Tim McKee and Josh Thoma fell in love with the quality-over-quantity cuisine concept and brought their tapas ideas to Minneapolis in 2003, when they opened the immediately hot Solera restaurant. The portions may be small, but the building is big, with three floors, a sidewalk patio and rooftop dining space, art nouveau-ish booths, and mosaic-tiled walls. On any given night, there are 40 small dishes from which to choose, along with several varieties of paella among the full entrees. For tapask, how about mini balls of fried goat cheese, or perhaps just one perfect scallop, grilled, with a touch of saffron? Maybe just one more dish — the tender roast duck with figs. And you are perfectly within your rights as a small-portion diner to order dessert, even those sinful churros, Spain’s answer to Krispy Kreme.
Full bar. Serving dinner until late night Tue–Sun. Closed Mon.
"The Twin Cities were forever changed the fateful night that this four-story tapas bar opened in the middle of downtown. ... Suddenly Minnesotans of every income could get a taste of richly nuanced, deeply spiced, purely pleasurable cooking, at a quarter of the price that had made critics swoon."
— City Pages