METRO's Restaurants of the Year
Chef Steven Brown is cooking inventive fare for the masses at his Linden Hills restaurant, Tilia.
Image credit: Photos by Kelly Loverud
Food writing is an inherently subjective endeavor. Like the people who run them, restaurants grow and evolve so quickly that it is often impossible to make judgments based on even a handful of visits. Our palates, of course, are unique as well.
There are, however, certain places that one visits and immediately identifies as being among the best in show. These four places, drawn from a year’s worth of dining in Minneapolis and St. Paul, connected with us in just such a way. Along with our restaurant of the year, The Bachelor Farmer, are the places we returned to, again and again, in our time of hunger.
There are other restaurants that we loved as well (our list of runners-up is testament to that), and places we hope will continue to improve as their number of services grows. And whatever conclusions we came with, it’s clear that there’s never been a better time to dine in the Twin Cities.
In no particular order, our list of the Twin Cities’ best new restaurants:
The New Muddy Waters, Uptown
As a dyed-in-the-wool Twin Citian, I was skeptical when the old Muddy Waters coffee shop, a Minneapolis icon, moved five blocks up Lyndale last summer. But the new space flouts the old “if it ain’t broke” adage by reinventing Muddy Waters as the perfect place for, well, just about anything. It’s still a coffee shop, with fresh pastries galore including two-bite cookies, red velvet cupcakes and fresh donuts (overall, it’s the most tempting bakery case I’ve seen in some time). But it’s also a full-service restaurant boasting high-brow dogs, burgers, pizzas, inventive salads, great sandwiches—all at fair price points. I particularly like the pizza, with its spot-on crust, and the hand-cut fries served with a trio of condiments. Did I mention there’s a bar? And a handsome one at that? Belly up for local beer (Surly, Fulton and others), reasonably priced vino and booze galore. If you get hungry after imbibing, the ultra-accommodating Muddy Waters serves brunch, lunch, dinner and its late-night menu ’til 2 a.m. I can’t think of a single hat this place doesn’t wear—and if I could I wouldn’t mention it because this time I really don’t want them to fix what ain’t broken. 2933 Lyndale Ave. S., Mpls.; 612.872.2232; muddywatersmpls.com
Sun Street Breads, Tangletown/Kingfield
Chefs get all the glory: TV shows, celeb status, book deals, etc. But what about the baker—she who rises religiously at 2 each morning to face a darkened kitchen, a 50-pound Hobart mixing bowl and a whole lot of flour? We think she deserves more credit, but for now she’ll have to settle for making damn good bread. And by “she” we mean local baker Solveig Tofte, whose loaves have blistered, golden crusts and an inner crumb as heady as beer. Tofte might be a devoted baker, but she’s got a chef’s aesthetic, proof of which can be found on the menu at her new Sun Street Breads bakery and café, where handmade biscuits with fried chicken and sausage gravy, sourdough flapjacks, basted eggs and deep-fried masa-rolled mashed potatoes are just as divine as Tofte’s bread. Rather than serve as an afterthought menu for baguette-buyers in search of a quick bite, the café begs you to linger for its elevated diner fare. Overall, Sun Street has become a culinary community center of sorts for lucky-duck south Minneapolis residents. 4600 Nicollet Ave., Mpls.; 612.354.3414; sunstreetbreads.com
Tilia, Linden Hills
Dining is like show business. Both are ephemeral, defined by a revolving door of hot new talent. But somehow local chef Steven Brown has been hot forever. He made the old Levain the finest restaurant in town, breathed inventive and exciting air into Porter & Fry and now, at Tilia, his very own brick-and-mortar restaurant, he is cooking inventive fare for the masses. Brown’s style is a confluence of finesse, time, talent, passion and curiosity. I think of him as a quintessential American chef who doesn’t rely too heavily on any one tradition, instead drawing influences from an interesting life lived well. From his mastery of beets and farro, to a “sorta jerk-style” chicken thigh, to a beer cheese soup, Brown’s Tilia cuisine is as relevant as it gets, and it’s what you want to be eating right now, in an unpretentious, neighborhood-y space that feels like a heartfelt extension of the chef’s own home. 2726 W. 43rd St., Mpls.; 612.354.2806; tiliampls.com
Wise Acre Eatery, Tangletown
Forget “chef-driven” restaurants—we’re moving into the era of the farmer-driven eatery. OK, so the best chefs are surely in touch with concepts like seasonality and sustainability, but they’ve gotta get their information from someone, and that’s usually the folks in the field tilling soil and trucking bok choy, sides of beef and yard eggs into the cities. Restaurateurs Scott Endres and Dean Engelmann, lifelong farmers and longtime proprietors of Tangletown Gardens, count themselves as the local trailblazers for what I predict will become a national trend. Armed with a deep knowledge of food that comes from raising it, the two are redefining the “farm to table” movement at their south Minneapolis restaurant Wise Acre Eatery, where ingredients are sourced from the pair’s 40-acre farm in Plato, Minn. Things like Highland beef, farm-fresh eggs, Berkshire pork and lots of produce. Wise Acre chef Beth Fisher has done a bang-up job turning these super-fresh products into rustic classics. A recent menu featured dill pickle-fried chicken wings, routatouille and goat cheese with roasted sweet corn sauce, and tomato ginger-braised beef. 5401 Nicollet Ave. S., Mpls.; 612.354.2577; wiseacreeatery.com
Runners-up
East St. Paul Hmong Village
When the first Hmong Village opened off of Como Avenue in St. Paul, in-the-know food nerds flocked there to taste something truly unusual (congee, chicken feet and tapioca pearls to name only a few). And now, St. Paul boasts not one, but two of these fabulous Hmong food courts, where you can get out-of-this-world pho, pad thai, sushi, bubble tea and curries, as well as a bootleg copy of Cinderella, a sequin bustier and bundles upon bundles of medicinal herbs. 1001 Johnson Parkway, St. Paul; 651.771.7886
Bread & Pickle
Minnehaha Park’s Sea Salt was arguably the first in town to elevate concession fare beyond grey burgers, fountain soda and bomb pops, and by doing so made a pretty strong argument that every park ought to offer chef-driven food. Thankfully, innovative restaurateur Kim Bartmann responded to this call by snapping up the Lake Harriet concessions stand. Enter Bread & Pickle and its amazing truffle corn, seared ahi tuna, Vietnamese iced coffees and pickles on a stick. Lake Harriet city park concessions; breadandpickle.com
Meritage Oyster Bar
Meritage, Russell and Desta Klein’s authentic French brasserie, has helped turn St. Paul into a dining destination. When the couple announced the addition of a raw bar, diners were thrilled. And for good reason: Klein has the seafood biz in his blood (his grandfather was a fisherman off Long Island) and is a master at responsibly sourcing the finest oysters available. Plus, the bar itself is a beaut. 410 Saint Peter St., St. Paul; 651.222.5670; meritage-stpaul.com
Little Szechuan, St. Louis Park
Disciples of spice can rejoice in the knowledge that the Twin Cities’ finest Szechuan restaurant has a new location in St. Louis Park. Featuring signature dishes like dan dan noodles and beef in Szechuan spicy broth, Little Szechuan breathes much-needed fire into the chain-heavy Shops at West End. 5377 W. 16th St., St. Louis Park; 952.322.7671; littleszechuan.com
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