Eight for eat: The best new restaurants of 2009

Il Gatto
Anchoring the updated Calhoun Square, this forget-about-Figlio new addition is trying awfully hard to win your love. The name is Italian for "the cat," but it's really all about seafood, with dishes like wood-grilled octopus and squid-ink linguini. The latest addition to the Parasole group—the company that brought us Salut, Muffuletta, and Chino Latino, among others—Il Gatto is a dinner-only joint with gentler prices than Figlio, but also a smaller bar. Although it's retained a good number of design elements from Figlio, the restaurant has incorporated some sleek touches to make it distinctive, and is banking on executive chef Matt Kempf (formerly of Goodfellows and A Rebours) to keep all the hungry kitties coming in.
3001 Hennepin Ave. S, 612-822-1688, ilgattominneapolis.com

Cowboy Slim's
There's something kind of kooky and adorable about a faux-saloon in Uptown. Among the cool kids and fashionistas, all the Southwestern decor and down-home food of Cowboy Slim's is quite a departure from the space's former posh tenant, Campiello, and it creates competition for Bar Abilene, nearly within spitting distance. (Cowboys can spit farther, after all.) But it appears there's enough yee-haw love to go around. Beyond the happy-hour specials, the draw here is the innovative mash-up of cowboy fare and Midwestern favorites. For instance, there's tater-tot hotdish in a cast-iron skillet, and pan-fried sunnys served with chipotle tartar sauce. Vegetarians and dieters may want to go elsewhere. (Slim's parent company, The After Midnight Group, also runs West Bank bars The Cabooze and The Joint, as well as the casual suburban restaurants Cowboy Jack's and Mad Jack's. Anyone sense a theme here?)
1320 W. Lake St., 612-353-5156, cowboyslims.com

Stacy SchwartzAnchor Fish & Chips
Lodged in the heart of Northeast, this Brit-inspired clubhouse and eatery sprung from a trio of young business partners who just wanted a cool place to hang out. Without much fanfare and nary a press release, Anchor opened quietly near the end of the year, and has been building a rabid fan base ever since. Maybe the appeal comes from its cozy pub atmosphere, with all that dark wood making it seem like the humble eatery has been around for decades. But more likely, it's the simple-yet-delicious fare, like the fish and chips of the name, which are so crispy and cooked-just-right that the chef's mother—said chef being Northern Ireland-born Luke Kyle—should be proud. Prices are reasonable, beer is free-flowing, and you can even get breakfast.
302 13th Ave. NE, 612-676-1300, theanchorfishandchips.com

Om
"Om" isn't just any word, of course: It's a mantra you can use to achieve inner happiness. And eating here cements that state of mind. Thanks to culineer (his term) Raghavan Iyer, the Warehouse District now boasts the only up-market Indian café in the tundra. It’s furlongs above and beyond those all-you-can-eat buffets, for Iyer has scoured his homeland—region by region, kitchen by kitchen, cook by cook—to create a menu where the word "curry" doesn't appear once. (“It simply means ‘sauce’,” Iver says; he has one for every dish, but is avoiding the generic implications the word brings to the table.) The below-stairs room may seem bleak, until the food arrives—including entrées like Kashmiri lamb or salmon in the style of India's Southwestern coast. But the best plan is to detour around the mains and compose a meal of breads, soups, salads, and starters, from peanut-stuffed eggplant to chili-poached shrimp in coconut, backed by tandoor-blistered naan. Om means an “absolute, ultimate state of peace,” says the menu, which proves that truth in advertising still exists.
401 First Ave., 612-338-1510, omminneapolis.com

Warm roasted beets with pancetta, walnuts and blue cheeseLacey Criswell, courtesy Guthrie TheaterSea Change
Change you can believe in: When the Guthrie Theater gave the hook to Cue, the first big-ticket restaurant in its new building, culinary superstar Tim McKee (a 2009 James Beard Award winner) was tapped to helm a new space offering creative fare at prices even the stagehands could afford. After a scene change that now glimmers with the soft green of sunshine on ocean waters, Sea Change focuses on sustainably harvested fish and shellfish. Bonus: The revamped wine list now offers intriguing, single-digit pours. But it’s the food that steals the show, beginning with curtain-raisers from the raw bar (albacore with watermelon, mint, and jalapeno), warm starters that ignite the palate (mussels in green curry; linguine with rock shrimp and sea urchin), and entrées that give star billing to striped bass paired with oxtail, eggplant, and miso, or scallops cast with sweet corn, chorizo, lime, and jalapeno. Can’t abide seafood? Consider it a good excuse to try the short ribs backed by blue cheese and black-olive gnocchi.
818 S. Second St., 612-225-6499, seachangempls.com

D’Amico Kitchen
Another changing of the guard: Although aristocratic, world-renowned chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten got good critical marks as head of Chambers Kitchen in downtown Minneapolis' Chambers Hotel, it seemed a more populist approach was needed for the space. Vongerichten left, and the D’Amico brigade swept in with the new D’Amico Kitchen, with a menu laden with pasta and a bright-white space emphasizing streetside dining, no longer confined to the dreary basement. The chef and many servers from the shuttered D’Amico Cucina are on board, providing the old venue's quality at friendlier prices. Pick away at an antipasto (pizza, lamb meatballs, cauliflower fritters, $9), add a salad—such as the poached egg/pancetta/roasted mushroom number—or a pasta or panino, or stick around for a rib-sticking entrée, such as the homey chicken cacciatore ($12) or a dolce to spark your vita. Now serving breakfast also, plus a weekday three-course lunch for $22. 
901 Hennepin Avenue, 612-767-6960, damico-kitchen.com

Stacy SchwartzBar La Grassa
The new inhabitant of the Warehouse district space that used to house Babalu teams Isaac Becker of 112 Eatery as kitchen wizard and Solera’s Josh Thoma running the front of the house. The transformation recalls a French bistro with marble-topped tables and a zinc counter fronting the open kitchen, arguably the best seat in the place. The menu bears more of an Italian flavor, but in this case it's ultra-modern Italy, not hulking platters of lasagna. Fashion your repast from the small plates: antipasti, like chicken and foie gras polpettone (mega-dumplings); bruschetta involving lobster, truffle oil, and scrambled eggs; then pasta options, ranging from a mint/artichoke topping to gnocchi strewn with cauliflower and bitter orange. As for secondi, the flat-out winner is the molto-ricco porchetta (the place isn’t called “The Fat One” for nothing). Homemade limoncello, too. And the bill comes sweetened with pine-nut toffee.
800 Washington Ave. N., 612-333-3837, barlagrassa.com

Bradstreet Crafthouse
Suspend that disbelief. Sure, Bradstreet Crafthouse may look like the Cinderella of the swank Graves 601 Hotel. But its menu of small plates reads like an edible seminar for futuristic foodies: a trio of crab cakes atop poblano puree; a reinvented BLT involving pork belly, homemade tomato jam, and husky cuttings of swiss chard, topped with an egg. Desserts also ricochet off the culinary chart, such as apple fritter with cardamom ice cream, or black sesame ice cream aside a flourless chocolate cake. The wine list of small pours captures a lot of “who knew?” finds, too. Another bonus: Open weekends until 2 a.m.
601 First Avenue N., 612-312-1821, bradstreetcrafthouse.com