Masa

 

 

Masa Restaurant

D’Amico Restaurant

1070 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, MN

(612) 338-6272

Photos by Jenny Lunde
Words by Jeff Johnson of Phineasfree Writing

Authentic Mexican food juxtaposed on crisp, white linen tablecloths…

A stunning bar draped in soft orange atmosphere and light…

A front-row seat to the “beautiful people show” occurring naturally on the streets outside…

A giant, scantily-clad and statuesque female hostess who greets you as you enter…

Where in the Twin Cities can you find all that under just one roof?

Masa Restaurant. Located on Nicollet Mall between 10^th and 11^th Streets, Masa is a member of the uber-successful D’Amico family of restaurants and serves award-winning contemporary Mexican cuisine in a beautiful setting.
I’ll tackle the traits mentioned above in reverse order. So let’s start with that hostess…
As you enter the restaurant, your line of vision is immediately drawn to a stunning statue of a woman. There isn’t anything especially unique about this particular statue other than the fact that I’ve never been to a restaurant where the first person to greet me was a giant, statuesque female form. Maybe that’s how all the restaurants are in Mexico. Color me naïve, but in Wisconsin and Minnesota, I just don’t get to see a lot of that kind of thing. But the truth is, she does a nice job of setting the tone for a unique dining experience.
OK, moving on to the “beautiful people show”…
The restaurant sits on a corner, so giant north- and west-facing windows allow wonderful natural light to spill in and flood the restaurant. The windows also afford Masa’s diners ample people-watching opportunities. My lunch-date on this day told me that while he has always been stuck working in the suburbs, he openly covets for a job in downtown Minneapolis because, as he put it, “that’s where all the beautiful people are.” Seated alongside a window at Masa, we enjoyed the sights and sounds of Nicollet Mall, which is to say we enjoyed the “beautiful people show” occurring just a few feet away. He’s crazy, by the way – there’re lots of beautiful people in the suburbs – you just have to know where to look.
That stunning orange bar…
Lots of restaurants boast beautiful bars. One of my favorites is The Monte Carlo – when you walk into that bar you are immediately jettisoned to a 1940’s Chicago-style gangster hangout. It is wonderful! Though no less wonderful, Masa’s bar induces none of those gangster vibes. If it conjures anything, it is a 1960’s Hollywood vibe. Or better yet, it reminded us of “The Birdcage,” that impossibly funny Nathan Lane vehicle set in 1990’s-era Miami Beach. Regardless of the vibe it conjures, I was really struck by the beautiful aura a little orange light was able to create.
And finally, the food…
When I contemplate going out for Mexican food, I generally think of the family-style Mexican restaurants where stale chips and watery salsa are delivered endlessly to your table, where there are paintings on the wall (not hanging from the wall but actually wall-painted) of Mariaci bands and laughing Mexican children wearing too-big sombreros being chased through the streets by a dog, where every other diner orders #8, the three-enchilada combo served with rice and beans, and where the waitress more often than not has a not-so-subtle quesadilla stain on her threadbare polo shirt that bears the restaurant’s name.
Before Masa, I had never contemplated Mexican food served on heavy, white plates at tables covered in crisp, white linen tablecloths, brought by waitstaff wearing starched dress shirts. And I certainly had never considered that Mexican food could be delivered without the requisite warning, “These plates are extremely hot, so be careful!” But at Masa, you get no such warning – which means your food wasn’t piled onto a plate and then chucked into an oven for 5 minutes just prior to serving it to you. No, at Masa you get fresh food prepared fresh. What a treat!
Masa offers a “tasting menu” lunch special that provides several options from which to select three items. Since there were two of us on this day, we selected six items:

• Guacamole Picado – mashed avocado with white onion, tomato, chile serrano, cilantro, and lime, served with raw vegetables and chips. If you like guacamole – and really, who doesn’t? – this will knock your socks off. So tasty!
• Ensalada with de Jicama y Mango – mango and jicama salad, cilantro, lime vinaigrette,and cotija. The jicama, which was presented beautifully alongside the mango in long, thin slices – tasted like a cross between potato and green apple. A very interesting taste that you’re not getting at your family-style Mexican restaurant!
• Sopa de Tortilla con Pollo – tortilla soup with chicken, avocado, chile pasilla, and Chihuahua cheese, served with lime and tortilla strips. This was a very hot soup – and I’m not talking about the temperature. Whoo! Very tasty, but too much spice for my Wisconsin palate!
• Taco Pescado – taco with pescado, pico de gallo, lettuce, and guacamole. I was very excited to try this taco, but… come to find out that “pescado” is Spanish for “fish,” and as a rule, I don’t eat fish tacos. Nothing against Masa – I just don’t believe in mixing tacos and seafood. I blame myself for this mistake – the menu includes a glossary in the back. You’ve been warned!
• Half Torta con Pollo – grilled chicken breast marinated in salsa verde, served with cucumber, chile serrano, pickled red onion, cilantro, and tomato. This was a fairly ordinary chicken sandwich. Certainly tasty, but hardly the most remarkable of our six selections.
• Half Torta al Carbone – marinated skirt steak, roasted poblano peppers, onions, and sals rojo. Upon tasting this, my dining partner immediately lamented not just selecting this for all three of his dishes. Excellent and tasty marinated beef! We highly recommend this one.

