Restaurant Guide 2011: South Minneapolis

At Tilia, star chef Steven Brown's Linden Hills restaurant, familiar favorites are energized anew, brilliantly, at remarkably accessible prices. Ordinary chicken wings will never be the same after a single taste of the roasted chicken thighs, the dark meat bursting with rich flavor and enriched with a sort-of jerk seasoning, minus the smoke. The fish taco model is crossed with the McDonald's Filet-O-Fish sandwich, and the looky, tasty results are spectacular. The turkey burger is tops in its field, and the Reuben sports a corned beef that can only be described as dreamy. Brown inserts his life's experiences -- travel, friendships, his rural South Dakota upbringing, punk rock -- into his menu: Snappy grilled shrimp was born from an impromptu dinner he whipped up for his wife. Gravlax is an homage to former Nick & Eddie chef Steve Vranian, a supple and beautifully presented version with the flavors of dill and juniper hovering in and out of each bite. Brown also proves that hot dogs are an amazing flavor vehicle, cranking up the Chicago-style embellishments with sharply pickled cauliflower, strips of crisp bacon, a sharp stone-ground mustard and sprightly sprigs of dill. Smart snack ideas abound, whether it's grilled bread spread with house-made mozzarella, or luscious chicken liver pâté topped with a sweet-pungent swipe of pureed eggplant seasoned with fenugreek and honey. Brown also knows how to tackle weekend brunch, deftly turning out one winning, imaginative dish after another. The front of the pack, dessert-wise, is a date-caramel cake, an exercise in butter, love and chutzpah, with a sublime butterscotch pot de creme running a close second. A caution: Be prepared. In this reservations-free zone, you'll probably be waiting for a table.

The farm-to-table movement is vividly encapsulated at the Wise Acre. The restaurant's story is in many ways all about real estate. Co-owners Scott Endres and Dean Engelmann, proprietors of Tangletown Gardens nursery, sensed an opportunity when their neighbor, Liberty Frozen Custard, came up for sale. They snapped up the property, a sharply restored "Mad Men"-era Standard Oil station, and began plotting their entry into the restaurant business. The Engelmann family farm in Plato, Minn., is the restaurant's not-so-secret weapon, supplying chickens, hogs, beef cattle and all manner of vegetables and fruits. Simple goodness follows. Take the carefully brined, barely smoked, teasingly fatty pork belly that chef Beth Fisher modestly calls bacon. She inserts it into a flurry of dishes, most notably a salad of harvested-that-morning lettuces, a selection of vegetables and herbs so seasonally of the moment that a person could set a clock by them, a toss of chicken and dainty quinoa; the results elevate the phrase "farm fresh" straight up to the penthouse. Fisher, who spent nearly a decade cooking at Lucia's Restaurant, places her menu smack dab in the middle of farmhouse supper territory, a supreme compliment. That means spectacular fried chicken, a blissfully unembellished, fork-tender pork steak, slow-braised pork shoulder paired with toothy white beans, a crowd-pleasing egg salad sandwich. Cuts of beef also journeyed across the animal, from a braised roast to grilled ribeye, all admirably good. Dessert? Frozen custard, naturally. Correction: Make that soul-stirring frozen custard.

The breakfast of the moment is, without a doubt, the deliriously addictive pork sausage biscuits and gravy at Sun Street Breads. Baker Solveig Tofte, after more than a decade at the helm at the Turtle Bread Co., rebooted a former video store into a bricks-and-mortar version of the popular stand she launched in 2009 at the Kingfield Farmers Market. "I mean, this is the bakery that Kingfield built," she said. Along with breads, fantastic sourdough pancakes, made-to-order lunch sandwiches (meatloaf and apple butter on toast, anyone?) and a handful of sweets -- including the Twin Cities' flakiest, tastiest fruit turnovers -- the stars of the show are definitely the tender, golden biscuits, dressed with eggs, cheese, thick-cut bacon, fried chicken or ham, or split and smothered in that peppery, house-made pork sausage gravy. There's a similarly hearty mushroom version. Tofte hasn't forgotten the market customers whho launched her business; she's still hawking breads, biscuits and goodies every Sunday morning through October.

