The Rake Magazine

Category: Article

  • Plant Worship

    Cynde Randall has been in touch with just about every artist in the five-state area, thanks to her work as a longtime associate with the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and as the founder of the annual Bird x Bird exhibition, a benefit for avian well-being. Now, fittingly, she has her own eco-gallery on the shores of Lake Pepin, in the heart of the Mississippi flyway. It opened in June and its new show, Plant Worship, includes new works by Pat Callahan, Dennis Conrad, Andrew Neher, and Luke and Valerie Snobeck. Randall says the satiric but heartfelt work from this crew illustrates “the problematical relationship between human behavior (and industry) and nature.” As Neher notes regarding the issues his work explores: “What we are facing today isn’t the end of life but the end of a lifestyle.” 3557 W. Main St., Maiden Rock, Wisconsin; 612-250-9222

  • Segrelicious

    Segrelicious is described as a “multi-media, poly-racial-gender exquisite corpse of poetry, performance, and artistic experimentation.” That tall order is maybe even possible to fill, given Shoebox proprietor Sean Smuda’s polymorphous involvement with dance, poetry, photography, iron sculpture, and even improvisational music. Each artist was directed to make work in response to a piece from another artist. On August 4 from 6-9 p.m., in both the Obsidian Arts and Shoebox Gallery spaces, the visual-arts part of the show opens. For the Soul Food gathering August 25, bring a dish, a drink, and a story or talent to share that afternoon; a physical and intellectual potluck will unroll throughout the Roberts Shoes building at Lake and Chicago. Segrelicious performances begin at 8 p.m. Call it a bohemian rhapsody … 2948 Chicago Ave. S., Suite 220, Minneapolis; 612-825-3833, www.mnartists.org/Shoebox_Gallery; www.obsidianarts.org

  • New Photography: McKnight Fellows

    Orin Rutchick, Kristine Heykants, Angela Strassheim, and Mickey Smith now show the fruits of the past year’s labors as winners of the McKnight Foundation’s annual photography fellowships. These are fairly approachable artists, standing in relation to average folks’ uses of the medium: Orin Rutchick’s project is all about tourist snapshots; Kristine Heykants’s theatrical studio work rides atop her commercial work shooting models and brides. Angela Strassheim worked in forensic photography before moving on to document life in the suburbs (arguably more of the same), but her work has always borne some resemblance to both family snaps and famous paintings. Recent fame has encouraged Strassheim to push her candy-colored malign line further; these photos are interesting but you probably shouldn’t have dessert before you go see them. The one photographer here who shows nothing really new is Mickey Smith—someone get that girl out of the library! 165 13th Ave. N.E., Minneapolis; 612-824-5500; www.mncp.org

  • Café Maude

    Café Maude is just the kind of restaurant a lot of neighborhoods need: prices low enough that the folks within walking distance can afford to be regulars, and food interesting enough to draw diners from a wider area. Proprietor Kevin Sheehy, who also owns a couple of Dunn Brothers coffeehouses nearby, worked closely with the Armatage Neighborhood Association in planning the café (the namesake for both the restaurant and the association is Maude Armatage, the first woman to serve on the Minneapolis Park Board).

    The pricing is certainly neighborhood-friendly—especially for a restaurant offering a full bar and table service. Most of the menu is small plates, salads, and flatbreads, but you can get a half-pound burger for $7.50, half a wood-roasted chicken for $10, and an entrée portion of hanger steak for $12. Chef Jason Ross, formerly of Solera and Aquavit, has a bit of the same eclectic spirit as Isaac Becker at the 112 Eatery. It’s hard to slap a label on his cuisine, but Mediterranean bistro probably comes close: The rice and Parmesan croquettes with hazelnut sauce are basically Sicilian arancini, the grilled haloumi cheese is from Cyprus, and the Greek salad is, well, Greek. The flatbreads are Italian, sort of, except the Italians would never top a pizza with frisée, duck confit, and bleu cheese. The chorizo hash with baby octopus? Mark it down as Spanish-Greek-Moroccan fusion. The grilled chicken, moist and juicy, is rubbed with Moroccan spices, while the hangar steak is given a French touch with its cognac finish.

