Agendas for eating out

Let's get one thing straight: This isn't a guide to ethical restaurants. It's a guide for diners wishing to choose restaurants that reflect their own ethical priorities, whether that's environmental sustainability, humane animal treatment or the support of human rights.

(Actually, it's a little hard to find restaurants that focus on human rights, but a couple deserve mention: St. Martin's Table, an outreach ministry of the religious Community of St. Martin, where volunteer servers donate tips to hunger relief organizations, and the Cafe of the Americas at the Resource Center of the Americas, which has a strong focus on social justice. )

Eating locally, eating sustainably

In the past few years, there has been a local explosion of restaurants that support area farmers by featuring their seasonal organic and sustainably grown foods. The pioneers in this effort include Lucia Watson of Lucia's Restaurant and Wine Bar and Lucia's Bakery and Take Home in Uptown Minneapolis; Brenda Langton of Cafe Brenda in the Minneapolis Warehouse District and the newly opened Spoonriver near the new Guthrie Theater, and Kirk Bratrud, former owner of Bayport Cookery, whose emphasis on local ingredients is being continued by current owner Jim Kyndberg.

More recently, chef Paul Lynch of FireLake Restaurant at the Radisson Plaza in downtown Minneapolis has been a leader in organizing the new Heartland Food Network, which connects small sustainable and organic Minnesota producers with local distributors and restaurants. The network also connects some big nonsustainable and nonorganic Minnesota producers with distributors and restaurants. Charter members include Paul Gordon, executive chef at the Minnesota History Center's Cafe Minnesota in St. Paul.

This summer, instead of highlighting the cuisine of Tuscany or Bordeaux, Muffuletta chef J.D. Fratzke is celebrating the bounty of the regional harvest with fresh foods from local farms and farmers' markets. Every Saturday, he shops at the St. Paul Farmers Market, where all produce must come from within 50 miles. His nightly specials, described in loving detail on the menu, can include catfish (from Georgia) with the greens, potatoes and beans he found at Valerie Yang's market stall, or a salad made with mint, lemon verbena and black raspberries from the Ours for a Very Short Time Farm near St. Charles, Minn. "I want the diners who come into our restaurant to know what great stuff is being grown in their own back yard," he said.

When I visited the restaurant in St. Paul's St. Anthony Park neighborhood, the nightly special of grass-fed steak from Thousand Hills Cattle Company near Cannon Falls, Minn., was sold out, but I enjoyed a very fresh and lively salad of baby sugar-snap peas, kohlrabi and green onions from Footjoy Farm in Wisconsin, with Minnesota wild rice and Farmer Bob's cucumbers from Northstar Gardens in Marine on St. Croix. "Nina, my daughter, who is almost 2, is one of the main reasons that I'm making the commitments to sustainable agriculture that I have. I want her generation to have a future full of delicious food that won't ruin their health or their planet," he said.

Supporting local growers and communities is a high priority for Scott Pampuch, chef/owner of the Corner Table in south Minneapolis. Pampuch estimates that 85 to 90 percent of his raw ingredients come from small local suppliers via the Southeast Minnesota Food Network, a project that supports the rural economy by connecting small producers and processors with restaurants and consumers. Typical of Pampuch's seasonal, regional fare is an entree of house-made ravioli filled with confit of duck from Au Bon Canard in Caledonia, Minn., accompanied by spinach and thyme from Otter Creek Farm near River Falls, Wis.

Pampuch's philosophy is to use what's local and seasonal in its peak. And then to move on. "During the winter, when fresh produce isn't in season, I start with my farmer's squash and pumpkins, and cellar crops like beets, onions and potatoes," he said. When those foods are not available, Pampuch relies on suppliers to find sustainably grown produce from other regions, but he still tries to respect the local season.

"My customers don't want to see asparagus and cherry tomatoes on my menu in January and February, because they know that is not our season," Pampuch said.

But the local growing season is growing longer with locally grown lettuce greens and fresh herbs now available year-round. The farmers of the Southeast Minnesota Food Network "are starting to realize there is a demand for their product," he said, "and they are starting to invest more in their farms to supply us year-round."

More on the table

Other top chefs and fine dining restaurants that support small local producers include Doug Flicker of Auriga, Alex Roberts of Restaurant Alma, Peter Botcher at Barbette, Russell Klein at W.A. Frost, Steven Brown at Levain, Tanya Siebenaler at Sapor, J.P. Samuelson at jP American Bistro, Mike Phillips at Craftsman, Jack Riebel at the Dakota (carrying on a tradition started by predecessor Ken Goff), and Lenny Russo, owner of Heartland in St. Paul and now executive chef of Cue, in the new Guthrie Theater.

