Rinata offers new Sunday brunch menu

Debbie Tallen

Now you don't have to wait for dinner to get your Italian on.

​Rinata, "a little piece of Italy in Uptown," has been pleasing guests and critics alike since its opening on Hennepin Avenue in 2008 with its affordable but excellent Italian cuisine. Fans had to content themselves with a dinner menu, until now. Rinata recently announced its expansion into brunch territory, dipping a toe in with just one day a week (Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.). The Hot Dish stopped in to sample the new brunch menu. Here's what we found.

Debbie Tallen

​No brunch is complete without a refreshing mimosa. With a full bar, the standard brunch cocktails are available, though none are specified on the menu. We bet the Espresso Vodka martini from their dinner menu would be a good fit on a brunch cocktail list as well.

Debbie Tallen

​We started off with the breakfast pizza, a decadent combination of sausage, roasted mushrooms, rosemary oil, and truffle-scented scrambled eggs on a thin crust. The sausage crumbles were generous, the eggs fragrant, and the oil just on the fine line between indulgent and too much. The crispness of the crust was the perfect canvas for the rich flavors of the toppings.

Debbie Tallen

​For those with a sweet tooth, the crepes are not to be missed. Filled with apples and almonds flambeed in grappa (an Italian brandy), plenty of butter, and deposits of warm brown sugar, and served with a swoon-worthy, melty scoop of honey butter, this dish is dessert for breakfast. The apples were done just so, teasing out their sweetness but keeping their crunch and shape.

Debbie Tallen

​Rinata is well-known for its house-made meatballs, which feature prominently in the spaghetti on the dinner menu. They appear on the brunch menu in the meatball hash, a hearty combination of meatballs, caramelized onions, peppers, roasted potatoes, and their signature tomato sugo (sauce), covered by a blanket of eggs (which you can get any way you want, or omit entirely). For the meat-and-potato lover, this dish will be a hit.

Debbie Tallen

​To balance the decadence, we rounded out our meal with the micro-green salad, which was comprised of roasted beets, pecans, root veggies cut into tender shoestrings, paper-thin slices of Parmesan, which lent the perfect bit of saltiness, and delicate curls of micro-greens, with tiny heart-shaped leaves lending the slightest touch of bitter freshness. It was the perfect complement to the heartiness, richness, and sweetness of the rest of the meal.

There was still a little room for improvement in things like ambiance (a little music would be nice), and the availability of a beverage menu, but we have no doubt they'll figure those things out. They clearly put their attention on the most important thing--the food--first and foremost, which is as it should be.

Rinata's brunch is a welcome addition to the Twin Cities' brunch options, offering something more artful and upscale than a diner but more accessible than some of the downtown institutions. It would be a lovely place to take out-of-town guests or enjoy a delicious brunch before a Sunday stroll along Hennepin Avenue. The portions are on the smaller side, which makes it a great place to go with a group who likes to eat family-style and order several things to mix and match. You'll get a well-rounded meal bursting with flavor and leave without being stuffed to the gills with hash browns and greasy bacon. Unless, of course, that's what you're looking for, in which case the Uptown Diner is right down the street.

Rinata
2451 Hennepin Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55405
612.374.8998
Rinata's website