Porter & Frye

Rating:

Change is good. At least it is at three Minneapolis restaurants, where replacement chefs are shaking up familiar menus.

Ben Pichler met his friend and fellow chef Jon Radle when the two were working at Solera. When Radle landed at the top spot at Grand Cafe, he recruited Pichler to join him and, for nearly three years, the two teamed up against the hardscrabble challenges of running a small restaurant. "I think I saw him more than my wife," Pichler said.

After Radle's death in April, owner Mary Hunter promoted Pichler from sous chef to executive chef. A tough way to land a job, surely, but it's not taking away from Radle's legacy to say that Pichler is doing admirable work, continuing the restaurant's reputation as a neighborhood cafe that draws far more than a within-walking-distance clientele.

Here's why: The affordable, tightly focused menu remains seasonally sharp and skillfully rendered. The dinner menu's canapés -- I love that underused word -- remain, a plate of constantly changing small bites that could be roasted beets spooned into endive or gravlax on tiny toasts. They come six to an order, and they're a lovely way to start an evening.

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