First, By Way of Explanation
Check out Scott's Blog for the scoop alluded to in the post below. Zabrek and the gang were in Riverside ("Invasion Iowa"). They had a great time.
Nice to Know Goodfellow's
I recently had dinner at Goodfellow's in Minneapolis, and have to add it to the list of my top five restaurants. We were there on a weeknight and it was fairly quiet when our early dinner started, got pretty busy during our long meal, and then we were the next-to-last guests to leave. The staff was very friendly, knowledgable and just polished enough to deliver the quality experience without becoming irritatingly showy. Their feet stayed on the ground and they smiled real smiles. They had the same charmingly friendly attitude as the folks at Charlie Trotter's, and, also like the folks at Trotter's, weren't pretentious.
The decor is tough for me to explain. There are some weak photos presently on some web sites I've found. Lots of nice, simple, dark wood, but many splashes of original 1930's and 1940's art deco elements, with more color and curves than I would expect. It was a really great room. The restaurant moved to and renovated this space (with original elements that had been in storage) several years ago.
The prior, long-time chef, whose name escapes me, left a little over a year ago and was replaced by Jason Robinson, formerly of Tru, in Chicago. Tru was probably my favorite "fancy" restaurant in Chicago, and although I didn't learn about Robinson having come to Goodfellow's from Tru until toward the end of the meal, it absolutely fit when I heard it. This also sealed my decision to try the cheese for dessert.
My appetizer was the House Made Ricotta Gnocchi, with pulled pork and apple pork sauce. My main course was the Beef Tenderloin, with truffle mash, mini trumpet royale mushroom, and cherry veal jus. Everything was great. The cheese course for dessert was a little different than the cheese cart at Tru, in that rather than selecting your three plates from a few dozen choices on a cart, you let the chef do the choosing, in the back room. All three of us who ordered the cheese got the same three goat cheeses. One was a Camembert, very soft, and the other two were drier and crisper. I did feel that the small slices of bread that accompanied the cheese were a little too heavily buttered, such that the flavor of the butter somewhat outplayed the taste of the cheeses.
This is a really terrific restaurant and the kind of place that would make me look forward to an excuse to go to Minneapolis.
For what it's worth -- and perhaps I'll elaborate on this sometime -- the other restaurants in my top five would probably be: [TO BE COMPLETED]
Check out Scott's Blog for the scoop alluded to in the post below. Zabrek and the gang were in Riverside ("Invasion Iowa"). They had a great time.
Nice to Know Goodfellow's
I recently had dinner at Goodfellow's in Minneapolis, and have to add it to the list of my top five restaurants. We were there on a weeknight and it was fairly quiet when our early dinner started, got pretty busy during our long meal, and then we were the next-to-last guests to leave. The staff was very friendly, knowledgable and just polished enough to deliver the quality experience without becoming irritatingly showy. Their feet stayed on the ground and they smiled real smiles. They had the same charmingly friendly attitude as the folks at Charlie Trotter's, and, also like the folks at Trotter's, weren't pretentious.
The decor is tough for me to explain. There are some weak photos presently on some web sites I've found. Lots of nice, simple, dark wood, but many splashes of original 1930's and 1940's art deco elements, with more color and curves than I would expect. It was a really great room. The restaurant moved to and renovated this space (with original elements that had been in storage) several years ago.
The prior, long-time chef, whose name escapes me, left a little over a year ago and was replaced by Jason Robinson, formerly of Tru, in Chicago. Tru was probably my favorite "fancy" restaurant in Chicago, and although I didn't learn about Robinson having come to Goodfellow's from Tru until toward the end of the meal, it absolutely fit when I heard it. This also sealed my decision to try the cheese for dessert.
My appetizer was the House Made Ricotta Gnocchi, with pulled pork and apple pork sauce. My main course was the Beef Tenderloin, with truffle mash, mini trumpet royale mushroom, and cherry veal jus. Everything was great. The cheese course for dessert was a little different than the cheese cart at Tru, in that rather than selecting your three plates from a few dozen choices on a cart, you let the chef do the choosing, in the back room. All three of us who ordered the cheese got the same three goat cheeses. One was a Camembert, very soft, and the other two were drier and crisper. I did feel that the small slices of bread that accompanied the cheese were a little too heavily buttered, such that the flavor of the butter somewhat outplayed the taste of the cheeses.
This is a really terrific restaurant and the kind of place that would make me look forward to an excuse to go to Minneapolis.
For what it's worth -- and perhaps I'll elaborate on this sometime -- the other restaurants in my top five would probably be: [TO BE COMPLETED]
posted by Genki na Pengin at 8:26 AM
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