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Photo by Robb Long
A pork tenderloin with brussels sprouts at Café Levain.
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Flavor // Power to the people
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By Carla Waldemar
Restaurant Levain was a smokin’-hot ticket on a Saturday night. But on weekday evenings here in South Minneapolis, the wait for a table was nonexistent. So were customers. Who, except for a trust-fund baby, is going to get all gussied up and drop $100 for dinner on a Tuesday night? And so the darling of the local food scene was forced to shutter.
After a reality check, it recently reopened in the same digs as Café Levain. Ah, semantics! “café,” not “restaurant,” exudes the message that it’s OK to wander in without your Guccis, plunk your elbows on the table (where white linens have been 86ed in favor of plain butcher paper and — what’s this? — ketchup bottles take the place of floral vases) and eat — you no longer have to “dine” — food with ingredients you recognize and, best yet, can afford. They’ve even added a basic, little bar: How Everyman is that?
The best news is that what comes (and comes out way too slowly: service glitch?) from the enticing open kitchen is still darned good, just further from the cutting edge. No need for a prix-fixe tasting menu these days (which, I’ll admit, I relished more than once). Instead, just summon up the French version of comfort food in hearty portions. And, now that I think about it, who else in town is doing that? Vincent, Fugaise, La Belle Vie and their Francophile confreres offer delicious fare that’s both haute and trendy, while blue-collar Salut mocks itself as “the P.F. Chang’s of French bistros.” But grandmotherly classics like coq au vin and onion soup? Mais non. Come here.
Among the starters, soups and salads (most $6–8) you’ll find that classic onion soup, along with mussels swimming in a creamy broth mined with chiles and tomatoes; a pork rillette (which, the menu hints for the unwashed, is “similar to pate”); and our choice, frog legs. Not only retro frog legs, but, mon dieu, deep-fried! They’re mighty tasty (“just like chicken”), crisp yet admirably moist, just begging to be dragged through the satiny tomato sauce, then topped with a tendril of the slow-roasted fennel that adorns the plate.
Seven entrees, plus a changing nightly special, range from $10 for a chuck burger (put that ketchup to good use) to grilled hangar steak in red wine sauce. There’s a simple roast chicken, a French bistro staple, perfumed with rosemary and thyme; duck leg confit aside a blackberry-red wine sauce; fish of the day; a summery pasta dish; and our choices, short ribs and pork chops.
The pork was beautifully pink and juicy, abetted by the sweetness of a grilled peach (the only thing better than ham and eggs is pork chops and peaches, in my book). But the winner was the slow-braised, fall-off-the-bone short ribs, flavored once again with red wine (which we also ordered by the glass for a paltry $6) and diced vegetables — carrot, onion, celery and the like — braised in the rich pan juices.
Each entrée’s price includes your choice of side disheuthas (or order separately for $4–6), ranging from wild mushrooms in garlic, sautéed greens or asparagus tips with lemon to French fries or a gratin of mac and cheese. Our choices were a summery bread salad formed of rosemary-and-levain-bread croutons tossed with cherry tomatoes, basil, red onion slivers and enough olive oil to soften the bread — a good but not great rendition —and a huge dish of caramelized Brussels sprouts spritzed with lemon juice.
The dessert list is short and, frankly, unexciting. Order a truffle torte for $9.50 or enter the sane lane for $7 with a standard crème brulee, ice creams, or the café’s singular “root beer float,” a combo of vanilla ice cream and root beer sorbet. No thanks. Instead we chose the classic tarte tatin, and a perfect specimen it was: all buttery pastry under a succulent topping of caramelized apples and a drizzle of crème fraiche. We’ll be back. And on a Tuesday night.
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Café Levain
4754 Chicago Ave. S.
Dinner only Tues–Sat.
