Nightingale: A first look
Categories: Now Open
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| Ready to sing, Nightingale opens for late nights and small plates |
We wasted no time dipping in to the new late-night spot Nightingale just off 25th and Lyndale. Nestled between Tree House Records and Bulldog, the Nightingale fits right in with this Mother Nature-inspired block of businesses. The new restaurant features small plates, late-night food hours, and some swank cocktails.
The plush interior belies the space's former life as a little grocery shop. The leather booths are sapphire blue, mixed with cream chairs and dark wood; it's a soothing color palette. There are just a few kitschy touches -- metal, sea-urchin-shaped wall pieces and a reclaimed card catalog acting as a hostess stand. |
| Ready to rock all night |
The menu is sectioned out between Snacks, Bruschetta, Plates, and Sweets. Prices range from $4 to $13. Snacks include items like fried chickpeas with Za'tar, duck soup dumplings, deviled eggs, olives, and a pickle plate.
Our server recommended the bruschetta ($6). The toasted bread was topped with roasted oyster mushrooms, cut in half. Each half was topped with a sunny-side-up, teensy little quail egg.
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| Quail eggs clearly win the cute contest in the ovum world |
The salt-and-pepper prawns for $12 were near the top of the plates prices, but the head-on shrimp were a hefty size in a generous batter. Served alongside a sweet chile sauce, they're filling. The crispy, fat batter hugs the tender, moist shrimp and works nicely as the perfect foil for a cocktail.
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| Look into my eyes. I will satisfy your hunger |
We sampled the Alabama Worley, a divine sip of autumn made with Maker's Mark mixed with a little cinnamon and brown sugar simple syrup.
The French fries ($5) were fresh from the fryer, served with a creamy, garlic-spiked aioli.
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| Thai inspired mega-wings |
The wings are $8 for four full wings. They're tossed in a sweet ginger-soy sauce with scallions, and thinly sliced jalapeno give it a Thai-inspired zing.
Nightingale is open Tuesday through Saturday from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. (food is served till 1 a.m.) and Sunday, which features brunch, from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. Which means -- holy cats -- there's somewhere to go past 8 p.m. on a Sunday! Music to our ears.
Nightingale
2551 Lyndale Ave.,Minneapolis
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