Say you had some money to burn and wanted to open a new, sort of upscale, restaurant in the Twin Cities. It appears that many restaurateurs have been in this situation over the last couple of years, and the majority of them have opted for similar designs. The by-now-generic Italian-Continental menu, probably with pizza out of a wood-fired oven; the polished interiors that announce that much has been spent on them; the carefully chosen locations in affluent suburbs or neighborhoods. We won’t name names but we don’t need to….

Our venue for this week Babalu, breaks the mold. To begin with, it’s boldly gone where no other recent restaurant has gone before, in a part of north Minneapolis where previous food and drink options were generally limited to decidedly divey bars. (I exaggerate a little; the wonderful Sapor is in the same general area, if closer to the popular heart of the warehouse district.)

And although much money has doubtless been spent on the interior, the outcome is a rough-hewn yet sophisticated décor that’s more in keeping with the building and the neighborhood. Fabric-blade fans slowly turn overhead, sharing space with wooden planks that you could get splinters from. A glance further upward reveals not only exposed ductwork but an exposed network of pipes and plumbing. On the other hand, the upholstered sidearm chairs and the crisp white tablecloths lend elegance to the place too. The walls are in vibrant hues—one of them in a chartreuse shade that was a perfect match with the headband of our waitress.

An advantage of the location is the attractive rent per square foot; the space is huge. The main dining area takes up one half, lengthwise, and is separated from a bar-and-lounge area by floor-to-ceiling heavy drapes and large wooden crates that serve as a wine rack. The lounge is inviting in its own right, with couches and armchairs and coffee tables. During our lunch the dining area was where the action was—although the number of customers was modest—but evenings are rumored to be party scenes.

Babalu bills itself as "Latin/Caribbean/Soul". There is an even dozen tapas plates available, including baked mussels with saffron, a couple of items made with marinated pork, and an olive tapenade with Cabrales cheese. Other menu categories are appetizers, soups and salads, sandwiches, house specialties, side dishes, and desserts. Given the size and variety of the menu, I doubt if the food is uniformly remarkable, but many of the items sounded interesting and I hope to have a chance to try them out on future visits (if they’re maintained; the menu changes monthly). The house specialties, for example, consist of Cuban style roast pork with congri; shredded beef in a tomato, onion, and sherry sauce; marinated pork medallions with Antigua rum glaze; shredded chicken in a chipotle-tomatillo sauce wrapped in plantain leaves; and a seafood casserole.

B and I split a tapas to start, the shellfish vinaigrette. I thought this passable, although the billing was inaccurate: I’m not sure there were any shellfish in the dish. Instead, there were lots of pieces of calamari, firm but not rubbery, and fish, also a bit firmer than optimal. The seafood was mixed together with diced olives, green peppers, boiled-egg white, tomato, capers, and parsley, and egg yolk was crumbled liberally on top. This was a fairly substantial dish and would suffice for a light meal. The truth in advertising issue aside, I would recommend the dish; its novelty factor overcame the slight overdoneness of the principal ingredients.

B chose an appetizer for his main dish, the empanadas (listed, for no good reason as far as we could tell, as "empanadillas" on the menu). These were subpar, the puff pastry not very puffy or pastrylike at all, although the chicken or beef filling (B got a combination of the two) was flavorful.

My main selection was a sandwich, the "medianoche Cubano": roast pork, cooked ham, Swiss cheese served on sweet ‘cocol’ bread with Yucca fries. A variation of the same but on French baguette, is also available. The cocol bread turned out to be something like a brioche, a slightly sweet, eggy, glazed roll that went well with the savory, succulent roast pork in particular. The sandwich also had mustard and sliced pickles in it, and a tomato and lettuce leaf garnish were provided on the side for the American palate. I liked the sandwich, although the Yucca fries it came with were too dry and hard to eat as a result.

We also ordered dessert, splitting the "tres leches de Mencha," a sizable block of sponge cake with a layer of whipped cream on top and sitting in a condensed milk sauce. A liberal sprinkling of slivered almonds completed the affair. The dessert was excellent, the thick, sweetened milk drenching the firm-textured sponge cake which nonetheless kept its composure. With its blending of tastes and textures of the cake, milk, cream, and almonds, the dessert was the highlight of the meal for me.