Perhaps the most values-driven restaurant in the area is Galactic Pizza in Uptown Minneapolis. "We realize that we have a responsibility to the people and community that make our existence possible," says its mission statement. "In order to fulfill this responsibility, we seek to maximize our impact by integrating as many socially beneficial actions into our day to day operations as possible." That includes using eco-friendly electric vehicles to deliver pizzas (weather-permitting), using locally grown produce, some of it organic, and donating $1 to the hunger relief organization for every order of Second Harvest Heartland pizza.

Animal welfare as table issue

The best way to avoid animal suffering is to not eat animals -- or animal products. The only local restaurant I know of locally that is completely vegan -- that means no meat, no fish, no eggs and no dairy -- is Ecopolitan in south Minneapolis, which also adds "no cooking" to its list of no-nos. Working within those limits, Ecopolitan turns out a colorful array of fresh raw food salads, entrees and pizzas (with crusts made from seeds and dried sprouts).

Strictly vegetarian restaurants include the South Indian Nala Pak (formerly Udupi Cafe), the worker-owned and operated Hard Times Cafe, which draws a big crowd of young people who like to wear black. St. Martin's Table, mentioned earlier, also serves only vegetarian food.

Many more restaurants count as vegetarian-friendly, including Cafe Brenda and Spoonriver, the Seward Cafe, the Birchwood Cafe, and the French Meadow Bakery & Cafe. Ethnic restaurants with a good selection of meatless dishes include the Evergreen Cafe, a Taiwanese-Chinese restaurant with an unusual selection of mock meat entrees, Namaste Cafe, a Nepalese restaurant that uses mostly locally grown organic meats and produce, and Little Tel Aviv, a kosher Israeli restaurant that serves vegetarian, dairy and fish dishes.

That's hardly a complete list. Most Italian and Chinese restaurants offer a good selection of meatless dishes, as do many Indian, Ethiopian and other ethnic restaurants.

Establishments that make values part of their identity have grown rapidly in number recently, largely because restaurateurs perceive a public concern about these issues. The more diners support these restaurants, and express their values, the stronger these trends will become.

Barbette, 1600 W. Lake St., Mpls., 612-827-5710

Bayport Cookery, 328 5th Av. N., Bayport, 651-430-1066

Birchwood Cafe, 3311 E. 25th St., Mpls., 612-722-4474

Cafe Brenda, 300 1st Av. N., Mpls., 612-342-9230

Cafe Minnesota, 345 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul, in the Minnesota History Center, 651-297-4859

Cafe of the Americas, 3019 Minnehaha Av. S., Mpls., 612-276-0803

Corner Table, 4257 Nicollet Av. S., Mpls., 612-823-0011

Craftsman, 4300 E. Lake St., Mpls., 612-722-0175

Cue, in the Guthrie Theater, 818 S. 2nd St., Mpls., 612-225-6499

Dakota Jazz Club & Restaurant, 1010 Nicollet Mall, Mpls., 612-332-1010

Ecopolitan, 2409 Lyndale Av. S., Mpls., 612-874-7336

Evergreen Cafe, 2424 Nicollet Av. S., Mpls., 612-871-6801

FireLake Grill House & Cocktail Bar, 31 S. 7th St., Mpls., 612-216-3473

French Meadow Bakery & Cafe, 2610 Lyndale Av. S., Mpls., 612-870-7855

Galactic Pizza, 2917 Lyndale Av. S., Mpls., 612-824-9100

Hard Times Cafe, 1821 Riverside Ave, Mpls., 612-341-9261

Heartland, 1806 St. Clair Av., St. Paul, 651-699-3536

jP American Bistro, 2937 Lyndale Av. S., Mpls., 612-924-9300

Levain, 4762 Chicago Av. S., Mpls., 612-823-7111

Little Tel Aviv, 3238 W. Lake St., Mpls., 612-929-1111

Lucia's Restaurant and Wine Bar, 1432 W. 31st St., Mpls., 612-825-1572

Lucia's Bakery and Take Home, 1428 W. 31st St., Mpls., 612-825-9800

Muffuletta, 2260 Como Av., St. Paul, 651-644-9116

Nala Pak, 4920 Central Av. NE., Columbia Heights, 763-574-1113

Namaste Cafe, 2512 Hennepin Av. S., Mpls., 612-827-2496

Restaurant Alma, 528 University Av. SE., Mpls., 612-379-4909

Sapor Cafe and Bar, 428 Washington Av. N., Mpls., 612-375-1921

Spoonriver, 750 S. 2nd St., Mpls., 612-436-2236

St. Martin's Table, 2001 Riverside Av., Mpls., 612-339-3920

W.A. Frost, 374 Selby Av., St. Paul, 651-224-5715

JEREMY IGGERS

Jeremy Iggers • 612-673-4524