Basil’s

Going from worst to first is the dream of every cellar-dwelling sports team. The Marquette Hotel has remade Basil’s, its atrium aerie, with a real plan for turning this ordinary and glum eatery into a relevant and resonant dining spot. Basil’s isn’t ready to be included in the local top ten by any stretch, but serving good food in a comfortable ambience has worked.

Step off the elevator into a remade marble-and-wood entryway—it’s a small thing, but dining competes with so many forms of entertainment, the drama of being held for a moment while a host pauses before leading you to your table is always exciting, provided there’s a good place to be held. You enter a main dining area that has been completely renovated with subtle warm tones and dark wood, with roomy booths and wide, spacious tables. The room has been rearranged to allow diners to see the whole restaurant, and while Basil’s regulars always thought the best tables were the balcony seats overlooking the Crystal Court, the new dining room makes sitting anywhere a pleasure.

The new chef, Mark Stankey, has injected a lot of excitement into the menu. His duck confit and foie gras terrine shows he has some range and real skill. He should focus on dishes like those and lose the clunky and ubiquitous crab-and-spinach ramekin, but he’s cooking for more than one type of customer. His sandwiches are well made, his pizzas are very good (try the chèvre, pickled onion, shiitake version), and it’s hard to choose among his lunch salads. Miso-glazed salmon, braised pork shoulder, seaweed-wrapped seared tuna, and phyllo-fried oysters are all nineties food icons, and the penchant for Asian flavors seems heavy handed, but all these dishes were cooked with great care and spot-on seasoning.

Service is crisp and capable. The wine list is not risky, but the right wines are available, and unlike many local restaurants that offer lesser vintages from reliable vintners, here the vintage selection is intelligent.

Up-market hotels are opening almost every couple of months in the next two years, and they are increasingly competitive on style points. Where dining is concerned, they are using chic restaurants as a way to attract new patrons. The Marquette is no different and has finally succeeded in a space I had long given up for dead. The only head-scratcher—with the big makeover and the new chef, why not lose the goofy name? 

Marquette Hotel, 710 Marquette Ave., Mpls., 612-376-7404