823-7111
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Art beat // Closing and opening
By Dylan Thomas
Art of This leaving current space, but won’t cease to existLYNDALE — A few weeks before they planned to shutter their Nicollet Avenue art space for good, John Marks and David Petersen of Art of This Gallery reflected on “Open Summer,” their ongoing, open door, last blast summer project. A free-for-all residency program that eventually enrolled 80-some artists, the slowly percolating “Open Summer” was building steam as it headed into its, and the gallery’s, grand finale at the end of August. And for all the potential pitfalls in telling some seven dozen people where the gallery key is hidden, about the worst thing that happened all summer was when someone spilled salsa in the refrigerator and never cleaned it up.
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On the mat // Green yogis in Linden Hills
By Sarah McKenzie
Devanadi Yoga, a new studio near Lake Harriet, is a trailblazer in the local yoga community. The small 525-square-foot studio, tucked behind the Bruley Center on West 43rd Street in Linden Hills, is the first yoga studio in the state to be certified by the Green Yoga Association for its environmentally friendly efforts. The studio’s green practices include using non-VOC paint, controlling the thermostat to keep the building energy efficient and encouraging students to walk, bus or bike to class. Tanya Boigenzahn Sowards, studio director/owner of Devanadi Yoga, said being green is “core value of the studio and it ties back to the yogic philosophy of doing no harm.” “Minneapolis frequently ranks as one of the top green
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Everyday gardener // Q&A
By Meleah Maynard
Struggling tomatoes, rain barrels and rootbound plantsEven though spring started in earnest in March this year, it still seems like summer is going by too fast. So, fast, in fact, my inbox has been a bit stuffed with questions. As always, I’ve replied directly to people who asked for help with various things. But here in the column I’m going to cover some of the questions that seem likely to be of interest to a lot of gardeners. By far, the questions I’m getting most are about tomatoes, so I’ll start there. Q: My tomato plants look good and have a lot of flowers, but I’m not getting a lot of fruit this year. What’s going on?A: It’s been too hot for tomatoes to set fruit
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Flavor // A smokin’ sensation on Nicollet
By Carla Waldemar
If you’re wondering what caused the traffic stand-still on South Nicollet the other evening, let’s just say I should have kept my window shut. When passing cars got a whiff of possibly the best aroma in the galaxy — I’m talking about barbecue, of course — they halted to demand, “Where’d you get that?” At C&G’s, of course. Greg Alford launched C&G’s Smoking Barbecue exactly a year ago; the anniversary balloons in the otherwise-Spartan, clean-as-a-whistle hole in the wall provided the only touch of whimsy in this serious business. Greg was born in Louisiana, which may explain his superior taste in food. He grew up in Detroit, one of 12 kids whose mamma set him to cooking when he was 5, he
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Wild city // Eating the yard
By Mary Jean Port
I love August. It is so lush. All summer, as I nurse the garden along, I anticipate these eating days. We now have too much of everything: tomatoes, green beans, heat, humidity, and also thunder, for those of us who have a dog frightened by it. I have been working our piece of ground for 14 years, and have good soil to show for it. Back when we first started, my husband was more of a lawn guy. He liked the idea of a garden, but drew a line in the grass with his toe. Don’t dig up anything beyond here, he said. So I dug my first of what are now 10 beds, and planted the pumpkin right on his line. The vines ran out of the garden and took over the whole backyard. My husband good-naturedly threw up his hands. We started with vegetables, and
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Kid rock
By Sam Lane
Twin Town Guitars hosts a camp that gives young musicians a chance to play and perform in a bandMore than 60 excited, camera-toting fans packed Cause Spirits and Soundbar on a warm August afternoon waiting for two headline bands to take the stage. The hotly anticipated musicians weren’t well known. They weren’t 20-somethings trying to strike a record deal. They weren’t middle-aged men trying to relive their youth. They were kids, ages 8–17, who spent prior weeks at Twin Town Guitars, 3400 Lyndale Ave. S., preparing for their first concert. In an economy where budget cuts deal constant blows to public school music programs, the owners of Twin Town have spent the last three summers providing a haven for aspiring
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