First Bite: Book Club
Café Maude lovers, take heart—I think it's all going to be good.
Book Club Restaurant
Fries, grilled cheese, and salad with eggplant
Were you one of the Café Maude fanatics of southwest Minneapolis who ate in the restaurant three times a week? I know there were so many of you, and I'm writing this first bite blog of Book Club just for you: It's totally good! Do not be afraid.
I dropped by for a gluttonous lunch the other day and ate everything that wasn't nailed down. First, the important news: We have a new contender for best grilled cheese in town. It's called the "Allium Grilled Cheese," after the botanic family that all cool onions and garlic belong to, and they are all in there, from shallot to green onion, treated in different cheffy ways and combined with two-year-old Vermont cheddar which makes it all taste exactly like an extremely fancy and delicious French bistro onion tart (if such a thing was a munchy, happy, easy grilled cheese). The hand-cut russet potato French fries are charmers, full of that good fresh roast-potato flavor, but also crisp, and the mustard aioli is a pretty diversion.
Book Club Salad with Eggplant
I was nuts for the arugula salad, made with chickpeas braised in French herbs—very umami—and savory chunks of roast eggplant, with sweet and plump roast plum tomatoes. The whole thing is finished with a blizzard of pan-fried shallots, those pretty little onion-ring garnishes which are so annoying to cook at home and so cartwheel-worthy when someone else cooks them for you. I am well known to be jaded and impossible when it comes to being impressed by green salads, and this one's a whiz-bang carnival of flavor. I mean, it's a good salad.
Cult burger fanatics, take note. Instead of going with the oh-so-popular thin smashed burger style, Book Club has gone for a butter burger more similar to the styles of Café Lurcat or 112 Eatery, with fresh-ground Peterson Limousin beef pattied with fresh thyme, and served with aioli and lettuce and tomato, salt-and-peppered in a way that's more restaurant-attentive than fast food. I devoured mine, and would like another right now, please.
Book Club is the latest by owner Kim Bartmann (Café Barbette, Pat's Tap, and so many more) and the first solo restaurant by chef Asher Miller, who got his start in town on the line at Barbette and went on to a starry career, including running the Walker's 20.21 for Wolfgang Puck. I was worried when Bartmann told me that the concept of Book Club was that it was inspired by important founding California cookbooks, including one published by the Ronzoni Corporation and another by Helen Evans Brown, a founding mother of California cuisine who died in 1964. I mean, I like the past and all, but I live here now. I shouldn't have worried, everything I tried was fresh, now, and lovely.
Asher Miller told me not to miss the confit turkey leg next time, and the whole fried local trout. Deal. He also told me that about half the former Café Maude staff, including key kitchen folk, stayed on to help run Book Club, and regulars have been coming in and saying it feels like the same good Maude, and not an interloper.
"The goal was to have a great neighborhood restaurant that appeals to the community," Miller said. Obviously it's early days, but I think they're well on their way to pulling off that worthy endeavor.
Book Club, 5411 Penn Ave. S., Mpls., 612-822-5411
