We Love St. Paul Restaurants
| By METRO Staff |
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It was disheartening, to say the least, when the already “small” Paul lost a handful of eateries—Zander and Margeaux, for instance. But what is it they say? There are always more fish in the sea? Lucky for us, there are enough newcomers who love St. Paul—or at the very least, love someone from here—to keep our eastside dining scene afloat.
Meritage
“There are only two reasons a man moves to Minnesota: rehab or love,” says Russell Klein, chef-owner of Meritage. “It wasn’t rehab.” While the love affair didn’t stick the first time around, he got it right last May when he married his now-business partner, Desta Klein, holding their wedding reception in the former A Rebours space. “We also fell in love with this space and knew we wanted our restaurant in something just like it—timeless, classic.” As fate would have it, the space came up for lease, and like a shotgun-wedding baby, Meritage was born.
“There are only two reasons a man moves to Minnesota: rehab or love,” says Russell Klein, chef-owner of Meritage. “It wasn’t rehab.” While the love affair didn’t stick the first time around, he got it right last May when he married his now-business partner, Desta Klein, holding their wedding reception in the former A Rebours space. “We also fell in love with this space and knew we wanted our restaurant in something just like it—timeless, classic.” As fate would have it, the space came up for lease, and like a shotgun-wedding baby, Meritage was born.
The native New Yorker came up in a laundry list of top Manhattan restaurants after graduating from the French Culinary Institute, and he takes great pride in those roots, steeped in the tradition of true French brasserie cooking (he trained under the acclaimed French chef Jacques Pepin). He takes care to define Meritage as a brasserie, accounting for classic workhorse menu items like steak frites, French onion soup and bouillabaisse.
Surprisingly, our favorite dishes were those that veered from the classics, like the tiny tuna tartare taco, two bites of wasabi-infused tuna tartare in a diminutive tortilla shell, and a pâte à choux ricotta gnocchi, which reminded me of everything that is good about a grilled cheese sandwich. We especially loved the classic touch of a roving cheese cart, and the whimsical dessert offerings, including a matzo-Nutella sandwich and a four-bite espresso mousse, smooth and rich as Billy Dee driving a Rolls.
While technical care and attention shows on every plate, minor adjustments would have taken some dishes from decent to good. I wished a mushroom ganache amuse tasted like mushrooms, and a saffron-mussel soup could have used less salt. The marinated Dayboat scallops with Meyer lemon, wasabi and green apple, which should have been like a punch in the mouth, instead only delivered on the scallop. I even wanted the French onion soup to have more depth.
These quibbles aside, with its marriage of outstanding service and chef-driven passion, Meritage is the kind of place we need more of— and I can’t wait to see it settle into its comfort zone, like a man who’s found his one true love.
Supatra’s Thai Cuisine
You know how in Sex and the City, Manhattan represents the fifth lady? This came to mind as I chatted with Supatra Johnson, chef-owner of Supatra’s Thai on West Seventh Street. While she originally made her way from northeast Thailand to the Twin Cities in the standard way—in the name of love (she married her husband, Randy, nearly 20 years ago)—I got the sense there was a third party in this love affair: the city.
You know how in Sex and the City, Manhattan represents the fifth lady? This came to mind as I chatted with Supatra Johnson, chef-owner of Supatra’s Thai on West Seventh Street. While she originally made her way from northeast Thailand to the Twin Cities in the standard way—in the name of love (she married her husband, Randy, nearly 20 years ago)—I got the sense there was a third party in this love affair: the city.
Johnson is a go-getter of a gal, leaving her hometown of Udon Thani as a teenager to live and cook in a Bangkok restaurant and never looking back. I imagine she could make her way anywhere in the world. But St. Paul got her, and like the song says, it’s really got a hold on her.
“I just love St. Paul. I love this neighborhood, and the neighborhood loves us.” Bringing her special brand of cooking from her former location in Lowertown (where it stood for nearly three years) couldn’t have been a smoother transition, Johnson says. The golden awning shimmers like the prettiest girl in the room on an otherwise underdeveloped stretch of West Seventh, and lemon-colored walls are a refreshing backdrop for Johnson’s clean, pristine dishes. Northeastern Thai food is defined much like any Thai—dishes are passed down for generations, which of course accounts for the incessant bickering regarding what “real” Thai should taste like.
At Supatra’s, you’ll find a lot of sticky rice, and if you’re feeling flush it’s customary to use the rice to pick up accompaniments of veg and meat by hand. Specialty dishes include steamed fish in coconut cream and red curry, coconut noodles—thick and rich with the ideal balance of peanut and coconut cream—the pad Thai (which Johnson notes is her parents’ own recipe) and the Laab salads.
Beware of the Laab if you’re not in the mood for something incredibly heady. The fish sauce that goes in the recipe is much stronger than the average bear. “Traditionally, it’s made in the home from fish sauce, water, salt and roasted rice powder, and it has a very pungent aroma; some would even go so far as to say it stinks,” Johnson says. I loved it, and you know, love does indeed sometimes stink.
The Strip Club
If I tell you that the east side of St. Paul’s first real fine-dining establishment came into existence because of two men’s love for a building, you might begin to look at me sideways. Just remember that there are all different kinds of love in this world, OK?
This is exactly the first thing Tim Niver (who owns the eatery along with partner and chef J.D. Fratzke) told me when I asked how they ended up in this unusual locale. “The owner of the building came to us, and when he told us where it was, we thought he was crazy.”
And then they had a look at it. The historic storefront tucked away on an odd neighborhood corner is something out of my grandparents’ days: sturdy, elegant and real. “Everyone tells us that they just want to move right in,” Niver says.
The view from the balcony-level dining area is one of the most stunning in either of our cities, and the sexy red-on-black design is almost apropos of the eyebrow-raising name. But it’s the food you came for, and it’s the food you’ll love. J.D. Fratzke, one of the most undersung chefs in town, is known for his dedication to local sourcing and refined yet accessible twists on Midwestern classics. Indeed, the menu reads like your grandpa’s Eastside steakhouse (Arctic char, the devil’s eggs—a spin on the traditional deviled egg—shrimp scampi and, of course, strip steak), but the plates set before you are as now as it gets. The char is in an unforgettable mustard broth with lentils and handmade spatzle, those eggs come with chile and curry, and the shrimp are gently cooked to perfection.
Thousand Hills Cattle Company 100-percent grass-fed New York strips are as tender as a dream and served with glorious restraint—only eight ounces and paired simply with a seasonal vegetable. Sauce accompaniments are available for a few bucks extra, but I’d recommend trying it just as you ought to at a strip club: naked. +
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Photo by Jennifer Cress
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