In short, the food was excellent. The fact that we might order differently next time (read: Torta al Carbone x 3, Taco Pescado x 0!) is simply a matter of personal taste. And that’s why Masa’s lunch special is so cool… you get to try three different items every time!
Like other D’Amico restaurants, Masa offers its guests a memorable dining experience that is difficult to find in most restaurants. With that in mind, I recommend visiting Masa to judge for yourself. Maybe you won’t be moved by the statue, excited by the beautiful people, struck by the orange aura, or intrigued by the juxtaposition of Mexican food and white linen, but I’m pretty sure you will find your own reasons for loving Masa. Just remember that “pescado” means fish!

I almost for got to talk about Date Night at five different D’Amico Restaurants.

3 course dinner for 2 plus a bottle of wine for $50 on Sunday night.

Dancing with Mushrooms

Recent job - Itasca Leathergoods

Itasca Leathergoods

Written by Jeff Johnson (www.phineasfree.com) and Paul Kirkman

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Itasca Leathergoods

I recently was hired by the new owners of Itasca Leathergoods (formerly Itasca Moccasin) to photograph the 10 or 12 styles this storied Minnesota outfitter hand crafts. As my readers know, my passion is food photography, but hey, first and foremost I am an artist, and if my canvas one week is beet salad at D’Amico and the next week hand-stitched moccasins from Itasca Leathergoods… well, let’s just say it’s that kind of diversity that makes me love my job! And the things I learn because of my job? Icing on the cake!

If you just glance at a pair of these moccasins you might miss what makes them so special. And if you don’t know how the company operates you’re ignoring a key part of the story.

First, the company: they could easily manufacture these overseas – it would be a heck of a lot less expensive, but they don’t and won’t operate that way. The moccasins are manufactured in Lake George, Minnesota, near the headwaters of the Mississippi River. And there they will stay, as the new owners are committed to supporting the economy in which they operate.

To ensure the company’s heritage isn’t lost, they insist on US-sourced leather hides. Again, they could buy it cheaper elsewhere, but Itasca Leathergoods stands for much more than profit margins and cheap labor.

They offer custom-fit moccasins and they are the only ones who do. Customers can provide them with a foot tracing and Itasca Leather Goods will custom design it to fit the exact contour of the customer’s foot. How cool is that?

Second, the moccasins: they use different kinds and colors of leather hides, which allows them to offer moccasins in several different styles. Some of the moccasins are designed with multiple hides, which really accentuates the subtle nuances of the individual leathers and each moccasin’s design. These are beautiful pieces of footwear!

The company has bold plans for growth. It won’t be long before you see a new Itasca Leathergoods website, and as they begin manufacturing additional products like handbags, wallets, totes, backpacks, and belts, they plan to open several new retail stores in Northern Minnesota resort towns.

This was a fun and challenging assignment for me. Capturing the subtleties of moccasins is not as easy as you might think. Lighting and angles were critical aspects of the photo shoot. And I’ve got to say, prior to this gig, I probably wouldn’t have looked twice at a pair of moccasins. But now that I’ve seen them, touched them, photographed them, and just really noticed them, I’m hooked. They’re beautiful!

Putka Pods

Putka Pods

Restaurant Picks

Restaurants Picks

Time to time people have asked me what restaurant are my favorites.  Well that is hard to stay because it depend on what I am looking for in a restaurant.  The list keeps changing depending on new restaurant we visit or hear from others that we must check this place out.  If someone tells me "you have to check this place out", I'm check it out for sure.  I life for food.  

Asain – Sen Yai Sen Lek

Beer - Happy Gnome

Tasting menu – Happy Gnome

Dessert – Café Latte

– Chez Arnaud Bakery

Burgers – Blue Door

Mix Drinks – Psycho Suzi's

Small Plates – Solara Restaurant

Green Restaurant – Sen Yai Sen Lek

Using local farms – Modern Cafe

Ice Cream – Sebastian Joe's Ice Cream

Up scale bar food - Joe’s Garage

Fine dinning – Vincent A

Great Price bar food – Stanley's Northeast Bar Room

Romanic dinning – Forepaugh's

Itailian food – Amore Victoria Ristorante

Modern restaurant – D’Amico Kitchen

Mexican – La Casita Mexican Restaurant

Cuben – Victor’s 1959 café

Ecuadorian  – La Colonia Restaurant

Bakery – Chez Arnaud Bakery

Greece - Christos Greek Restaurant

Estimates

A number of estimate are in the works. Getting ready for a couple of shoots next week. Hope this means the economy is picking back up.

