When I moved to Minneapolis, a block away was a fairly derelict building that used to contain Blue Ribbon Foods, a frozen food distributor that had fairly recently stopped operations. After a few years sitting neglected, the building was purchased and refurbished. One side became a location for Dunn Bros’ Coffee, which was basically my home-away-from-home for my PhD studies. The other side became Alma, which quickly became one of Minneapolis’ top-rated restaurants. I was one of their very first customers, having more or less accidentally stumbled on a soft opening while getting coffee next door, and able to enjoy a few nice dinners there before moving away in 2001.
While I’ve been back to Minneapolis a good dozen times since moving away, I was always vowing to give Alma another visit, but never seemed to get it to fit into my schedule. This last time, I was finally able to pull it off, 24+ years after my last visit, going out for an evening with my high school friend David who is now a lawyer in Minneapolis. A bit has changed; primarily, the Dunn Bros’ next door is gone, and is now part of Alma (their less formal Cafe), and the upstairs is now a hotel run by Alma (I need to keep that in mind for a future visit). But mostly, overall ambiance is the same.
Since we were just two diners, we decided to go for the counter seating at the front of the restaurant, which was nicely window-lit, and gave us a pretty good view into the kitchen. Like my visit many years ago, Alma’s main dining focuses entirely on a small chef’s pre-fixe menu built on seasonal specialties with three full courses. On this visit, the menu was $97, and, in a nod to one of my favorite practices for higher-end dining, that includes gratuity.
Each of the three courses had a pair of items to choose from, and as we looked over the menu, we enjoyed our first round of drinks. I started out the evening with their Tepache Punch with Charanda, overproof rum, falernum, lemon, and pineapple tepache. Great drink, although the decision to serve this in a wine glass was a bit odd. David opted for one of their Romanian white wines, which was also well-enjoyed.
As we enjoyed our starting drinks, the staff dropped off a welcome course of a hearth bread with butter (not really shown, but surprisingly good), king salmon rillettes, and Morcella cheese with house-made marmalade. I rather liked this start to the meal: the salmon rillettes were surprisingly rich and flavorful (and less “fishy” than I expected), and the cheese a nice, slightly nutty flavor that was also a great palate cleanser from the salmon.
The first course was a choice between a salad or a garlic flan. While the garlic flan concept intrigued me, I was in the mood for a salad, and Alma’s was quite good. Young lettuce and snap pea salad with charred red onion, herb dressing, and marcona almonds. The composition here was great: the charred red onion softened the onion and gave it a nice smokiness, the almonds a nice bit of crunch, and the herb dressing was nicely bold. Quite a good salad, actually, continuing my run of good salads this year.
For my second course, I chose the chickpea griddle cake. A rather nice chickpea griddle case, served with New Caledonian prawns, shiitake mushrooms, and chile-garlic toum. The cake itself was surprisingly good: they managed to nicely combine the overall flavor of chickpea and still get the just-al-dente grit of a corn griddle cake, with a nice crisp to it. The chile-garlic toum was nicely garlic forward and almost “fluffy” in consistency, making this a nice little dish.
Instead of the chickpea griddle cakes, my buddy David opted for the Maltagliati Pasta second course, with Lowry Hill Provisions mortadella, marinated pistachios, and fava beans. I didn’t actually try this dish, but David actually really enjoyed it.
For the main course, both David and I got the pork dish. This was Sakura pork (a well-regarded pork producer down in Iowa), with pork loin and pork belly, served with Vidalia onion soubise, rhubarb compote, and grilled asparagus. I really liked this dish. The pork belly was nicely layered and crisped, with a nice, rich pork flavor alternating with good bands of partially-reduced fat. The loin was actually fairly lean, but nicely tender. The soubise was creamy and added a really nice onion character to the dish, while the rhubarb added a nice acid note. Overall, a great main course.
Dessert was a house-made strawberry swirl gelato, served over basil cake with rhubarb-molasses caramel and lemon curd. This was a nicely composed dish: the strawberry gelato was smooth and creamy, the basil cake boldly flavored with a lot of basic, and the rhubarb-molasses caramel and lemon curd added some nice almost savory notes to this. An enjoyable dessert overall.
Finally, like a few other high-end restaurants, Alma likes to leave you a packet of treats with your bill as as to-go treat. In this case, a parcel of some mini-Madelaines, some meringues, and some brownie bites. A nice little way to end the meal.
In the world of restaurants, particularly fine dining ones, it’s actually pretty rare for a place to thrive over several decades (indeed, many of the restaurants I fondly remember from my years of living in Minnesota 25 years ago have long departed, and some of the ones still standing have morphed into new identities as well), but Alma’s been around for over 25 years, and is still doing a great job, and every bit as good as I remember from years ago. While my “hit list” for places to visit on my next Twin Cities visit is getting quite long, I’ll have to make sure it’s not another 24 years before my next visit.
