the mission

La Belle Vie is known for many things:

It is home to Tim McKee, the year’s Best Chef as designated by the James Beard Foundation

It is the only restaurant in the state of MN with a 4-star Mobil rating

It employs the most well-read valets in town

In addition to all of these delights, it is where Johnny Michaels creates and serves up the most delicious, inventive and cleverly-named cocktails.  (Not to mention that it’s the kind of place that doesn’t feel compelled to put an apostrophe in the word martinis at the top of the drink menu.)

Over one (or was it three?) of these delicious libations on a sunny spring night in the gorgeous La Belle Vie lounge, we decided to make it our mission to try every cocktail on the menu over the course of the summer.

Of course we will taste the famed Old Cuban and Parlez-Vous that are included on the standard drink menu, but also every drink on the epic tome kept behind the bar.  We will not stop with the Prince Albert and the Blackberry Pearl, we will soldier on through The Biting Of The Apple, Margie Had Sex In The Pantry and This Charming Man.

There is—as there always is—one exception:  We will not have the I Was Meaning To Do That.  Though it seems like a good deal, priced as it is at $0, the real cost is a lifetime of regret.