Beer and Blue Cheese Naan at the Minnesota Street Project

To begin, we’re going to throw some very important words at you. Ready?

Daniel Patterson.

Alta Group.

Besharam.

Good words. And though you may not yet recognize that last one… you will.

It’s Hindu/Urdo for “shameless.” But, more importantly, it’s the first restaurant from a local chef (teaming up with Alta Group) who’s already made quite the name for herself with La Cocina, now open for lunch with a menu of her Gujarati childhood favorites. Check it out.

When you and your lunch group step into the old Alta space, you’ll notice that they’ve kept the open kitchen and added a pop mural by the chef’s favorite artist. One of those things is more important than the other.

Which is something that will become very obvious once you check out the menu (also featuring some pop art). “The bleu cheese naan with garlic cream sounds good,” you’ll say. “But so does the Chanda Chawk chicken sandwich with cabbage slaw and mint-cilantro chutney,” someone else will say. Then you’ll all laugh and realize that decisions are futile. 

So you’ll all share everything. And you’ll sip beer and wine. And you’ll promise each other that you’ll return together in a few weeks when they roll out the dinner menu and the full cocktail list.

You guys might end up doing it differently. These are just educated guesses.