To kick off 2012, we're highlighting 12 of the best dishes under $12 in the Twin Cities. Scroll down to view the complete list.

It's a chilly January evening, but the soft yellow walls, honey-colored wood, and blond exposed brick at Restaurant Alma make it feel warm and cozy. We're sitting at the bar chatting with owner and executive chef Alex Roberts, but we can't help notice the man sitting a few seats away.

He's sipping a glass of red and lingering over a plate of food, which is nothing particularly out of the ordinary--except that he's Bryan Morcom, the chef de cuisine, and this is his night off.

So what on earth is he doing here? It doesn't seem like a social visit--he's not chumming around with his colleagues--and he's certainly not working. Is he spying on the crew? Or kissing up to the boss?

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Bar La Grassa

To kick off 2012, we're highlighting 12 of the best dishes under $12 in the Twin Cities. Scroll down to view the complete list.

It's big. It's boisterous. It's a little bit of Manhattan's Mulberry Street brought to the Midwest. Welcome to Nancy St. Pierre and Isaac Becker's Bar La Grassa.

"Bar La Grassa is the Italian version of 112 Eatery, but they have the same foundation and philosophy," Becker explains. "We focus on execution--doing something simple with three to four ingredients. But you have to execute it right, or those three to four ingredients are really boring."

His chef de cuisine, Erik Sather, couldn't agree more. When we ask, "what's the secret to preparing pasta?" we anxiously wait for the tablets to come down from the mountain. But instead, we get this...

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Can we eat sustainably for $12 or less?

To kick off 2012, we're highlighting 12 of the best dishes under $12 in the Twin Cities. Scroll down to view the complete list.

When Tim McKee opened Sea Change in 2009, it came with a pledge of sustainability: to use seafood secured in a manner that wouldn't damage the environment.

We Minnesotans are a conscientious lot, so it wasn't the first time we'd encountered responsible dining--see names like Langton, Lucia, Lenny, or Lex (as in Spoonriver, Lucia's, Heartland, and Restaurant Alma/Brasa, with apologies to Alex Roberts for taking liberties with his name).

But this was an extremely narrow application. Yes, Sea Change also had "not fish," but the lion's share of items hailed from the coast. Would it work?

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Photo by Nicholas Waldman, Courtesy of Tilia

Tilia's Steven Joel Brown

To kick off 2012, we're highlighting 12 of the best dishes under $12 in the Twin Cities. Scroll down to view the complete list.

Steven Joel Brown thought maybe it was time to move on. "I was kind of thinking I was done working in restaurants," he confesses," and that part of my life was over."

If he'd decided to call it quits, it would've been a good run. He'd been the executive chef at Levain and Porter & Frye, and cooked everywhere from the Local to the Loring to Lucia's.

But when something is such a fiber of your being, it's hard to let it go. So when the right opportunity came along, "I couldn't say no, it was too tempting," he says.

Plus, for the first time, he wouldn't be working for someone else. He'd be calling the shots--as part owner and executive culinary director at his very own spot: Tilia.

Tilia is the eatery everyone wants on their block. The menu's intriguing, it's open long hours, and the food's so well done it gets stuck in your head. You can come as you are with whomever you want (your spouse, your kid, your pals), and the prices are manageable--which is particularly good news as we seek out another plate for less than $12.

There are choices for lunch and dinner and everything in between--literally, from the "In Between" menu which is served in the late afternoon and evening. What will make our list?

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112 Eatery's menu features over 35 dishes for $12 or less. Which one will we choose?

To kick off 2012, we're highlighting 12 of the best dishes under $12 in the Twin Cities. Scroll down to view the complete list.

Isaac Becker has much to be thankful for, and he knows it. The restaurant game can be brutal, and when you're fortunate enough to survive, you count your lucky stars.

"When people eat here, we want them to feel like we're really grateful they came in," he says. "Because we are."

Becker, the most recent recipient of the James Beard Foundation's Best Chef: Midwest award, and his wife and co-owner, Nancy St. Pierre, have turned 112 Eatery into one of the shiniest gems in the Twin Cities' dining crown, but that wasn't always the case. When 112 first opened seven years ago, things were a bit ugly.

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Lucia's Restaurant

To kick off 2012, we're highlighting 12 of the best dishes under $12 in the Twin Cities. Scroll down to view the complete list.

