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La Belle Vie

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La Belle Vie
Vincent Marcinelli 

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  • French, Mediterranean, Wine Bar
    Sun-Thu 5pm-9pm, Fri-Sat 5pm-10pm
  • $$$$
    Delivery, Private Party, Business Dining, Prix Fixe
  • Accepted
    Street, Valet
Description

Fine dining is often attempted, but rarely done. Why? Few and far between are the chefs with the cooking skills to design an unforgettable menu, and fewer and farther between are the cooks with the skills to pull those menus off flawlessly, all night long. Few and far between are the dining spaces with the elegance, design, and elan to frame a man in a really fine tuxedo. Few and far between are the wine lists with enough depth, variety, and connoisseurship to entertain and amuse wine's passionate hobbyists, while simultaneously offering comfort to those on a budget. Few and far between are the service staffs knowledgeable or well trained enough to interface between complex menus and diners in the throes of the most meaningful celebrations of their year. And then we have La Belle Vie. La Belle Vie is a world-class restaurant, fit for the biggest events in your year. The chef, homegrown superstar Tim McKee, designs five- or eight-course menus, costing $65 or $80, menus which span the fanciful, the impossible, the substantial, and the lovable, all in his unique, intensely flavored Mediterranean style. Please note that the spectacular desserts and most of the fine-dining menu at La Belle Vie are available in the lounge, a big martini bar of a party space, which is sexy and stylish and dark, and perfect for birthday drinks or anytime indulgences.







  • 2012 | Best Margarita

    The margarita is a true classic. The earliest known published recipe is in Esquire magazine in 1953. The recipe called for tequila, orange liqueur, and fresh lime. Over the years, the drink evolved in various ways, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Many bartenders have experimented with tequila infusions, alternative natural sweeteners, and various liqueurs. La Belle Vie's version is one of the most unique takes on the drink that still tastes like a margarita. For quite some... More »

  • 2012 | Best Martini

    In a bar known for its creative cocktails, one might think it ill-advised to order a drink as simple as a martini. Nothing could be further from the truth. The bartenders at La Belle Vie, headed by Johnny Michaels, treat the classic cocktails like old friends and are happy to make them however you like. The attention to detail at LBV starts long before you order a drink. When a new bottle of vermouth is opened it is immediately transferred to smaller bottles to minimize oxidation, and it's... More »

  • 2010 | BEST RESTAURANT (MINNEAPOLIS)

    Tim McKee's recent James Beard Award for Best Midwest Chef confirmed to the rest of the country what we already knew: Nobody has influenced the last decade of fine dining in the Twin Cities more than McKee. We could go on and on about the royal treatment you'll receive at McKee's first restaurant, La Belle Vie, from the moment the hostess greets you in the chandelier-lit lobby to the second your ever-professional, never-pretentious server sets down the petits fours. But what good are all the... More »

  • 2009 | Best Bartender

    What's your alcoholic attitude Aristocratic as a g&t made with Earl Grey-infused gin Funky as a black-cherry vodka mixed with cranberry juice, dried cherries, black pepper, and goat cheese Or as playfully abstaining as a marshmallow Peep floating in a blue raspberry soda Whatever your sipping preference, you'll be in good hands with Johnny Michaels, one of the Twin Cities' pioneering cocktail craftsmen. The dashing barkeep is most often found in the La Belle Vie lounge, but his... More »

  • 2009 | Best Service

    While Minneapolis is slowly becoming known for its thriving culinary scene, we still have only a handful of lavish joints where the lack of a tie makes a dude feel, you know, uncomfortable. Why, then, with the need for neckware and all, would a guy want to fork over his last paycheck--or two--to eat at such a place Other than life-altering food, of course, two words: impeccable service. The kind of old-school service that's so good it practically disappears. La Belle Vie is... More »

  • 2009 | Best Chef

    It's been a big year for Tim McKee. The executive chef of La Belle Vie and Solera opened not one but two new eateries--Smalley's Caribbean Barbeque and Barrio (which, by the way, is this year's Best New Restaurant). McKee proved his prowess by creating a French-Mediterranean fine-dining experience that set the bar for special-occasion meals in these parts. Next, he showed his fun-loving side with splashy Spanish tapas, authentic pimento-wood smoked Jamaican barbecue, and Latin street... More »

  • 2008 | BEST RESTAURANT--MINNEAPOLIS

    When you want a top-notch, ultra luxe, all-the-bells-and-whistles dining experience, there's really no other choice but La Belle Vie. Chef Tim McKee's perfectly prepared dishes--from seared foie gras with roasted mission figs to grilled veal short loin with celery root fondue--are as elegant and delicious as they are inventive. Sommelier Bill Summerville has assembled one of the best lists in the state. And the wait staff is so gracious, knowledgeable, and perfectly polished that... More »

  • 2007 | BEST RESTAURANT--MINNEAPOLIS

    La Belle Vie is the best restaurant in Minneapolis for one simple reason: They work faster, harder, and better than anyone else in town right now. Take the baccala ($12). All over the world, this salt-cured cod is a dry and cakey tool of survival, not delight. But the kitchen staff at La Belle Vie, led by chef Tim McKee, decided to cure the stuff themselves, and the result is a strangely light, flaky, potent, and tart concentration of cod--the unusual mouthful that makes you say, "Hey,... More »

