Back in April, when I was researching and compiling my top neighborhood intersections list, I really wanted to include East 38th Street & 42nd Avenue South in Minneapolis. But at the time, the old Riverview Cafe was sitting there looking sad and very closed, and a corner with a (great) movie theater and a (really nice) plant shop just didn’t quite make the cut.
But now, with the opening of Lynette in that empty space, this Longfellow intersection is back, baby!
A few people were milling about outside when I arrived a little before 4 p.m. on a recent Sunday. Lynette had just opened for dinner service, and the neighbors were ready to eat. Inside, the space is small but airy. There’s a coffee bar to the right of the entrance, where folks can get caffeinated and pick up baked goods during breakfast and lunch hours. In the center is a circular bar, surrounded by booths and tables. My friend and I opted for the patio, which would fill up quickly this sunny afternoon.
We started with wine from the small but serviceable list, with most glasses priced in the $10-$14 range (par for the course these days). The pours, however, are very generous, which delighted my friend who had recently been let down by a tiny serving at another cafe.
The dinner menu lists items in three categories: to share, pizza, and salads & soups. We opted for the shareables, starting off with the curried cauliflower. The curry oil is cumin forward, pickled fresno chilis add a tiny bit of heat when you scoop up a cluster with your fork, and the raita (Indian yogurt) adds a creamy tartness. The cauliflower is just the right amount of soft (not soggy!) and the little bits of mint you’ll find at the end serve as a nice palate cleanser.
Next up was the Ravioli du Dauphine, which sounds fancy, but is just tiny ravioli stuffed with cheese and herbs. It arrived at our table as an adorable block of pasta, looking kind of like a carby candy bar or lego piece. While it’s a cute looking dish, there’s not much here. Oddly, the dominant flavor was the breadcrumbs, which were stale (as breadcrumbs usually are). When I sliced a little square in half to see what was inside these little pasta pillows it looked like they were empty. Were we ghosted by the comte cheese? At $18 a plate it was a bummer of a dish; a whole lotta nothing.
We also ordered the pan-seared scallops, served with wild mushrooms, garlic, tamari, and parsley. It’s the dish that people are talking about—and yes, it does live up to the hype. Four scallops came cooked to perfection, with charred notes coming through like a meaty steak. It’s not a hearty dish but an indulgent one, with a brown butter umami that hits your tongue and sends a zap to your brain to let you know you’re eating something special. You don’t see sauces like this paired with scallops too often—mushrooms are so texturally similar—but it works.
It was a miracle of a dish, and at $32 holy wow it’s gotta be. Honestly, you could put this sauce on anything and be happy, so I’d love to see it on something cheaper so people can revisit it more regularly. (My friend and I used our raviolis to sop up the last of the sauce—delish.)
We ended our dinner with cocktails for dessert, as we realized after ordering wine that the drink list had a whole ‘nother side to it (everyone makes this mistake sometimes, right?). My friend ordered the paloma, which used strawberry juice and grapefruit Jarritos—a bubbly, spritzer-like take on the classic drink. My mezcalita had just the right amount of smokiness, cut with mango juice and garam masala. (There’s also a nice mocktail list, and a decent mix of beers on tap.)
In the end, our meal came to $126 before the tip. That’s spendy! But it doesn’t have to be. You could easily order two pints ($4.50-$8.50) and an $18 pizza to share and end up with a $30 bill (the ‘zas I saw were about the size of a Pizza Luce small).
Fancy date night? Check. Working lunch with an $8 cup of soup or a $14 salad? They have that here! Friend night with $5 beers? Yep, that too. This is a neighborhood cafe—other than The Howe, it’s really the only one in the area—so it’s giving us options.
Lynette
Address: 3753 42nd Ave. S., Minneapolis
Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. (cafe hours); Wednesday-Sunday 4 to 10 p.m. (dinner)
