As Stephanie March first reported last month, downtown Minneapolis restaurant Monello (and sister basement bar Constantine) closed today. I also received the nicest email today from Young Chef (Mike DeCamp):
Eight years ago a small group of great people took a chance and came to work with me in a new hotel restaurant that we would call Monello & Constantine. Many of them I had worked with in the past and, as of right now, I still have the pleasure of working with them. I recall the questions of ‘why would the city need another “fine dining” restaurant?’ That answer made itself clear by the end of 2015 when we lost many of them to changing times. When we opened Monello it was in the height of what was the crudo phase in our fair city with three crudo focused restaurants opening in the same year. Monello was the last one standing through all that. We made it through the The Rolling Stones being our very first guests on day one. We made it through the Super Bowl. We had some fun offering you Mama DeCampos. We came up against a large issue with the pandemic, but that gave us the opportunity to introduce Dirty Sams. Through all that there was one of the greatest places that this city has ever had, Constantine. Constantine, what can you say. It is/was an amazing place, always true to itself and never changing too much. Small adjustments over the years in the food menu. Who remembers the mortadella hot dog and the foie gras nachos? Constantine had some great food and cocktails but the thing that made both of these spaces was truly the team. The front of house and back of house always made time to joke around and have a little fun and I think that translated to the laid back style of service. A laugh was never too far away in that large space. We made a lot of friends throughout the years and we will miss you! It was a pleasure to welcome you through the doors every time you joined us. Thank you for everyone who dined with us over these eight years. Without you we wouldn’t have been. You always made us want to do better and better each day. And lastly thank you to every single team member I had the pleasure to work with over the years and sorry for my grumpy ass from time to time.
I loved every minute of my time with each of you, you made me want to be a better person.
We ate at Monello a few times, including once as Mama DeCampos. We’ve also visited Jester’s P.S. Steak on several special occasions (and of course the burgers at Parlour Bar are stellar).
Thanks, Young Chef – you are truly a Minnesota treasure…