Recent work - NEW Roll NR_2011_12_06 Metal gears

Recent work - NEW Roll NR_2011_12_06 Metal gears

Itasca leathergoods - image for billboard

Itasca leathergoods - image for billboard

Hot lips - Recent job

What is in your Tea.  

 

Check out Hot lips from Viva La Tea.

Images from a photo shoot with Peter Strzyzykowski from Pete's food style, a Minnesota food stylist.

Viva La Tea - recent job

Recent work for Viva La Tea

Sencha

Carmel Delight

 

Citrus Blast 

Peach Green 

 

Hot Lips

Images from a photo shoot with Peter Strzyzykowski from Pete's food style, a Minnesota food stylist.

D'Amico Kitchen Osteria and Bar

D'Amico Kitchen Osteria and Bar

Photography by Jenny Lunde

Written by Jeff Johnson (www.phineasfree.com) and Jenny Lunde

D'Amico Kitchen, on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis,
is an amazing restaurant that naturally stimulates your senses. I'm not sure which was my favorite part of the dining experience: the atmosphere, which draws you in visually and physically, or the food, with dishes that tickle your tongue and delight your soul. Luckily, I don't have to choose my favorite, because D'Amico offers both... abundantly.

The sense stimulation begins even before you enter. As you approach the restaurant, your eyes are drawn to the beautiful raw rusted doors, as well as the sign above the door that reads D'Amico Kitchen Osteria and Bar in rich color and texture. (InItaly, an Osteria is traditionally located in a small town or suburb - it's a location where people spend the evening with friends over local wine and simple food made with ingredients from nearby farms. It is an informal, relaxed atmosphere in which people sit at shared community tables. In recent generations, the emphasis in many Osterias has shifted from a meal's social aspects to the actual food, although menus still tend to be relatively simple with local specialties like pasta and grilled meat and fish.)

Once inside, a palpable feeling of serenity washes over you. Large windows along two of the walls allows light to warmly fill the room. The clean, crisp color of white is all around you - tables, chairs, draperies to add privacy, walls, and candles. While some shades of white are cool and distant, other shades - including all of those inside the restaurant - are warm, inviting, and cozy. The interior designer did an amazing job (and not just because of the pumpkin-colored accent wall - my regular readers know I have a bit of an obsession with all things pumpkin). What makes the design work so well is the placement of objects around the restaurant, the warmth of the white shades, the windows providing natural light, and yes, that accent wall doesn't hurt. This serenity of the restaurant extended even to the staff. I could tell immediately that there were no snobby waitresses here. The waitstaff was there merely to facilitate this excellent Italian dining experience.

I try to learn at least one new thing each day, and on the day of my visit to D'Amico, I learned once and for all how to pronounce the word gnocchi, which I have apparently been saying incorrectly for many years! It was fitting that I would learn the pronunciation on this day because this gnocchi dish was like no other gnocchi I have ever eaten. It was a very soft puff pasta cheese ball delight that simply melted in my mouth. D'Amico's gnocchi, my "You've got to try this dish!" selection, has set the new standard against which all future gnocchi will be measured.

Beet salads have become a little trendy, and many restaurants offer a typical salad with a couple of slices of red beets thrown on top and call it "beet salad." Not here. D'Amico uses striped beets and when cooking it, they use a few red beets to accentuate the stripes. This gives the dish several different layers of vibrant color. And they don't stop there! Chucks of beets are placed on a bed of Gorgonzola cream, and even the oil drizzled off the plate is packed with a pistachio flavor that dances on your tongue. I'm a beet connoisseur, and I was very happy with this dish.

I also enjoyed the tomato soup, where beautiful lines of oil created a window of sorts, through which I could see the soup from all sides.
As most of you know, I love pumpkin, sweet potato, and most
squashes. So selecting D'Amico's Winter Squash Ravioli was something of a given. Light pasta pockets filled with squash were accompanied by leaves of sage in a butter citrus sauce that glides on the tongue before the creamy yummyness of squash emerges. Sage is so beautiful with textures, and when cooked, these texture become very rich.

I've been visiting restaurants during Restaurant Week for several years, and I can confidently say that D'Amico Kitchen is now my #1 ranked destination. The food, the staff, the atmosphere, and the cost (in that order) are what determine my restaurant experience - and D'Amico is a clear-cut winner.

