A MacGuffin in Minneapolis

Howard Hawks’ magnificent film noir classic, The Big Sleep, opens with a stark, moonlit scene of a car being dragged out of the Malibu Bay with a dead chauffeur inside. Never in the course of the film — which has Humphrey Bogart as private eye Philip Marlowe investigating a blackmailing scheme and falling in love with his client’s elder daughter — is this adequately explained. The chauffeur’s murder is not only left unsolved, it’s very rarely referred to as the mystery/love story unfolds.

This is what’s known in the movie business as a “MacGuffin,” a device with little relationship to the overall plot that serves mostly as a provocative tidbit to drive viewer attention. And so it is with Harry’s poutine.

When Harry’s Food & Cocktails opened in early July, much was made of the fact that chef Steven Brown would be offering poutine: a lethal Canadian delicacy comprised of French fries, cheese curds, and gravy. Potential diners easily could have been left with the impression that this was a restaurant good only for the sort of ill-advised thrill-seeking you might get from parachuting into a wind farm. I know I was.

Imagine my surprise when, after a lovely afternoon movie date and a walk down Washington Avenue, John and I stopped in and found — yes — burgers and fries, but also “breakfast” radishes with butter and sea salt, sautéed arugula, striped bass with truffle caviar, and an assortment of wholesome salads.

Now, this is the Steven Brown I recall from Levain: a man with a healthy respect for fish, grains, and vegetables. Goateed and silver-haired, he was standing in front of the line at Harry’s, inspecting dishes as they went out, holding a towel (NOT a ladle full of gravy) to wipe off their already pristine rims.

We had the Sunflower Salad, a truly inspired combination of butter lettuce, golden beets, smoked salmon, and sunflower sprouts that tasted sunny and smoky and fresh. We also had a really nice 2004 Washington Cab, prosaically named Pine and Post — which was young and fruity, as cold-hardy Washington grapes tend to be — for a mere $6.50 a glass.

In fact, for a place that bills itself as a “cocktail” bar (which can be code for $15 martinis), the wine list is incredibly reasonable. There are a number of six to eight dollar by-the-glass options, including a Toad Hollow Rosé and a Hogue Fumé Blanc. If you’re willing to spring for a bottle, you can get everything from a $24 Willamette Valley Pinot Grigio to a $30 Argentinian Malbec.

But best of all is the music at Harry’s. General Manager Steven Kleitz is a Kansas City native with a weakness for the blues, who plays mixes featuring Robert Cray and Stevie Ray Vaughan. This was, hands down, the most pleasant dining room I’ve spent time in lately.

And all the talk about poutine? I think, perhaps, that was more publicity stunt than menu planning: the MacGuffin Brown and Kleitz used to get our attention.