Being a St. Paul resident and proud of it, it pains me to say this, but it’s true—when it comes to fine dining, St. Paul can’t hold a candle to Minneapolis. That’s not to say that we don’t have some decent restaurants—we do—but if you want to see an A-list chef put together a really interesting menu, you generally have to go across the river. Heartland is one notable exception. It is among the few restaurants in St. Paul with a recognizable perspective on fine dining: taking whatever indigenous Midwestern ingredients he can find at the time, Chef Lenny Russo crafts menus that change by the season and even by the night. Heartland is rather routinely named best restaurant in St. Paul by the City Pages (although maybe this year Meritage will make things interesting?). Sarah and I have wanted to go for a long time, but wanted to wait for some occasion to do so. In mid-December, I finished a Master’s degree program in literature…which was the perfect excuse to finally visit this restaurant.
We had made reservations well in advance, but it turns out we probably didn’t need them, as maybe a third or more of the tables were empty. The ambience was nice—the dining room was decorated in an arts and crafts style, and the lighting was appropriately dim. The whole atmosphere was very laid back, and I didn’t feel out of place at all in jeans—although Sarah dressed up a bit more and was glad she did.
Heartland’s menu is divided into two sections: 3-course tasting menus at the top, a la carte selections at the bottom. I like to get tasting menus when I can—why bother guessing what’s good when you can let an expert choose for you? I went with the “Fauna” menu. Sarah, meanwhile, decided to mix it up and pick three from the a la carte list. For drinks, I went with a Westmalle Dubbel—if you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m a beer guy, plus I figured the Belgian style would go well with the steak that would be the second course of my tasting menu. Sarah picked a glass of Pinot Noir from the painfully small by-the-glass list.
After our drinks and some bread came the amuse bouche: a lamb tartar. For both of us, it was our first time having any kind of tartare, so it was an interesting experience…delicate, slightly salty, and maybe just a bit sweet. All in all, I wished that it was more than just one bite.
Next were our appetizers: for me, a house-made merguez sausage with garlic-braised escarole and pearl onions, for Sarah, baby lettuces with treviso radicchio chiffonade, baby carrots, parmesan cheese, and pecan pesto vinaigrette. (Go ahead and read it twice; the epic descriptions are half the fun.) The sausage was rather subdued, not as salty, spicy, and…uh…sausage-like as I had expected. But it went well with the escarole and pearl onions, all of which was doused in an au jous of some sort. Sarah’s salad was also a nice mixture of flavors: salty Wisconsin parmesan, sweet/tangy vinaigrette.
For the main course, I had (deep breath) cardamom and brown sugar cured grass-fed beef loin roast with heirloom potato-baby turnip hash and horseradish glace de viand. The beef loin had a really interesting flavor—in part, no doubt, because I’m used to corn-fed beef. If eating more sustainably means learning to associate beef with a slightly different flavor and texture, then sign me up. All things considered, though, the dish was slightly disappointing. The curing brought in a definite sweetness, which practically overpowered the natural flavor of the meat, rather than complimenting it. The potato and turnip hash, though, was great, and with the Belgian beer the whole thing was still very enjoyable.
Sarah got wild rice crusted Michigan whitefish with baby heirloom carrots, baby broccoli, and organic leek cream. She too was a bit disappointed by the subdued flavor, but she also admitted to having gotten the wrong wine to drink with fish. The conventional wisdom is that fish should be eaten with white wine, and although Sarah did get a light-bodied red, the wine may have overpowered the fish. The wild rice crust, however, added a very nice dimension, and Sarah did enjoy the vegetables.
The next stop was dessert. Sarah ordered the chocolate pot de crème with a honey oat Florentine, Grand Marnier-espresso sabayon, cranberry chocolate bark and dark chocolate sauce. It was just about perfect: in Sarah’s words, “I like anything that has to do with chocolate,” but the flavor and texture weren’t too heavy, so she didn’t leave feeling overly full. The best of both worlds. On my end, this was probably the one dish that I wasn’t that excited about—if I had been able to choose I probably would have chosen something else. Still, it did give me the chance to order a glass of moscato d’asti, a delicious dessert wine that, in my opinion, goes well with fruit-based desserts like the one I was about to have: sheep milk ricotta cheese-apple strudel with apple chips, ginger crème anglaise, apple cider caramel sauce and honeycrisp apple butter. Alone, the dessert would have been a bit boring, but with the wine it was the perfect end to a very good meal.
Andrew and Sarah’s Verdict: B+. Next to Meritage, Heartland is among the best St. Paul restaurants we’ve been to—that said, a couple of slightly underwhelming entrees hurt the score a bit. Still, dinner at Heartland is an experience that shouldn’t be missed, and at $30-40 for a three-course tasting menu, there’s no reason that the dining room shouldn’t be full even in the middle of a recession. Recommended.
