DINING
Meet The Chef: Grand Café
One of the great joys of dining out is not having to worry about the cooking, but wouldn’t it be nice to see what happens behind the scenes? Wouldn’t it be nice to watch and learn, and perhaps even be able to recreate the experience at home? Tonight might offer just this opportunity. Join Chef Justin Frederick, of the Grand Café, as he prepares a five course meal designed to celebrate spring cuisine. It’s a dinner and a cooking class all wrapped up in one. How can you go wrong? The evening will begin with an appetizer of Le Lapin Terrine and a salad of fava beans, Spring beans, black truffle pecorino, and shaved artichokes. Then, a lesson on fish, as Justin demonstrates the process of butchering a whole head-on wild Alaskan halibut prepared with a Spring vegetable risotto with pistou, a mixture of crushed basil, garlic, and olive oil. Top off the evening with an Italian dessert of affuccato, fresh espresso poured atop ice cream, with pignoli cookies. Eat and learn, folks. Tonight’s your chance to learn the art of the increasingly hard to find neighborhood café.
6 – 9 p.m., Grand Café, 3804 Grand Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-822-8260; $70.
BOOKS & AUTHORS by Jon Lurie
More Glitterati than Geek
Sherman Alexie was born hydrocephalic, and doctors predicted he would suffer severe retardation. However, the very opposite occurred; he showed signs of prodigy, devouring novels by age five. Still, he endured effects of his condition — seizures and bed-wetting — and was subject to bullying on the Spokane Reservation where he grew up.
In his new novel Flight (Alexie’s first in ten years), the celebrated author of Indian Killer and Reservation Blues seems to channel that ostracism into a fifteen-year-old protagonist whose acne is so bad he’s known simply as “Zits.” Today more glitterati than geek, Alexie is known for acerbic wit that causes his audience to laugh while their hearts break.
7 p.m., Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church, 2020 West Lake of the Isles Pkwy., Minneapolis; 612-374-4023.
ART AND LITERATURE
Can’t Help but Love the Beatniks
What’s our obsession with the Beat Generation. Is it simply our appreciation of the great poetry that came from this? Or perhaps our romanticized ideals of the great characters of the movement: Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs, Ferlinghetti? The celebration of disgust and imperfections? The screeching demand for freedom? Or is it just the associated styles — the black clothes, the bongos, the hats and shades — like some strange film noir apparition tossed into a seedy cafe? Whatever it is, it’s real, and it’s far-reaching. We love the Beats. Why fight it? Join photographer Christopher Felver for his Beat book release and installation of photography, letters, and ephemera from the Beat Generation. Tonight’s opening reception offers wine, hors d’ouvres, and live music by Chuck Solberg. Books will be available for sale courtesy of Magers & Quinn Booksellers, and Felver will be on hand to sign books and photographs.
5 – 8 p.m., The Grand Hand Gallery, 611 Grand Ave., Saint Paul; 651-312-1122.
FILM
Here I Am
The Jewish Film Festival is in full swing, with a number of films at the Hopkins Cinema. Catch two films from the Israeli Heartbeat Series this evening: A Green Chariot and Like a Fish Out of Water. Or catch a most unusual feature at the Sabes Community Center. Hineini: Coming Out in a Jewish High School, just as the title suggests, is a film about a young girl coming out as a lesbian in a conservative Jewish school. Somehow, I can’t remember seeing this one before. Hineini — Hebrew for “here I am” — follows this young girl as she fights to establish a gay-straight alliance at a Jewish High School in Boston. The Jewish Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Initiative is planning discussions to follow the film.
7 p.m., Sabes Jewish Community Center, 4330 S Cedar Lake Rd., Jay and Rose Phillips Building, Edina; 952-381-3400.
MUSIC
Accidents Will Happen
What? You weren’t a big fan of Elvis Costello & the Imposters? How can that be? This guy has done it all — from his early days of punk and new wave, to the muddy backroads of country and soul. He attacks everything with his particular style, and that ever-so-trademark voice, which has matured and solidified over the years. This man is a true musician, and a much better guitarist than he’s ever given credit for. He keeps coming back after all these years, but for how much longer? Get it while it’s hot, baby.
7 p.m., Myth, 3090 Southlawn Dr., Maplewood; 651-779-6984; $45.
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