Manny's Steakhouse is Restaurant of the Year

On several levels -- the outlandish prices, the unapologetically over-the-top portions -- Manny's Steakhouse is a perfectly ridiculous restaurant. But by relocating from its low-profile digs in the Hyatt Regency Hotel to a new center-stage address in the Foshay Tower, the 20-year-old beef palace proved once again that it's also a perfectly brilliant one.

Most of the qualities that make Manny's Manny's survived the six-block move in August. In fact, very little has changed at Manny's since that fateful day the first porterhouse hit the grill in 1988.

"Well, it got more expensive," said co-owner Phil Roberts with a laugh.

An entertaining sideshow, which involves a cart, a half-dozen raw plastic-wrapped steaks, a wiggly live lobster and a veteran server with a well-rehearsed patter, still kicks off every dinner. The exceptional beef continues to be sourced from the same Independence, Mo., purveyor that has been supplying the restaurant from Day One. The side dishes and desserts remain as seasonally ignorant (and, frankly, just as so-so) as ever. The anatomically exaggerated portrait of the Manny's bull brashly greets diners the way it always has.

No other restaurant can touch Manny's magnetic ability to draw every fat cat -- and fat-cat wannabe -- within a 50-mile radius, a minor miracle for a restaurant that debuted during the Reagan administration. Perhaps that popularity is due to curiosity-seekers, coming to kick the tires of the surprisingly chic dining room and the red-checkered-tablecloth hideway that is the bar.

Maybe it's because the restaurant is serving breakfast and lunch for the first time (both adhere to Manny's basics-done-big mentality). The location -- anchoring the W Hotel and commanding a highly visible downtown intersection -- could also be luring the standing-room-only crowds.

All a factor, no doubt, in making the restaurant the toughest reservation in town (in a recession, no less), but it could be that Manny's is delivering exactly what diners want right now. Anyone who can figure that out is brilliant.

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

PORTER & FRYE

The year's brightest headline was the news that chef Steven Brown landed a luxe new home to showcase his singular gifts. At Porter & Frye, Brown and his cream-of-the-crop crew cook with extraordinary grace and intelligence, minus the tiresome pretension that all too often accompanies restaurants of similar ambition.

Equating a chef with an artist is a dull and overused comparison, but not here. With his firm command of color and composition, Brown seems to be channeling Kandinsky or Matisse, and he has an uncanny knack for combining flavors and textures that might come off as odd on paper yet taste utterly natural.

In a town full of copycats, it's a distinct pleasure to enjoy the work of a genuine culinary original.

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

BARRIO

When they turned their attention to Mexico, Barrio co-owners Tim McKee and Josh Thoma really got it right. The team behind La Belle Vie and Solera transformed a cramped Nicollet Mall storefront into what feels like a nonstop party, pouring vivacious tequila cocktails and putting exciting, contemporary (even occasionally elegant) spins on the tired taco-enchilada-tostada circuit. The lively environment isn't afraid to show off its personality -- a Minnesota rarity -- and prices reflect the current economic climate.

Does the word bingo have a Spanish equivalent?

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

STRIP CLUB MEAT & FISH

Is St. Paul the new Minneapolis? It's an obvious question when seated in the midst of a busy night -- which is pretty much any night -- at the fun-loving Strip Club Meat & Fish. Co-owners Aaron Johnson, Tim Niver and J.D. Fratzke have nurtured the kind of food-and-drink bona fides that diners have come to expect from a Warehouse District address, not sleepy Dayton's Bluff.

Johnson's splashy retro cocktails set the happy-go-lucky tone, Fratzke's honest, uncomplicated cooking (love that namesake strip steak, the long parade of small plates, the amiable weekend brunch) impresses at every turn and Niver's hostly eye keeps the dining room humming.

Note to 612-ers: Don't cross the river without a reservation.

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

MERITAGE

Those who admired chef Russell Klein's tenure at W.A. Frost & Co. could see that the New York native clearly knows what he's doing. Anyone who stepped inside the urbane A Rebours knew that the Hamm Building in downtown St. Paul is the perfect home for a stylish bistro.

Combine the two, add Klein's spouse, Desta, to run the front of the house, and the result is Meritage. The Kleins' personal and personable eatery effortlessly covers all kinds of dining-out bases, from a pre-Ordway nosh or a business lunch to a pop-the-question dinner or after-church brunch.

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

RED STAG SUPPERCLUB

The knotty-pined supper clubs of her northern Wisconsin youth were the inspiration for owner Kim Bartmann's Red Stag Supperclub. Rather than going in a theme-park direction, Bartmann converted a century-old brick-and-timber beauty into a green-minded example of how an environmentally friendly restaurant can work. Chef Bill Baskin made the effort taste great, funneling locally sourced meats, vegetables and grains into re-imagined supper club classics. The results -- a sublime red deer stroganoff, divine smelt fries, hearty flax-seed waffles and the ultimate Friday night fish fry -- add to the restaurant's infectious sense of fun.