    Café Maude is new enough that Sheehy is still fine-tuning the concept. The original plan to offer coffee and pastries for breakfast and salads and sandwiches at lunch has been dropped, but a full-menu breakfast and lunch service will launch sometime this month. The café’s tiny stage features live jazz on Fridays and world music on Saturdays, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays, DJ Howard Hamilton III picks tunes from his vast music collection. 5411 Penn Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-822-5411; www.cafemaude.com

  • Landmarc Grill

    The old curmudgeon is at it again. Michael Morse, crusty former owner of the late, lamented Café Un Deux Trois and a schmoozer extraordinaire, now presides over the Landmarc Grill in the Normandy Inn and Suites in downtown Minneapolis. It’s the kind of comfort-food joint that Morse has talked about opening for years, serving roast chicken, veal meatloaf, and chicken pot pie, but with a touch of French bistro as well: salade niçoise, croque monsieur, steak frites, and sautéed calves liver. The former Normandy Village dining room has been given a complete makeover, but Morse has kept three of its signature dishes: pancakes (breakfast will be offered soon), popovers for dinner, and a terrific hand-ground Henry VIII burger. Occasional specials like trout stuffed with shrimp and scallops show a depth of talent in the kitchen. Except for the steak frites and the “world’s best crab cakes” (both $24), everything is under $20, with the burger, pot pie, entrée salads, and sandwiches all in the $10-$12 range. 405 S. 8th St., Minneapolis; 612-455-1204.

  • Café Levain

    It’s a lesson that generations of Twin Cities restaurateurs have learned the hard way: The number of haute-cuisine restaurants that locals are willing to support at any given time is extremely small. Like, around two. When the number gets much higher, you have too much foie gras chasing too few gullets, and the population crashes (sort of like caribou), which is what happened during the great fine-dining die-off of 2006, when we lost Auriga, Five, and Restaurant Levain, all within a few months of each other.

    The man who owned the last, baker and bon vivant Harvey McLain, has picked himself up, dusted himself off, and transformed the empty dining room adjacent to his Turtle Bread bakery into the more modestly priced, less gastronomically ambitious Café Levain, offering French bistro classics at very affordable prices. Gone are the lobster ravioli with corn cream and the seared big tuna with foie gras and chocolate sauce, replaced by the likes of beef short ribs ($16) and an occasional coq au vin special ($15). All entrées are priced under $20, including a choice of side dish, and you can get a big all-American ground-chuck burger with a side of fries for $10. A half-liter carafe (about three glasses) of the house red or white runs $12, a starter of pork rillettes is $6, and a dessert of tarte tatin goes for $7.

    The décor hasn’t changed much, but the tables are now covered in butcher paper instead of white linen, and are squeezed a little closer together than before, so the dining room seems noisier, but also livelier. The mood is certainly casual—some diners come in shorts and a T-shirt. A small wine bar has been added, and a few seats at the counter facing the kitchen.

    The cuisine is also livelier, if less subtle than before—those short ribs and the coq au vin are full of intense, concentrated flavors. Other highlights include the crisp and juicy frog legs, the savory sautéed wild mushrooms, and the steamed mussels ($8/$12) served in a broth flavored with tomato, onion, and a hint of dried chili. 48th St. & Chicago Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-823-7111.

  • Safari Restaurant

    The more traditional Somali cafés, with their sex-segregated seating and all-Somali clientele, can feel a bit uninviting to outsiders, but owner Sade Hashi makes everybody feel welcome at Safari Restaurant, just south of downtown Minneapolis. The original location, a few doors away, was friendly but frumpy; the new space is downright stylish, with an espresso bar, fieldstone fireplace, and a décor of African arts and crafts. Adventuresome diners can try the curried goat, but most of the menu is well within the average Midwesterner’s comfort zone: grilled beef or chicken and sautéed vegetables served with mango juice, a ripe banana, and a generous portion of rice pilaf or lightly sauced spaghetti (a legacy of the Italian colonizers). Most entrées are $8-$10. The espresso bar offers a big selection of coffee drinks to make up for the lack of alcohol—Hashi says the Somali community wouldn’t stand for it. 1424 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis; 612-872-4604; www.safarirestaurantmn.com

  • Pinot Noir for the Masses

    Archaeologists have all the fun. Mere historians spend their summers sweating over hot computers while those on expeditions get fresh air and exercise, often in agreeable places. I have just heard from a student who is spending great swaths of his summer making a new map of the Boundary Waters. There are less pleasant ways of spending your days than sitting in a canoe cuddling a GPS. Such canoodling in the Boundary Waters will not reveal any Roman roads (this student’s first love), but he might make his reputation by finally fixing the coordinates of Mist County. No one has ever looked for it that far north.

