112 Eatery

Address:
112 N. 3rd St., Mpls., 612-343-7696, 112eatery.com

The Scene
112 Eatery sits like a jewel in the middle of a dark block, on the ground floor of the historic Amsterdam Building. The small, beautifully lit, and energetic room is framed with brick, wood paneling, and hardwood floors. There’s a small six-seat bar with a precious stained glass backsplash, bottles of scotch and vodka twinkling in its glow. The layout of small wooden tables and chairs ringing the vintage bar with a line of comfy booths along the wall reminds me of old neighborhood grills in big East Coast cities. Restaurant design god Adam Tihany once said that a perfectly designed restaurant should make everyone look good in it, from the first person seated to the last customer at the bar. The eclectic gaggle of downtown food groupies, Warehouse District denizens, and late-night club crawlers never looked better.

Our Take
112 Eatery is the best new restaurant to open in town in years. La Belle Vie alum Nancy St. Pierre and husband, Isaac Becker, most recently chef at Café Lurçat, have a tightly focused philosophy that is bull’s-eye right. They use impeccable ingredients and do whatever needs to be done to get peak flavor and texture. Sautéed oyster and black trumpet mushrooms served under crisped diver scallops are simple, elegant, and perfect. Homemade stringozzi (a long, thick, fresh pasta) with a slow-cooked lamb sauce takes a day to pull together. These are two opposite sides of real cookery.

Of the thirty items on the menu, only six are limited to full portion size, so anyone on any budget at any hour can find the right-sized meal. Pillowy gnocchi are paired with artichokes, which show up again with a fumée-tinged cream under a sautéed slice of grouper. Oysters are served by the piece, bacon and eggs come on a toasted sandwich schmeered with harissa, bowls of short-rib chili are dangerously flavorful. Steaks and chops are treated with a sophistication found in only a handful of other restaurants in town. Side dishes are phenomenal. French fries and sautéed escarole should never be skipped, neither should pastry chef Leah Bolfing’s tres leches cake or her meal-ending amuse-bouche of five-spice caramel popcorn. The service, under the watchful smile of St. Pierre, is attentive and smart.

This Is Hip
Two decades ago, the New French Bar was about as hip as it got, a riotous party in a small space, absent pretense or affectation. 112 Eatery is organically hip in the same way. It strikes every note perfectly. Neither restaurant was developed in a conference room or with a focus group. That’s the nature of hip. The level of urban sophistication and the spirited nature of Becker’s food are a welcome respite from the overwrought restaurants that keep popping up all over the metro, each with the same menu, each just as boring, none even close to cool.