Hey-oh! Christiansen is one of the most talented of the younger generation of chefs, a protégé of Tim McKee’s. Christiansen did brilliant work at Uptown’s failing Il Gatto in the months before it closed (best pig’s trotter I ever had, and some of the best porchetta.) He also was at Sea Change, and Solera, and worked in the kitchen at NOMA in Copenhagen, that world-changing New Scandinavian spot.  His cooking at Union was often extraordinary, his savory bacon donut holes with västerbotten cheese dipping sauce and quinoa-studded carrots were some of the best dishes of the year. And I hope you got them while the getting was good, because that was then.

Now? Now comes Heyday. Christiansen and veteran La Belle Vie front-of-the-house manager Lorin Zinter have been working on putting together this restaurant for more than 3 years, says Zinter, with a dream of combining approachable, everyday pricing, and finely conveyed flavors. The restaurant will occupy several buildings on the corner of 27th and Lyndale, in South Minneapolis. (If you know the neighborhood, the part that’s currently a laundromat will be the restaurant’s casual bar, while the space that’s the former Sunnyside Up Café will be the restaurant. And they have South Minneapolis’ holy grail, a wholly owned parking lot!)  Hoped-for opening date? December 2013.

“But like all restaurant openings, your timing may be adjusted for you,” Zinter told me.  “Jim’s got a lot of ideas from when he was in Europe and at NOMA, and I’m just giddy about the way the restaurant design is turning out. This has been my dream for so long, and now it’s happening. We’re going to go on some food R&D trips to New York and Miami before we open. It should be a good time.”

Bon voyage, entrepreneurs! Good eating, and bring back some good ideas. If one of them is the old Il Gatto porchetta in the bar, that might be fun! Got your own ideas for a dream Jim Christiansen restaurant? Post them in the comments. He also has quite a way with smelt. And beets. And ‘nduja, västerbotten, smoked cream cheese, beef tartare . . .

Heyday: Projected opening December 2013

@HeydayMpls

—

Belle Vie Presents:An Evening with Thomas Keller and Sebastien Rouxel

With Special Guest, Andrew Zimmern, Tues., June 18

MINNEAPOLIS – To celebrate the launch of Thomas Keller’s fifth cookbook, BOUCHON BAKERY, La Belle Vie is hosting a lavish cocktail/small plate reception and presentation with Keller and chef/co-author, Sebastien Rouxel beginning at 6:30 p.m., Tues., June 18.

The evening will offer guests a rare opportunity to mix and mingle with some of the world’s most celebrated chefs while enjoying a variety of eight different small plate dishes inspired by the works of Keller and created by La Belle Vie Chef/Owner Tim McKee, Chef de Cuisine Michael DeCamp and Pastry Chef Diane Yang. As part of the evening’s activities, TV celebrity and host of Travel Channel’s “Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern,” Andrew Zimmern, will emcee a brief program and Q&A session with Chefs Keller and Rouxel. Plus, all guests of the event will receive a personally autographed copy of BOUCHON BAKERY. It will be Keller’s only book signing and appearance while in the Twin Cities, and attendance is limited to 125 guests.

“This is a rare opportunity to hang out for an evening actually chatting with one of the world’s most influential chefs,” noted McKee. “How often do any of us get an opportunity like this? It’s going to be a very special night not only for our guests, but for us as well.”

Written with Rouxel, who oversees pastry for The French Laundry, the Bouchon Bakeries, and per se, BOUCHON BAKERY (Artisan Books; October 23, 2012) is an exploration of Keller’s all-American childhood treats and the classic French pastries he adored as a young chef in Paris.

Throughout the book Keller and his team share resourceful ways to ensure their recipes taste the same when made in a home kitchen as they do in the bakery (a Super Soaker water gun, for example, is on the equipment list on p. 267—it’s a key component in replicating the volume of steam necessary for making bread). The dozens of lessons throughout the book are sure to improve any baker’s repertoire: how to make over-sized cookies into perfect bite-size morsels, the correct way to measure the thickness of dough (never at the edge), the proper way to freeze a cake, the best type of pastry bags to use, detailed bread baking fundamentals. And while pastry is noted for its precision, creations like the Witches’ Hats (p. 352) reveal how it also lends itself to fun and whimsy.

