Bar La Grassa Awards

Bar La Grassa Restaurant Review:

It’s not often that modest, hard-to-wow Minnesotans are taken by storm, yet Bar La Grassa breaks the mold of downtown dining establishments by offering something truly original. Fashionable and forward-thinking? Absolutely. Topnotch chef? Naturally---it's Isaac Becker. Cool warehouse district location with the requisite see-and-be-seen buzz? Right again. Yet with all these hip elements and pedigrees, it all comes down to this: remarkable food in a rustically handsome atmosphere that celebrates the Italian art of eating and drinking with panache yet little fuss. Sure, it’s agonizing to choose from among the daily list of small and large plates encompassing fresh pastas and thoughtful preparations of meat and fish. But after the agony comes the ecstasy. The soft eggs and lobster bruschetta are a velvety, luxurious affair, as is the gnocchi with cauliflower and orange. Inveterate grazers will be pleased that pastas come in two sizes; pasta aficionados will appreciate that the menu discerns between dry pastas and fresh ones (both varieties were excellent). Finally, there’s nowhere else in town you can find foie gras tortellini. A thoughtful, lengthy wine list wraps up this neat package.