    Of course he would need a time machine. Lake Wobegon, so I have heard its chronicler assert, is really your grandfather’s rural Minnesota. One doubts if many Norwegian bachelor farmers use GPS to direct and regulate their seed drills; there won’t be a lot of agribusiness done in the Chatterbox Café.

    All the same, the portrait of this place is at least grounded in realism, which is more than you can say for a lot of pastoral literature. When the Hellenistic wordsmith Theocritus had the wheeze that you could compose clever poetry about country life, he meant it as metaphor; the dysfunctional affections of the nymphs and shepherds who sport in his delightful pleasant groves represent the abstract attachments of urban intellectuals. It is the same with Tudor madrigals. If fair Cloris actually met her swain in a pigsty she would surely have been far too worried about the mud on her multiple petticoats to celebrate their happy, happy loves. Clint Bunsen, by contrast, is not afraid of a little axle-grease.

    What is even more remarkable, the good folk of Lake Wobegon are described with optimism and affection; Powdermilk Biscuits are good for you—mostly. Everyday stories of countryfolk are often distressingly cruel. Take Sinclair Lewis. He seems to be the first writer ever to have used the pejorative term “hick” as an adjective; it is a wonder the good people of Gopher Prairie’s real-world counterpart, Sauk Centre, did not chase him all the way down Main Street and into the next county, however many Nobel Prizes he had to his credit. Perhaps their revenge is not to read his novels.

    The true masters of metropolitan disdain, though, are the French. M. Eiffel may have been born in Burgundy but he built his tower in Paris. The French intellectual even has an epithet which puts simple countryfolk in their place: They are the petit peuple. Whatever the feminists tell you, Madame Bovary was the victim of the French failure to embrace the simple pleasures of provincial life (though I guess you could say her enthusiastic embrace of a number of other pleasures also contributed to her decline and fall).

    It was not ever thus. In the fifteenth century, Burgundy in the east of France was a self-governing duchy capable of pursuing its own foreign policy—it was a Duke of Burgundy who captured Joan of Arc. Much of what one thinks of as characteristically medieval is associated with the Burgundian court—the high, pointy hats of the ladies, Books of Hours embellished with luminous blue and gold, the angular elegance of the music of Dufay. The distinctly unhick lives of John the Fearless and Philip the Good were fuelled by good local wine whose terroir had already been nurtured (not least by Cluniac and Cistercian monks) for centuries.

    The Pinot Noir grape is the characteristic grape of Burgundy—it first enters the written record (as Noirien) in documents from the reign of Philip the Bold. The good duke resented growers who wanted to make quick profits from the higher-yielding Gamay variety, and ordered them to mend their ways; so much for the magic of the market. You can benefit from this ducal forethought. In Burgundy, 2005 was a particularly good year, warm but not scorching and wet at just the right times. The long-established shippers Bouchard Ainé et Fils have generously made available a very pleasing red burgundy, full of fruit and flavor, labeled simply 2005 Bourgogne Rouge Pinot Noir, at a shockingly affordable price: under $20 a bottle. Local taste (rather than price) might prompt drinkers at the Sidetrack Tap to give it a miss, but I can imagine this burgundy being sipped with pleasure (from glass, not plastic, glasses) once the canoe has been parked, the GPS put to bed for the night, and the sausages (scholars cannot afford steak) have been set to sizzle.

  • NEWS: Breaking Bread

    We stopped for happy hour at Harry’s Food and Cocktails, 500 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis, a few weeks ago, about fifteen minutes after they’d opened for business, and found lots of intriguing items on the menu, including starters of grilled beef ribs with garlic and ginger ($11) and braised pork ribs with lentils and escarole ($10). But there was no poutine, the legendary Québécois delicacy of fries, cheese curds, and brown gravy that chef Steven Brown had promised would be on the menu. When asked for an explanation, he said the current menu is just a preview as the kitchen gets up to speed. “Rest assured, the poutine will be there or I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. Part of the issue was getting fresh curds versus frozen, so they squeak.”

