I’m suddenly inspired to track down all the Lyonnaise salads around town—there just aren’t enough, it seems. We’re missing out on golden opportunities to munch down on bitter, crisp frisée, tossed in that bright mustard vinaigrette, with lardon and poached egg and the good kind of croutons, the ones hacked off a baguette and toasted. That’s a long way of saying that if you’re a little French at heart and have a hankering for a proper Lyonnaise salad, you can find it at Thérèse, chef and restaurateur Daniel del Prado’s snug new restaurant at 50th and France in Edina.
Del Prado is (famously, at this point) from Argentina—most of his restaurants, from steakhouse Porzana and pasta-focused Martina and pizza-driven Rosalia—draw on the Latin American and Italian influences that define the culinary heart of his hometown Buenos Aires. Now, with Thérèse (named for his mother), he’s going French. There are classic escargot and beef tartare on the starters menu; steamed mussels in vadouvan butter and a chicken liver mousse that, with its raspberry-pink sheen, leans a little more high-Paris, a little less rustic pâté. (Slightly less French but one of my favorite dishes was the lobster and sweetbreads ravioli.)
As far as mains go, there is steak au poivre, of course; dover sole meunière in brown butter with capers; palette de porc; braised short rib in a red wine jus; lobster thermidor (shout out Julia Child). So, lots of classic, beloved French influences, but DDP is not one to play it entirely straight. If it’s an adventurous kind of night for you, there are braised pig trotters (trotters as in feet, with which a pig trots) served with morels; lobster and sweetbreads ravioli (maybe my favorite dish of the night, actually; and a sea urchin custard topped with caviar (pictured above) which packs in about as much umami per square inch as any dish I’ve ever tasted.
The cocktail list is as on-point as you’d expect from any of bar director Megan Luedtke’s DDP designs—think gin and elderflower, aquavit and apple soda, blanch armagnac with tarragon. That said, it’s hard to turn away from the wine list, which has all kinds of French vintages, from Languedoc-Roussillon to the Loire Valley to Bordeaux and Alsace.
Thérèse officially opens on November 21.
November 20, 2025
10:21 AM
Dining and Cooking