Recently by Adam Platt

If you are an observer of the restaurant game, you’ve certainly followed recent reports of ex-Cargill exec Jim Ringo’s plans to open his first two restaurants in successive months this spring. Ringo’s bold gambit has the food and restaurant community abuzz. You gotta be awed by ambition this bold:

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I am glad to see Lenny Russo of Heartland walking back, in his blog, from the cliff of threatening to move out of St. Paul if a local councilman followed through on creating strict standards for how local restaurants deal with food allergens. But a variety of media commentary in recent days on the subject has me wondering just how much anyone understands about food allergies that are so severe you might die.

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If you want more evidence of our narcissistic age, there’s no better example than the foodie film opening Friday, Julie & Julia. Nora Ephron’s screenplay tells the story of Julia Child’s fascinating life, culinary awakening, and rise to influentialism, paired with the tale of mousy NYC food blogger Julie Powell, who, at a personal and professional crossroads, found herself by cooking each recipe from Child’s seminal Mastering the Art of French Cooking and then writing a book about it. In some circles they’d call that necrophilia.

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We are expecting a major announcement today, first previewed in this blog a couple weeks ago, from Chambers Kitchen and the Chambers Hotel. The expectation is that Jean-Georges Vongerichten's organization is out, and D'Amico & Partners is in, on a relatively quick timetable that will have the Twin Cities most celebrated restaurant operator taking over all food service operations at the hotel in less than a month.

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Lincoln Center, New York—On a rainy night in Manhattan, after a years-long drought of a different sort, a Twin Cities chef took home a James Beard Award tonight—La Belle Vie’s Tim McKee beat out 112 Eatery’s Isaac Becker, Restaurant Alma’s Alexander Roberts, and two Missouri chefs for the honors of Best Chef Midwest.

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I had been hearing for years that Wagner’s was for sale, that owners Jayne and Alan Wohl were looking to get out after some business and personal setbacks. I didn’t necessarily expect a successor to maintain the exceptional quality of the place’s burgers (admittedly, some days they were better than others), but when I saw that local themed-restaurant impresario Steve Schussler was buying the place, I lost all hope there was.

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There’s been a lot of media hype that our new President is a “foodie.” He’s a regular at sophisticated Chicago restaurants such as Topolobampo and Spiaggia, and has a taste for greasy junk and soul food as well. There are photos of him chowing down in legendary Honolulu burger joints. He clearly knows good food. 

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Just because you are frugal, and local beaneries and watering holes are slashing prices to get your business, doesn’t mean you can steal from them. Times are tough, but there is a line where frugality becomes downright obnoxious, and a lot of Minnesotans seem to be willfully ignorant of it. It’s the restaurant equivalent of moping in the passing lane, something that’s veritably inbred in these parts. Two recent examples:

 

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In a season where we are debating the adequacy and authenticity of the new Mort's Deli, I had a bit of a revelation Saturday night while dining at Nick & Eddie on Loring Park: Nick & Eddie is the most Jewish restaurant in Minneapolis. Admittedly, this year-old homage to New York City and its elemental foodstuffs is no deli. And its proprietors are as gentile as the driven snow. But peruse the menu (which has changed surprisingly little in the ensuing year): buckwheat blinis, chicken liver, smoked whitefish salad, potato pancakes, cabbage borscht, braised brisket, and now, bialys.

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We have a white board in our office where we keep track of all the new restaurant openings planned for the coming months. The list is down to nearly nothing, alas. Now, January and February are not ideal times to open restaurants under any circumstances, but the paucity of planned openings is probably the first evidence that the economic slowdown has stopped the flow of capital and risk-taking in the local food biz. (I should allow for the odd restaurateur who fails to give any advance notice of his venture, strangely common in this biz.)

 

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