Ginger Hop

Rating:

My friend sighed. "Just what this town needs," he said. "Another Thai restaurant."

I know, right? They're proliferating faster than branches of CVS. Which is why it's a relief to see that the enterprising foursome behind Ginger Hop -- Jake Polt, Jon Provenzano, Charles Lodge and Katey Leitch, all of whom have amassed plenty of Thai dining experience at Sawatdee and Chiang Mai Thai -- have gone the pan-Asian route at their new northeast Minneapolis restaurant and bar.

Polt, who runs the kitchen, has fashioned a menu of familiar-sounding dishes without making them sound dull, liberally mixing across borders and, occasionally, hemispheres. Instead of being a painfully earnest attempt at authenticity, Ginger Hop's menu (its clever graphics are the work of the Kruskopf Coontz agency in Minneapolis) appears to be about having fun and tasting good while keeping prices manageable; it's tough to find an item over $10.

Sure, there are a few curries, a handful of single-spear satays (each paired with a different, flavorful dipping sauce), spring rolls filled with shrimp and herbs, smoked duck pot stickers, chicken lettuce wraps and fried rice, but there are also dishes with beer undertones (one example: a sandwich stuffed with beer-battered walleye) plus playful quirks along the lines of a Reuben made with kimchee rather than sauerkraut, a salmon burger jazzed with wasabi and Sriacha and a daily fruit crisp.

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