My wife is one of those people who needs three meals a day. We'd had a pretty good sized breakfast this particular day, but we didn't have lunch. We were in Minneapolis and she was getting a little "hangry" late in the afternoon. I suggested that we head over to Pizzeria Lola, my favorite place for a pizza in the Twin Cities. But we found out that due to the coronavirus, Lola was carry-out only. We were in the Edina area and there's a number of good restaurants around the 50th and French neighborhood. One place that I had been past numerous times, but had never stopped into before, is a bistro by the name of Salut Bar Americain. We decided to stop in there for a late lunch/early dinner.
Salut is part of the Parasole Restaurant Holdings group of restaurants around the Twin Cities that include Manny's, Pittsburgh Blue, Burger Jones and Chino Latino. The CEO of Salut is Phil Roberts who opened the critically acclaimed (and one of my all-time favorite Italian restaurants) Pronto in Minneapolis in 1981. Along with partner Pete Mihajlov, Roberts developed a number of restaurants including Buca Little Italy, a concept that eventually became Buca di Beppo. And in 1999, Roberts closed Pronto and replaced it with the Oceanaire, a high-end seafood restaurant. Roberts and Mihajlov eventually sold both Buca di Beppo and the Oceanaire off to separate corporate entities. In 2005, Parasole opened the Salut location in Edina. Three years later, a second Salut bar American opened in St. Paul. And earlier this year, Parasole sold their holdings to a local capital investment company with Roberts remaining as the CEO of the restaurant group.
We found a parking spot on France just down and across the street from Salut Bar Americain. (see map) It was a beautiful evening and the dining patio in front of Salut was full. We checked inside at the hostess stand to see if we could eat inside. A young lady took us to a table in the corner of the restaurant - many tables were moved out due to COVID-19 restrictions - and we had to download menus on our smartphones via a QR code for us to look through. It wasn't long before our server, Claire, came over to greet us. I started off with a Surly Furious while my wife got a glass of pinot grigio. Later on, I got a Day Tripper pale ale from the Indeed Brewing Company located in Minneapolis with a taproom in Milwaukee.
The decor at Salut was tastefully elegant as they tried to replicate a Paris bistro. The table we sat at featured a banquette bench along the wall. The bar area had a few booths and high-top tables with an impressive back-lit back-bar area. The place was fancy, but not pretentious in the least. They had a wonderful selection of music playing in the background from artists such as Au Revior Simone, Kraak & Smaack, and the great Dead Weather featuring Jack White.
I really didn't know what to get at Salut. The menu is pretty compact with a handful of entrees including a walleye entree, steak and frites, and a herb-roasted half-chicken. They had a burger on the menu, as well as sandwiches such as steak sandwich and a grilled chicken club sandwich. Salads and appetizers such as jumbo shrimp, mussels, and escargot bourguignon were on the menu along with a classic French onion soup.
My wife was hungry, but not hungry enough for a full entree meal. She thought about getting the walleye dinner, but she ended up getting the tuna Niçoise salad. It featured a yellowfin tuna filet, grilled lightly, then mixed with various items such as green beans, sliced tomatoes, potatoes, artichokes, olives and a hard-boiled egg. It was topped with a pistou vinaigrette. She also wanted to get a side of grilled asparagus to go along with our meals. The asparagus came with a rich and creamy hollandaise sauce.
I ended up getting the croque monsieur, a traditional Parisienne-style ham and cheese sandwich that is served open-faced and topped with a béchamel sauce. A side of frites (fries) came with the sandwich.
Now, my wife was very thrilled with her salad. "This is wonderful," she said more than once. "This is exactly what I needed. Not too heavy, but filling enough to make me feel better." Her "hangry-ness" had subsided considerably halfway through her salad.
My sandwich was perfect for what I wanted that evening, too. No, it wasn't a pizza from Pizzeria Lola, but it certainly hit the spot in terms of flavor and quality. The thin slices of the ham with the melted cheese mixed with the béchamel sauce on the toasted bread had a lot of taste sensations going on. It wasn't heavy in the stomach, but I was more than satiated when I finished.
I do have to say the frites were very good. I asked Claire if I could get a side of mayonnaise to go along with the fries - Parisienne-style. The frites had a nice crunchy outer shell with that great flaky potato taste on the inside. And the grilled asparagus was very good, too. The béarnaise sauce was served a little too cool for my liking, but it was still a nice addition with the asparagus.
Salut Bar Americain may have saved the day for me as my wife was at that point where she really needed something to eat. She really didn't know what she wanted, but she needed something. And her Niçoise salad was exactly what she needed. While I wasn't as hungry or needed food, the croque monsieur was perfect for what I needed to eat. Our service from Claire was excellent, they had good music on their sound system at Salut, and even with pandemic restrictions in place, it was a very nice atmosphere in there. Salut turned out to be a very good stop for us at a place that I'd been by dozens of times, but had never stopped in before this.
Comments