Banking on Bank

The history of a restaurant is as individual as the history of a person. No two are alike. Some are created specifically as a restaurant, while others have previous incarnations as gas stations or train stations.

I recently had the opportunity to try Bank restaurant in the Westin Minneapolis at 88 South 6th St. The story behind this restaurant is quite interesting in that it began its life as the Farmers and Mechanics Bank in the early 1900's, and Bank restaurant keeps this history alive in its dining room.

In order to enter the restaurant from the skyway, which is what I would recommend given this year's winter, you must travel through the dining room to get to the host's stand. On your way, you see multiple board rooms turned private dining rooms, as well as intricate wood carvings that are not normally seen in the food industry. There are also many booths with low couches and tables, in theory perfect for sipping on a happy hour drink, yet in practice a bit too deep, keeping the imbiber a bit too far from their much deserved refreshment.

As for the teller stations, they were turned into a dining bar that looks straight into the kitchens. Well, one kitchen, but three distinct sections of it. One of them being the hot food section (which was the busiest), while the second one did not seem to be used during the time that I was there. The final one, of course, was all about the desserts.

As for the vault, well, it still houses some of Bank's most prized possessions. It has been transformed into the restaurant's wine cellar, and diners can peek through the open doors and glass window to see everything from Veuve Cliquot (Yellow label) to Dom Perignon.

Enough about the surroundings, now onto the food.

The rather small menu (about 7 appetizers, 3 salads, 6 entrees, and 4 desserts) was presented, and I selected the good old American burger. Of course, this burger was made from American Kobe beef, wood-smoked bacon, and aged cheddar cheese.

The restaurant has obviously not lost the love of money that comes from having a previous life as a bank, since most of the entrees were priced between $10 and $15. From what I could tell, though, they are worth every penny of it. The $7 desserts, on the other hand, I'm still not too sure about.

This was, bar none, the best burger that I have ever tasted. It was moist to the point of being juicy, perfectly seasoned, and perfectly cooked. I have never tasted a better burger in my life, and I have eaten quite a few. The fries that accompanied it were tasty, but they didn't stand out in quite the same way the burger did.

Jennifer, who you will probably hear me talk quite a bit about as time goes by, ordered the mushroom risotto with creme fraiche and shaved Parmesan cheese. This was quite a rich dish, given all of the dairy products that were included in it, but it still broke into the top three in terms of mushroom risottos for her. Number one, of course, being served at Campiello in uptown Minneapolis.

Another favorite for the table was the roasted tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich. This soup was entirely vegetarian, and when I took a spoonful of it, I felt like I was biting into a vine-ripened tomato. The flavors were spot on. And, of course, there was the fact that it came with a grilled fontina sandwich. Who doesn't love grilled cheese? Particularly when it comes in the form of a two row high log cabin. That's right, they cut it into quarters the short way, and then stacked them nicely on the plate, two of the quarters on top of and perpendicular to the other two.

All of the dishes that were presented to us were visual masterpieces, and so far, they had all been home runs. Unfortunately, that would change with dessert.

We ordered the Frangelico chocolate pudding cake with a hazelnut florentine. Yeah. Try saying that three times fast. Anyways, it took about 15 minutes for them to assemble, and when it came out, it looked astonishing. It was a small (ramekin sized) cake, topped with a hazelnut florentine, which apparently is very similar to a tuile. Aside the florentine was a scoop of malt ice cream. And then there were the smears of chocolate all around the plate.

The only way that this dessert was palatable was with a large bite of ice cream with a small bite of the cake. The sweetness of the ice cream was needed to balance out the bitterness of the cake. The only problem was that there was only a small scoop of ice cream, and a comparatively large piece of cake.

In the end, Bank offers a high return on investment that is so hard to find in today's economy. I cannot wait to return.