The Minnesota restaurant scene is so lucky to have food writers like Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl covering the local beat. Her review of Joe Rolle’s new Minneapolis spot Dario was the root cause of us booking our quarterly night out with friends John and Cathy. The somewhat hidden spot in the North Loop is a hot ticket, so we had to reserve several weeks out (for a Monday!).
The friendly greeter who seated us recommended the Gardener’s Break cocktail (Song Cai spiced roselle and floral gins, lime) and we were off and running. Turns out the bar program is headed by former Marvel Bar alumni Stephen Rowe, so not surprised it was strong. And of course Chef Joe comes from the Jack Riebel lineage, along with stints at Haute Dish, Vincent, Martina and Borough (where Dear Dara says he invented the Parlour burger). There are lots of great lines in her review, but this part really hit me:
Go to Dario, get the double chambered ravioli-like stuffed pasta called doppio. Use your fork to slice through one and marvel at the two different sorts of filling—one chamber holds caramelized sunchokes, mascarpone, and aged Parmesan; the other is filled with whipped ricotta with nutmeg and Parmesan. Please know: This pasta is made daily, starting at five or six in the morning, using a blend of different flours Rolle imports from Italy.
Like a ricotta cheesecake, but savory; like an arrow of rosemary, but mellowed; like hazelnuts, but herbal; like nothing but the essence of pleasure, pastified?
Here are all the items we ordered from our server Maddie:
- Spring Lettuces: Snow peas, sherry vinaigrette, goat gouda
- Ricotta Dumpling: Maitake mushroom, pecorino
- Doppio: Sunchoke, ricotta, honey, hazelnuts, rosemary
- Beef Short Rib Agnolotti: Red wine braising jus
- Halibut: Artichoke velouté, butter-poached potatoes, cranberry beans
- Pineapple & Passionfruit: Coconut, macadamia nut
- Caramel Apple Budino: Vanilla caramel, honeycrisp apple, crispy polenta cookie
We also spied a number of tables ordering the Potatoes (Crispy and creamy with Comté, caramelized onion, Tabasco), so I’d probably get that next time. John and Cathy also had the beets and one of the items from the raw section of the menu. I followed up the Gardener’s Break with the Bad Apple (Sweet vermouth, valvados, amaro, orange bitters), but preferred the first one. Prices are a little on the high side, but well within the market for that area and quality (a 5% health & wellness charge is added to all bills). The room is bright, hip and loud.
“Did you see the Lemmy portrait?”
Oui, chef!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
