, Hattori, Misono, and Tojiro. For those new to Japanese knives, the MAC Professional, Shun Classic or any of the excellent value Tojiro knives would be a good place to begin. My favorites manufacturers are Hiromoto, Masamoto, and Misono. Additional information on Japanese knives can be found at www.japanesechefsknife.com or www.korin.com. Ultimately, one's choice of knife is on the basis of personal preference and there is no substitute for handling several different knives in a good kitchen shop before making a decision. One should take note of the weight and balance of the knife and whether the handle is comfortable; a knife that feels perfect to one may appear too heavy or awkward to another. I do not advocate testing knives in a kitchen shop and then making your purchase on the internet (as suggested the the host of a popular radio food show) though one may save a little money. If we were all to behave like this, kitchen shops would disappear and we would never have the opportunity to test the product before purchase. Good knives should not be put in the dishwasher though most European knives are forgiving if one forgets.

Cookware (Pots and Pans)

Unless one insists on cooking using a skewer over an open fire pit, it is impossible to avoid the necessity of cookware. We all need pots and pans of various types. These vessels hold food as it is boiled, sauteed, fried, roasted or steamed. Proper cookware should have the following characteristics: excellent heat transfer, easy to clean, relatively light, pleasing to the eye, and not outrageously expensive. This usually translates into a pot with aluminum and copper in the base, and an otherwise stainless steel construction. Steel is relatively easy to clean and copper has one of the highest heat transfers of any metal. Of course, one can get pans made completely of copper with a stainless steel interior, which in many ways represent the zenith of cookware, however, the outside is difficult to keep clean, the larger pieces are quite heavy, and they are very expensive. If you happen to employ a strong-armed cook, and have both a diligent housekeeper, and a significant income then I would recommend nothing other than copper cookware in the kitchen. For most mortals, however, a few copper pieces, a casserole perhaps and one for delicate sauces, are more than adequate.
The most common quality pot in the US market has an aluminum core in both the base on the sides, and is lined with stainless steel but has no copper. Among the best manufacturers are All-Clad, Viking, Kitchen Aid; Calphalon is a little less expensive (though they do a cheaper line for some discount stores), however, many of their products do not have stainless steel lining and in my experience are difficult to clean. Most of these manufacturers also do a pot with a copper base but these tend to be quite expensive. A personal favorite of mine for both price and quality, which does have a copper base, is the Sitram “Catering” product line, which is available in some specialty stores and on the internet. Cookware made from cast iron is also excellent for heat retention and slow cooking. Cast iron frying pans can be bought quite inexpensively but they need to be “seasoned” with oil and frequent use before they acquire a patina that will reduce sticking; otherwise they will be the bane of your life. Le Creuset is a high-end manufacturer of cast iron cookware products that are lined with enamel and are relatively low-stick. These pans are quite expensive and heavy but work wonderfully well as casseroles or stewpots.
You may wonder why anyone in the 21st century would cook with anything other than a non-stick pan. These pans are not durable, generally have poor heat transfer and recently there has been some question about the health safety of the non-stick surface. Although every kitchen should have one non stick pan for cooking eggs, or frying fish and potatoes, for most other uses a stainless steel lining, which is generally low-stick, is far preferable. In fact, when frying meat or poultry you often want some sticking as this will form the basis of any sauce that you will subsequently make. It is incredible to me that approximately 85% of frying pans sold in the US are non stick; it makes no little sense for anyone who is even moderately interested in cooking.
Now that we have discussed the best type of pots and pans, how many of them do you need? Obviously, this depends to some extent on cooking preferences, and the size of the family. For the average household in which cooking is an important part of family life, one will need two regular frying pans of different sizes, one non-stick frying pan, one or two saute pans, three or four saucepans of varying sizes (consider 1 quart, 3 quart and two 5-6 quart), and one large casserole. A roasting pan is also essential in every kitchen. Most manufacturers and specialty cookware stores offer sets of cookware of a particular type at a reduced price; this many be a good way to start if you are beginning to outfit a kitchen or replace what you already have. A good set of cookware will be a significant investment but one that you can use for several decades.

The Baked Potato

A complete meal in one. Crispy on the outside, warm soft and floury on the inside. It is cheap, nutritious, and is suitable for any variety of toppings such as chili, cheese, and meat or vegetable stews. It goes particularly well as a starch with roast beef or steak as well as hamburgers. If one wants to keep it simple, it is delicious just with butter.

Given the advantages of taste, nutrition, versatility and economy why is this food item so poorly prepared, particularly in restaurants but also in many households? This humble tuber often sweats to death surrounded by tin foil in the oven and arrives at the table limp, wet, and smelly.

The following is guaranteed to produce the perfect baked potato. Set the oven to 400 F. Pierce the skin of a washed potato once or twice with the tines of a fork. The potatoes should be done in about hour but you can check for doneness using a fork or skewer after 50 minutes. Do not leave the potato in the oven too long as it begins to collapse, looses its crispness and becomes wet. Do not coat the potato with oil before cooking as this leads to a rancid, unpleasant taste from the skin. Ideally, baked potatoes should be served when they are just cooked; if they are left sitting around they become soggy and wrinkled.

Tips. Any type of potato can be used though Russets or other large oval potatoes tend to work best. I also like Yukon Gold potatoes which have a very different texture from the usual baked potato. Chose potatoes of a uniform size, otherwise, the cooking times may vary quite a lot. Make sure that you buy firm potatoes without sprouts and store in a cool place (45-55 F). Unfortunately, the refrigerator is not an ideal place for long term storage as the temperature is too low though for most households the alternative, which is to store at room temperature, may be more injurious.