A Culinary Adventure weekend

Teresa and I just returned from a weekend of culinary adventure in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. We had originally planned to do Kansas City but those plans fell through so we decided on the Minnesota version. We researched several restaurants in the area and settled on a few that sounded like our style and made a tentative schedule and hit the road. I made a reservation at our first stop on the tour for Thursday evening at Sanctuary, on Washington Ave. in Minneapolis. It is a beautiful space, decorated in a Gothic style with a few Gargoyles here and there but not overdone. It felt very comfortable and not too stuffy  or too dark. The host greeted us and it turned out to be a guy I went to high school with and also happened to be one of the owners, Mike Kutscheid. Small world. We decided on their tasting menu and our server Ericka explained the process and we began.
The bread service was a locally baked baguette with garlic oil and spiced toasted almonds. Very Nice. The first course of five was a cheese course with a hard goat cheese, olive oil and Fleur de Sel with Kalamata Olive and cornichon, paired with an Italian Pinot Grigio. It was a great cheese and I will be looking for it. Next, was the salad of roasted beets, dressed microgreens and Lavender, paired with an amazing Chateau de Campuget Rose that we both thought was the best wine of the evening.
The third course was a surprise of a spicy lamb sausage slider with baby bok choy and a green cherry tomato salad. It was paired with Angeline Pinot Noir from Santa Rosa, California, which cut nicely through the spiciness of that lamb sausage and lent some fruitiness as well. Next was a gorgeous risotto with preserved walnuts and sun-dried tomatoes. It had a nice sweetness to it brought by the walnuts which I had never seen before. They are whole walnuts, picked early before they are ripe and preserved in a heavy sweet syrup and they are soft to the tooth, which was somewhat strange but delicious. the risotto was paired with Ferrari Carano Fume Blanc, aged in smoke to "soften" it a bit. It was excellent.
All during this experience, Ericka asked if the pace of courses was right, if we needed anything more, explained the courses and ingredients as well as the pairings of wine and the reason for them. She was an excellent server! The dinner was very relaxed and she made it that way.
Our final course was dessert and it consisted of a square of fine mixed chocolate on a Cayenne Chocolate sauce with a Dark Chocolate Ice cream and Dark Chocolate coated crisped rice kernels arrayed on the plate for a touch of crunchiness. Ericka then surprised us when she said she had made something special for us; a Bloody Sidecar cocktail with a few different liqueurs, Blood Orange juice,Prosecco, and topped with a skewered slice of that preserved walnut and some Curcao faux caviar beads on it. It was a wonderful end to a wonderful dinner. The quality was excellent, the presentation elegant and the flavors spot-on. We will be back and I highly recommend it for your dining enjoyment.
Good eating,

Tim