    The tiny new Hyderabad House Restaurant (1831 Central Ave. N.E., Minneapolis; 612-706-3292), next door to Patel Brothers Indian grocery, bills itself as an “Authentic Hyderabadi Restaurant”—and who are we to doubt it? Hyderabad, in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, has a reputation for great cuisine, which it traces back to the Moghul conquerors. Prices here are extremely reasonable (entrées range from $4.99 to $6.99), but the award for the first Hyderabadi restaurant in the Twin Cities would go to Kabob’s at 7814 Portland Ave. S. in Bloomington (612-636-7786).

    Oh boy, it’s a sushi tsunami in downtown Min-neapolis! We’ve already got Origami, Nami, Wasabi, and Koyi Sushi in the warehouse district, sushi at Martini Blu at the Grand Hotel, Ichiban on the Nicollet Mall, and Tensuke Sushi in the skyways … and joining them in mid-August, in the former Olive Garden space on Hennepin Avenue, will be Musashi Japanese Restaurant. According to manager Mickey Liu, owner Tyu Di Chen, a native of China, worked at Japanese restaurants in Japan for ten years before coming to the States. Just how Musashi will differentiate itself from its competitors isn’t clear, but Liu says his restaurant’s cuisine will be better.

    We found Doug Anderson and Steve Vranian surrounded by clouds of plaster dust at the new restaurant taking shape in the gutted shell of the former Loring Grill on Loring Park. The owner and chef, respectively, of Nick & Eddie are racing toward a late-August opening date. It’s a reunion of sorts, as they first worked together at Jeremiah Tower’s legendary Stars in San Francisco. Anderson now owns A Rebours in St. Paul; Vranian’s résumé includes stints at the California Café and Murray’s.

    Enterprising chef Lenny Russo, back at his Heartland Midwestern Restaurant after a stint at Cue, is working with the Saint Paul Growers Association to create a new retail store and distribution center next door to the St. Paul Farmers Market in Lowertown. The retail store will feature locally grown foods—fresh, canned, or frozen—year-round, while the wholesale distribution center will help small farmers cut out the middleman in selling to restaurants and co-ops, whose purchasing volume is greater than individual farmers can handle. The goal, says Russo, is to have farmers keep more of the profits and also spend less time and fuel making deliveries to the metro area. Russo hopes to break ground this summer and open for the 2008 growing season.

    Check out the brand-new Jasmine 26, next door to The Bad Waitress at 26th and Nicollet in Minneapolis, which is owned by the same family as the nearby Jasmine Deli. Expect a lot of the same beloved Vietnamese soups, noodle salads, and spring rolls that bring hungry patrons to Jasmine in droves, plus Chinese and Thai specialties and a full bar, all in a much more stylish—and less cramped—setting.

    Half a block away, at 25th and Nicollet, Yummy, which happens to be one of our favorite Chinese restaurants, now has another attraction, besides fresh (i.e., live) seafood, daily dim sum, and bargain-priced Peking duck. Monday through Thursday, bottled beer is just a buck, and that includes Tsingtao, imported from China. And, starting this month, the restaurant is open every day of the week.

    For more restaurants, food news, and tasting notes from Ann Bauer & Jeremy Iggers visit www.rakemag.com/eatersdigest

  • La Bohème

    The Minnesota Orchestra finishes its 2007 Sommerfest series with Puccini’s immensely popular La Bohème. The opera is a staple of classical music fans’ collections. But its arias and plotline also are familiar to the uninitiated; after all, Rent and Moulin Rouge are but two examples of popular modern takes on the tale. This production features a cast of world-class singers as well as local favorites Minnesota Chorale and Minnesota Boychoir. The Minnesota Orchestra, too, plays an essential role, as the musicians occupy their usual front-and-center real estate—creating a visually spare but ultimately aurally lush production. For an added treat, keep an eye out for restaurateur Vincent Francoul, owner of the musicians’ hang, Vincent; he has a bit part in Act II. 612-371-5656; www.minnesotaorchestra.org