Pretty on the Inside

Now run by cooks, Bakery on Grand has emerged as one of the nicest restaurants on the south side

A A A Comments By Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl Wednesday, Nov 2 2005

...continued from page 2

The last element of Bakery on Grand I'll single out for praise will be the wine list, which is now engineered by Johnny Imgrund, who's also a main night server. The list is global, and singularly chosen to complement the dishes that the restaurant actually serves. They've got $24 bottles of good French Muscadet or $29 bottles of white Graves to pair with shellfish, rose-scented red Lirac by the glass for appetizers touched with winter fruits, and, somehow, affordable Grand Cru St. Emilion for those wanting to dine like royalty in the humble bakeries of south Minneapolis. The list is clearly the product of someone who has been answering the question, "And what goes with this? And what goes with this?" 20 times a night for years.

It definitely seems as though one of the things Bakery on Grand lost in its new incarnation, along with the attitude, was any form of ego. I spoke on the telephone with both head chef Andrew Zachow and sous-chef Gerard Boissy for this story, and what was remarkable was that each spent the majority of his interview trying to give credit to the other and to the rest of the staff.

Sean Smuda

Really and truly Grand: From left to right, Girard Boissy, Jeffery Truman, Amanda Leopold, and Andrew Zachow

More About

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Dining Newsletter: The week's top local food news and events, plus interviews with chefs and restaurant owners, dining tips, and a peek at our print review.

"We've got a really good mix of people now; in the bad old days we were kind of running out of control, but in the last couple of months its grown into a place where I really love the people I work with, we try to have fun," says Zachow. "I think we recognize that every little part of the house is as important as any other part of the house. I would never ask anyone to do anything that I wouldn't do myself, and I think lately, even if we're all misfits, there's a high level of trust between us, and we have a lot of fun."

Have you ever been to a soccer game not played by very, very little kids? If so, I think you get the idea.

Check out this week's featured ad for Restaurants