Best Restaurant:

Date Modified: 12/27/2007 8:57 AM

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CITY CAFE
216 1st Avenue SW
(507) 289-1949

When City Café© opened in 2003, it was one of the first restaurants in Rochester to offer "New American" cuisine, which restaurateur Denise Villeneuve defines as "fresh ingredients with no ethnic boundaries." Apparently, breaking the boundaries has been a recipe of success for the two-time Best Restaurant winner, which caters to an increasingly sophisticated customer base. "People are more food savvy now, with information sources like the Food Network. They understand what a caper reduction sauce is," Villeneuve says. To that end, City Café© chef Eric Pater, Villeneuve, and several others within the Creative Cuisine Company (the umbrella company encompassing sister restaurants City Café©, Broadstreet Café©, City Market, Newt's, and the Redwood Room) invest a lot of time and effort into tracking food trends and creating innovative dishes, often prepared with fresh fish flown in directly from Florida. "We figure out what's up and coming, how to do it, and how to make it look fantastic," Villeneuve says. "Plus, we serve it up in a nice, cozy spot that has a metro feel to it."

RUNNER UP: Michael's

Story provided courtesy of ROCHESTER MAGAZINE's February 2007 issue. Check out their website at: www.RochesterMagazine.com.