DeRusha Eats: Spoon And Stable
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Not only is it one of the most anticipated restaurant openings in the country, but it's also a great hometown success story.
A kid from Bloomington, Minn. became a nationally-known cooking big shot in New York, but moved to Minneapolis to open his first spot.
It opens in one week, but Jason DeRusha has the first T.V. look inside Spoon and Stable.
Never has so much attention focused on one Minneapolis restaurant; Spoon and Stable.
It was opened by a New York City chef who came home.
"I grew up cooking and baking with my grandmother, Dorothy," Kaysen said.
Gavin Kaysen grew up in Bloomington where, even as a baby, you could tell he loved food.
"When I was 15, my mom said I gotta stop mowing lawns and go get a job," Kaysen said.
The cold cut combo at Subway came calling.
"That got me into the cooking world. Not like I was necessarily cooking anything, I was making sandwiches," Kaysen said.
"You were a sandwich artist?" DeRusha asked.
"Certified sandwich artist," Kaysen said.
Kaysen traveled the world, cooking in Napa, Switzerland and San Diego.
He cooked for the U.S; at the Olympics of cooking and was named Food and Wine's Best New Chef;
Then legendary chef Daniel Boloud called him to work at his New York Cafe.
"That's like getting a call to the Yankees. It was a good call," Kaysen said. "There's 40,000 restaurants in Manhattan. Cafe Boloud was consistently rated the top 15-20 best restaurants in that city," Kaysen said.
But when it came time to open his own place, Kaysen picked Minneapolis.
"The food scene in the last five years has been insane," he said.
Spoon and Stable is an old stable in the city's North Loop.
And the chef is notorious for collecting restaurant spoons.
"You're a thief," DeRusha said.
"Slightly. Well, now people send them to me which is good," Kaysen said.
Epicurious is one of many who've named this restaurant one of the most anticipated openings in the country.
"Honestly we try not to think about that. As much as we can. As much as we can help it, at least. We feel the pressure. Every day I wake up and feel the pressure. But that's also why I got into this business," Kaysen said.
Half of the kitchen staff moved to Minneapolis to work here.
"A few people say to me, 'So what is it? Is it French, is it Italian?' It's delicious," Kaysen said.
The menu will have five sections: garden, for vegetables, chilled, with tartares and crudos, pasta, sea, and land.
"It's not French by design. It's American by design, American by taste and Minnesotan by hospitality," Keysan said.
Soon, people will fly into Minneapolis for 24, 48 hours; specifically to eat here.
Good for Spoon and Stable.
But great for so many other restaurants also about to be discovered on the national radar.
"I'm so proud to know I grew up here and that I'm able to come back here and that this is the food scene now," Kaysen said.
Spoon and Stable is doing test meals this weekend, and then some thank you meals for investors next week.
The official opening is a week from Sunday. It's right around the corner from The Bachelor Farmer.