What a pleasure it is to see Chris Stevens and Gail Mollner back on the job. Sit at the copper-topped counter at their new Blackbird and catch glimpses of Stevens as he cooks up a storm in the kitchen, or take a perch in one of the roomy booths and observe Mollner as she makes sure her great-looking dining room operates like clockwork. Preferably you have a big bowl of fiery udon noodles in front of you, or roasted chicken with fried chicken livers, or a carefully assembled banh mi, the traditional Vietnamese pork sandwich. Weekend breakfast is particularly pleasant, which explains the crowds. The couple lost their life's work in a devastating February 2010 fire, and after plenty of grit and determination, they've relocated their charmer of a restaurant to a new Kingfield address. It's a win-win scenario. Not only is Blackbird 2.0 a welcome jolt of privately financed economic stimulus for 38th and Nicollet intersection, but the larger, sunnier digs are an improvement over the old space, which always felt cramped. Now with nearly twice as many seats, the restaurant -- still charmingly quirky, by the way -- can accommodate the throngs who know to come for Stevens' sharp, affordable, crowd-pleasing cooking and Mollner's attentive hospitality. They're role models for overcoming adversity, and diners everywhere should be thrilled to have them, and their restaurant, back.

Pizzeria Lola has transformed pizza lovers into early-bird diners, because pizza hounds are well advised to arrive at 56th and Xerxes as soon as the doors open at 5 p.m., or risk a long wait for a table. Yes, it's that popular. Because co-owner Ann Kim prepares all the dough herself, the results are remarkably consistent from day to day, a thin but sturdy crust that has a slight lift, with a crispy outer layer, a tender, air-pocketed interior and a gently sour flavor. It's a fine foundation for a detail-oriented array of toppings that are almost always paired in satisfying combinations. There are roughly a dozen pizzas on the menu, including a build-your-own option, but why not take advantage of Kim's endless recipe testing and go with the combos she prescribes? Top selections include the Sweet Italian, which features a house-made pork shoulder sausage, each hot bite popping with garlic and fennel, the overt spiciness tamed by subtly sweet peppers. It's followed closely by the Xerxes, in which a light touch of mozzarella and feta stands up to nicely bitter sauteed broccoli rabe, salty olives and crushed almonds. Leading the Simple Pleasures department is a first-rate Margherita. Kim does the cooked egg thing and does it well, with a barely jelled yolk adding a finishing touch to cured pork cheek and leeks shaved to resemble blades of grass. Dessert is a fantastic house-made soft-serve ice cream. Now if only we could be allowed to make a reservation? Please?

One trend worth embracing is the movement toward small restaurants. Diminutive in their scale and the size of the staff, anyway. Their culinary ambition is writ large. In Season, for instance. The seat count hovers around 40, and the staff consists of five servers, a cook, sous chef Pete Thillen and chef/owner Don Saunders. That's it. There isn't even a dishwasher on the payroll. The beauty of this kind of modest setup is that there's almost no filter between Saunders and his diners. Drop in most nights, and chances are that Saunders is working the line preparing dinner, being a literal hands-on owner. And for diners, that is a very good thing. The menu's seasonal aspect -- Saunders plans to completely overhaul it four times a year, injecting tweaks every few weeks -- has a whiff of being dated, or gimmicky. It would be more of a surprise if a chef of his caliber weren't fashioning his work on peak- season ingredients. That said, he's also tying cooking techniques to the calendar -- braises when the snow flies, grilling during the summer months -- but again, this is hardly a revolutionary business plan. Still, it's a slight twist on the omnipresent all-local-all-the-time drumbeat: Minnesota and Wisconsin farms are tapped when the connection makes sense, but when inspiration calls outside the region, In Season answers. If that's the hook that has lured Saunders back into a Twin Cities restaurant, then we should be all for it.

Kings offers a wine paradise in a small, hip south Minneapolis venue. They make their own tater tots (which are phenomenal), and also have the best burger in the Twin Cities. Seriously. At a wine bar. Buttery soft bun; insanely juicy locally raised grass-fed beef from Stone Bridge Farm; melty, creamy manchego cheese; thick-cut, salty bacon; red onion confit and smooth shallot aioli for a sweet/pungent oniony flavor. This burger is crazy good. DJ Jake Rudh spins music on the first Tuesday night of the month. --lkozarek

Broders Pasta Bar. Photo by Tom Wallace

House-smoked sturgeon from Piccolo. Photo by Tom Wallace