Heartland

Lenny Russo’s exodus from his home at Heartland to Cue got all the ink. The fine print noted that Heartland’s day-to-day operations were being ceded to Mega Hoehn and Robert Moore, Russo’s wife and chef de cuisine, respectively. Both were responsible for much of Heartland’s success, and despite the absence of Russo’s driving passion, immense skills, and daily presence, the restaurant has never been better.

Credit Russo and Hoehn for sticking to their guns since opening the fifty-seat restaurant in 2002, never once lowering standards, often raising them, and offering a stunning and well-selected beverage program to match the menus, which are a daily reflection of the best of the region’s available edibles, most from family farms and grown or raised sustainably.

Service at Heartland is mature, graceful, and capable, and despite the invariably taxing rush that occurs whenever small restaurants get very busy, the entire staff communicates—kitchen with server, server with host, host with kitchen—and the end result is guest comfort. Thanks to the small room and open kitchen, diners can watch the entire team take responsibility for the experience—a welcome vibe, considering how few restaurants really give a damn about service these days. Hoehn is one of the most charming and skilled operators in town, and watching her run the floor each night is a treat.

Moore executes from Russo’s playbook, but brings some slick touches of his own to the menu. The seared pâté de foie gras on leek snippets with hedgehog mushrooms and game consommé, perfectly cooked and nuanced in flavor, was the best foie course I ate all last year locally. Thin slices of deep-coral-hued, perfectly cured steelhead arrived alongside tart pickled mushrooms and set on hard-boiled egg and cucumber slaw. A tartare of Wisconsin elk was so beautifully seasoned and executed I wanted to immediately order another. Timbale of grilled romaine studded with roasted beets and set in a drizzle of pear vinaigrette with buttermilk blue cheese was as flawless as a winter salad can be, and ideally sized as a prelude to the grilled, grass-fed–beef rib eye on puréed celeriac that I merrily scarfed down. Au Bon Canard duck breast was pan-seared, paired with a sturdy wheatberry risotto, which in the hands of most cooks is merely a boring conceit. Moore makes it work.

Petit press-pots of three different “point of origin” coffees are offered after dinner, as are some decent truffles, a nice warm-up for whatever homey tart or crisp the kitchen is touting as the night’s sweet finish—which is how you’ll feel as you float home: sweetly finished.

1806 St. Clair Ave., St. Paul, 651-699-3536