Last year, we had a big blowout birthday party in the Sinatra Lounge (the invite we did still makes me smile). This year, I was planning to go on a ski trip in Banff to celebrate landmark birthdays for MK and I. Then I had my little medical incident and we postponed the big stuff and scaled back 2019 birthday plans. I still wanted to do something a little out of the norm, so we booked a dinner reservation at the new Minneapolis hot spot, P.S. Steak.
I will forever call Chef Mike DeCamp “YoungChef2,” as that is his Twitter handle. Young Chef is a busy guy for Jester Concepts, listed as Executive Chef at Monello and Constantine and Borough and Parlour. He is also behind the weekly Sunday old-school Italian pop-up at Monello, Mama DeCampo’s (which is great, BTW). Somehow Mercado slipped by him, but P.S. Steak is the latest DeCamp project for the group.
We never made it to La Belle Vie before it closed in the 510 Groveland location, but there is so much history there (Dara called it “heavier with history than any restaurant in the state” in her first bite review). Not only was Chef DeCamp in that kitchen, but so was Tim McKee, Matt Anderson and a host of Twin Cities cocktail pioneers (make sure and read this Strib article to find out the backstory on the “Obi Pip Kenobi”). Man, I miss seeing and talking with Pip at Marvel Bar…
Joy Summers has some great pictures of the remodeled 510 spaces in her Eater story, including one of our exact table in the steakhouse dining room side (to the left as you enter – the lounge is to the right). There is complimentary valet parking and I don’t think I really knew how easy it is to get there from Lowertown via I-94 and Dell Place (and back again). In Dara’s story, she described the newly renovated dining room as “Ravenclaw-meets-Eyes-Wide-Shut-for-a-drink” and personally, I couldn’t stop humming the Haunted Mansion music (which actually made the whole night extra fun for me).
So how was it? You never know what service will be like at a place that just opened, but everything went swimmingly. Our server was wonderful, all of our questions were answered, the flow of food out of the kitchen was consistent and everything tasted great. The room is not overly loud and really looks spectacular (was that Norm Green at the table next to us?). Dara asks, “Is P.S. Steak suddenly among the most expensive restaurants in town?” Yup, for sure. It’s also an instant classic that will be busy with special event and corporate expense account business that will give Manny’s a run for their money.
SK and I are the steak people in the family, so one of us tried the 8oz beef tenderloin and the other had the Denver steak. Both were wonderful – I added Stilton blue cheese to mine, while SK had a side of curry béarnaise. We all shared some Aligot (mashed potatoes with cheese), roasted baby carrots and Parker House rolls. Colleen went with one of our Chef Ramsey faves, sautéed sea scallops, while MK had the sautéed chicken breast with smoked chicken thigh, mushrooms and kale. I also shared the P.S. chopped salad with Colleen, while SK had a bowl of the caramelized onion soup (which came with tasty rye gnocchi and cave aged Gruyere).
We saw Young Chef do the cool baked Alaska thing at the table next to us, but we passed on that one. They did bring out a birthday candle in my really good hot fudge and salted peanut sundae, though. The girls shared the Andoa chocolate brownie and added a scoop of the excellent vanilla ice cream (which we think is from Izzy’s). It was a great way to end my birthday and I would definitely go back again. Sorry for the highly filtered photos – it’s not an easy room to take pictures in at night. Oh, and a shout-out to my colleague Keri, who started a new food blog called Keri Tyler Moore that made me realize I need to write about food more often (and not just post pictures to Instagram).
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