BOUCHON BAKERY offers a full range of favorite desserts. Chapters include Cookies, Scones & Muffins, Cakes, Tarts, Pate a Choux, Brioche & Donuts, Puff Pastry & Croissants, Breads, Confections and Basics.

Ticket price for the La Belle Vie event includes hosted cocktails, wine, passed small plate reception, the Zimmern-hosted Q&A presentation and an autographed copy of BOUCHON BAKERY. The event is open to the public. Advance RSVP/purchase is required and tickets are $250 all-inclusive. Tickets may be purchased by calling the restaurant directly at 612.874.6440.

La Belle Vie is the creation of James Beard Award-winning Chef Tim McKee. This French Mediterranean restaurant is easily one of Minnesota’s most celebrated and critically acclaimed dining destinations. La Belle Vie is located at 510 Groveland, Minneapolis, Minn. For reservations or additional information visit: www.labellevie.us or call 612.874.6440

# # #

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Thomas Keller, author of The French Laundry Cookbook, Bouchon, Under Pressure, Ad Hoc at Home and Bouchon Bakery, has six restaurants and six bakeries in the U.S., which continue to elevate the standards in the industry. His Bouchon Bakeries – located in Yountville, Las Vegas, New York and Beverly Hills – offer a uniquely elevated combination of French and American classics. Keller’s three-star Michelin Guide- rated fine dining restaurants, The French Laundry and Per Se, are considered two of the best restaurants in America and are consistently ranked among the top five eateries in the world.

Sebastien Rouxel, co-author with Keller of Bouchon Bakery and executive pastry chef for the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, oversees all aspects of the pastry department for Bouchon Bakery, The French Laundry, and Per Se. In 2005, he was named a “Rising Star” by StarChefs magazine. In 2006 and again in 2008, Pastry Art & Design magazine declared him one of the “Top Ten Best Pastry Chefs in America.”

Anyhoo, that was then, right? Wrong! I met with D. Evan Sallee, one of the founders of one of the newest Minnesota breweries, Fair State, which is currently looking at brewery spaces in Seward and Longfellow, and he told me that when they get going they’re going to make mainly traditional lagers and session ales—and 3.2 beer! You could have knocked me over with a whizzy bar.

Why? Why would anyone make craft 3.2?

“We could be the only good beer at Rainbow!” Sallee told me.

Yes, let us not forget that convenience stores and groceries still can only sell 3.2. Would you buy small brewery craft stout from Rainbow? On a Sunday? Instead of driving to Wisconsin, as is often the alternative? Don’t answer now, you have a while to think about it—Sallee imagines they’ll open officially next December or January. Perhaps even sooner if you care to become a member/owner of this brewery cooperative. What’s a brewery cooperative? Ever been to the Wedge or the Seward? Fair State is organized under Minnesota’s coop laws, such that you can give them money, become a member/owner, and then get member/owner benefits, like priority access for special beer releases, invitations to special happy hours, and the like. Then, like our other coops, if you decide you want to be done and move on, you can get the money back (assuming they’re not insolvent.) Sallee told me that this coop structure will allow member/owners to be as involved as they want to be, they’ll be able to run for the board, volunteer at the taproom, and so on. If you want in, follow them on Facebook or find their website.

Till then, here’s everything else I know about the newest brewery for our fair state.

1). It’s a joint Macalester-Carleton production, so I assume there will be some sort of ultimate frisbee/geology/theater/poli-sci thing going on, possibly in the parking lot.

2). Fair State’s brewer, Niko Tonks, has worked at Austin, Texas’ Live Oak Brewing, which Beer Advocate says makes one of the country’s best wheat beers.

3). When I asked Sallee whether the Minneapolis beer boom was anywhere near slowing down, he said, “Minneapolis is one of the top 10 craft beer drinking cities in the country, but is not anywhere near the top 10 per capita. I think we’re still a couple years away from achieving brewery density versus cities of comparable size.”

Okay, so where is Minnesota, in terms of breweries per capita? Last figures I could find were for 2011, and then we were 26th.

