i heart heartland

Chris:
We've wanted to try Heartland since moving to the Twin Cities, but for some reason never got around to it until last night. Being big fans of locally sourced ingredients and regional cuisine, it is ironic that we had not exerted the energy to go to what might be the quintessence of higher-end Midwestern faire. Lucia's -- the other restaurant that would probably be vying for that title in the area -- is a perennial favorite. I'm probably at Lucia's-To-Go for lunch at least once every two weeks, and I think they have some of the best food around.

So, why the long wait for Heartland? Probably the same reason we've never yet been to Alma, which I frequently hear talked about in the same breath as Heartland and Lucia's. There's always a bit of an activation energy before trying a new higher-end place, but luckily we crossed that threshold during a fortuitous foray into St. Paul last night.

Coming straight from the airport at 5:00pm, we had tickets to the Friday night performance of Prairie Home Companion -- which started at 7:30. Realizing that we didn't have enough time to go back home to Minneapolis, then get dinner, then get back to St. Paul, we just headed east and followed the wind. Well, that wind took us to Heartland's Wine Bar -- the easiest way to taste the food of Heartland on 5 minutes notice -- if you arrive at 5:30 when they open. By 6:00pm the wine bar -- which is first-come-first-served -- was full. The restaurant was fully reserved at 5:30.

Speaking of the restaurant, we peeked into it. Frankly we liked the ambience of the wine bar better; it's a little more intimate and cozy, but it doesn't really feel like a wine bar at all -- just more of a smaller restaurant with a prominent bar in the middle. In fact, I'm not sure why we would ever choose the restaurant over the bar -- since you can order from the main menu at the bar, but the bar also had its own menu with a few items I did not see on the other.

Anyway, on to the food. I went with two smaller dishes:

I started with the carmelized cabbage-pinto bean soup with smoked pork and heirloom tomato concassee. This dish was subtle yet good. The pinto beans dominated, punctuated now and then by thin chunks of the pork which I assume had been braising with the soup to the point where they easily fell apart. The carmelized cabbage was downplayed, and I couldn't find any tomato. I guess I'll have to look up concassee in a dictionary, but I'm guessing that the tomato was part of the soup base. Overall, I couldn't help but think that this dish was like a very refined bowl of baked beans, executed very well.

Second, I went with the house-made wild boar bratwurst with roasted winter squash puree and maple syrup-hazelnut glaze. Sounds great, huh? The bratwurst was at least a few notches above other bratwursts I've had before. Very, very lean, well spiced with fresh herbs -- I ate it way too quickly. The winter squash puree was well executed but somewhat standard. (I have a deep appreciation for winter squash after moving to Minnesota, since it's one of the few fresh vegetables that can be locally sourced way late in the season.) I couldn't tell if the glaze had hazelnut flavors in it, since it included whole hazelnuts as well -- but the maple base went perfectly with both the sausage and the squash to add some sweetness.

Upon my server's recommendation, I went with the Paulaner Hefe-weizen, a nice Bavarian complement to the brat. This actually was going to be my first choice as well, based on the bit of knowledge I learned in my friend Josh Pepper's legendary beer class. But that will be the topic of another post!

Raka went with the heirloom tomato salad with buttermilk blue cheese, curly cress, and opal basil-sweet pepper vinaigrette. I didn't try it, but it looked terrific -- especially for this late in the season! Five different heirloom tomatoes ranging from deep red to light green -- yum. I did, however, get to try Raka's second dish, Applewood-smoked Yorkshire pork ribs with grilled broccoli and tomatillo-brown sugar glaze. Honestly, this wasn't my favorite dish. The ribs were a little too smokey for my taste (admittedly I don't usually like anything with a smokey flavor) and they also weren't as tender as I would have hoped.

Still, I came away feeling like we will definitely be going back to Heartland -- and we will most likely stick with the wine bar.

One final note. Looking back, I feel that our selection of dishes may not adequately portray here the breadth of cuisine which was on the menu that night. The Grand Marais lake cisco (a fish, thanks dictionary) looked excellent, and the chilled organic carrot-ginger soup with opal basil-infused wildflower honey and microgreens salad sounded great. Despite its connection with Midwest-sourced ingredients, this is not your father's hot dish. But still, I recognize the humor in the situation: Heartland, Prairie Home Companion, brats and beer, all within an hour of stepping off the plane -- yeah, I'm back in the Midwest!

Rating: 3 tines, reserving the right to bump this up after a few more tries.