The 2 new restaurants of celebrity chef Gavin Kaysen will open in June

Celebrity chef Gavin Kaysen’s new restaurants in the new Four Seasons Hotel in Minneapolis will open in a few months.
Kaysen, the two-time James Beard-winning chef behind Spoon and Stable and Bellecor, will open Mediterranean-inspired spots Mara and Socca Café in June, with reservations opening in May.
It was announced last year that Kaysen would be developing a restaurant and cafe at the new hotel, which is also due to open in June, but few details were released at the time.
More details about the “destination restaurant” and street-facing cafe were revealed on Thursday. Here is an overview:
Mara
Maraat 245 Hennepin Ave., will be an “immersive, all-occasions” Mediterranean restaurant and bar that offers “restorative dining” in Minneapolis, according to a press release.
The menu will feature “shareable, appetizing and light” cuisine from 22 countries, including southern France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, offering the “familiar and the unexpected”. Among the dishes: a carved bistecca table, a common presentation of whole branzino to share, homemade flatbread and spreads including hummus and labneh.
“When I lived in Switzerland, I took the train to the south of France and spent time in the regions around the Mediterranean Sea,” Kaysen said in a press release. “That’s where I fell in love with the art of living and cooking.”
Kaysen said he’s wanted to open a restaurant with Mediterranean roots for years.
Mara’s dining room will provide seating for 124, plus additional seating in private dining rooms and at “intimate chef’s tables.”
Inside Mara is Mara’s Cocktail Bar, with a mixologist-curated menu that includes seasonal drinks, classic cocktails, and soft drinks.
Mara will also have a “one-of-a-kind temperature-controlled chocolate room,” where artisans will make confectionery available at the hotel.
The restaurant’s design features 14ft windows and a “bright and airy design” that features a palette of reds, golds, pistachios and blues to “embodied land and sea”, with each space “enhanced by natural textures of warm walnut, foliage”. and works of art. The Cocktail Bar exudes a “warm and elegant” vibe that “imagines Minnesota factory history in an Italian setting.”
“At Four Seasons, we believe life is richer when we truly connect with the people and world around us, and that’s exactly what Chef Gavin invites us to do at Mara and Socca,” said Florian Riedel, general manager of the Four Seasons Hotel Minneapolis. The version. “This destination restaurant and cafe captures the essence of the Mediterranean lifestyle so well.
“In these sunny spaces with warm colors, natural wood, fragrant herbs and fresh ingredients, life will slow down. People will come together and be fed in every way,” adds Riedel.
Socca Cafe
Socca Cafestara “contemporary street-front cafe” at the corner of Hennepin and Washington avenues in downtown Minneapolis, will offer artisan coffees, fresh gourmet pastries, take-out and “moving food”.
Socca, named after a gluten-free “pancake” that is a staple in Mediterranean countries, will be a “social anchor of generosity and hospitality” for hotel guests and those who live and work in the region.
The design of the space, by AvroKO, who also designed Mara, is spacious and inviting, with floor-to-ceiling windows, rustic accents, and pops of yellow and marigold.