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Prima
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| A Neighborhood Destination | Minimi | |
| Among the top of my list
of "good things in life" is a restaurant that you like that
you can easily walk to from home. Who needs the production of getting
into a car and driving somewhere—and as soon as you decide to drive,
of course, the city becomes your oyster and you have way too many
options to consider? Instead, say you’re reading a book or just
futzing around the house and you think, "Well, I’m getting
hungry; where can I go?" A pleasant ten-minute walk through (at
this time of year) newly leafed out Tangletown streets, and you’re at Prima
(or at least I am).
Until a couple of years ago, I would have rated Prima possibly the best restaurant in its niche—let’s call it family-run, moderately priced Italian. Then the husband-and-wife (chef and manager, respectively) owners decided to expand their horizons and opened up a larger, fancier place in Uptown, in B’s "neighborhood," Three Fish. Since then, consistency at Prima has suffered (and the new place isn’t making any best-of lists either) although it’s still generally a good bet.It’s also still a pleasant, relaxing place, although on some evenings it can get a little frenetic. Cubist art lines the main wall, along which there is upholstered seating. Across the narrow width of the restaurant there’s a bar with high chairs separating the dining room from the kitchen. Deep, subdued colors—blue-green, ochre-brown—give the interior an intimate rather than an open feel. The tables are small but they usually have fresh flowers in season—today it was marigolds in small vases. Four or five red and white wines (each) are available by the glass. I went with a chianti that was quite nice and I thought uncharacteristic of the region: plumy and more mouth feel than I was expecting. Prima is essentially a pasta place— I’m partial to the chicken and three-cheese ravioli in particular—although several appetizers, salads, and panini sandwiches are also available. There’s usually one special, a fish or meat preparation. What I consider the best thing on the menu is only available for dinner—their crab cakes (I suggested Prima to B this week after the crab cake experience at The News Room, having forgotten this small detail). Apart from some specials, this is about the only difference between the day and evening offerings.On this occasion I started with a cup of the soup of the day, a roasted red pepper bisque. It was excellent—creamy with an intense savory-piquant flavor that was tempered with a garnish of chopped chives. It went well with both types of sliced bread that you get for your table: baguette and a dense, sesame-encrusted loaf. The latter can sometimes be dry but they were both fresh today. I also had a panini, a pork loin with fixings (the sandwiches also come with a side salad, a choice of mixed greens or Caesar). Since I usually come to Prima for dinner and not lunch, it had been some while since I’d had one of their paninis and I’d forgotten how good they are. I’d say they vie for best in the cities. Mine was a warmed sandwich, featuring a square-shaped crusty roll filled with tasty, pink-at-the-center and spicy-on-the-crust pieces of pork. Although I enjoyed my lunch, B was not a happy camper. He ordered the special, a grilled escolar steak and found it objectionable. I tasted it and didn’t think it was great exactly but palatable enough. We ended our meal by splitting a tiramisu, on which matter B considers himself an expert. It’s not one of my favorite desserts in any case. The Prima version wasn’t the wet mush that one sometimes gets but it had a slight bitter aftertaste. Usually, one of the high points of a visit to Prima is the service—friendly, knowledgeable, very competent. In this case, unfortunately, we encountered the first truly ditzy waitperson I’ve come across here. Despite several reminders (from us) and promises (from her) we never got our takeout menus; I ordered my panini with a Caesar salad side and instead got the mixed greens; at one point, right after taking our order, she took two steps toward the kitchen and then came back to us with "What did you say you wanted?" She was friendly, but one out of three isn’t so great. All in all we had mixed feelings about this visit. My past (and frequent) experiences have mostly been favorable, however, and Prima gets a thumbs-up from this side of the review page. A
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This week my girl friend
(I know it’s a juvenile expression but I prefer it to partner—you
might mistakenly think that I was gay—or significant other, which is
such a cliché) has been in Europe on an academic junket, and I have had
no real reason to eat at home or stay in for that matter. In my
nocturnal pursuit of food it has made me realize how far the Twin Cities
have come in the years that I have lived here. There was a time when
after ten PM your only option was Perkins but now this week alone
I have dined at Barbette,
La Bodega, Fhima’s and Sushi
Tango. With the exception of Fhima’s I consider these
restaurants to be in my neighborhood. Speaking of neighborhoods, our
regular readers will know the importance of neighborhood restaurants to
my co-reviewer and this week The Lunch goes to Prima, a
restaurant firmly ensconced in A’s neighborhood.
A, as you might imagine, decided to walk to lunch, just to make the point of how accessible these restaurants are from his house. The fact that he was late—blamed on having to stop for camera batteries—is neither here nor there and the cynical among you should not reach any conclusions about the distances involved. Prima has a younger sibling, Three Fish, located, optimistically speaking, in my neighborhood. This family similarity extends to the décor (color, modern lines and lighting) and unfortunately to the kitchen but more about that later. Prima sits in a cluster of small businesses on a busy section of Lyndale—cross the street at your own peril. Upon entering you’re greeted by a slightly dark interior that is dominated by a large bar, which also acts as a front for a part of the kitchen. The interesting thing about the bar, other than its relative size to the rest of the restaurant, is a row of small lighting fixtures that hang in front of it, almost like a trellis of bulbs. There is quite a bit of modern art—perhaps too much of it—hanging on the walls. Prima has a busy air with the wait staff scurrying about, hoping not to collide with the kitchen staff or the maitre d' in what is a small space. To compensate for a lack of size the tables are set up close together; in consequence A & I found ourselves sitting at close quarters to a table with two couples, why they were seated next to us is still a mystery considering that the restaurant was virtually empty.
From a smallish wine list I chose a nondescript Shiraz that was slightly warm to the taste, perhaps it was my allergies or perhaps it had sat too close to the kitchen. I wish I could tell you more about the menu but our waitress, on what must have been her first day at work, forgot to give us takeaway menus even though we repeatedly asked for them. The first time she didn’t bring them claiming, with some justification, that there wasn’t enough room on the table. Normally I would have been furiously transcribing the menu by hand but recently this act has been viewed archly by restaurateurs, especially when coupled with A’s little spy camera. This being an Italian restaurant the menu is fairly predictable with the exception of the panini sandwiches. There are daily lunch specials; on this day it was an escolar (a swordfish cousin from Hawaii I am told) steak over a bed of fresh greens and was enthusiastically endorsed by our forgetful waitress. This should have been warning, especially when the Shiraz order was taken with a "good choice, excellent!" The fish I thought had just started to go off and would have been really rank by dinnertime. It had a strong after taste. The fresh bread on the table was the only saving grace and I wish I had stuck to it. I was disappointed with the meal and the restaurant but I really shouldn’t have been considering how disappointing I found the other restaurant owned by the same team: Three Fish on West Lake Road. A marginal kitchen and an unimaginative menu mar what is a pleasant location. I wasn’t really in the mood for dessert after the harrowing meal but A was able to tempt me with a tiramisu, my favorite; however, Prima couldn’t even get this right. The dessert, which is normally a soft succulent treat, was solid, almost as if it had been frozen only a little while ago, it and Prima left a bitter taste in my mouth. B
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