I’m betting we bump up at least to replace good old number 25, Indiana, by next year. But that leaves another question: Now that the French horn Belgian Ale slot has been taken (Boom Island), and the Indian food and session ale spot (612 Brew), and the co-op 3.2 beer spot, what niches are left? Irish clog dancers brewing gluten-free? Leave your best idea in the comments and I will laugh, and/or someone will steal it from you. Cheers!

First: Behold the new menu! It will be available a la carte, or in Travail-style big tasting meals to share. A la carte, you can order around a dozen pizzas, built upon a choice of three different crusts, including a classic Neapolitan style, a brioche deep dish, and a cracker-style crust in the style of Heggie’s classic bar pizza, “Because when you’re drunk and having a good time you like that cracker crust,” Brown explains.

Pizzas will be cut, whenever possible, into the classic Minnesota checker-board style of squares, so get ready to explain that to your out-of-town friends. Sometimes a pizza will be topped with mussels, and come with a dipping sauce of mussel broth, and will not have cheese; this Pizza will be called the Mussels from Brussels. Pizza will also be made using special Travail-style innovations, for instance, the dough will be treated with seasoned oils before cooking, various sorts of paté or house-made sausage will work their way into the meat-lovers’ deep dish, and it will be routine to dress pizzas post-oven with sauces and fresh additions such as micro-greens. Some pizzas will go further: One called the Rafael has southwestern origins, and will feature chicken, and micro cilantro, and come to the table covered by a punch bowl-sized cloche filled with smoke, which will be removed at the table. But, that’s not all folks.

Because there’s a new dining style! Here’s some big news: It seems that a la carte, pizza, and appetizer ordering is not really what this new Pig Ate My Pizza is all about, it’s really about family-style sharing meals, for two or four. Remember small plates? This is the opposite: Platters! Molecular-gastronomy inflected share-platters, designed for groups of four, mainly, but also available to groups of two. Final pricing isn’t quite finalized, but Brown says they’re thinking they’ll offer a four-course pizza dinner for two for about $40 or $45, you’ll start with a platter of beer snacks, charcuterie, salads, house-made burrata and other cheeses in the fresh mozzarella family, breads, and other little snacks, served on a big platter or on a large cedar plank, for sharing.

“This is how they eat all over the world,” says Brown. “It’s so lame how we do it here: You get your own food, don’t touch my food, I got something great too bad for you—that’s why pizza’s so great. It doesn’t matter who you are, when there’s a pizza. Sit down we have pizza! Pizza pizza!”

The second course will be a fresh pasta course, or perhaps a cheese bread, “the things you love at pizza places,” Brown says. The third course, several pizzas to share, brown imagines three pizzas for four people. Final course, a big dessert to share, either a dessert pizza with various components layered on a snickerdoodle crust (there’s that Minnesota part again) or a sort of banana split bomb, which draws inspiration from Grant Achatz’s famous dessert, but explodes at a pizza place near you. The basic dinner for four will cost around $80 (yes, that’s $20 a person); a blow-out affair of many more courses, for four people, will run $120 or so. So: Find some friends! And if you don’t have any, make some friends. And do it by Friday, because that’s when the next era in Minnesota pizza starts.

Pig Ate My Pizza, 4154 Broadway Ave. W., Robbinsdale, 763-535-1131, facebook.com/pigatemypizza, twitter.com/pigatemypizza

But you can’t just walk away and not eat fish, because that will essentially leave the entire playing field to bad actors. What the fish need, what we all need are powerful, ethical, moneyed players with weight to throw around to change the world. In the Twin Cities, we can help create that powerful, ethical moneyed power every time we go out to eat. And we can do it deliciously! The Fish Smart program at the Minnesota Zoo is a wonderful thing, it helps restaurants make good choices, and helps consumers find the restaurants that are committed to making those good choices. Use the partners list for the best Twin Cities sustainable fish spots.

