Harbor View Café

Every year during the Minnesota State Fair, Harbor View Café staff would gather at the beer garden for their annual meeting, share a meal, and then discuss whether to keep the eatery open for the upcoming year. Last year, owners Tom Ahlstrom and Carol and Paul Hinderlie voted themselves off the island, decamping to the wilds of Washington state.

They sold HVC to longtime employees Ruth Stoyke and Chuck Morrow, with the expectation that little would change, from the restaurant’s generous pension plan to the quirky no-reservations policy. This was an institution set in its ways, where Ahlstrom hand-wrote the menu twice a day for twenty-five years, where Paul Hinderlie trained several cooks by starting them as dishwashers, and where whole local lambs were butchered in-house and every ounce of meat was used in the restaurant.

It was also a restaurant without peer when it came to homey, insanely perfect food. Yes, salad came in a plastic bowl, but there was no other restaurant in our area that was as deeply invested in what it offered, created such a unique menu (frikadaeller!), and had such a beautiful location. Could it possibly survive the transition intact?

D-day was Labor Day. In visits right before closing for the season, it was evident the answer was a resounding yes. Morrow has been behind the bar for years now, Stoyke in the kitchen just as long—they are among the many longtime staff and customers who make up the soul of the place. Service remains small-town friendly, and I’ll wait the extra hour to sit in the original room—in front of that gorgeous old bar surrounded by miles of bookshelves and expansive lake views.

The kitchen has not skipped a beat under the new regime. The classic Alaskan halibut, sautéed and served with signature black butter–caper sauce was as good as ever, smoky and sweet, tart and rich. Stuffed mushrooms are a mall-restaurant stalwart that never lives up to its billing, but they do here: Biting into them, stuffed with herbs, four cheeses, and garlic is a joyous comfort food moment and a reminder of just how good food can be if someone cares enough about it. Braised pork shank, roasted to a crackle after its long hot bath, was sauced with a sweet-tart vinegar sauce with roasted tomatoes and olives. I would crawl across a desert of broken glass to eat it right now. Bouillabaisse is always great, ditto arcane dishes such as kedgeree (smoked halibut and salmon in an egg rice casserole). Desserts are always superb, especially the pies: Georgia walnut, Lake Pepin lime, and chocolate buttercream are all killers.

The waits can be long at peak times, and they don’t take credit cards, but it’s always worth the schlep. As the first baby lamb, morels, asparagus, and other seasonal foods register on our culinary radar, there’s no better place to make a meal of them than at Harbor View Café.