DeRusha Eats: South Minneapolis' Birdie
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – When it comes to success at the top of the restaurant world, three Minneapolis chefs want you to know that a women's place is in the kitchen.
"I mean we don't like to brag about ourselves, but I think we do alright here," laughed chef Brittany St. Clair.
St. Clair is one of three chefs running Birdie, a tasting-menu restaurant located inside Nighthawks in South Minneapolis. St. Clair, Jessi Peine, and Tlanezi Guzman work as a team to run Birdie.
"We like to focus a lot on vegetables," Guzman said.
Only open three nights a week, guests buy a ticket for $100 and get an inventive and delicious 10-course meal. They serve seafood and poultry, but the focus here is on vegetables.
"I think sometimes it's harder to make vegetables into something they're not," St. Clair said.
The team transforms the prep-kitchen in Nighthawks into a 14-seat restaurant. Founded by well-known chef Landon Schoenefeld, who recently departed Birdie and Nighthawks, the goal was to provide a high-end culinary experience next to a more everyday experience at Nighthawks. Now that Schoenefeld has moved on, the team runs the show.
"We want people to feel like they're eating at our home. Like they're our friends," Peine said. "There's not an ego involved.
"On top of it we get to see the customer's smiles when we give them the food. It's super rewarding," Guzman said.
St. Clair and Peine create the savory dishes; Guzman makes breads and desserts.
"We want to have a good time, have it be a party atmosphere," Guzman said.
During the growing season, Peine's garden provides a bounty of unique herbs and veggies. They even use the weeds.
"Vegetables are sexy to us," Piene said. "That sounds weird."
The menu is always changing, and often spectacular. Right now, St. Clair is creating a congee, a kind of rice porridge, loaded with veggies.
Peine's Chesepeake Bay Scallops are impossibly sweet and tender, and their shape blends right into these deceptively simple root vegetables.
"Heirloom carrots, rutabagas, which I love because they have sweetness, and celery root, which everybody loves, right?" Piene said.
These chefs all have a tremendous amount of experience working under largely male head chefs in Twin Cities kitchens. Originally, they shied away from talking about their unique position as a team of females running one of the top dining experiences in the Twin Cities.
"We've always have said said, 'We don't want to be famous, we just want to cook.' But now, we want to encourage other women also," Peine said.
"It is really important to talk about it," St. Clair said. "I think a lot of men and women, which is sad, need to hear that we can do this. It'd be nice to stop hearing the word 'female' before chef."
She won't have to worry about that.
Tasting menu experiences aren't as common as they once were, as diners gravitate towards more casual restaurant. Birdie is a unique, intimate, top-notch restaurant.
"People aren't coming here because you're three women, are they?" WCCO's DeRusha asked.
"I don't think so," Peine said.
"But they like it. We get a lot of 'You go girls!'" Guzman said.
Birdie is located at 3753 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis. It is open Thursday and Friday, and has two seatings on Saturday.
For more information, call 612-248-8111 or visit Birdie online.