Check, please: Belly up to the bar

The D'Amicos are making the bar stool the hottest seat in town.

Slip into the lounge at D'Amico Cucina, the epicurean dynasty's 15-year-old downtown Minneapolis flagship; peruse chef Seth Bixby-Daugherty's new bar menu, and you'll see why. The 10-item spread exudes luxury at every turn, but offers a taste of the sumptuous Cucina at D'Amico & Sons (OK, Campiello) prices.

Bar food never sounded -- or tasted -- so good; you'll kiss jalapeno poppers and Buffalo wings goodbye, forever, replacing them with beef and tuna carpaccios ($11 and $15) or a fine mixed-greens salad ($8.50) with a singularly delicious charred-tomato vinaigrette. The real headliners are a trio of plate-size, cracker-crust pizzas (all $13), and they're fantastic. Two are staples, lavish in their ingredients: one combines basil, Asiago cheese, a gutsy soppressata (an Italian pork salami) and a lively red sauce; the other piles mushrooms, wilted spinach and milky Taleggio cheese over a smooth truffled potato puree. A daily special was even better, an irresistible marriage of bacon, walnuts, gorgonzola and red onions that had been caramelized to a jam-like consistency.

Pastas are equally dizzying. Lobster gnocchi (a steep but appropriate $21) gets its sinful ways from a beyond-decadent white-truffle beurre blanc. Cappeletti ($12.50) are stuffed with creamy butternut squash and finished with pistachios and mascarpone, so delicious that you don't want to miss a bite. And fresh ricotta-filled ravioli ($9.50) are paired with broccoli raab and grape tomatoes, a dish as colorful as it is delicious.

Dessert means anything from pastry chef Leah Henderson's tempting repertoire; steer toward the hedonistic, meant-to-be-shared chocolate platter ($15), a half-dozen chocolate nibbles that could range from chocolate-dipped biscotti to chocolate-ganache-covered espresso custard, depending, I suppose, upon Henderson's mood.

A few complaints: There's no escape from the cigarette smoke. Our bartender wasn't particularly fluent in food-service graces. And while congenial, the bland surroundings have an anonymous, conventional-hotel aura -- a Westin, perhaps, or a top-of-the-line Hyatt. But the timing is just right: 5:30 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday (and when the Timberwolves are in the house at Target Center, opening time is pushed forward to 5 p.m.).

It's a similarly smart strategy at Bar Lurcat, the casual companion to Cafe Lurcat, the D'Amico's ingenious remake of the former Loring Cafe and Bar. Chef Isaac Becker's bar menu is a grazer's paradise, a dozen-plus roster of eye-catching, something-for-everyone small plates. One or two make an ideal pre-or post-Guthrie snack, or assemble a few more for a tasty meal. Prices hover in the $7 range; food is served from 5 p.m. to midnight daily; everything flies out of the kitchen in a flash, and servers are friendly and polished. The wine list is a winner, too, with more than 50 -- yeah, 50 -- by-the-glass choices.So, what's wrong with this picture?

Very little. Cheddar cheese puffs, the size of Ping-Pong balls and still warm from the oven, melt in your mouth the moment you pop one in. Miso-marinated sea bass is a glorious treat, the fish tender and moist, the miso husky and rich. A pile of spicy, thinly sliced barbecued pork is sandwiched between thick, buttery toast. A pair of burgers are roughly the same size as White Castle sliders, but the resemblance ends there. A raw plate showcases Becker's expert salmon and tuna tartares. Onion rings are hot, crisp and sweet. There's a refreshing salad of crunchy Honey Crisp apples, mellow manchego cheese and chives; the artisan cheese plate is a joy, and dessert -- bite-size cinnamon-sugar cake doughnuts, fresh out of the fryer -- is just right. Only something chocolate -- and perhaps another vegetarian nosh or two -- would improve an already ideal situation.

The sprawling room has been reconfigured since its days as the Loring, but not unrecognizably so. There are several seating setups, from a striking back-lit community table to cozy sofa/chair ensembles, cafe tables and a long bar. The priceless view (and the lacy decorative iron, yanked from the demolished Metropolitan Building) remains.

The D'Amico empire doesn't have a lock on compelling bar food. Witness Lucia's Wine Bar and its new three-course dinner. The homey offerings change weekly. A few weeks back, it was a simple field-greens salad and a savory beef stew paired with a parsnip-potato mash, a perfect cold-weather meal; its next incarnation was leaf lettuces and sweet onions tossed in a delicate sherry vinaigrette and an excellent chicken pot pie. Each meal concludes with a whirl through Lucia's stellar dessert tray, always an unabashed delight. Where else can you luck into a moist persimmon-spice cake crowned with persimmon-caramel ice cream, or nut-packed butter-pecan ice cream with crisp sugar cookies? Nowhere I know.

The snug bar's golden-walled intimacy is a welcome change from the plus-size restaurants sprouting up everywhere. The smoking embargo is another bonus. Then there's the price: $18.95 for all three courses. It's a total steal, more so by adding a paired glass of wine for just 3 additional bucks. That's an entire meal -- basic, but beautifully prepared, using first-rate ingredients -- for less than the cost of an entree at dozens of other (and frankly, lesser) restaurants.

Look for me in the bar.

-- Rick Nelson is at rdnelson@startribune.com.

Bar Lurcat

1624 Harmon Pl., Mpls.

612-486-5500

D'Amico Cucina

100 N. 6th St. in Butler Square, Mpls. 612-338-2401

Lucia's Wine Bar

1432 W. 31st St., Mpls.

612-823-7125