But, from within that list, I do have favorites! My top five, as follows, and why:

Sea Change

1). Sea Change

Chef Jamie Malone just made Food & Wine Magazine’s list of the 10 best new chefs in the country. She can cook; her style is delicate, and she uses a whole range of herbal and mineral accents that exquisitely show up seafood. Her brilliant pastry chef, Niki Francioli, made our list of the top pastry stars in town, she’s creative and amazing as well. It’s a fantastic restaurant—and entirely committed to a thoughtful and responsible presentation of the ocean’s bounty. If you want to splurge, this is an absolutely ethical splurge. 806 S. 2nd St., Mpls., 612-225-6499, seachangempls.com

2). Masu

Sushi, unfortunately, is responsible for many of the ocean’s worst troubles, like the Bluefin tuna disaster, and like the fact that unagi stocks are 5 percent of what they were in the ’60s. But, are there sustainable, good sushi actors? Heck yes! Masu makes sushi that’s both delicious and sustainable—and they do it at both the Mall of America and the flagship Northeast location. The restaurant also has great ramen and good service. It’s my top pick for sushi in the Twin Cities today, period. 330 Hennepin Ave. E., Mpls., 612-332-6278; Mall of America, Bloomington, 952-896-6278, masusushiandrobata.com

3). Smack Shack

I’m loving Smack Shack—the lobster rolls make this brand new North Loop Minneapolis spot ready to join places such as Broder’s Pasta Bar and Black Sheep Pizza in the hall of fame of places that do one great thing absolutely perfectly. And the way that lobster fishing is done today is good, big, and important news. The whole story is in the May issue of Mpls.St.Paul,but for your grab-and-go pleasure, just know that you have an absolute green light to eat lobster. 603 Washington Ave. N., Mpls., 612-259-7288, smack-shack.com

Meritage

4). Meritage

Oysters are one of life’s most sensual pleasures, and farmed oysters, which is nearly every one at this point, clean the water of plankton fueled by fertilizer use on land, and put moneyed watchdogs, that is, oyster farmers, out on the water every day. Buy an oyster and you are essentially funding a private Coast Guard. And oysters are delicious, especially at Meritage, that little bit of Paris in downtown St. Paul, where the bread is springy, the butter sweet and cold, the wine list world class, and the oyster bar rival to none. 410 St. Peter St., St. Paul, 651-222-5670, meritage-stpaul.com

5) The Oceanaire

I love that The Oceanaire has tweaked its menu to offer nothing but sustainable choices—so now you can get your expense account oysters and crab, and feel good about it too. Oh, and if you haven’t looked at The Oceanaire’s happy hour menu lately, take a gander, it’s got some of the best bargains downtown, the $5 fish and chips is fantastic, the $6 oysters defies all known rules of restaurant pricing. 50 S. 6th St., Mpls., 612-333-2277, theoceanaire.com

"After the Oceans" by Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl, Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, May 2013

So get on out there and eat! I will say that when I was writing my fish story for the magazine, I started to get incredibly depressed—people can really make a mess sometimes. But we can also fix a mess, and every dollar we spend on dinner is what can do it.

But should this blessed season ever arrive—and should you want to go out and see it for yourself—how about a drive-in restaurant? The drive-ins are open! Or, some of them are. Some are open, some open this weekend. By Tuesday we can say, “All the drive ins are open!” I know, because I’ve been going to them. Sometimes in a February blizzard that got lost and ended up in April, but whatevs, as the kids say. Whatevs, you soul crushing spring blizzards that will doubtless be reflected in a coming plunge in the census numbers.

Whatevs. Because we have drive-ins! Try to hit them all between now and October, why don’t you? If this is going to be the shortest warm-season ever, make it jam-packed, and the best. Now, without further ado, my top-five.

Top Five Twin Cities Drive-In Restaurants

Dari-ette
Open daily 11 a.m.-8 p.m.

A St. Paul institution, combining pure Midwestern joy (showing off your awesome car/having car envy) with St. Paul Italian heritage. I love that Italiano, a sausage patty sandwich on soft bread covered with red sauce and melted mozzarella. Get a side of spaghetti sauce for extra dipping. Yum. The fried chicken is worthy; the banana or coffee malts are some of the best in the state. Cute, good, historical—it’s the best we’ve got. Dari-ette Drive In, 1440 Minnehaha Ave. E., St. Paul, 651-776-3470

Gordy’s Hi Hat
Open daily 10 a.m.-8 p.m.

