My guess is, Ryan Aberle dreams of someday running a restaurant like Grant Achatz’s Alinea in Chicago, or Thomas Keller’s Per Se in Manhattan. For the time being, though, he’s the executive chef at North Coast in Wayzata. During the summer months, Aberle runs a high volume feeding operation, turning out Thai chicken wraps and bacon cheeseburgers and Caesar salads for the crowds that pack the dockside patio.
When the leaves start to fall, and the crowds thin out, Aberle gets a chance to do something a bit more creative. He has already pushed his dinner menu about as far as a menu at a dockside restaurant can go, with dishes like Moroccan spiced rack of lamb, and Kobe beef short ribs braised in Guinness. But it’s his five-course tasting menu that really gives him a chance to show off his talent.
The prix fixe offerings change every couple of weeks, but recent offerings have included starters of juniper-scented Kumamoto oysters with apple-smoked King salmon and yuzu beurre blanc or a lavender braised Angus beef cheek with Stilton and Yukon potato croquette and herb-poached cherries. Last week’s menu, which I tasted, started with a salad of mache with sesame dressing and duck prosciutto, accompanied by a crispy tempura-fried poached egg and a wedge of Cabrales cheese with honey, followed by a vanilla-scented squash and lobster bisque. These were followed by a lamb chop with spiced figs and a pickled fennel and onion slaw, and then braised boneless beef short rib with horseradish spaetzle, and a sweet and sour finale of mango poached in black vinegar with coconut ice cream and a butterscotch pudding.
Not every course was as memorable as the first, but the overall batting average was pretty high, and it’s hard to beat the price: $35 for five courses, ($29 on Sundays), plus $20 for the optional flight of four 4-oz. glasses of wines (decent, not great) to accompany the first four courses. The new menu, which starts today, starts with kobe beef shabu-shabu, followed by monkfish Benedict, Tallegio “eclairs” and a pheasant confit cake with pumpkin coffee gnocchi and a spiced poached crab apple with hazelnut cream.
The cuisine may be haute, but the setting and service are more casual – a long bar in the center of the dining room is ringed with at least 10 large flat-screen TVs, mostly tuned to sports channels, which creates an atmosphere a bit less refined than, say, the dining room at Cosmos or D’Amico Cucina. And our young server was friendly and attentive, but not as polished as her counterparts at other restaurants that attempt cuisine of this caliber.
A six course $85 wine dinner featuring the wines of Cakebread Cellars on Friday, November 2 is sold out, but there are still a few places left for the second dinner on Saturday, November 3.
North Coast, 294 E. Grove Lane, Wayzata, 952-475-4960.
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