Copper River Fish & Chop House

It seems like whenever I read the City Pages' "Best of" list or read buzz about a new restaurant, the location is in Minneapolis or St. Paul.  Sometimes it feels like the 'burbs are only home to fast food and chain restaurants.  This myth was dispelled on Saturday when we went to dinner with friends in their neck of the woods - Lakeville.  The restaurant was beautiful with a cool floor plan design and modern/upscale decor.  It also had a large, inviting patio that I would love to visit in the summer (unfortunately it was too cold to enjoy dinner al fresco on Saturday). Our friends frequent Copper River so I was very excited to finally experience this amazing food they'd been talking about. 

We started the dinner with the complementary warm spinach tortillas and edamame hummus.  I'm such a sucker for variety.  Next we tried the oysters.  They had about 6-7 varieties of oysters on the menu for $2.50 each.  Copper River is known for their seafood so my husband decided to just try all the oysters so he knew which was his favorite for future orders.  I'm really not a huge oyster fan - it's a texture thing.  They were served with horseradish, cocktail sauce, and vinegar ice shavings.  I tried one and thought it wasn't half bad.  Our friends let me try their crab stuffed oysters and that was the ticket.  They oysters are stuffed with crab meat and pesto is drizzled on top.  The gummy texture of the oyster was masked with everything else in the bite and the flavors were the perfect combo.

For the main course, I ordered the blackened mahi mahi which was served with lobster/potato hash and BBQ sauce drizzled on top of the fish.  It was amazing.  My husband ordered the lamb shank with veggies and garlic mashed potatoes.  The lamb was just exquisite.  Perfectly cooked and seasoned. 

We very much enjoyed our meal.  And who knows, maybe more and more new, original restaurants will seek out suburb locations.  Rent is undoubtedly cheaper and there's probably a clientele out there that doesn't want to venture into the city, wander around weird side streets looking for the restaurant because they are too cool to advertise, pay to park, or drink at the bar for an hour while they wait for a table because the restaurant doesn't take reservations.