There’s a feeling that hit me inside the brand new Du Nord Cocktail Room at 27th and Lake Street, across the street from the building that used to house Town Talk Diner, and kitty-corner from the 3rd Police Precinct that’s still boarded up and surrounded by barbed wire. Hope. Optimism. Encouragement.
Du Nord Social Spirits is the first Black-owned distillery in the country. In 2020, Chris Montana watched arsonists burn his warehouse, the sprinkler system activated flooding palettes of spirits. And now, more than four years later, Montana is putting down a marker, and beginning the process of reclaiming his home base.
The Du Nord Cocktail Room is the first step of a two-pronged effort inside the historic Coliseum Building—a more refined, elevated, New Orleans-style restaurant Lagniappe (pronounced LAN-YAP) will open on Oct. 11. The first step feels good, drinks nicely, and tastes solid too.
Cocktails first: Du Nord makes vodka, gin, whiskey, coffee and apple liqueurs. We really enjoyed a riff on a Bees Knees that had a hint of red pepper, as well as a light and balanced coffee Negroni. The apple liqueurs are perfectly timed for fall: They give major apple pie and cinnamon vibes. Interesting balance provided by the Chicken Hawk cocktail that featured chicken broth—savory cocktails are a bit of a trend (pho flavors, shochu and seaweed vibes), and this one finished a bit brothy. It’s a cocktail room—have fun and experiment!
The food here is casual, it comes out quickly, and there were some standouts in the soft opening. The Montanas befriended New Orleans chef Brad McGehee and brought him to town to open these two concepts.
McGehee’s cocktail room menu is heavy on po’ boy sandwiches—nice bread from St. Paul’s Trung Nam French bakery, big flavors, fried stuff. I liked the Fried Green Tomato po’ boy ($15) with cold shrimp—gave a nice hot/cold contrast. It’s an off-menu special request, but the servers were telling everyone about it, so I’m not sure how off-menu it is! Fried shrimp ($16), fried oyster ($17), roast beef ($16) – tons of options.
I loved the charbroiled oysters ($18 for 4), bathed in garlic-lemon butter and topped with romano cheese. Gulf oysters are big and plump and sort of rare around here, but I’m a big fan of them. The pimento cheese is top notch ($10), served with cracklin’ fried pork rinds. Boudin balls ($14) cajun sausage breaded and fried have a cheese curd in the center—Minnesota meets NOLA!
Because it’s a restaurant, they do have beer and wine and spirits they don’t produce—the focus is on “brands owned by historically-excluded communities.” I think we’re all cheering for Lake Street to come back, and we’re certainly cheering for Montana and his efforts with Du Nord.
Du Nord Cocktail Room, 2700 E. Lake St., Minneapolis, dunordcocktailroom.com
Tuesday-Thursday 5 p.m.-10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 5 p.m.-midnight.