Most of the way to Duluth, so not a trivial drive, but I have to have Gordy’s Hi Hat in here, because they have some of the best burgers in the state. It also has some of the best onion rings, really good fish and chips—it’s a fantastic place. The burgers are so good because they’re never frozen: hand-pattied every day. Any chef can tell you what a difference never frozen meat makes, and Gordy’s is living proof. One of my absolute favorite spots in out-state Minnesota. Gordy’s Hi Hat, 411 Sunnyside Dr., Cloquet, 218-879-6125, gordys-hihat.com

Wagner’s in Brooklyn Park
Open Su-Th 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m., F-Sa 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m.

Scruffy like a pound puppy, but this last Wagner’s has really solidly good old-fashioned burgers, the kind with a decorous and well-flavored, well-griddled meat patty captured in a good, soft, fresh bun. (Remember when Wagner’s owned the Galaxy Drive In, and it was good? Those were the days.) Fried chicken so good it cracks the top 10 in the Twin Cities—though not the top five. I have to admit Wagner’s scruffiness and underdog status are part of its charm; it reminds me of Minnesota before stuff got fancy. Wagner’s Drive-In, 7000 Broadway Ave. W., Mpls., 763-533-8262

Drive In, Taylor’s Falls
Open M-Th 11:30 a.m.-7 p.m., F-Su 11-8 p.m.

Famous for its homemade root beer float, which has a beautiful spicy sarsaparilla perfume, Drive In is opening this weekend! I love the burgers too, dense and meaty, though I think the patty melt is even better. A kids’ favorite, because you can combine the trip with a round of mini-golf and a paddle boat tour of the St. Croix. (Paddle boat tours start May 4!) 572 Bench St., Taylors Falls, 651-465-7831, taylorsfalls.com

The Peppermint Twist
Open Tu-Su 11 a.m.-7:30 p.m.

Out on Highway 12, past Wayzata (stop at the new Sushi Fix on the way?) Delano’s classic The Peppermint Twist opens for the season on April 30, at 11 a.m. Do you need a peppermint shake? Or a strawberry shake? You do! You also need to know about Peppermint Twist if you have toddlers because the place has a home-spun, cute, little, on-premise park called Teddy Bear Park with climbing trains and cut-outs for sticking your face through and such. Photo-op! It’s also a must-know for dog lovers, because it’s on the way to Lake Rebecca Park Reserve, known for its five-plus miles of dog-friendly hiking trails, and nearly 30 acres of off-leash area. 115 Babcock Blvd. W., Delano, 763-972-2572, thepepperminttwist.com

Sound good? Then you’re going to love our upcoming June blow-out of an issue, where we’ve got the best hot-dogs in the city, the best art-shows, best car-shows, best roof-top bars—in short, the works. If you’re a subscriber, get ready to get your season started right. And if not, heck, you can stay inside—that’s what this spring has been training us for, right?

It’s an ordinary Irish pub! With Guinness on tap, dark wood, filament lights, glittering bottles of Irish whisky on the back bar, Uptown cuties with perfect hair on the high stools (fresh from the adjacent hair-dressing district of Uptown central), and a rock solid fish and chips. What’s not to like? Nothing! It’s a winner. Not bizarre.

Fish and Chips at Morrissey's Irish Pub

Top on my list of stuff I liked: The fish and chips! A long filet of Pacific cod that’s not quite as good as that at our local fish and chips champion, the Anchor, but is darn close: A good, thick hunk of fresh fish, lightly, crisply battered, fried till its crisp as a snap. The chips could have been better, they tasted frozen and run and of the mill, but they were fine. Add a side of curry gravy, straight out of an Irish jar, or so said my server, and you’ve got a hangover-killer, a drink-sopper-upper, you’ve got everything a plate of everyday chips and curry is supposed to be, in the Irish tradition. Still, this is the best fish and chips in Uptown, by a country mile, top five in Minneapolis. Good. Really good. I’m not really counting Red Stag, because their fish fry is only on Fridays. And we’ll talk St. Paul fried fish another day, because it’s in its own league. But fear not, I have not suddenly come up with a form of amnesia specific only to Mac’s and the Groveland Tap.

What, you say you don’t like reading things in sentences, but you need a list? Well here’s a list!

Top 5 Minneapolis Fish and Chips:

1) The Anchor

2) Red Stag Supperclub (Fridays only)

3) Morissey’s Irish Pub

4) The Lowry

5) O’Donovan’s

The Anchor Fish & Chips

If Morissey’s upgraded their chips they’d skip up a spot, methinks. And why did I include Red Stag when I said I wasn’t gonna? Because the list clarified things, and I didn’t want to leave the Red Stag off. Cute little Red Stag.

