M.B. Haskett to honor Minneapolis restaurant that’s closing

By Rosemary McCoy

This weekend’s prix fixe meals at M.B. Haskett will pay tribute to the Minneapolis restaurant where owner Michael Haskett worked before opening his delicatessen.

Lucia’s Restaurant in the Uptown neighborhood is closing Oct. 14. Haskett worked there from 2008 to 2010 when it was owned by Lucia Watson, who was nominated three times for the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef: Midwest award. She sold it to the current owners in 2014.

By the time Haskett worked at Lucia’s, the culinary school graduate had spent 10 years cooking in restaurants, so learning how to prepare food wasn’t his biggest takeaway from his time in Minneapolis.

“The No. 1 thing I learned there was to appreciate your staff and be good to them,” Haskett said. “She took care of us.”

Watson was a pioneer in the farm-to-table movement.

“She trained a lot of great cooks. … She taught us to cook simply and to let ingredients speak for themselves,” Haskett said.

Every week, Haskett creates a special menu for the prix fixe meals on Friday and Saturday nights at his downtown restaurant. This weekend, all three courses are inspired by Lucia’s and Watson.

The first course is a mushroom galette with a black peppercorn and cream cheese crust that Haskett learned to make in Minneapolis. The second course is a sautéed duck breast with wild rice – a common ingredient at Lucia’s — brussels sprouts and squash. Haskett describes it as a “Minnesota succotash.” The third course is an apple crisp. “Lucia would always tell us not to get too fancy. She wanted everything that we served to be very accessible. She’d want her elderly dad to be able to look at the menu and not be put off.”

Haskett continues to draw on what he learned at Lucia’s to the point where he and the staff have started a drinking game. Whenever he says “At Lucia’s …” everyone has to take a drink from their beverage.

He’s sad to hear that Lucia’s isn’t able to overcome the challenges it has faced since it changed ownership, and he hopes that Watson comes to eat at his restaurant someday.

“She had a great formula and I copied it. I do a few things differently, but we serve great simple food and offer fantastic service.”

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M.B. Haskett to honor Minneapolis restaurant that’s closing

This weekend’s prix fixe meals at M.B. Haskett will pay tribute to the Minneapolis restaurant where owner Michael Haskett worked before opening his delicatessen.

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