Sea Change
With many fish on endangered and over-fishing watch lists, and even more containing mercury beyond the recommended levels for human consumption, what could be more reckless than opening an all-seafood restaurant, right here, right now?
 
Instead of working his way around this challenge, Tim McKee, the reigning king of Midwestern cooking, decided to put it front and center, cooking only seafood from sustainable fisheries and environmentally friendly farms. This alone makes it our pick for one of the top four new restaurants to open this year, but it was the proscuitto-crusted sturgeon with shell peas and rock shrimp that sealed the deal. Still not convinced? This seafood restaurant also makes the best short ribs in town. —M.B.W.

818 S. 2nd St., Mpls.; 612.225.6499 ­

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Best Handmade Popsicle 
La Chiquita Helados y Paletas
If you were to meet Raul Saud, owner of La Chiquita Helados y Paletas outside the context of his business, it probably wouldn’t surprise you that the man makes popsicles for a living. There’s something about his wide smile and open demeanor that seems a bit childlike in the best possible way. Stroll into the pink and blue façade of his wee heladeria in the West Side’s District del Sol, and you’ll find him happy to share with you his thirty or so flavors—everything from from mango to horchata (a popular Mexican street treat involving spiced milk with rice) to tequila, made with real Cuervo and complete with a worm (relax, it’s a candy version) embedded inside.

77 E. Congress St., St. Paul; 651.224.4683

Best Pizza Sauce
Red’s Savoy
Without this fresh, tangy, ever-so-spicy sauce, the Cities' best grease bomb pizza would simply be a mediocre grease bomb pizza.

Best Dancing Food
Moto-i’s Okonomikayi
A Japanese pancake bedecked in house made pork and what amounts to a sort of Eastern barbeque-style sauce, the okonomikayi looks kinda like a personal pan pizza. But it’s the garnish that makes things really interesting. One glance, and you’ll notice something isn’t quite right: It’s moving. A smattering of bonito fish flakes adorning the top are shredded so thinly that the heat from the top of the pancake makes it all kind of undulate, like a dish out of a Tim Burton film. If you can stomach a slice, it’s pretty delicious.

2940 Lyndale Ave. S., Mpls.; 612.821.NAMA

A horribly named, overly hyped new apple we love
SweeTango
The Johnny Appleseeds over at the U of M’s Horticultural Research Center have done it again. That is, they’ve developed another tasty, mass-market apple akin to their all-time greatest hit, the Honeycrisp. SweeTango was born in 1988 when horticulturists at the U crossed the Zestar and Honeycrisp strains. They spent the next two decades cultivating the hybrid into a varietal that highlights its parents’ best traits (Honeycrisp’s crunch; Zestar’s succulence) and introduces spice notes all its own. Didn’t get a chance to try one during its limited release last fall? Don’t worry. SweeTango will get a bigger coming out party next year. Now about that name. We think they should change it to Crazy-Delicious.