heartland restaurant

Lenny Russo knows meat, but he seems to have earned an honorary degree in fat. His description of the fat from the Mangalitsa (a rare-breed, lard-type hog) he has been serving at his restaurant lately is a script of subtle differences. Comparing it to conventionally raised pork fat, the Mangalitsa (from Provenance Farms in Taylor’s Falls) is at once more stable, yet softer; healthier, but more abundant;  high in unsaturated fat and oleic acid, yet richer-tasting; clean, but also decadent.

I’ll also add: this stuff is addictive. If a good pork chop beats strong and clean like a pop song, a Mangalitsa chop seems positively orchestral. 

From the Fork the Fire website:

There’s nothing like the power of food to bring everyone together. That’s why over 80 restaurants will rise up in force to help Heidi’s and Blackbird - two Twin City restaurants that lost everything recently during a tragic fire in south Minneapolis.

Lenny Russo photo by Kate SommersLenny Russo has been considered one of the top chefs in the Twin Cities for more than a decade. He’s served as Executive Chef at W.A. Frost; General Manager/Chef at the New French Café; Food and Beverage Director/Chef at the Loring Café; and Executive Chef at Faegre's. In 2006, four years after he and his wife Mega had opened Heartland Restaurant in St. Paul, Chef Russo was contracted by Bon Appétit Management Company to helm the kitchens of the restaurants in the new Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, including Cue—a post he left in 2007.

I'm extremely happy to let you know that we've got an ideal location for our June Simple, Good, and Tasty meal: St. Paul's Heartland Restaurant. Here's what the City Pages said about Heartland, naming it St. Paul's best restaurant for 2009:

For a city its size, Minneapolis is home to an impressive number of great restaurants, with amazing chefs focused on providing seasonal, local, sustainable Minnesota-and-Wisconsin-grown food. Add in St. Paul (which you really should, especially given the existence of Heartland, named St. Paul's best restaurant in the City Pages 2009 poll), and the number becomes almost shocking. Restaurant Alma has been quietly delighting fans of local food since 1999.