112 Eatery menu goes retro for 20th anniversary

When 112 Eatery opened in Minneapolis’ then-burgeoning Warehouse District in January 2005, “chefs were putting eggs on everything,” said chef Isaac Becker, who is celebrating his restaurant’s 20th anniversary this month. “It was actually hard not to fall into that trap, because an egg yolk makes a great sauce.”

He had a number of dishes over the year that put eggs at the forefront, and some of them are among the 112’s classic menu items that are returning this year, in rotation, to celebrate the restaurant’s milestone birthday.

Every month in 2025, Becker will revive two dishes from the 112’s extensive archive — a binder of recipes he wrote over the years. Flipping through it brought him down memory lane.

“There’s so many things that have been on the menu that I completely forgot about,” Becker said. “I never thought about how many dishes that I’ve put on, because once I took them off, they’re off. There’s a lot there.”

Some of the dishes were beloved, such as the English muffin bun that held the restaurant’s famous brie-topped cheeseburger. Becker did away with it upon reopening from the pandemic, but for the month of January, he’s bringing it back.

Other dishes surprised even Becker. One was squid ink spaghetti with calamari, “and I think I called it ‘spaghetti black as night’ or something really weird. And I made the font on the menu this kind of old New York Times font, because I was being, you know, poetic and creative, but I was trying to be funny,” he said, the cringe almost audible by phone. “I’m embarrassed.”

When 112 Eatery opened, Becker conceived it as a relaxed place to serve luxurious ingredients typically held to fine-dining standards. “I wanted to combine a bar menu and a cafe menu, and really wanted to serve things like foie gras, lobster and sweetbreads that you only saw in fine dining restaurants in a restaurant that played rock music, didn’t have tablecloths, and was a much more casual dining experience.” That hasn’t really changed in two decades, he added. The biggest difference today is that the restaurant isn’t open as late.

And many of the 112’s classics are still on the menu, since Day 1. The stringozzi with lamb sugo. The fried prawns with rooster mayo. The sweet-and-sour crab salad. Even later additions, like the foie gras meatballs, have had a healthy 15-year run.

Slated for return this month is a seared foie gras salad with lardons that was on the opening menu. Later, Becker is planning to bring back his version of Chinese fried eggs, served sunny-side up with hoisin, raw chiles and green onions; pan-roasted sea scallops; and sweetbreads in clam sauce.

“I’m not really sure why I took it off,” Becker said. “I think sometimes I just get tired of things.”

Some dishes are yet to be determined, and Becker will entertain requests shared on social media. He’s looking forward to revisiting the greatest hits with longtime fans, even if he wouldn’t describe himself as the sentimental kind. That would be Nancy St. Pierre, his wife and business partner, he said.

Still, the restaurant’s anniversary holds a lot of meaning for Becker.

“After 20 years of being in business, I still really love it,” He said. “I mean, nothing gives me more reward than creating a plate of food that tastes good and putting it on the menu.”

112 Eatery, 112 N. 3rd St., Mpls., 112eatery.com.