What do the Cities’ newest restaurants have in common? Nothing. But here’s your guide to their delights. We started with D’Amico Kitchen and Om, and now, touch on Loring Kitchen & Bar. For the complete version of this feature, please see “The New Restaurant Scene.”
If you live on Loring Park, the new Loring Kitchen & Bar is a godsend: Basic diner chow, with no need to sacrifice your precious parking spot! If you don’t live in the neighborhood the place is less of a draw, for it’s hard to imagine a more basic and conservative menu than the one on offer here. Calamari, pizzas, caesar salads, short ribs, ahi-tuna steaks, burgers, roast chicken, walleye with tartar sauce, waffles at breakfast, and chicken-noodle soup. It’s all very competently done. The hand-cut French fries, for instance, are sweetly, appropriately potato-like, brown and nubby, appropriately salty and appropriately yummy. The most craveable offering is their fried chicken, charmingly served with a little honey bear. The restaurant’s stark, angular granite and smoke-toned interior is elegant in an executive-office suite sort of way. Yet for everything this new restaurant does right, it’s hard to imagine it as a city-wide destination. Basic and conservative are all well and good, but they’re not qualities that inspire diners to travel great distances. Loring Kitchen & Bar, 1359 Willow St., Mpls., 612-843-0400, loringkitchen.com
