My most anticipated restaurant of 2026 is now open, and it’s in St. Paul. Restaurant Aubergine‘s soft open absolutely delighted. In fact, a friend of mine who is a chef and an instructor called it the most professional and smooth soft opening he’s ever been to. Husband and wife Meg and Bjorn Jacobse have been working on this concept for years, doing pop-ups while they lived in Portland, Oregon, and also here in preparation for opening. Meg was running the front of house at Meritage. You’ll recognize many of the servers from Meritage, which is a testament to how much people there respected Meg. Bjorn cooked at Bellecour before moving to Portland, and he also worked at Joe Beef in Montreal, which was clearly quite influential based on what we ate.
Note: This was a soft opening, Restaurant Aubergine provided the food; we paid for drinks and tipped on what would have been the full amount. 
The room instantly had me forgetting that Revival once served fried chicken and Chicago-style pizza here—gone is the black wall with the 651 graffiti-style mural and the TVs. It’s all muted earth tones, homey without feeling kitschy, has almost a boot-strapped DIY-but-make-it-elegant feel. One of those places that is new but feels like it’s been in Cathedral Hill for awhile.
The menu is tight, just 15 items. A couple smaller starters—we got the Aubergine appetizer sampler ($21). This isn’t cheese sticks and chicken fingers. The bone marrow stands proud. Just enough steak tartare. And the egg in gelatin, œuf en gelée, soft-boiled perfection, slight unevenness on the seasoning (our egg wasn’t uniformly salted), but my gosh, this thing just made me smile.
Pâte en Croûte: This is Bjorn’s specialty, the treatment will rotate, but I loved the rustic texture, pork and blood sausage, and pistachio. The pastry shell is light and airy but strong enough to support the pâte. Give me this and a glass of wine and I’m set.
Two of the mids were a tad shy of great for me—a couple of industry friends raved about the Walleye Dauphine ($16), like a fried walleye tater tot sitting on a swath of aioli and topped with thin layers of pork fat (lardo) shimmering. For me, it was fine. A little one-note in flavor; it tasted mostly of fried shell. Maybe the fat on fat on fat was too much.
I really liked the Grilled Leeks ($18). The leeks and Maitake mushrooms sat in an earthy broth that was spectacular, the roquefort cheese was generously put on top, but a friend found the roquefort overpowered the rest of the dish and he wasn’t wrong. You did have to construct your bites with care.
The lamb mixed grill ($70) is an indulgence worth every penny. You get lamb leg, shoulder, loin, and belly in three different forms: leg skewers, shoulder sausage, and the perfectly grilled loin and belly roulade! Topped with Castelvetrano olives and served on al dente lentils just packed with flavor. Alyssa and I shared this and had leftovers.
Alex Seide’s wine program and Daniel O’Kane’s spirits and cocktails are a real joy. Both veterans of the St. Paul beverage scene, Alex didn’t create a glass list of Burgundys, which is what I would have expected at a restaurant with so much French cooking. Instead, he’s found value wines that complement the strong flavors of the food—German whites, a Swiss Pinot Noir, a Santa Rita California Syrah by the glass from Melville, which paired so nicely with the lamb grill.
I love how O’Keefe has a menu of cocktail classics. The Sazerac is an instant Twin Cities top-tier cocktail. Brandy Saint Louise has a touch of fruit, Pastis brings a bit of French anise, then Peychaud’s Bitters brings the New Orleans. “Wine and dine” is also fun—a half-pour of one of their wines by the glass paired with a rotating amaro.
As for the burger thing—yes, you may have read that Aubergine is doing a limited burger release every night. They’ll make eight burgers and that’s it. So, show up at 4:30 p.m, if you want a shot at that. I like the gimmick; I think it’s fun, but I don’t think this is a burger restaurant. It’s a neighborhood restaurant like Bûcheron is a neighborhood restaurant: You can pop in, have a snacky small plate and a glass of wine. But this is unapologetically a nice restaurant with Minnesota-style warm and friendly (yet polished) service.
It’s been since July of 2021 that St. Paul had a fine dining restaurant open within the 651, and Karyn Tomlinson’s Myriel turned out pretty well. Demand has been sky high, and reservations earlier than 7:45 p.m. in May are already all grabbed up; although the bar is walk in. They release reservations on the first of every month, so get on it. Aubergine is going to be the next Twin Cities dining hit.
Restaurant Aubergine, 525 Selby Ave., St. Paul, restaurantaubergine.com
Open Tuesday-Saturday, 4:30-10 p.m. (11 p.m. on weekends), reserve on Tock
