From the red carpet to Bar Lurcat, Lady Gaga is full of surprises. Here she’s at the 2019 Academy Awards. (Jay L. Clendenin, Los Angeles Times/TNS/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

There were no paparazzi around. It was just a quiet Sunday evening at an iconic Minneapolis restaurant when a very high-profile guest walked in, much to the staff's surprise.

The restaurant: Café & Bar Lurcat. The mega popstar: Lady Gaga.

"As she was walking up the stairs, I thought, 'Wow, this person looks very much like Lady Gaga,' " said Lurcat general manager Nick Gonzales. "And then as she was an arm's length away from me, I was like, 'Oh my gosh, this is Lady Gaga.' "

The "Bloody Mary" singer was seated with her dining companion in the center of Bar Lurcat, a glamorous room facing Loring Park's greenery that's adorned with dangling crystal chandeliers, black-and-white tiles and starched white linens.

Her table ordered "some of the Lurcat classics," including fried rice, a beet salad, filet mignon and salmon. "There was a lot of sharing going on," Gonzales said.

As staffers began to notice the VIP in the room, everyone was star-struck, Gonzales said. But no one accosted her for photos or autographs, either. "She was very gracious and kind to our staff, and was kind of just like anybody else. But not like anybody else, because it was Lady Gaga," he said. "It seemed that she just wanted to stop in for a nice dinner on a Sunday night."

As a Minneapolis mainstay, the Lurcat is familiar with the occasional ultra-famous dinner guest. Prince and Mick Jagger had both been spotted there over the years.

Lady Gaga wasn't here on tour, and her social media does not give any indication about what she was doing in Minneapolis on a beautiful July weekend. Loring Park did wrap up its annual art festival an hour and a half before her 6:30 p.m. dinner reservation, if that could be considered a clue.

The celeb, who wrapped her Chromatica Ball tour last fall without a stop in the Twin Cities, has made surprise appearances here before, including a 2010 hangout at the Turf Club in St. Paul after the first of two concerts at Xcel Energy Center. (She played the Fine Line the year before.)

"We didn't inquire," Gonzales said. "I have no idea why she would be in town and how she ended up" at the D'Amico & Partners-owned restaurant. "I'd like to think that we're a 20-year veteran Minneapolis restaurant with a great reputation. But I have no reason to know why she chose Lurcat."