We promised you an exciting restaurant after last weeks boring Everest and we’re delivering. Babalu is anything but boring! Start with the ceiling fans that gently stir the air with their fabric blades, above which an exposed wooden-warehouse style ceiling (with an array of plumbing/wires for good measure) survives from the days of the original tenant. The colors are a mixture of purple, mauve and red. The whole décor suggests that great care has been taken to give the restaurant a look of indolent—rather than an extravagant—opulence. The artwork on the wall follows a musical theme and one can almost hear the soaring notes of Louis Armstrong’s trumpet on a hot tropical night, but since this is a Latin restaurant, the sound of the conga (much to the infuriation of true Jazz fans) cannot be far behind.

Our waitress, a languorous young lady with a pierced tongue, made the exotic menu entries sound even more exotic. I think she said a couple of things on the menu wouldn’t be available till after noon but I was paying more attention to the mechanism of her pierced tongue (more importantly how the stud stayed in) than the availability of certain dishes.

The menu offers tapas as well as appetizers to start with. There are twelve tapas listed that run the gamut from pinchos morunos (marinated pork skewers) to camarones casadinos (grilled "married" shrimps). We shared an order of the salpicon de marisco (shellfish vinaigrette), an ugly looking dish consisting mostly of over-cooked calamari with chunks of white fish (possibly out of a can) served with shavings from a hard-boiled egg. I didn’t find any shellfish unless there were tiny bits of finely chopped shrimps in it. I was unable to finish my portion and left it, A gamely managed to finish his.

The rest of the menu is divided into apertivos/appetizers (scallops, plantains stuffed with shrimp, empanadas (beef & chicken), chorizo, calamari, raw fish strips and a "seafood extravaganza, an absolute must for the honey-mooners"!), soups & salads, Sandwiches (Cuban style pork, chicken, etc.), house specialties (puerco asado a la Cubana (Cuban style roast pork), ropa vieja (shredded beef in a tomato sauce), medallones de puerco al caribe (pork medallions), pollo a la tinga emplatanado (shredded chicken in a chipotle sauce and cazuela de mariscos (seafood casserole) and desserts (sponge cake, flan, key lime pie, etc.

For my entrée I chose the empanadas (called empanadillas on this menu. Will some more knowledgeable about Latin American foods tell us why?) and had the order split between beef and chicken. For my money the best empanadas in town are to be found at Conga Latin Bistro and these came up short by comparison. The pastry shell was soft and tasted as if it had been made a couple of days ago. The fillings, especially the chicken, were flavorful and quite spicy.

There is a pretty decent wine list (Argentina, Chile, France, Italy, Spain and USA. Alas no South African!) but I had a post lunch meeting and didn’t order any. I am not sure why A was on the wagon. We split the tres leches de mencha (three-milk sponge cake) for dessert. This proved to be a fairly sizeable slice of sponge cake, more than enough for two, sprinkled with almond shaving and served with thick creamy condensed milk type sauce. The sponge cake held it’s shape well, even after being assaulted by a couple of forks and was excellent. The bill, after coffee, came to $45.00.

Behind the dining room there is an attractive bar, separated from the dining area by a wall of crates that also serve as a wine rack, The bar is nicely furnished with comfortable armchairs and little knick-knacks from old Havana. Unfortunately the bar also includes what seemed to be a humidor which can only mean that cigar smoking is allowed in the bar, shame! While you’re in the bar (and of the right sex)  don’t forget to check out the men’s bathroom which is elegantly designed. The mirrors sit in what appears to be leather, very stylish indeed. There are interesting murals on the walls. All this makes the bar area a very attractive place to have a pre or post meal drink.

Global warming isn’t just effecting our climate, as the Hispanic population of Minneapolis grows we have seen a profusion of Caribo-Latin American-Cuban restaurants: El Meson, Conga Latin Bistro, Café Havana and now Babalu. They all seem to be after the same market (Hispanic or not) of people interested in exotic (by Minnesota standards) foods and the Latin beat. This can only be a good thing.

If Washington (the avenue) isn’t careful it might soon end up being restaurant row, what with the excellent Sapor just down the road. A perfect evening might well be a meal at Sapor with a casual stroll to Babalu for a dessert and cognac at the bar provided, of course, that the cigar smokers can be held in abeyance.