First Bite: Jacques'

The old Marquette hotel got a $24 million upgrade—and downtown happy hour lovers will be thrilled.

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Anyone who has been living and eating in Minneapolis the last year has noticed that we've been in the throes of a particular building boom, in which sleepy downtown business hotels are suddenly transformed into ritzy upscale business hotels! Is it our countdown to Super Bowl LII? Is it good karmic payback for our Vikings-related suffering? Whatever the proximate cause, this trend has now happened to the Marquette in the heart of downtown, upon which JMI Realty has spent $24 million to transform into an upscale Hilton Curio Collection property. For locals this is a bad news/good news/great news scenario. 

The Bad News:

Basil's fans: Have you spent years of your lives fighting for happy hour seats at famous Mary Tyler Moore table in the Basil's balcony? Take a deep breath and grab your instamatic, for good old comfy Basil's is not long for this world, it will soon to be turned into a breakfast-only destination called the Joliet House. I know! Life, right? First Mary Tyler Moore goes off the air in 1977, and now this. We were not ready yet. 

The Good News: 

There's a new restaurant on the ground floor of the Marquette now, it's called Jacques'—after ye olde French Jesuit explorer Jacques' Marquette—and for first days, it's quite good. The chef is newcomer Chris Blackwell, who has come from Denver where he ran Randolph’s Restaurant & Bar in the Warwick Hotel.

He's got a way with comfort food; I tried a truly lovely homestyle Italian meatball in a bright tomato sauce and an oversized, extra meaty osso bucco with lots of good long-cooked veggies on a rich polenta—it's just a great thing, meaty and plain and real. It could be some people's new favorite pot roast in downtown, if you know what I mean, just the sort of wholesome food to fix you up on a cold, tough night.

The double cheeseburger was pretty special, because it had towering heights and handfuls of crispy onions, and was just fun to eat. It's got a bit of Big Mac flavor to it, in a good way, I think because of the Velveeta, and something in the burger sauce. Local burger obsessives should give it a whirl and get back to me. Also, it's $17, so make your friends buy it for your birthday? 

The Great News: 

Finally, a new happy hour! Downtown office workers, link hands, dance, frolic and hug! Daily, from 3 p.m.–6 p.m. and from 10 p.m.–midnight, all the drinks in this beautiful new white marble Jacques' bar are half price. The wines (including a good French Malbec), the tap beers (Modist!), the rail drinks, and even the fancy bartender drinks are all one of everyone's favorite prices, which is the price known as half.

I tried a few of head barkeep Alex McGregor's favorites, and can't say enough good things about the bourbon number known as "Girl from the North Country.' It's smokey Lapsang Souchong tea from Tea Source brewed into a simple syrup, and combined with barrel-aged whiskey and bitters—and it tastes like the height of snappy fall, as experienced three steps from a big tailgate bonfire. McGregor tended bar at Hell's Kitchen for seven years, and has worked in other notable bars, including Icehouse, and told me that he had the very first cocktail of his whole life in the room he is now tending, when his sister worked there and it was the Marq VII. 

The more things change, the more Minneapolis gets awesome new happy hours, right? I think that's how the saying goes. In any event, welcome Jacques', and go go Minneapolis building boom—may your burgers grow ever taller and your cocktails ever better, we're awfully glad you're booming. 

Mpls.St.Paul Daily Edit

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