Minnesota Monthly doesn’t spend a ton of time reviewing and visiting hotel restaurants of the Sheraton variety. No disrespect—it’s just that we have a hard enough time convincing Minnesotans to go visit restaurants in higher-end hotels that are really trying to provide amazing service and food. But we checked out Esther’s Table in the newly remodeled Minneapolis Sheraton for two reasons: the chef and the story of Esther.
The Capp family has owned the Capp Towers Motor Hotel since 1963 (please read this amazing story from nokohaha.com about its opening), and they still own the hotel today. The unique domed structure on the top of the building is an architectural landmark. It is highly unusual for one family to own a hotel building continually, but the Capp family never sold. It’s been a Holiday Inn, the Millennium, and now Sheraton Minneapolis Downtown Convention Center after a $40 million renovation. The hotel is gorgeous, and it’s so cool they named the restaurant for the matriarch, Esther Capp. Esther died in 2017 at the age of 91, her family describes her as the matriarch, a connector, a nurturer who loved to gather around her own table.
The Capp family hired Keven Kvalsten to design the concept. I’ve seen Kevin at Corner Table, Twisted Fork, Dan Kelly’s, and FireLake Grill House—he’s creative and kind and good at running the complex operation of a hotel restaurant with a bunch of event spaces.
The west end of Nicollet Mall doesn’t have a ton of restaurants: Devil’s Advocate and Sushi Train are about it, so adding another spot for downtown workers and people visiting the Convention Center makes a ton of sense.
So how was it? Good, but overwhelmed.
Hotel restaurants are screwy places: one night you have six guests, the next you have 60. Or 100. On the night we visited, there was clearly a huge crowd because of a convention. A wonderful banquet captain named Carol was the MVP of the night, filling water, running food, just an all-around-superstar. Two servers tried to keep up with a packed room, and we were told we just missed the rush.
The cocktails were nice and ranged from $13-$16, pretty decent for Nicollet Mall: First Album was a bourbon/blackberry smash riff: light, bright, tasty ($15). Esther’s Table offers three Old Fashioned’s—traditional, rum, and tequila. I went for the Patron, which was lightly sweetened with a hint of lime bitters. Tasted like a glass of Patron reposado, which worked for me.
Get the Red Wine Braised Bison meatballs—great flavor, a tiny bit of spice in the meatball mix, served on a bed of ricotta and topped with cippolini onion ($21). The quinoa salad with field greens ($15) was quite nice as well; Greek salad vibes with chickpeas, feta, and cucumber on top of a hearty amount of red quinoa.
We opted not to try the burger or the fried chicken sandwich, and instead enjoyed a grilled chicken, apple, and brie sandwich on ciabatta. Savory and sweet, nicely balanced by tarragon aioli and pickled red onion. $17 and includes a side of fries or salad.
And the hangar steak was perfectly grilled to medium rare—steak frites with truffle aioli is a must at a hotel, and this $33 dish was worthy.
If I were staying at the Sheraton to go to a game or see a show, what a delight to have a really nice bar and restaurant in the hotel. And what a tribute to a longtime philanthropic member of the community, to have Esther’s name on the door.
Esther’s Table, 1313 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, estherstablemsp.com
