Dining: A Social scene
The appeal of a toast cannot be overstated.
We were deep in conversation when the ting-ting of an unseen bell chimed through the house, setting a ritual into motion. The crowd at the Northeast Social quickly raised their glasses, and a two-word chorus -- how did people know what to say? -- rang through the room. "The Social," they said, and a lovely camaraderie hung in the air for a few moments before chatter resumed.
I loved it. In standoffish Minnesota, connecting with strangers, even for a few seconds, is no small feat. "It's a way for us to interact with our guests," co-owner Sam Bonin later told me. "And a way to keep our team on their toes, to raise their morale, you know what I mean?"
Absolutely. While Bonin and co-owner Joe Wagner keep the front of the house humming, chef Edward Hayes Jr. and his crew are cooking an engaging, uncomplicated and value-conscious menu. I'm not surprised that one of the best dishes I tasted all summer came out of his kitchen. Its honesty and integrity set the tone for the entire single-page menu. The dish? A chicken breast, butchered with the wing connection still attached and roasted, skin-side down. What a treat, encountering plain-old chicken so indecently flavorful and juicy.
Another standard-setter is what Hayes calls a pâté. Technically the square slices are a terrine, a coarse blend of Minnesota-raised pork shoulder, thyme, rosemary, port wine and sunflower seeds. For a while Hayes was pairing it with a mellow red wine reduction, then with a tangy onion jam; both were excellent. Other don't-miss items include snappy house-made lamb sausages, as well as the pair of seared scallops.
Some of Hayes' ideas don't quite play out. A basket of fried okra had a sloppy, State Fair-ish aura. Chicken wings, nicely meaty, were brazenly over-spiced. On the flip side, the snappy mint-watercress pesto made a favorable impression in a lamb sandwich, but the virtually flavorless meat did not. Gnocchi was wonderfully pillowy, but the tomato-ricotta accompaniment always teetered on the drab. The appeal of ham- and spinach-wrapped trout was lost on me. It's off the menu now, replaced by a gorgeous slab of grilled salmon. Like chicken, it's a seafood staple that's often indifferently prepared, but not here; Hayes treats it as if it were foie gras.
There's a mean burger, too, each half-pound monster topped with Cheddar and pickled, deep-fried chiles, a clever touch. Oh, and a thick-cut pork chop, sizzling outside, gently pink inside and teased with a bit of fat, is flat-out fabulous. It was served with zucchini and summer squash that had been cut into thin ribbons, sautéed in a scandalous amount of butter and layered like lasagna.
Pastry chef Amy Zander's desserts may be short on selection, but they're long on flavor: a luscious panna cotta, a pitch-perfect blueberry cheesecake. But the real attention-grabber is a moist, dark-chocolate cake covered in thick milk-chocolate icing, a standard-setting layer cake that we all wish we could make at home but which gives us a reason to patronize well-run restaurants instead.
