Happy Gnome

Rating:

Great wine lists are a dime a dozen in the Twin Cities. The Wine Spectator lists more than 30 local restaurants with award-winning wine selections. But great beer lists are a lot harder to find, and the Happy Gnome has one of the best.

The new neighborhood tavern, which has replaced Chang O'Hara's on Selby Avenue in St. Paul, offers 24 draft beers on tap and more than 70 bottled beers, ranging from Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout from Colorado to De Troch Framboise, a traditional Belgian beer made with raspberries.

For a neighborhood tavern, the food is pretty impressive, too. Chef Camille Opland, a veteran of Lucia's Restaurant in Minneapolis, raises the bar for bar fare with a repertoire that ranges from spicy orange soy chicken wings and Polish sausage sandwich with red cabbage and onion sauerkraut to a beef carpaccio with capers, lemons and smoked salt, and a vegetarian entree of seared polenta with mushroom ragout, arugula salad and basil pesto.

What is perhaps most surprising about the Happy Gnome's beer selection is how many of the world's great beers aren't offered: no Pilsner Urquell, no Guinness Stout, no Bass Ale -- but maybe that's the point: You can get those beers at dozens of restaurants around town. Instead, the focus here is on harder-to-find American microbrewery beers.

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