D'Amico Kitchen Opening Monday

I was just driving north on Hennepin downtown yesterday, wondering aloud to myself when in the heck D'Amico is going to tear the paper off the windows and open up the new restaurant at the Chambers Hotel. Lo and behold, the 411 shows up in my inbox today:

D’AMICO KITCHEN, the casual, contemporary Italian restaurant being developed by D’Amico & Partners, Inc. will be open for business on 8/24.

Eden – This is the re-branded name for the street-level patio area. There will be some design, layout and cosmetic changes that will be occurring as well. New plantings will not begin to mature until next year, with part of Eden will be set up for dining instead of being dedicated to lounging. Guests will able to reserve a private cabana for dinner.

Eden will host Friday Champagne Happy Hour from 4:30 to 7:30 featuring live jazz or DJ’s (weather permitting). 

There will be live entertainment and/or a DJ on at EDEN on Weekends and select weeknights. Closed to public on weekends if the space is booked.

Movie Night – Sunday nights there will be movies shown at Eden, again weather permitting. We are even considering hosting Monday Night Football events.

TBD – the rooftop terrace bar, formerly Red, White & F*#%-ing Blue Bar, will be renamed. Name TBD. There will be DJ’s there most weekend nights, save those when private events have rented the space.

And Doug Flicker, who was in the kitchen when D’Amico Cucina opened 20+ years ago, is back in a D’Amico kitchen for the opening, as he wants to be a part of this very special restaurant.

Hours of operation:

BREAKFAST: Mon-Fri 6:30-11:00 AM, Sat-Sun 6:30-10:00 AM
LUNCH/BRUNCH: Mon-Fri 11:00 AM-2:30 PM, Sat-Sun 10:00 AM-2:30 PM
DINNER: Mon-Thu 5:00-10:00 PM, Fri-Sat 5:00-11:00 PM, Sun 5:00-9:00 PM

D'Amico Kitchen Breakfast menu PDF
D'Amico Kitchen Lunch menu PDF
D'Amico Kitchen Dinner menu PDF

So when I was driving by Chambers yesterday, I was on my way to have dinner at Black Sheep Coal Fired Pizza with Cristina. We had a great meal, splitting a house salad with creamy vinaigrette ($6.00), a half-carafe of blended house white ($12.00) and a 12-inch pizza with pureed tomato and oregano ($6.00), smoked mozzarella ($2.00), artichoke hearts ($2.00), calamata olives ($2.00) and sliced garlic ($2.00).

We both agreed that everything was delicious, but that $2.00 per topping on a small pizza is a little much. It was particularly ridiculous of us to pay $2.00 for a clove's worth of sliced garlic.

Do you know how many whole heads of garlic you can buy for $2.00?! Like two armfuls, that's how much.

Garlic is a seasoning and should be free, like black pepper or salt or the crushed red pepper flakes on the table at Black Sheep.

We're bringing our own sliced garlic next time.

Comments

[Mykel]

garlic isn't that cheap... I think a head of garlic at, say, Kowalski's runs around $1 (if not more).

Although.. I would totally consider garlic a seasoning. That's ridiculous.

[John]

Remind me not to shop at Kowalski's.... garlic, plain white, not organic, is usually less than $1 per pound at Rainbow, and I'd say at least dozen whole heads equal 1 pound.

[Alexis]

Well now you've got me wondering. I don't always look at the price of garlic -- you need garlic, you buy garlic -- but I'm pretty sure it's not a buck a head.

[Account Deleted]

Okay, I've got a question as someone who's pretty naive to the inner workings of the restaurant biz: Why would D'Amico Cucina close down only to reopen in close proximity to the old spot with a slightly different name just a few months later? Cost of the space? A desire to completely turnover the staff? Breathing room to rebrand? I don't get it.

[Kris]

Garlic is currently running about $1/head at local farmers markets. It should get cheaper as we get into fall. I hope BSP is using the good local stuff instead of price gouging.

[David Foureyes]

Erica - Different "resessiony" menu they couldn't have pulled off @ Cucina, different lease structure (not to mention a more visible locale...no one going to a Twins game was going to eat at Cucina), much of the staff came over from Cucina or was repurposed within Damico's other restaurants.

Also, none of these menus display on a Mac. I'm not quite sure how you mess up a PDF unless they did this in some old crappy version of Illustrator for Windows.

[Alexis]

What David said. Butler Square was bangin' 15 years ago, but now there are a dozen more visible restaurants in downtown Minneapolis that people think of when it's time for a destination meal.