We Love St. Paul Restaurants

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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.

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.

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