And, back to Morissey’s. Also truly noteworthy: The Reuben! Made with excellent rosy and tender corned beef, served with melted Gruyere on grilled rye, this was just-right bar food: salty, weighty, rich, good. Everything else I tried I’d probably avoid in the future: Smoked salmon on smooshed-flat boxty cakes was totally dull, like salmon and capers straight from the fridge on a quesadill. The Shepherd’s pie featured grainy-tasting beef and a nothing-special potato crust. I wish I had gotten the Full Irish Breakfast, served all day and night, and featuring eggs, bangers, rashers, black and white puddings, in short, the works. Next time I go I will get the Irish breakfast! I’ll have it beside another pint of Indeed Day Tripper, which I had at Morissey’s and loved the hell out of. In fact, I think it’s just fantastic that this Irish bar has all sorts of good local taps, including Surly and Fulton, instead of the only-Irish checklist that so many Irish bars rely on. All in all, I give a neighborhood thumbs-up to Morissey’s. It’s not at all original, but it’s authentic and good, and sometimes, that’s enough.

Morrissey’s, 913 W. Lake St., Mpls., 612-465-8555, morrisseysuptown.com

As of this writing has only 9:30 and after reservations available this weekend, which I imagine will continue to be the case in perpetuity. Why? It’s so fun to be there! The busy city bustle, the golden light and black and white style, all of which come together to feel like thrumming New York’s Balthazar, which is to say, Parisian, but friendlier and more efficient. The food is, so far, rather fantastic too. The different steak prices and finishes seem very right for today, (the prices range from $11 to $75, depending on size, and finish, and so on—$11 gets you a grass-fed six-ounce hanger steak, $75 gets you a corn-finished on-the-bone ribeye sized to feed two.) The dumplings like the kinkhali, veal, and pork stuffed little darlings from the Georgian mountains, are buttery and tender, and Becker has always had a way with all things raw, the salmon tartare with lemon oil is particularly delicate. Stephanie March has a full review in the May issue of Mpls.St.Paul Magazine. Subscribe! Or my kid doesn’t get health insurance. Seriously. Subscribe!

But let’s get to the questions everyone really wants answered: How is it that Isaac Becker manages to get along with his wife?

His wife, of course, is Nancy St. Pierre, who Becker met when he was a mere sous chef at D’Amico Cucina and she was a mere server; they went on to open 112 when they had a toddler in arms, and St. Pierre didn’t quit her server shift at first, to be sure of supporting the newborn restaurant and toddler child. When things got busy she did quit her other night job, and since then the two have neatly divided the roles of the restaurant, with one in charge of food, and the other in charge of being nice and helping people and managing others, or as it’s called in restaurant circles, the front of the house.

“Nancy’s integral to my success, without question,” Becker told me, in a phone interview. “She worked at Cucina for maybe 15 years before we opened 112, and she had a lot of fine dining ingrained in her personality, which added to the fact that she’s just nice. She projects her personality, and people just respond. Which is nice, because I can be a pessimist by nature.”

In other words: he plans for the worst, and she plans for the best, and that way, as a team, they’re over-prepared across the whole spectrum of possibilities.

“One of the things I learned from D’Amico about opening restaurants,” Becker says, “is that you have to overdo everything when you open, and then trim as you go. If you underdo anything, the customer sees that, the hardest part of the job can be not spending all the money, and not running out of chicken.”

While also not believing your own PR firm about that chicken.

“Before we opened 112 I was really apprehensive about working together,” Becker told me. “But having someone you trust, who has insight into what’s selling, what the guests like, who’s honest—it’s everything. I can say ‘How do you think this tastes?’ to someone who works with me, and they might be honest with me. But I know she will be. The reason I was apprehensive about working together was, in so many restaurants, the chef hates the [general manager]. The kitchen hates the front of the house, that’s just how it goes. But it ended up being great, because of how she is. She’s nice, but I also can’t have a cook be rude or short with Nancy, that’s not okay, or her staff. And so I’d say that our kitchen staff gets along better with the front of the house staff because of how we are. It’s a less hostile work environment, because Nancy and I are both on each other’s side.”

