Café Lurçat

Plenty of local high-test cooking talent earned their stripes in D’Amico kitchens. Isaac Becker, Café Lurçat’s first chef, left last fall to open the hottest new restaurant in town, 112 Eatery. Many others departed to pursue their dreams—Food & Wine Best New Chef winners Tim McKee and Seth Daugherty and Mission American Kitchen’s Jordan Smith, to name a few.

The fratelli D’Amico are no strangers to turnover, and at Lurçat they used the same protocol that worked so well at D’Amico Cucina when they needed to replace a departed top toque: promotion from within. Under the new leadership of chef Adam King (Becker’s former sous chef) and the gracious Ann Grant (transplanted from Campiello to run the floor), Lurçat remains one of the Twin Cities’ top dining experiences.

Lurçat is not for the salad-bar crowd. This is a restaurant with a highly stylized point of view, one that matches the sleek, modernist décor. Lurçat’s take is simple: High quality but spare cookery. Inspired by Tom Colicchio’s Craft in New York City and other restaurants like it, Lurçat features simply cooked and relatively unadorned main dishes. The methodology has an inherent risk. Without plate partners, numerous sauces, and artful tiering, it becomes impossible to hide weaknesses. Miscooked items are easy to spot, and even easier to taste—but at Lurçat, miscooking is never a problem.

First courses of traditional raw bar items are clean and oceanic, and the steamed mussels with saffron make a nice light dinner with a salad. Signature pickled vegetables are the perfect foil for a martini before dinner. Spinach salad with poached egg and bacon is the type of tricky barometer that Lurçat makes look easy every time it comes out of the kitchen. Seared tuna with ponzu and a small haystack of cilantro, the miso-glazed sea bass (Nobu Matsuhisa’s ubiquitous dish), the whole roasted foie gras with pears, the fillet of sole meunière, grilled hanger steak, roasted chicken with honey-vinegar, the grilled rack of lamb on a puddle of bordelaise—each is simple and elegant.

Side dishes are legendary. Pan-crisped Brussels sprouts, roasted cauliflower, and potato purée are each without peer. French fries are insanely fresh and crisp and are the perfect pairing for the bar’s twin mini burgers, which many say are the best in town.

Pastry chef Leah Henderson’s desserts are all first-rate. Floating island with citrus crème anglaise and the multitier chocolate cream cake are great treats, but it’s the teeny cinnamon sugar doughnuts that seem to be on every table. Some menu items have changed since my visit, but Lurçat rocks on—the restaurant’s personality bigger than any of its stars.

1624 Harmon Pl., Mpls., 612-486-5500