When Steven Brown announced that he was going to run Porter & Frye, the new restaurant inside the super-luxurious Hotel Ivy + Residences in downtown Minneapolis, I had two thoughts. The first was celebratory; this most maverick of chefs was going to have a home that sounded well-suited to his outsized talents. But would Brown's imagination be flattened under the crushing weight of a hotel's 24-hour demands and lowest-common-denominator expectations?

The answer, at least so far, is a big fat "no." Just look at the brilliant soups, each one rethinking the fundamentals without making the results unrecognizable. The components of a French onion soup are given separate-yet-equal treatment, so while it may appear to be something other than a traditional French onion soup, it tastes like the best one imaginable. A celery bisque has three ingenious accents -- sweet carrots, deliciously fatty pork belly and crunchy, nutty popped wild rice -- and each spoonful turns celery into a flavor sensation.

The surprises pop up everywhere, and the unexpected flavor, texture and color juxtapositions are entirely welcome. A pork terrine is a striking piece of sculpture on the outside, splendidly rustic on the inside. A plate of paper-thin cured meats and roasted grapes is arranged like an architectural model. Kumquats and roasted beets in a stunningly composed arugula salad are so close in color that they try to pass as mischievous twins. Smoky bacon is tamed to just the right grace note for juicy scallops.

I love the explosion of color that puréed carrots give to a plate of big, meaty prawns. Somehow Brown makes chickpeas glamorous while manipulating them with beautifully seared arctic char. Lamb is done two ways, as a chop and as a roulade. Superb roast chicken explodes with bone-deep chicken flavor, and crab legs are barely adorned and hugely succulent. Even something so boilerplate as meat and potatoes impresses.

I'm not wild about a few dull vegetarian dishes. Truffles wrestle the flavor of swordfish right to the ground, walleye lands with a thud, and if diners inquire after the tasting menu, they learn there isn't one, at least not yet. But Juliette Lelchuk's exquisite desserts have the power to gloss over almost any disappointment.

Lunch borrows a few stellar dinner items and adds cleverly packaged sandwiches (don't miss the gaudily decadent burger, the shrimp roll and a Reuben fit for the gods, all served with excellent fries) and a few lavishly topped oval-shaped pizzas. I'm not quite sold on breakfast, though; $22 is a lot to pay for a plate of scrambled eggs followed by a trip to a pleasant but brief buffet.

Margaret Andrews, Star Tribune

Service is mostly smooth and gracious, but I encountered annoying hiccups -- missing flatware, an AWOL bread basket, I-think-we've-been-forgotten stretches, getting a sheepish "We're out of espresso" and ordering one dish, receiving another and being billed for a third -- that should be foreign territory for a restaurant with $49 entrees.

The setting also has its issues. Comparisons to Chambers Kitchen are probably inevitable, but where Chambers pulls off stylish and hip without breaking a sweat, Porter & Frye feels as if it could be converted into a HOM furniture showroom on a moment's notice. OK, maybe that's a little harsh. The Ivy Tower's rotted-out 1930 interior was stripped down to its rough concrete superstructure, a nice touch.

Still, it's a weird disconnect; the hotel's self-professed five-star trappings don't seem to have trickled down into its restaurant. Maybe it's by design that the splurge isn't on the walls but on the plate, because anyone enjoying Brown's food will feel like a million bucks.