Does Becker feel like this more comradely work environment enhances the diner’s experience?

“I think it has to,” he said. “I’ve worked in kitchens where a cook will decide to make a server’s life difficult, if a cook is refusing to split something, or every time [a server] asks for a special order, they get yelled at, it’s got to affect the diner.”

And that’s how you succeed, with your wife.

Burch Restaurant, 1933 Colfax Ave. S.
, Mpls., 612-843-1515, 
burchrestaurant.com

“Will it be the same? And what is up with the new locations? Sure, the coming pizza place, Pig Ate My Pizza, which will serve pizza topped with house-made pork products such as sausage and pepperoni makes intuitive sense, but they can’t really be opening a sandwich shop called The Rookery, can they?”

Okay, first, I nag. For everyone complaining that they didn’t get to try Travail, that they didn’t want to brave the lines and so missed the first incarnation: This was inevitable! Go to the restaurants you want to go to when they’re doing their great work, don’t wait for some mythical future time when life is going to be easy. People still tell me they miss: the New French Café, Auriga, D’Amico Cucina, the Stillwater incarnation of La Belle Vie, insert your favorite closed restaurant here. Restaurants are ephemeral. They define their time because they go away. End of rant.

And now, on to The Rookery! So, first off, yes there will be sandwiches at The Rookery, especially the pub fare that was popular at Travail in its early days, things such as the Italian paté melt and the organ grinder.

But more, The Rookery, Travail co-owner Mike Brown told me, will be showcasing the talents of two of its longtime teammates, namely Kale Thome and Adrian De los Rios, who will be running the thing, and about fun microplates and molecular crazy Travail-style cocktails.

“Most of the food [at The Rookery] is going to be $2 to $7 small plates,” Brown told me. “I’m envious of it, frankly. It’s so much fun to do small, tiny plates like that. We know it will probably start as the place people go when they can’t get into Travail, but we want to get to the point where people will want to go to The Rookery as its own thing, and sit down and have a bunch of small plates, and a cocktail. The cocktails will be [done similarly to] how we approach food, we’ll start with the basic cocktail, learn as much as we possibly can about all the different products, do all our own juice and syrups, of course, but then take it to the highest good level we can, maybe with liquid nitrogen, maybe there’s cedar-plank smoke trapped at the top of the glass, maybe it goes with a little duck egg chorizo dish or garnish—it just needs to be good and fun.”

The Former Travail Soon-to-be Pig Ate My Pizza, Photo courtesy Mike Brown

And served over a chef-laid floor! If you’re wondering how the new Travail and The Rookery (which is three buildings down but shares an address with the new Travail at 4122 W. Broadway, Robbinsdale, MN 55422) were going to be built, Brown had some insight. “Bob [Gerken, co-owner], James [Winberg, co-owner] and I are just building it. We don’t have $200,000 to have people come and do this stuff. We are laying all the floors, building all the tables, painting all the walls. It’s not like we’re moving in to some giant space that someone built for us, the first Travail was like our starter-home, and this next level is going to be like our starter-home after that good renovation when you put in the new kitchen and bump out a rec room.”

The Former Travail Soon-to-be Pig Ate My Pizza, Photo courtesy Mike Brown

And so it was that all of Minnesota was atwitter, aflutter, and otherwise giddy when Kim announced her intention to open a second pizza spot, this one not Italian pizza, but classic East Coast American pizza, the kind that is sold by the slice, the kind with the super-thin crust that you can fold in half and gesticulate with as you eat.

(As in, scene! Assertive bottle-redhead jabs slice into space: “I told him, I told him, ‘What, are you crazy?! Fuhggeddaboudit? Every ahson investigator in Longuyland knows that.’” And . . . cut!)

So it opened, and: Plain, cute, spectacular. Walk into the cheerful little space tucked between local landmarks the Convention Grill and France 44, and you see a spic-and-span pizza counter, a few rows of tables, and some servers in black T-shirts ready to whisk dirty plates off the tables.

You approach the counter, you take a look-see at the slices on offer, you pick. I’ve tried plain cheese, a fancy natural-casing pepperoni, and a classic sausage-pepperoni-mushroom combo, with house-made sausage.

