Our restaurant of the week, Sapor Café and Bar, takes the trophy for "best service in a restaurant" in the listing. Now that I agree with. Both B and I were unsure of what to order from the small but wonderfully eclectic menu (more on which later), although we had both made tentative decisions when the waiter came to take our order. We asked him for some advice, and got elaborate explanations along with his personal preferences and caveats.

The stretch of Washington Avenue Sapor sits on used to be the heart of the industrial district of downtown Minneapolis. When it first opened, perhaps a couple of years ago, I wondered whether such a place would last for long in the area. But the neighborhood is being gentrified, and whatever one’s feelings about long-established wholesalers and blue-collar bars giving way to pricey townhouses and condos, there’s something to be said for the certain kind of restaurant that goes with the latter. Sapor’s that kind of place. Earth tones dominate, in shades ranging from taupe to copper brown. The furnishings have a modern, vaguely Scandinavian look. There is a separate bar but you won’t find Bud Light on tap. Hints of the industrial connection can be found, such as the now-commonplace exposed air ducts and the very unusual and initially off-putting sight of waste pipes from upstairs passing through the dining room!

Sapor’s mission appears to be to bring the global village to Minneapolis; what’s especially remarkable is that it does so with a manageably small menu. The cosmopolitanism encompasses both food and beverages. Beers from around the world are featured, including some staple exotics such as Red Stripe and Singha, and many others that are uncommon, such as Aass Pilsner, a crisp Norwegian brew that I had. About a half-dozen each of red and white wines are available by the glass; the wine selection is mostly European and domestic.

The food menu is basically three sandwiches and five entrées, but it’s literally all over the map. Miso-baked salmon with wasabi potato cake, chiang mai noodles and shrimp in green curry, deep-fried eggplant with raita, chicken in phyllo with North African spices, Caesar salad with not only anchovies but also artichokes and red onions—let’s see, the entrées take us from Japan to Thailand to India to North Africa to Mexico, although the addition of ingredients such as potatoes in the first and artichokes in the last imply a second layer of eclecticism! The sandwiches (focaccia, served with shoestring fries) are of a European persuasion.

I opted for the eggplant (changing my initial selection of the Thai noodle dish after consultation with the waiter). This consisted of four or five eggplant slices, breaded and deep-fried, with lightly sautéed vegetables; the eggplants here were redundant, but the zucchini and celery were nicely crunchy. What was billed as raita was too thick to qualify as such—the yogurt should have been thinned down—but if you consider this as just a side of yogurt with some spices in it it was acceptable. The dish also included pita wedges, but this was an off note, the mediocre quality pita best left unconsumed.

B and I also split a dessert, a semifreddo which consisted of layers of lemon-flavored frozen custard and pound cake with a generous embedding of pine nuts and a strawberry sauce. It was very good, with the tartness of the lemon matched by the sweetness of the sauce and the strong flavors offset by the cake and pine nuts. I also had a café con leche, eschewing my usually obligatory espresso. (I could have sampled a dessert beer from Finland or Scotland, but there was work to be done that afternoon.)

As yet another distinctive touch, Sapor brings you small restaurant-made (I presume) chocolate truffles with your bill. How can you not leave happy?

As a child I was a voracious reader of Billy Bunter – an Edwardian school boy, possessing a prodigious appetite for most comestibles, living in constant expectation of a postal order from pater as he lies, steals and dodges his way through school. In his Latin class, Bunter has to construe lines from Virgil’s Aeneid from the original Latin; this provides for much amusement as his impromptu translation (under the gimlet eye of Mr. Quelch, his form master) is invariably and hilariously wrong! I was made to feel a bit like Bunter at our lunch venue of the week: Sapor – guessing that Sapor must be a family name; A who has a more advanced degree, wisely didn’t hazard a guess. It transpires that Sapor (in Middle English) means flavor and (even Bunter must have known this) is from the Latin: sapere.

Sapor has an attractive interior: marbled reddish floors, wood trim on the walls,  the ceiling remains from the original warehouse that this building once was. The tables have a blonde wooden hue that compliments the walls well. The art is carefully chosen and – at least to my eye – has a Caribbean air to it. The restaurant is split into two sections; there are dining tables in one and a bar with more tables in the other. The bar side must make for a pleasant after work gathering place and I have it penciled in to try.

The wine list is extensive and any list that has a cabernet from Stag’s leap is good in my estimation. There are five reds by the glass and an equal number of whites – half bottles are also available. The beer list needs a special mention with beer as diverse as a Sterkens white ale from Belgium to a Sinebrychoff porter from Finland. The wine is priced fairly with a one to four ratio between the glass and bottle price. The lunch menu is small but well thought out. The appetizers consist only of soup and a mixed green salad – perhaps these could be added to. The entrees exemplify the cosmopolitan air of this restaurant. There is a Chiang mai noodles and shrimp in green curry with fresh basil and shallots; fried eggplant with roasted tomato sauce, mint raita and pita; Caesar salad with anchovies, artichokes, red onions, croutons and parmigiano-reggiano; chicken B’stilla in almond phyllo stuffed with saffron, ginger and cinnamon; miso-baked salmon with wasabi potato cake, gingered vegetables and peanuts; and to finally round up things housemade focaccia sandwich built to order with shoestring potatoes.

I ordered a glass of the Louis Latour pinot ($6.75) which was very good in a delicate pinot way. For my main entrée I had the chicken B’stila. This came beautifully prepared (presentation is everything!) and for those readers who might be confusing this dish with a chicken Wellington – don’t! This dish comes, we’re told, from Morocco and the chicken has a wonderful spicy flavor and the pastry covering is flaky, yet firm. The only (very slight) complaint that I had was the couscous like rice substance that it came with was a bit dry. A & I have complained in the past when the size of dish is large beyond all proportions and you simply can’t eat everything – this is not the problem here. After my entrée I still had enough appetite to try something off the dessert menu and ended up sharing a lemon semifreddo with A. This came (slice of) with white chocolate and raspberry sauce and was very good, it was like eating a combination of custard, ice cream, chocolate and pound cake. The dessert menu also offers poached pear ravioli, chocolate trio, coconut cream pie, crème brûlée and all this can be washed down with a dessert beer like a silly scotch ale.

The service was very good and extremely helpful, in fact I was going to order the fried eggplant but changed my order to the chicken B’stilia on the waiter’s suggestion. Poor A, also on the waiter’s suggestion, changed his order to the fried eggplant from something else that I now forget (see the accompanying review for more).

Whether you have had Latin at school or not you’re going to like Sapor. The food is good if not exceptional but for my money the atmosphere, décor and service are of the highest order. Even the location is excellent for people who don’t actually work downtown – there is a lot of cheap street parking and you can get here without having to navigate the busier streets of downtown. Our bill came to about $41.00.