Heures Joyeuses Chez Vincent

I bellied up to the bar at Vincent A Restaurant yesterday
evening, and started to dig into what has to rate as the best happy hour deal
in town: tap beers and wines by the glass for $3, appetizers for $3.50-$4, and
the Vincent burger, stuffed with braised short rib for $8 (regularly $12.75). The happy hour, or heures joyeuses, runs Monday to Friday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

I ordered Joe’s Potato Hot Dish, a small cast-iron kettle
filled with baby fingerling potatoes in a creamy chorizo and melted cheddar
sauce ($3.50), and a socca, a thin chickpea pancake filled with shrimp, chorizo
salami, parmesan and chevre ($4), washed down with a glass of Aramis
Tannat-Cabernet blend.

Halfway through this little feast, up walks Vincent, with
only one arm visible, making the rounds of the tables in the bar. It turns out
he recently broke his collarbone in a bike accident, so his usefulness in the
kitchen is limited. I started grilling him about restaurant news, and learned
that Vincent plans to open a patio on the Nicollet mall by Memorial Day weekend, if the
gods and city inspectors approve. Francoual still plans to compete in a
triathlon in Paris in June, and in his annual team triathlon ride in support of Fraser, a
local non-profit that serves special needs children and adults, in July.

This Thursday, as part of his Minnesota Chef Series, he’s
teaming up with a young chef, Justin Schoville, from a hot new restaurant in
Rochester called Sontes. Schoville will lead off with courses of octopus crumb
cake with citrus, spiced cocoa and mint; and monkfish cheeks a la plancha,
while Francoual will dish up the last two courses, a duo of roasted rabbit loin
and rabbit shoulder; and a citrus tart with lemon sabayon. Cost is $60 all
inclusive without wine, or $80 with wines.
Call the restaurant at 612-630-1189 for reservations.

I was already pretty well stuffed when Vincent sent over another dish for me to try – a half order of his stuffed pig trotters appetizer ($12.75). The pigs feet are cooked "sous vide" (in a vacuum pouch at very low temperature) for 24 hours, and then combined into a forcemeat with ground pork, and served over cannelini beans with a quail egg, sunny-side up, and a subtle hint of aromatic black truffle sauce. Magnifique!

There’s lots more on the happy hour I would like to try,
including the flat bread topped with smoked chicken, carmelized onions, blue
cheese and red grapes; the breaded fried walleye fingers (which looked
irresistible from a distance), and the seared chicken morsels marinated in
coconut milk.