In a word: Yum! Nicely crisp crust, lively and fresh-tasting toppings, exquisitely crisp pepperoni, flavorful, tender, not too greasy, not too salty sausage, just right in every way. The slices cost from $3.25, for a plain cheese, to $4.50 fully-loaded, and they’re classically big, bigger than a paper plate, one makes a good lunch, two an overwhelming dinner. The pepperoni slice is exquisite, crisp little circles of old-fashioned, natural-casing, densely flavored pepperoni that curl under the force of heat into little cups of super-flavored, grease-tinged goodness. The tender crust, slightly sweet and spicy sauce, and gently mellow cheese all work together to mark the far corners of sweet-spicy-salty-creamy that make a slice of pizza memorable. Do I go on too long about one pepperoni slice? It’s a good slice.

I also tried a couple of the salads, served in big bowls to share, and they’re pretty fantastic too. House-made croutons on the Caesar, spiced pepitas on the ‘Smokey Greens’ salad, all of them tasting chef-made, not corner pizza throw-away. Eat healthy, why don’t ya?! Until you discover the joy of the meatball subs, which are definitely touching the hem of greatness. Hello’s difficult to say out loud “Old School Balls” showcases tender, well-flavored, but not over-flavored meatballs and red sauce in a crusty bun. I might be in the first flush of puppy love, but I currently feel very suspicious that this might be the best meatball sub in the history of Minneapolis, though I may have to drive down to Brianno’s in Eagan to see if I really, really think this. Because that’s how science is conducted. By eating more meatballs. In any event, whether science will prove this to be the best meatball sub in town or not, at Hello, Pizza you may add a pitcher of Surly Furious for $20, or a glass of Chianti, and as far as family dining, as far as good cheap gourmet, as far as aiming for a designated target and hitting it—dang. Double dog dang, even. Hello, Pizza didn’t just open strong, it crashed out of the gate to the sound of golden chariots tootling golden horns while twirling pizza dough overhead. Which is to say, behold my:

New and Revised Top 5 Best Pizza Slices in the Twin Cities*:

1) Hello, Pizza

2) Broder’s

3) Bryn Mawr Pizza & Deli/Fast Freddie’s

4) Fat Lorenzo’s

5) Victoriano’s, Stillwater

*Not counting Black Sheep, which would rocket to the top of this list of slices if they only sold slices, which they don’t.

Now the big question: Will Travail alter this pizza hierarchy when Pig Ate My Pizza debuts later this spring? We don’t know. Will bands of Black Sheep fans become so irritated by Black Sheep’s exclusion from this list that they just go, order pizzas, and stand outside selling slices? We just don’t know. Is Black Sheep in fact better than Hello, Pizza? Well, that’s an interesting question. And one I am not prepared to answer at this time. But this much is sure: We are in fact currently living during the triumphal apex of quality in Minnesota when it comes to East Coast-style pizza—and don’t you fuhggeddaboudit.

Hello, Pizza, 3904 Sunnyside Rd., Edina, 952-303-4514, hellopizza.com

Food and Wine Lover’s Weekend at Bluefin Bay

Did you hear the big news? The guest chef at Bluefin Bay’s big spring wine weekend will be Judi Barsness! Judi Barsness, of course, is the legendary North Shore chef who just sold her claim to fame, Chez Jude, and thus left a trail of broken hearts from Canada to Duluth. (If you’re just hearing the news that Chez Jude changed hands, all true. Her cute Lake Superior Landmark is now called the Harbor House Grille, and is owned and run by Ed Straub former top toque at Naniboujou Lodge.)

So how, now, can you get Judi Barnsess’s food? You can go to Bluefin Bay the weekend of May 3rd and 4th, when she’ll be in charge of the kitchens for one of our great state’s premiere weekend getaways. If you don’t know about this weekend, it almost always sells out, and for good reason. The views are perfect, just the steel gray majesty of Lake Superior and its enobling fringe of pine and big rock, it’s nestled in the middle of some of the state’s greatest hiking, right between Cascade River State Park and Temperance River, and then there’s the spectacular food. Course after course of wonderful wine dinner, and then you toddle to your room to enjoy the view. Go!