Bank

Address
Westin Hotel, 88 S. 6th St., Mpls., 612-656-3255, bankmpls.com

The Scene
There’s definitely been no penny-pinching in the design of Bank, the centerpiece restaurant and bar at the new Westin Hotel. The dining room sits in the historic vaulted lobby of the old Farmers & Mechanics Bank. Although the original, bas-relief–adorned millwork and giant lotus-blossom chandeliers are still intact, the rest of the room has been transformed into a series of purposeful, functional, and comfortable spaces, focused around a massive and handsomely crafted oval bar. In addition to well-spaced, formally set tables, there are plush sofa-lounge conversation areas framed by mahogany portals, a large communal table, a series of small private rooms, and, where the tellers once dispensed cash, a forty-foot (underpatronized) chef’s counter that abuts the kitchen, offering an opportunity for guests to chat with and watch the cooks. The crowd ranges from informally garbed hotel guests and their families to fashionably attired young professionals and executives unwinding over a cocktail.

Our Take
To oversee Bank and its banquet and room-service food operations, the Westin hired Todd Stein, a talent whose pedigree includes a stint at New York’s Le Bernardin and several top-rated Cleveland and Chicago standouts, most recently the admired mk. The modest menu zigzags from rubbery deviled eggs topped with sturgeon and tobiko caviar and a greasy American Kobe burger with wood-smoked bacon to a suave seared, skin-on walleye paired with poached Maine lobster and warm vichyssoise-like sauce to an inspired calamari “salad” of lightly battered pieces of fresh squid with frisée and radicchio, all bathed in a fabulously complementary honey-miso dressing. Stein’s presentations are stunning and his use of fresh vegetal and herbal essences represents a healthy change of pace, but I kept wanting more flavor. Service remains a bit of a challenge. The staff manifests quite a range of skill levels. At times a table is double-and triple-teamed to distraction, but at others wine and water glasses remain unattended for long periods. The puzzlement is why a chef with Stein’s level of talent would choose to move to a lower-tier market and a hotel setting where a restaurant needs to be all things to all guests. My early take is that Bank is a hamstrung compromise with decent food that I hope will soon match its rich, elegant setting.

You Can Bank on It
There’s a lot of thematic fun to be discovered in this enterprise. An open-to-view historic bank vault houses a collection of more than 1,200 bottles of wine. The former executive offices have been named after precious metals and decorated with related themes, such as the gilded Gold Room. And flecks of gold leaf garnish a signature Bank cocktail of pomegranate, lime, and sparkling peach wine. You can tell the imagineers had a great time.