The lunch menu at Zander fits comfortably on one sheet. A couple of soups, a couple each of small and entrée salads, a few sandwiches and entrees—the total number of options may seem limited but they are well-balanced. Two of the main entrées are vegetarian, an asparagus/fennel/mushroom/tomato risotto and a pasta with spinach, mushrooms, and almond pesto. The sandwiches are a BLT with avocado, a crab cake sandwich, and a stuffed bison burger served with house-made honey/syrah ketchup. Sandwiches come with a choice of potato salad, gaufrette potatoes (lattice-cut crisps), and vegetable slaw.

I started with a small Caesar salad. This was topped with shavings of Grana Padano, a slightly grainy, fragrant hard cheese, and, on request, anchovies. (Which restaurant was it that insisted on serving a proper Caesar, with a disclaimer on the menu that went something like "served with anchovies; if you don’t like them don’t eat them"? It might have been one of the trio, perhaps even Zander in its more adventurous early years.) The salad was crispy—pieces of hearts and ribs in abundance—with small croutons and a generous amount of the cheese. The anchovy was white and relatively mild, as if it had been bred for Minnesota!

For my main dish I ordered the one nonvegetarian entrée on the menu, a Caribbean curry chicken stew. It came in a bowl with jerk-smoked leg and thigh pieces and a large quantity of kale, collard greens, and green cabbage. The dish was more of a stew than anything I would call a curry—although the curry was said to be Island-style and for all I know (never having been to the Caribbean) this is what curries are like there. Regardless, what’s in a name? The curry/stew was excellent; the sauce or soup was spicy with a touch of sweetness, the chicken was tender and infused with the flavors from the smoking and the sauce, bits of ham or bacon in which imparted richness and taste to the greens as well.

Also very good was B’s three-soup mosaic, an artistically arrayed medley of soups that today included tomato-fennel and porcini mushroom (plus another, memory fails). The soups were all creamy and intense, and progressed from savory to almost sweet.

A few dessert choices were related to us by our waitress; we split a chocolate/hazelnut preparation. It came as a slab of chocolate mousse with, around the edges, a layer of hazelnut-flavored cake. A dark chocolate cutout in the shape of a pooch or a fox was attached to the concoction. A drizzle of chocolate sauce and lightly candied hazelnuts completed the dish. Quite a preparation for a lunchtime dessert, and it was excellent.

My previous visits to Zander have been for dinner, and they’ve been positive in both food and other aspects. The food experience this time gets high marks too, as you can tell. In the light of day, however, I found the décor disconcertingly tawdry. The floors are in awful shape—in places they seem like large square pieces of plywood as if ripped from construction sites. The ceiling in the room in which we sat is covered with ugly, black-painted egg crates. The banquette is upholstered in industrial carpet with an unfinished end left hanging at the bottom.

Don’t look around, just eat and enjoy your food.

P.S. My apologies for delaying our reviews this week. I just returned from a trip to Chicago, the principal purpose of which was to indulge in the pleasure of dining at Trio in Evanston. It’s a pleasure that can’t be savored, or even come close to, anywhere in or around the Twin Cities.

It’s often, to our great regret, that some very interesting restaurants are left out of The Lunch’s preview because they’re only open for dinner. Until recently this was the case with Zander Café in St. Paul but we are happy to report that it’s now open for lunch and that we enjoyed our trek across the Mississippi on a sunny day.

Zander has come long way since I dined there for the first time in 1998; then it was a small single room affair but it was already making a stir because of the excellence of its kitchen and the good taste exhibited in its wine list. Now it would seem that Zander's star has reached it zenith—it’s a virtual empire encompassing a wine shop, bar (with entertainment) and restaurant—but perhaps the menu has lost something in this headlong rise.

There is probably no prettier sight than this part (Selby, Cathedral, and Grand) of St. Paul, seethed in sunshine, on what was still a mild autumn day. I drove in from 35E, up that amazing hill that becomes Grand Avenue, scattering a layer of yellowing leaves.

The inside of Zander café consists of three yellow painted room. The most easterly room is a bar with a baby grand piano and one assumes nightly entertainment. The other two rooms make up the restaurant. Attached to all this is a wine store that has—from memory—a pretty decent selection of wine and sends a monthly wine selection to subscribers. We were seated in the west room, with wooden floors, and large windows that allowed the sun to stream in through sheer green curtains. The tabletops are noteworthy with an interesting plastic/glass finish and a color that ranges between orange and red. The layout is artistic yet deliberately understated and gives a look of casual inexactitude. The floors are wooden but not finished. The ceiling has a look of being thrown together hastily. I suspect—given the care that has gone into the place—that this is a deliberate attempt at bohemia and one has to wonder if it’s successful.

The wine list used to be more interesting and perhaps still is for dinner; however, for lunch there are only a few wines by the glass and from which I chose the Kenwood pinot noir, a mildly acerbic wine with undertones of blackberries and smoke.

I started with an order of the three soup mosaic, which was medley of tomato-fennel, porcini mushroom and leek soup. The soup was pleasing to the eye and delicious to eat with the flavors ranging from spicy to sweet. The stuffed bison burger is described as organic free-range bison stuffed with garlic/parsley butter on a grilled bun serverd with house made honey/syrah ketchup. I ordered it and was wisely advised by our waitress to cut it in half before attempting a bite. This was good advice as the butter simply oozed out of the burger, which was served at a correct pink temperature. All sandwiches are served with a choice of potato salad, gaufrette potatoes or vegetable slaw. I chose the vegetable slaw and was pleased with its tangy taste. The burger was less memorable being entirely too well stuffed, diffusing the taste (if any) of the bison.

For dessert we shared a tureen—chocolate mousse that was served wrapped by a hazelnut infused cake, complete with a fox like creature in chocolate. The whole thing was served with a chocolate sauce, a most inspiring choice, especially for lunch! The bill came to $56.00.

It was an enjoyable foray into St. Paul with W. A. Frost and Moscow on the Hill’s crepe restaurant just down the road it won’t be long before we are back.

The Lunch will soon be going on hiatus as I plan a winter trip (Zimbabwe, South Africa or perhaps Cuba) in December/January. I am sure A has his own plans.