Rinata Table Restaurant Week
The leaves are falling, the sweaters are coming, and this Restaurant Week is your last chance for 2018 to get some sick deals on eating around town. Apples, and squash, and cinnamon, oh my.
Newbies
The Herkimer has put a massively warming short rib and potato pave dish on their $25 dinner menu which might be the thing to woo you from your burger life (tho, there is also a bacon blue cheeseburger too, so do battle with yourselves). And I'm in for the fall spiced beer float dessert option, in which pumpkin beer meets ice cream, as it often should.
Yes, The Lexington is on board this time. Get all the dinner glam and old-world luxe for as little as $35. Your night could start famously with The Lex salad, move onto Steak Diane, and finish with chocolate mousse cake. Pearls not required, but appreciated.
The newest spot on 50th and France is Moderna Kouzina. In the former Mozza Mia space they've brought a bit of finer dining, but you can check them out for a $35 dinner that might include slow-braised short ribs with sweetbreads, a petite filet mignon with cognac sauce, or the house pasta with meatballs.
Skeeballers are psyched that Pat's Tap is in RW! At either a $15 lunch or a $30 dinner, you can choose between a green apple curry just bouncing with vegetables, or the classic Beef Bourgogne with pureed potatoes and demi-glaze. That'll warm you up.
Prime 6 is taking a turn at 6th and Nicollet in downtown. You think it's a steakhouse, right? Well, get over there for either the $20 lunch or the $35 dinner and try the Moroccan eggplant bruschetta, the Peking chicken Sumontha (fried chicken with sweet and spicy sauce, plus peppers), or the vegan casserole hotdish (fixed it for them) and see how you call them now.
Salut Bar Americain in both Edina and St. Paul are in this round. That $30 dinner should start with French onion soup (perfect weather for it), then maybe moulés frites to keep it light, so that you have no misgivings about tucking into that apple tarte tatin.
The newest kid in East Town is Tavola, the Italian restaurant in the Elliot Hotel. Go check them out for $15 lunch or $30 dinner, they've got a cheeky hometown homage going with Totino's Traditional Pizza that's clearly upgraded with better sausage, salami, and fontina cheese.
Best of the Rest
Get over to Book Club at 54th and Penn and tuck right into the squash mac 'n' cheese dish. It's the perfect blend of comfort and indulgence with a fall veg presented in a new way. It's part of the $30 dinner menu that should probably end in bread pudding.
Bank has got me thinking about a $35 dinner of either the wild boar osso buco with mushroom risotto or the almond crusted barramundi with pumpkin puree and green beans. Both seem hearty reasons to stay downtown and skip the rush hour traffic.
There's no way I'm not starting out with pretzel bites from the $25 Betty Dangers Country Club dinner menu, but I'm happily surprised to see the Sonoran chicken pot pie as a follow-up option. Mini-donut party is how you end, natch.
If your $20 lunch at Bloomington Chop House doesn't start with chicken wild rice soup, before zipper merging into a pot roast sandwich, and ending with a spiced pumpkin bar, well cripes. Just turn in your Minnesota Card.
Campiello out in Eden Prairie recently got a fresh makeover, so why not pick THIS week to go and see the new digs? Especially when there's a $15 lunch or $35 dinner with cavatelli with spicy lamb ragu, a porcini rubbed pork rib-eye, and butterscotch budino for the eating.
I was kinda digging this endive and arugula salad with quince vinaigrette and Idiazabal cheese on Citizen's $20 lunch and $30 dinner menus, but then I saw that they are also offering a special wine menu for RW that has many bottles just above cost. Wine and salad with a dish of truffled mushroom risotto sounds right.
You should be all about that Wild Acres chicken pot pie on Copper Hen's $25 dinner menu. Or the baked mac 'n' cheese which just puts others to shame.
If you're looking for lunch in North Loop, Dalton & Wade has a $15 menu that can start with hush puppies and move on to a pulled pork sandwich or a fried green tomato BLT. No one will know if you also choose a side dram of whiskey.
FireLake downtown is playing a Meat + 3 game for its $15 lunch. Get the protein of the day (W: smoked pork shoulder, Th: rotisserie chicken, F: pan fried walleye) then choose three sides: fries, popovers, brussels, corn bread, baby carrots, black eyed peas & pork, and more.
I am feeling this Moretti-Kabocha squash soup on the I Nonni $35 dinner menu, because I like squash and beer. But they also have a beer apple butter with the fennel sausage-stuffed pastries, and a pici pasta with elk, wild boar, and bison ragu that has me hungry.
Treat yo'self. You deserve a lunch like the one you can have at Lake & Irving for just $25. Start with some curried carrot soup, because you're elegant. Then get the luxe burger with Pat La Frieda beef, cheese, black truffle, and foie gras butter on brioche, because you're tasteful. Then finish with snickerdoodle creme brulee because you can.
I love the idea of scooting out to La Voya at the airport hotel for a $35 dinner of some MN duck breast with sweet corn farroto, foie gras, and pickled blueberry. And that would be after the smoked Driftless rainbow trout. Who even needs to get on a plane after that local bounty?
HEED ME MEA PARENTS! Head out to Stillwater area for orchard fun and pumpkin ballyhoo, then motor over the big bridge to Mallory's in Hudson for lunch. For a $15 lunch, you and the brood can start with cheese curds, tots, or tater skewers. And then peeps can choose between fish tacos, a Pueblo burger, Philly cheesesteak, a French dip, or cranberry club! Who's going to fall asleep on the ride home after all that fresh air and solid eating?
It feels like fall all over the ninetwentyfive menus in Wayzata. I mean, all across the $20 lunch or $35 dinner choices you find wild rice pine nut fritters, sugar pumpkin soup with nutmeg creme fraiche, herb and fennel pollen porchetta with creamy polenta, a warm spiced crepe with candied harvest squash ... it's like Lenny Russo knows how to cook local and seasonal or something.
I don't know if this pulled on a taste memory heartstring from my past, but I can't stop thinking about the chicken cacciatore over creamy polenta on Rinata's $35 dinner menu. I feel like I never see that anymore! And there are four courses to this one, so my plan would also include white bean soup with chard and sausage, roasted beet and ricotta ravioli, and then the pumpkin and mascarpone cannoli.
Tullibee in the Hewing has a new chef you can test-drive for a $35 dinner. See how he does with grilled Yker Acres pork with smoke cauliflower, Honeycrisp salad with ricotta salata, or butternut risotto with wild rice and crisp sage.
Final thought, after looking through all the menus: pappardelle is a thing right now. GO EAT, HAVE FUN!
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