A New French American Bistro Fires Up in South Minneapolis

A New French American Bistro Fires Up in South Minneapolis

Bûcheron leans into France’s bistronomy movement, applying fine dining technique to essential dishes — and adding a little Minnesotan flair.

Peer into Bûcheron’s semi-open kitchen — the pizza window, a relic from the building’s past life as corner slice shop Lufrano’s, has been expanded behind the bar — and you’ll see chefs rolling fresh sheets of pasta and plating pork chops. Ritter applies laser-like attention to vegetables, roasting turnips with bone marrow; tossing gem lettuce with lobster and citrus; and dunking celery root tortellini in acorn broth. He’s serving an octopus Bolognese, too, poaching the meat before it’s run through a meat grinder.

“Gavin gave me free rein at Demi,” Adam says. “During the four or five years I worked there, we learned so much, and for sure, we’re applying that here. The plates are a bit bigger, and maybe there are less garnishes. Otherwise we kept the same mantra, but a little more approachable.” Chef de Cuisine Cory Western and general manager Tyler McLeod have also come to the Bûcheron team from Demi.

There are distinctly Minnesotan influences on the menu, too: rye chips and spruce tips in the venison tartare; ample root vegetables (including a parsnip ice cream). “Bûcheron,” after all, means “lumberjack” — or so the Ritters thought before a French acquaintance set them straight. “He said the literal translation is ‘man of the woods,” Adam says. “We were like ‘Oh, it’s even cooler.’”

“Our joke with our designer was that we want it to feel like city chic with a whisper of lumberjack,” Jeanie laughs. Both of the Ritters and Western, an avid forager, grew up on farms, and the menu reflects as much — acorns and rhubarb come from Adam’s family’s farm; raspberries from his uncle’s.

The Ritters live just a few blocks south of the restaurant with their two young sons. “We’ve always wanted the neighborhood [aspect], and a building that has some history,” Jeanie says. “It’s going to be a great place for special occasions — it’s such a sexy little room for a date night. But you can also bring your kid at 5 o’clock and have a nice dinner.”

Both have opened restaurants in the past but Bûcheron is the first that’s truly their own. “It’s way different when you’re doing it by yourself,” Adam says. “I opened Demi but we had the structure of Soigné behind us, all of Gavin’s restaurants behind us. With [Joel] Robuchon, when I opened that, it was also a huge corporation. This has been a little more... I don’t know what the word is. Feisty?”

“I mean, it’s challenging, but it’s also incredibly fun and exciting,” Jeanie adds. “We get to build what we want it to be.”