During our trip to Northern Minnesota, we stayed in Bemidji and hunkered down there for a few days of rest and relaxation. We also liked the area not only because it was laid back, but there were a number of different styles of restaurants to choose from. (But, somewhat surprisingly, there wasn't an authentic Mexican restaurant that we found - only the usual national and regional fast food variety of Mexican food.) One place that we found when we first got there that we wanted to try was an Italian restaurant that specialized in locally-grown ingredients in their dishes. A few days later we made it over to Tutto Bene for dinner.
The original owners of Tutto Bene (which roughly translates in English as "Everything is Good") started the restaurant in 1995. They ran it for over 25 years before deciding to close the doors in the summer of 2012. But it wasn't long after they closed their doors that a young lady who grew up in the area decided that she wanted to get back to her rural roots and talked her then-boyfriend/now-husband into joining her.
Jerusa Ricke hailed from Bagley, MN, about 25 miles to the west of Bemidji. Her grandfather started what is now Team Industries, an engineering and machining company that supplies parts and drive trains to automotive and recreational companies. The third plant in the company was opened by her father in Bagley in 1992 when Jerusa was a child. After graduating high school, Jerusa Ricke decided that she didn't want to be in the family business just yet - her father would eventually take over the reins of the entire company upon her grandfather's death - and she went off to go to culinary school. After getting her degree, Ricke worked at a number of restaurants in and around the Twin Cities. It was at one of the restaurants where she met Justin Frederick.
Pictured right - Jerusa Ricke-Frederick and Justin Frederick
Justin Frederick was also a culinary school graduate who eventually became the head chef at Le Meridien Chambers, an upscale boutique hotel in downtown Minneapolis. About the time Frederick got the head chef gig at the hotel, Ricke became the head chef at Masa, a now-closed, high-end Mexican restaurant located about two blocks away Le Meridien Chambers. Both were at their respective helms for 10 years and talked about owning their own restaurant at some point, but they didn't want to do it in the Twin Cities where the restaurant business is overly competitive. Ricke had been wanting to get back to Northern Minnesota at some point to be closer to her family when the opportunity to buy Tutto Bene presented itself.
The opportunity turned to be too good to pass up, so Ricke and Frederick took the plunge and took over the restaurant in August of 2012. They were able to talk six co-workers from their respective restaurants in Minneapolis to come north to work for them. They changed some things up, spruced the place up, and came up with a menu that used locally-raised ingredients, as well as fresh seafood flown in from the east coast, and authentic imported Italian oils and cheese. Every item - except for the canned tomatoes they used in their marinara sauces - was made from scratch in their kitchen.
Change in the terms of a more aggressive and innovative menu caused some of the locals who liked the more Americanized-Italian food at the original Tutto Bene to give pause to the new ownership and their ideas. But a new group of locals and tourists became regulars at the restaurant giving Ricke and Frederick the success they sought. And once the restaurant was up and running with regularity, Ricke and Frederick were married about four years ago.
Tutto Bene is on the corner of Beltraimi Ave. and 3rd St. NW in downtown Bemidji. (see map) We were able to find parking across 3rd St. on Beltrami and walked over to the restaurant. According to rules set forth by the State of Minnesota during the pandemic, technically all sit-down restaurants require a reservation to get seated. Many of them, however, get around that by writing your name in the reservation book, making you wait a moment, then seating you. This time with Tutto Bene, we decided to go ahead and make a reservation because we just didn't know if the place would be busy.
We had our choice of sitting outside or inside. They had a very nice outdoor patio that had a shady arbor next to the building. That would have been fine, but we were told by the young man who greeted us at the stand just inside the front door that all the tables were taken in the alcove. However, they did have other tables set up next to the sidewalk.
Three or four restaurants that we encountered in downtown Bemidji had tables set up in what were basically parking spots on the street. Barriers to keep cars from parking in those spots had been set up. One restaurant had literally blockaded the street in front of the business to set up folding tables and chairs for outside dining. Dining in the alcove would have been great. Dining on the street? Not so much. We opted for inside dining.
The dining room at Tutto Bene was a large room with tables spaced out for social distancing guidelines. It was a nice night and people were more than willing to sit at tables in the temporary outside dining area (probably because the outdoor dining season is so short in Northern Minnesota), so we were the only people in the dining room all evening long. It was actually kind of nice.
Off to the right side when you come in is the bar area. It was well-lit from natural light coming in the ornate windows and featured a small bar with a few tables along the walls. There was a lively group of people in the bar when we got there having drinks and appetizers.
The kitchen was off to the side of the dining room with the main open window looking out into a narrow room that was sort of used as an overflow/catch-all area on the way to the restrooms. Tutto Bene cans a lot of produce that they use on their menus and the jars holding pickled vegetables lined the wall in the small area.
Our server for the evening was a young lady by the name of Connie. She greeted us standing six feet - or more - from the table with a mask over her mouth and nose. She seemed pleasant enough and gave us a couple menus to look over. She took our drink order and my wife said that she would like some wine with dinner, but for now she wanted a Tito's vodka and cranberry juice. I thought wine would be good with dinner, but I wanted a beer to start out. Tutto Bene - like many of the restaurants in the area that we visited - featured beers from the Bemidji Brewing Company. I especially liked their India Pale Ale that we had tried on a visit there a couple days prior. I got a pint of that beer as we looked over the menu.
