Modern Café

If you’re looking to escape from the squiggles of three sauces, parsley plastered plate rims, and recipes that scream “inventive” but never taste like they were worth the experiment, it’s time to get back to an old friend.
The Modern Café has definitively entered the status of Twin Cities institution, and has done it so unpretentiously. There is nothing forced or arty—except perhaps turning a greasy spoon into an upscale restaurant—but the irony is long past. Philip Becht’s cooking is careful, but not fussy, his menus accessible but never pedestrian.

The space is virtually the same as you remember it, urban diner with incongruous modern touches—tropical plants, local art, etc. The neighborhood is on the rise, slowly, and the whole feel is a bit less rough around the edges.

There was nothing I tasted in my late winter meal that I couldn’t recommend, from the baby iceberg lettuce salad with blue cheese vinaigrette and bacon (note the absence of out-of-season tomatoes—a great call when you can’t find a good one in the whole city); mild, homemade sausages in a fricassee of green lentils; what may be the town’s best meatloaf, served with a killer mushroom gravy, Brussels sprouts, and mashed potatoes; homemade egg fettucine blanketed in a edgy duck ragu spiked with garam masala (it worked!); and a delicious apple cobbler with a pastry crust top.

The wine list is smart, value-driven, and carefully chosen; service is informal but nicely professional and well-briefed.

Some will bristle at paying $15 for mussel stew or $16 for pot roast, and being given a flimsy stainless steel spoon and prison issue plates, but locally sourced ingredients of this quality do not come cheap. Pairing them with the trappings of dining upscalia would demand prices above these. And the Modern is not about that. Thank goodness.

337 13th Ave. NE, Mpls., 612-378-9882