DeRusha Eats: Libertine
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- In a part of town where two new restaurants have flamed out within six months of opening, Parasole's Libertine continues to thrive -- entering its second year.
"I've learned, put your head down and keep cooking and keep doing what you do," said Executive Chef Stephan Hesse.
Libertine is a gastropub, with a focus on unusual and under-used cuts of meat. They serve a feather steak and a point steak.
"Nobody else was doing that at the time," Hesse said.
He and his team create 50 pounds a week of different sausages, like their current special -- the cheddar brat.
"It's smoke cheddar, I smoke it in house, with a slaw of shaved onion, cabbage and a little pickled mustard seed vinaigrette," he said.
Hesse, who has been Libertine's executive chef since it opened in July of 2014, got his start as a kid working at the Perkins Restaurant owned by his mom near their home in St. Paul.
"I went in one day, asked for money to get shoes. She told me to come in Saturday morning," Hesse said. "I thought I was coming to get cash. She gave me an apron and I started washing dishes [laughs]!"
Nothing teaches you to crank out volume food, though, like working at a Perkins after a Sunday church service. Speed and high-volume is something he used opening at Stella's Fish Café in Uptown, Masu Sushi in Minneapolis and Mall of America, and now at Libertine.
"We'll do 1,000 covers [tables] on a Saturday. We try to get it up and out as best as we can as quick as we can," he said.
Libertine has survived while other Uptown restaurants have recently failed. Scena across the street lasted just six months; so did neighboring Parella.
Hesse says that Uptown does not only have to be bro bars, although he finds his customers to often be repeat guests who live in the neighborhood. Uptown is not as much of a dining destination as it once was.
So he caters to his crowd. Party on the rooftop all summer long, happy hour with specials for the young people who live in the neighborhood and an excellent dinner for the people in their 30s and older who are looking for that experience.
"As long as you make it good, people like whatever," Hesse said.
Besides the unusual cuts of meat, there are unusual twists on salads. The radicchio salad has caramelized bacon, half-poached eggs and a hint of funky fish sauce.
Avocado salad skips the lettuce and lets you really focus on the crab, peppers and citrus.
"Taking an old classic, that's what we do," he said. "Taking old classics and doing a new style with them."
It is a long way from his childhood job at Perkins, but Chef Hesse hopes Libertine becomes as much a standard in this neighborhood.
"We're rocking out," he said.
They serve happy hour and dinner every day of the week. And they serve brunch starting at 10 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
Libertine is at 3001 Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis, and you can reach them at 612-877-7263.