Bar La Grassa - October 1, 2010

For those of you who don't like reading, I'll save you some time: Bar La Grassa is a fantastic place to eat and you should be calling them to make reservations right now.

Seriously.

The restaurant has an comfortable feel. The wait staff are mostly wearing jeans with nice dress shirts and aprons, you get the feeling that you could walk in wearing a suit or a Twins t-shirt and either would be welcome. (There was a Twin's game being played that night.)

The whole room has kind of a modern classic feel. Lots of old wood fixtures and old lights paired with black hardware and white paint. The plates at the table are decidedly classic china with red patterns. My grandmother had a set similar to them, except the patterns were blue, and I'd expect anyone who'd ever worked on a farm had seen a similar set. I happen to like old-school.

The food was amazing. The menu has a wide variety of small and large plate meals, mostly Italian inspired peasant dishes with an experimental flair. The small plates are perfect for a group, we each ordered one small plate and then as a group ordered one large plate. Two small plates, or an appetizer and a small plate would be more than enough of a meal for me.  The Soft Eggs with Lobster was fantastic, the eggs were made into a light omelette with generous chunks of lobster meat, and served atop wheat toast. Simple and delicious. I ordered the Gnocchi with Cauliflower and Orange as my small plate, I wanted to try something outside of my comfort zone. The gnocchi was served with an orange reduction and the steamed cauliflower was sliced and placed on top of the pasta. I really enjoyed this dish. We also had the Berkshire Pork Tenderloin with Salsa di Peperone. Highly recommended! The salsa adds so much to the perfectly prepared pork (or PPP, if you will.), it's very savory and slightly sweet and I'm kinda getting hungry again.

I should also note that the wine list is pretty extensive. There are some very reasonable glasses and some high-dollar selections, just in case you need to impress someone special or you've been blessed with a great financial windfall. And if you have, I'd be more than willing to let you handle the bill. I also take donations.

I had an excellent experience at Bar La Grassa and hope to stop in again soon. I give them 5 stars out of a possible 4.

http://www.barlagrassa.com/BarLaGrassa.htm