Riverside

Viva La Chaya

by CARLA WALDEMAR

La Chaya Bistro
4537 Nicollet Ave. S., Minneapolis
612-827-2254
www.lachaya.com

The Colonel has left the building.

And that’s good news for foodies of South Minneapolis, where a former KFC joint has been transformed into La Chaya Bistro.

“Transformed” doesn’t begin to convey the million-percent improvement enacted by co-owners (and brothers-in-law) Dave Kopfman, who also owns a landscaping firm called Yardscapes and clearly practices what he preaches, and Chef Juan Juarez Garcia of Mexico City, who cooked at Masa and Sapor before heading his own kitchen.

Picture this: Outside, a placid fountain, lawn sculptures and pleasant patio. Inside, the small space now hosts an inviting clutch of mahogany-finish tables set with fresh blossoms and votive lights against walls of muted avocado hung, sparingly and tastefully, with prints and photos, and a corner window wall buffeted with filmy sheers. There’s also a tiny token bar and—more important—behind it, a high-octane oven from which the kitchen’s billowy, buxom pizzas emerge ($7.50-$14), definitely big enough to share, but too gorgeous to motivate such altruism.

But flip the menu over and you’ll also discover a list of pastas (rolled in-house, no less) and other entrees ($14-$27). Bonus: Organic ingredients are the rule here, extending even to ice cream, coffee, wine and beer, and all meats are grain-fed and hormone-free.

Plus, they taste good.

We shared a couple of apps for starters ($5-$12), beginning with a heap of oyster mushrooms infused with garlic and mild guajillo chili—rough-cut to retain great texture, and pure heaven, accompanied by slices of lightly-grilled bread. Next, a substantial pile of baby octopus served, ragout style, tossed with baby new potatoes and a sprinkle of cilantro—fresh as all get-out, perfectly timed, but under-seasoned. (And that’s the story of every dish we tasted.)

Other apps feature beef carpaccio, deep-fried calamari and shrimp in a spicy tomato sauce, a skewer of flash-fried fish cubes served with cilantro chutney, and more.

A salad of slender baby green beans, sliced beets and avocados topped with micro-spinach leaves kissed with a Sherry vinaigrette—again, prime ingredients, well-handled but—OK—bland. Could use a toss of pungent cheese to liven the dish, again generous enough for sharing.

Same story on the housemade squid-ink fettucine (actually slender as spaghettini here) tossed with bouncy, tender shrimp, sweet cherry tomatoes and a spritz of lemon. Ask for the pepper grinder. (Other pastas on offer include a toss of chicken, spinach and grilled asparagus in a light cream sauce, penne with wild mushrooms, garlic and olive oil, and cannelloni with a classic filling of spinach and ricotta. I’ll be back for more.)

There’s beef for those who favor red meat—filet mignon served with roasted poblano peppers and mashed potatoes, and a garlic-cilantro ribeye presented with green caper salsa, grilled green onions and potatoes, and chicken in a similar preparation. But we went for the halibut.

The pearly fillet proved flaky and moist as can be, baked (but not served) in banana leaves with achiote and sour orange, plated with lime potato salad and (way too many) spicy pickled onions, whose vinegar overdose aggressively fought the subtlety of the other ingredients and should be downplayed, or even banished. Or choose your halibut in pumpkin-seed sauce over mashed potatoes with poblanos and sautéed veggies.

Dessert offerings are few and too predictable: housemade cheesecake in several styles; a supple but not particularly memorable flan adrift in mild burnt-sugar syrup; and a crème caramel which our novice server forgot to mention (her first night, nervous, and coping quite well). Plus those organic ice creams.
We drank the house wine—La Vieille Ferme organic at $6.50 a glass or $26 a bottle. The rest of the list strays too far into the $30s for unfamiliar (but, I guess, also organic) wines from the West Coast and the Mediterranean. Nice tap beers, too.

And a nice, nice addition to the neighborhood all around. The Colonel won’t be missed.