In Season

Rating:

One trend worth embracing is the movement toward small restaurants. Diminutive in their scale and the size of the staff, anyway. Their culinary ambition is writ large.

Take In Season. The seat count hovers around 40, and the staff consists of five servers, a cook, sous chef Pete Thillen and chef/owner Don Saunders. That's it. There isn't even a dishwasher on the payroll.

The beauty of this kind of modest setup is that there's almost no filter between Saunders and his diners. Drop in most nights, and chances are that Saunders is working the line -- the tiny kitchen is visible from the dining room, so it's impossible to miss him at work -- preparing dinner, being a literal hands-on owner. And for diners, that is a very good thing.

It's been almost two years since Saunders shuttered his formally minded Fugaise, and since then he's overseen a swank Wisconsin lake resort and a private St. Paul club. Those experiences come through in this latest venture. In Season isn't a Fugaise reboot, although of course it reflects Saunders' confident cooking style. But the differences are clear: This time around, Saunders is keeping it far more casual -- with prices to match -- demonstrating that he is more than able at putting a gloss on more middlebrow ingredients. Truffles, no; truffle salt, yes.

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