DeRusha Eats: Loews' Apothecary
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- One of the hottest parts of the Twin Cities dining scene right now: hotels.
For years, hotel bars and restaurants were afterthoughts, and had trouble getting locals in the door. But in DeRusha Eats Thursday morning, we meet the St. Paul Chef trying to change that at a Minneapolis hotel.
Chef Timothy Fisher, a local guy, is very deliberate putting together his meat and cheese board. His new restaurant is called Apothecary, inside the Loews Minneapolis Hotel.
Fisher went to the Culinary Institute in New York, traveled the world, worked in the best restaurants, and like so many bright talents -- he came back home.
"As a young child, I can remember stuffing pickles, it's always been about the food, and I've always loved Minnesota," Fisher said.
Apothecary is a lounge where you get the chance to write your own "prescriptions": Create your own Old Fashioneds, and decide what cheese or meats you want on the charcuterie platter.
"It's relaxed, not chef-driven, not restaurant," Fisher said.
But there are chef touches. This foie gras hot dog is a thing of beauty: regular ground pork, combined with rich fois gras. And there's a risotto with ramps and fiddlehead ferns that just screams spring.
He's planting a garden on the roof of the Loews, and bringing some produce from his farm.
"The rooftop garden, the greenhouse at my home, the river on the wall, all local and homey," Fisher said.
In Fargo, Fisher ran the HoDo at Hotel Donaldson and earned a James Beard Awards nomination for Best Chef Midwest.
"My career has been in 5-star, 5-diamond, upper echelon restaurants. It's great to bring that home," he said.
Apothecary is so different from the dark, underground feeling space here before. It's all part of Fisher's vision for Apothecary: infuse a sense of place into the Loews hotel.
"We don't always do things the easiest way. I like to think it's the way they should be done," he said.
The Loews hotel is right by Target Center and Target Field inside the new Mayo Clinic Square.
The prices aren't quite what you'd expect at a hotel either. That foie gras hot dog is $9 and two meats and two cheeses for $15.