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 Sea Change. For the complete version of this feature, please see “The New Restaurant Scene.”
If you spent the summer at your cabin and missed the big restaurant news, it was this: Cue, the all-local fine-dining restaurant at the Guthrie opened by chef Lenny Russo, is no more. In its place now stands Sea Change, a sustainable-seafood restaurant helmed by Tim McKee, Minneapolis’s white-tablecloth-cooking standard-bearer. The food is surprising and delicious. Your best bet is to simply order every single thing off the raw-bar menu: compressed cucumber with hand-harvested sushi-grade scallops, raw Santa Barbara spot prawns as tender as warm jelly, fat sections of sweet, briny Bristol Bay king crab leg, sashimi-like slices of pale albacore tuna paired with wafer-thin pressed watermelon and mint, and flawless oysters.
Pair it all with one of the unusual international white wines that the restaurant specializes in and enjoy the bounty of the seas guilt-free: Delicious as the food is here, the place’s real claim to fame is its pristine sourcing. McKee’s crew works with suppliers to ensure every bit of seafood served is from a healthy population and sustainably obtained.
A final tip: Sea Change is also the 11th-hour reservation-seeker’s best friend. While it’s often tough to get a table here before the show, once the crowd piles into the theater the place becomes a ghost town. If you think you can’t get a last-minute 7:30 reservation anywhere worth going to, think again. Sea Change, 818 S. Second St., Mpls., 612-225-6499, seachangempls.com
