The Star Tribune

Bellecour

Photo: Carlos Gonzalez/The Minnesota Star Tribune

Bellecour North Loop brings chef Gavin Kaysen’s French bistro ambitions full circle

The James Beard Award-winning chef’s highly anticipated new restaurant officially opens Thursday as a daytime cafe, and starting Saturday will transform into a French bistro by night. This restaurant more than any of his others — Spoon and Stable, Demi and Mara — is the culmination of a lifetime of work, and the kind of neighborhood place Kaysen loves the most.

Mementos from chapters of the lives of Kaysen and his mentors are prominently placed around Bellecour. There’s significance in every detail, and Kaysen is nothing if not a details man.

Bellecour North Loop is ready to the stick the landing: fancy, but not fussy. French, but a tribute, not an approximation of someone else’s idea. It’s everything that Minneapolis’ most well-known chef has strived to share with his hometown.