Daniel del Prado embraces French excess at his new Edina restaurant Thérèse

With lobster thermidor, chicken presse and butter-bathed escargot on the menu, it’s easy to imagine a doorstop copy of Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” on a shelf in the tucked-away kitchen at Thérèse — the newest restaurant at 50th and France in Edina. The only thing missing here is aspic.

Chef/owner Daniel del Prado is hewing closely to French recipes and techniques at Thérèse, which opened in late November in the substantial dining room once occupied by the Lynhall. But he’s also going a little extra, slathering chicken liver on a burger for the ages and dousing everything in powerful flavor bombs of sauces.

Joining del Prado’s Minneapolis portfolio — Martina, Colita, Rosalia, Minari and Porzana — Thérèse is named for his mother. It’s inspired, in part, by the St. Paul French staple, Meritage, with del Prado wanting to give the west side its own go-to spot for French onion soup, he told the Star Tribune. But there’s more: a deep wine list, modernist riffs on cocktail classics, and more than a few cuts and preparations rarely found on Twin Cities menus (hello, pig trotters).

With the daytime cafe Bellecour now open across the street and Mr. Paul’s Supper Club and Carnival Bar across the plaza, 50th and France continues its evolution as a strollable food-and-drink destination. Del Prado has a hand in that, with additional projects already open in the area (Dexter’s) and coming next year (Americana).

Location and hours: 3945 Market St., Edina, theresempls.com. Open for lunch 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Mon.-Fri.; dinner 5-9 p.m. daily; and brunch 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat.-Sun.

The food: At the foundation of French cooking is the sauce, and del Prado leans heavily on those core building blocks. An intense veal jus gets soaked into the brioche bun of a burger. Truffled jus is poured all over celery root puree. A half lobster rests on sauce américain, a blend of brandy, wine and fish stock. Everything, especially the French onion soup, is dark and deep. Only a few bites are needed to get to the point: these flavors are powerful.

At dinner, we tried something from every zone of the menu, including del Prado’s pet project, the chilled seafood. Our favorite bite was the snow crab lettuce cups ($21): a mix of crab meat and carrot mayo, a jalapeno slaw, an accompaniment of chili crisp for bite and funk. For our entrees, both the chicken presse ($29) and lobster thermidor ($55) take the original protein and manipulate them into something new. The chicken, made by chopping up chicken thighs and mixing with mushrooms, then reconstructing it into square slices, tasted like a casserole made out of all your Thanksgiving leftovers. For the lobster, the meat is chopped to a near-puree and folded into a sauce, the whole mixture put back into the shell, topped with cheese and torched. One word: rich.

The dessert menu is tight and not fussy. The flourless chocolate torte ($13) was as dense as a good truffle, though we couldn’t detect the promised gin and tonic in the chocolate mousse topping.

The drinks: A retro train station split-flap sign touts some deep cuts from the wine list (and adds to the train station feel in this elongated space). For cocktails, DDP Restaurant Group’s beverage director Megan Luedtke riffs on the classics: the Chou Chou ($15), with lacto-fermented raspberries and pineapple might sound technical but it’s a solid French martini. There are a couple of nonalcoholic cocktails, too, including a Kir Non Royale ($10) made with sparkling nonalcoholic wine. And there’s always Hamm’s ($5).