One special thing to note about this restaurant is Date Night. They offer a special where you and your partner choose 3 courses and a bottle of wine for $50. Looking at the date night menu, most of our dishes were on it (just not the soup), and one of the dessert options was an Almond Crepe, which caught my eye.

Mushroom shoot

Preparing for Wednesday's mushrooms shoot.

Sea Change Restaurant during Restaurant Week

Sea Change Restaurant
Photography by Jenny Lunde / Written by Jeff Johnson

Eating lunch at Sea Change is less of a meal and more of an event. But the truly fascinating aspect of this trendy restaurant is that you aren’t there to watch the event. No, at Sea Change, you are the event. Allow me to explain.

The restaurant’s interior is a cross between a planetarium and an aquarium. Shiny, seafoam green-colored pillars run from the floor up and into the ceiling, where recessed lighting provides a mysterious and Saturn-like ripple of rings. Tiny lights pepper the ceiling giving it a wonderfully summer-night sky feel, as though the stars are actually holes in the sky – and on the other side is a much simpler time. If you stare long enough, you can almost feel it…

If you take your eyes off the ceiling and look around the restaurant, you notice seagreen booths patterned to look like welcoming beds of underwater plant life. For no extra cost, you can take your meal at the rounded counter that surrounds the chefs who are busy at work shucking oysters, tossing salads, and grilling seafood. To sit here is to be the young, curious eyes of a child who presses his face up against the outside of a fishbowl to get the best view possible of the strange creatures swimming inside…
Finally, you sit. You look at the menu, you order, you chat with your partner. Windows three stories high stretch out in front of you, and while you initially admired the vista this ground floor restaurant provided, when your food arrives and you begin eating, you can’t shake the feeling that the tables have turned and those gorgeous windows have turned the world’s eyes on you. And finally it is clear: it is you who is smack dab in the middle of the fishbowl, and it is you who is the strange creature swimming inside. I don’t know… maybe it’s the giant paintings of humungous faces that really are staring right at you – but in a very surreal way, you begin to realize you are the event these faces have come here to watch. And although the restaurant’s crisp silver, black, and green decor reminded me of a stylish Roger Moore-era James Bond movie, I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I was actually starring in a Stanley Kubrick film.
Oh, the food? I had Mixed Green Salad with sherry hazelnut vinaigrette served with toast with chevre goat cheese and a fish sandwich with fries. It was fine. I had a chocolate dessert plate called chocolate cremeux, brownie slice, chocolate mouse, black currant caramel crumbs, thin slice of cocoa jelly dressed with chocolate sauce. It was fabulous. But for me, the food was secondary. I realized pretty quickly that you don’t necessarily go to Sea Change for the food. You go for the experience. You go for the emotion. You go to be a part of something. Though I’m still not exactly sure what, I do know that I was part of something there. It really sticks with you…

Sea Change Restaurant during Restaurant Week 2012

Lunch Menu $10

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Tortialla Soup with vegetables

Tortialla Soup with vegetables
from the Williams-Sonoma Soup & Stew cookbook

This is the fourth time I have made this soup from this cookbook and every recipe is wonderful.
I little different spin on some recipes.

Tortilla Soup with vegetables

2 tbs Corn oil
1 yellow onion, chopped finely
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 tbs cilantro, chopped
1 14 oz can diced fire roasted tomatoes with juice
1 tsp ground cumin
4 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
1 zucchini, julienned
1 carrot, peeled and julienned
4 corn tortillas, slightly stale or dry, halved crosswise and sliced into thin strips
1 dried pasilla chile, stemmed and seeded
or 1 can of chile peppers
1/4 cup coarsely shredded Monterrey jack cheese

In a soup pot over medium heat, heat the oil. Add the onion and saute until golden brown, about 7 minutes; do not burn. Add the garlic and 2 tablespoons of the cilantro and saute 1 minute longer. Add the tomatoes with their juice and the cumin and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the stock and remove from the heat. Using a handheld or standing blender, puree the soup until smooth.

Return the soup to medium low heat. Add the zucchini and carrot, partially cover and cook, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, preheat the over to 400°F. Arrange the tortilla strips in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake until crisp and beginning to brown, 7-8 minutes. Set aside.

Place the chile in a dry cast-iron or nonstick frying pan over medium high heat and cook until it is fragrant and puffed about 2 minutes per side; do not let burn. Remove the stem, crush the chile in a mortar or with the side of a heavy knife, and set aside.

Ladle the soup into warmed bowls. Garnish with the toasted tortilla strips, crushed chile, remainign 2 tablespoons cilantro and cheese. Serve immediately.