This month, when St. Patrick's Day rolls around on March 17th, Edina residents will have a new place to celebrate the holiday: the Pig & Fiddle, a gastropub which opened in October in the western half of the former Pearson's restaurant space at 50th and France.
Pig & Fiddle is not an Irish-centric establishment, but it does feature a variety of classic European dishes. Its other claim to fame is a beer list designed to appeal to connoisseurs of fine brews—with a rotating list of about three dozen options, including craft beers by local brewers such as Surly, Fulton, Harriet and Summit.
The Pig & Fiddle owners are Mark van Wie and Paul Schatz, who also own the Muddy Pig restaurant-pub in St. Paul, and formerly owned Great Waters Brewing Co. and the Happy Gnome, also in St. Paul.
Van Wie says he and his partner had been “casually looking” for a location in Minneapolis, when their St. Paul landlord, John McCarty, bought the former Pearson's building. Locations like that one don't come along every day, right? “They absolutely do not; it was a rare opportunity,” says van Wie.
A former resident of the area, Van Wie “already knew the neighborhood pretty well. There is nothing else around there quite like the Pig & Fiddle. There are good restaurants in the area, but no other pubs, so we're not competing directly with anyone, which is nice.”
Van Wie's wife, Dawn, designed the wood-paneled interior of the roughly 3,800-square foot space, which he characterizes as “warm and comfortable—especially the fireplace room. It's the kind of place you want to hunker-down in and not feel rushed. That's the traditional function of a pub.”
The owners plan to change the menu three or four times a year, and the beer list is constantly changing, van Wie notes. “What we are doing with the restaurant here probably wouldn't go over in some locations. Overall, craft beers only account for about 5 percent of sales in the total market; but, in this area it's probably 10 to 14 percent.”
“Comfort food” might be an over-used term in today's restaurant business, but it does apply to the Pig & Fiddle menu, van Wie admits. “We're not using strictly historical recipes, but there is a long European tradition of people with not a lot of money taking what they have to work with and making really good things.”
The head chef at Pig & Fiddle, Stephanie Kochlin, was previously known to local gourmands as the long-time sous chef at St. Paul's landmark Heartland restaurant. “We had always wanted to do a restaurant with Stephanie,” van Wie says. “She loves food and she's really good at it.”
Kochlin describes the Pig & Fiddle menu as “European country fare—very simple, rustic dishes made with fresh, high-quality ingredients.” One popular example is the Polish-style pirogi, with house-made sour-cream dough, Yukon Gold potatoes, house-made sauerkraut and smoked-and-sautéed oyster mushrooms. “It's a really rich dish with a nice, acidic bite,” Kochlin says.
Another specialty is beef carbonnade, which is a hearty Belgian stew finished with brown-mustard and vinegar. Alpine rabbit stew and buttermilk boxty—an Irish potato pancake—are other examples of the restaurant's opening menu.
As a restaurateur, van Wie appreciates the area's savvy customer-base. “We have a very good clientele. They are people who know good food and beer, have disposable income, and tend to travel a lot.”
“I like that it's located in a neighborhood, so the neighbors can just walk over,” he adds. “We can get to know the customers; that way, it's way more fun and easier to manage.”