To say the menu at Tutto Bene was eclectic was putting it mildly. They had a maple glazed pork belly bruschetta for a starter as well as Prince Edward Island oysters. One of the dinner items was a ravioli stuffed with wild snow crab. Another interesting item was a braised Kobe beef pot roast entree. And for those who don't want to be as adventurous in their dining experience, Tutto Bene also featured a spaghetti and meatball dinner. Only the pasta is made fresh in the kitchen, and the meatballs were locally-raised veal.
After our drinks were served, Connie said she would give us a few minutes to figure out what we wanted for dinner. As we continued to look over he menu, a young man brought out an antipasto board that featured a couple slices of thin-sliced parmesan cheese bread, toasted almonds, pickled carrots and sliced salami. The pickled carrots were especially tasty. My wife and I have been experimenting with pickling jalapeños this summer and they've come out very well. Pickling carrots peaked our curiosity in doing our own at home.
We started out by getting the grilled octopus. The octopus is caught wild off the Spain coast and flown in on a regular basis to Tutto Bene. The octopus was lightly grilled and served with risotto cakes, marinated Italian tomatoes, and it all sat on a bed of an almond/basil pesto sauce. It was outstanding.
They also had a focaccia bread antipasti on the menu. We thought it would go well with our dinners. It featured house-made focaccia topped with caramelized onions, olives, rosemary, sea salt and then sprinkled with fresh parmesan cheese. The focaccia was very good.
We got into Tutto Bene around 7 p.m. - about 10 minutes before, actually - and we knew that they closed at 8 p.m. There were a few people outside, but we didn't figure that it was too taxing on the kitchen. We sort of sat around for a few moments enjoying our antipasto before we ended up ordering dinner. But it seemed like dinner was taking a long time to get to the table. It was well after 8 p.m. when Connie came to our table and said, "Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that someone accidentally took your plate and served it to someone else," she said as she was looking at my wife. "Since we make everything in-house from scratch, we have to make up your plate again." The good news? Oh, we were going to get free dessert. You know, if we weren't on vacation and so laid back, I would have pitched a fit. But it didn't matter to us. We had our wine now and we were enjoying it.
It was about twenty till nine - we had been there for an hour and forty five minutes - when our food showed up at the table. A young guy who was serving outside brought my wife's plate to her. "I have to apologize," he said as he placed her plate in front of her. "I was probably the one that caused your meal to be late." We told him that it was not a big deal. It was kind of nice having the dining room all to ourselves that evening.
For my dinner, it came down to just one thing that I saw when I first glanced at the menu - the wild boar and cavatelli. It featured a wild boar ragu sauce with chopped grilled boar sausage mixed in. It was topped with whipped ricotta cheese and finished with grated scallions and parmesan. The taste was something that I wasn't expecting. It was much more earthy in taste with not much of an Italian marinara flavor. But it was very good - outstanding, to be exact. The more I got into the dish, the more I liked it.
My wife was looking at a couple of their chicken dishes - a gnocchi and roasted chicken entree with charred green beans and sweet corn in a parmesan fondue sauce; and the chicken piccata. She ended up taking the latter. It was a grilled Amish-raised chicken breast topped with lemon capers and parsley. It sat on a bed of risotto cakes - similar to what we had with the grilled octopus - and also came with grilled organic baby carrots and green beans.
My wife remarked that it didn't come with any pasta. She said that she really needed some pasta to go along with the meal. We hailed Connie over and my wife explained that he just needed some carbs to go along with the meal. "I know, I'm funny about that," she said. "But I like pasta with my chicken piccata." Connie said that would be no problem. She'd get some out as soon as she could. It wasn't more than about 10 minutes later that a steaming plate of pasta topped with butter showed up. I tried some of the pasta and it was just as good as the cavatelli. You could really tell that it was made in-house.
We ended up getting some tiramisu to go - we didn't even eat it until the following night because we were so full from the dinner and everything else that went with it. It was a nice gesture, but I would have probably gone for more - like an after dinner scotch. But their bartender had left and it was coming up to 9 p.m. and we didn't want to stick around any longer. We actually ended up going somewhere closer to our hotel for a nightcap.
Other than my wife's chicken piccata getting taken to another table causing a lengthy delay in getting our meals, I'd have to say the experience we had at Tutto Bene was satisfying. The menu was very interesting and I very much enjoyed my cavatelli in a wild boar ragu. Once my wife got a side of pasta to go along with her chicken piccata, she was much more happy with her meal. The grilled octopus was outstanding, as was the focaccia bread we ordered that was supposed to go along with our meal, but we had to eat it early on. Connie was our main server, but it turned out to be a team effort in taking care of us that evening. Each person we dealt with was pleasant and accommodating. In the long run, even with the wait on our food, we felt Tutto Bene was worth having a meal there.
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