  • 2007 | BEST DESSERTS

    "Would you like to see the pastry menu" asks a server in the lounge of La Belle Vie, not wanting to presume--and the table nearly jumps down her throat. Hand over the pastry menu! That's practically the whole reason we're here! Some thought has been given to ordering the whole darn thing, all seven offerings, all $68 of it. It's not that money is no object but, you know, at some point the money seems like mere trivial paper when you consider the work, the creativity, the sheer... More »

  • 2007 | BEST SERVICE AT A RESTAURANT

    The servers at La Belle Vie often seem as if they're executing a complex ballet: In two, three, four, place plate two, three, four, explain plate concisely and not obnoxiously two, three, four and out two, three, four. When you finish your tiny course of oh, say, slow-poached pheasant with French horn mushrooms and foie gras risotto, they come in again: Lift plate two, three, four; away, two, three, four. Swipe crumbs from tablecloth two, three, four; replace silver two, three, four, and... More »

  • 2006 | BEST LOCAL CHEF

    Being a great chef is many things--and it's much more than being a great cook. It's leadership and charisma. It's the ability to work with other, usually younger chefs, to convey to them your particular vision, and inspire them to sweat and scramble to achieve it--because only then can you take a night off, or walk a circle through your dining room, sure in the knowledge that your food will be made to the level it must be. It's humility and the ability to cede control of parts of... More »

  • 2006 | BEST RESTAURANT FOR DESSERT

    Adrienne Odom is nothing short of a genius, and, for years now, she has been dazzling diners with her pastry work at the La Belle Vie in Stillwater, and at the tapas bar Solera in downtown Minneapolis. The one glaring fault of her oeuvre, however, has been that you needed to eat dinner in order to get it. No longer! The lounge at the new Minneapolis incarnation of La Belle Vie is exactly the spot that dessert connoisseurs and amateur pastry chefs have long dreamed of: somewhere you can go... More »

  • 2006 | BEST RESTAURANT-- MINNEAPOLIS

    Like it or not, the status of a city's cuisine is judged by the restaurants at the top--never mind that native Minnesotans might get a meal from such a place once a year on their anniversary, the top white tablecloth restaurants are where business types flying through town dine, and when they fly out again, it's that one-restaurant snapshot they take to broadcast word of the city's restaurant status with them when they go. Minneapolis, please note your national stature has just inched... More »

  • 2006 | BEST WINE LIST

    There are quite a few remarkable wine lists in Minnesota. The deep, old, California red majesty of steak palace Manny's comes to mind, as does the unspeakably lengthy compilation of exotica featured at Stillwater wine bar Cesaré, and the astonishing Spanish breadth on offer at downtown Minneapolis's tapas restaurant Solera. Still, even thinking of all those excellent lists, the new wine list at the brand new location of La Belle Vie is something astonishing. Why Simply because it... More »

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  • jeremysellshomes
       (0)    (0)

    jeremysellshomes | Minneapolis, MN | 6 Reviews

    | Fri, November 27, 2009

    One of the finest MN has to offer, top chef and new location.

  • TheresaK1
       (0)    (0)

    TheresaK1 | Minneapolis, MN | 48 Reviews

    | Fri, March 13, 2009

    amazing. eating there made me feel like a dutchess or something. the best fois gras ive ever had. their servers have like a phd in wine.

Main Menu
First Course
$16.00
Yellowtail Jack Crudo
with dried shallot, chorizo madeleine and chive
$16.00
Pan Roasted Squab Breast
with cauliflower croquette, fregola and rosemary-orange gastirque
$18.00
Pan Seared Foie Gras
with caramelized quince, graham crackers and sherry gelée
$14.00
Butternut Squash Raviolo
with sage, pecorino romano and saba
$18.00
Butter Poached Lobster
with slow-cooked egg, crispy bone marrow and sauce choron
Salads
$11.00
Warm Goat Cheese Tart
with tomato confit and tapenade vinaigrette
$12.00
Apple And Endive Salad
with duck prosciutto, roquefort and curry
$13.00
Baby Artichoke And Mizuna Salad
with sesame yogurt and moroccan spices
Entrees
$29.00
Sautéed Sea Bass
with smoked laughing bird shrimp, risotto and juniper
$39.00
Grilled Beef Tenderloin
with braised short rib, parsnip purée and red wine
$29.00
Sautéed Sea Scallops
with morcilla, chorizo, radish and potato
$36.00
Pan Roasted Moulard Duck Breast
with artichokes, saba-black pepper gastrique and watercress
$29.00
Roasted Chicken
with smoked bacon, braised endive, medjool dates and ras el hanout
$24.00
Bouillabaisse
Desserts
$11.00
Banana Rice Pudding
with crema catalana foam and pineapple sorbet
$10.00
Meyer Lemon Chiboust
with milk shortbread and clementine sorbet
$10.00
Coconut Milk Custard Cake
with white chocolate, coconut water espuma and ginger beer sorbet
$11.00
Chocolate Espelette Crémeux
with milk chocolate sponge and cinnamon-malted milk ice cream
$10.00
Frozen Chestnut Parfait
with caramel chantilly and kumquat sherbet
$7.00
Assortment Of House Made Ice Creams Or Sorbets
$15.00
Selection Of Imported Artisan Cheeses
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