Lucia Watson is in very good company. As a champion for local food and farmers, Watson is often compared to Alice Waters--the iconic owner of Chez Panisse and a leading advocate for locally sourced and organically grown products.

And in 2009, Watson became a knight of the French Order of Agricultural Merit. The honor--which is bestowed on those who've made noteworthy contributions in agriculture and food--places her in a distinguished group that includes culinary luminaries Julia Child and Jacques Pépin.

Not too shabby.

Although her cuisine has a certain je ne sais quoi, it is refreshingly free of ostentation. And with an abundance of small plates and lunch items less than $12, much of it is affordably priced. Which one will make our $12-and-under list?

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What's in Heartland's basket for less than $12?

To kick off 2012, we're highlighting 12 of the best dishes under $12 in the Twin Cities. Scroll down to view the complete list.

We should all be so lucky to live in Lenny Russo's neighborhood. As the executive chef of Heartland Restaurant & Farm Direct Market, which he co-owns with his wife, Mega Hoehn, Russo focuses his efforts locally--on the people who live and work closest to home, and the products they consume and create.

With a menu that hinges completely on the bounty at hand, our favorite items under $12 will be here today and gone tomorrow. But with a sure-handed chef at the helm (Russo has earned back-to-back nominations for Best Chef: Midwest from the James Beard Foundation), we know more masterful meals are just a harvest away.

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Meritage chef and co-owner Russell Klein

To kick off 2012, we're highlighting 12 of the best dishes under $12 in the Twin Cities. Scroll down to view the complete list.

Go big or go home. When Russell Klein does something, he does it the right way.

Exhibit A: the oyster bar. In late 2010, Klein--along with his co-owner and wife, Desta--started a massive renovation to build the new Meritage Oyster Bar. Not only was the construction a significant undertaking (they added 40 seats to the 80 they already had in the main dining room), but so was setting up the oyster operation.

Klein toured both the east and west coasts, visiting oyster farms and establishing key partnerships. By purchasing oysters direct and using overnight shipping, "We get product that's incredibly fresh," he says.

For Klein, that's what everything is about: quality. "It's food and product," he says. "But it's also the quality of ambiance and quality of service staff. If people associate us with quality, that--to me--is the best thing we can do."

Thankfully, quality comes in plenty of $12-and-under packages at Meritage, especially on the lunch menu. Which one will be our favorite?

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Piccolo Chef and Co-Owner Doug Flicker

To kick off 2012, we're highlighting 12 of the best dishes under $12 in the Twin Cities. Scroll down to view the complete list.

When Doug Flicker garnishes a plate, he does not mess around. A tray to his left is piled with yellow flowers and tiny greens, and one by one he's meticulously putting each stem, leaf, and petal in place. He works quickly yet carefully, creating mini works of art. For him, no detail is too minor. Because when you deal exclusively in small plates, everything is big.

Flicker has been around the Twin Cities for years, playing the role of head chef at D'Amico Cucina, Mission, Porter and Frye, and his very own Auriga. In 2010 he opened Piccolo, and the following year the James Beard Foundation named both Flicker and the restaurant to short lists--for its Best Chef: Midwest and Best New Restaurant awards.

At Piccolo, Flicker gives diners the ultimate choose-your-own-adventure menu. Now featuring 16 items, "It's designed to be mixed and matched," he says. "And you can go back and forth." Nothing is labeled appetizer, main course, or dessert because everything can be anything. And with over half the options at $12 or less, we have an array of choices.

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Grilled Lamb Burgers are just one of La Belle Vie's $12 options

To kick off 2012, we're highlighting 12 of the best dishes under $12 in the Twin Cities. Scroll down to view the complete list.

Tim McKee's fingerprints are scattered around the Twin Cities. And we all eat better because of it. The first Minnesotan to be anointed Best Chef: Midwest by the James Beard Foundation, McKee is a culinary chameleon of the best kind.

Having spearheaded some of our most celebrated restaurants (La Belle Vie and Sea Change), he's morphed into a gun-for-hire as of late, offering his talents to Masu Sushi and Robata, Uptown Cafeteria, and the recently defunct Il Gatto. To date we've seen him do everything from seafood to sushi, classy to casual, tapas to tequila, pasta to pirates.

But La Belle Vie was the original--the first restaurant he opened--so that's where we're headed for our next $12-and-under delights. For a chef who's at home in so many different surroundings, it's no wonder that a fantastic night at La Belle Vie can be wrapped in a variety of packages.

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