The following (short) article was recently published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Given the changing trends in dining throughout the country I thought some of you might find this interesting.
By RICK NELSON, Star Tribune
Move over, Saturday. With a proliferation of value-priced, multi-course meals, Sunday has become the hottest night to go out on the town.
My friend cut right to the chase. We bumped into one another a few weeks ago at Cafe Levain, and after a quick salutation she got to the point. If memory serves, her exact words were, "I want to eat here every Sunday night for the rest of my life."
After my experience that evening, I can see why. It's been almost a year since chef Adam Vickerman quietly began converting a previously dark night at his south Minneapolis restaurant into an under-the-radar cult dining event. While the rest of the world is watching Ty Pennington shout himself hoarse on "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," Vickerman and his crew -- sous chef Remle Colestock and cook Alan Hlebaen -- are calmly preparing a deeply satisfying three-course meal. The seasonally sensitive menu changes weekly, and the price is right: $25, or $20 for vegetarians. A three-glass wine pairing ($13, a steal) is selected by the waitstaff with obvious care and described with admirable gusto.
The food is long on attention to detail and short on fussiness. A few weeks ago Vickerman & Co. opened with a sense-stimulating salad: feathery frisée, crunchy roasted pecans, a perfectly runny poached egg and slivers of rich, pungent brie. The main course was a wide, shallow bowl layered with ultra-creamy mashed potatoes, succulent roast chicken, bits of garlicky pork sausage and cool, fragrant flashes of lemon and rosemary. It was the polar opposite of the icy sidewalks and howling winds lying in wait just outside the door.
Dessert treated four varieties of pears like apples, glazing them, tarte Tatin-style, over puff pastry and then dressing the results with a feisty black-pepper ice cream. Since the restaurant operates under the Turtle Bread Co. umbrella, even the bread basket is first-rate.