Mission American Kitchen & Bar

Mission American Kitchen occupies the old Aquavit space in the IDS Center, and it's a very likable, plain American restaurant that, if you can imagine such a thing, sort of splits the difference between a businessman's expense-account destination, a 1960s cocktail party, a soul-food shack, and a place your wife will find acceptable on your anniversary. For the ladies, Mission offers attractive lighting, a classy decorating scheme of cinnamon and terra cotta, a lovely wine list, oysters, and a chocolate soufflé as memorable as a screen kiss. For the expense-account crowd, Mission offers comfort foods tailored to the most crotchety elderly client (roasted chicken and scotch), to his diet-obsessed wife ("steam-fried" salmon and chardonnay), to your most rambunctious new hire (barbecued ribs and a beer), and to your most status-obsessed boss (ask for the reserve wine list). The dimensions of 1960s cocktail party can be uncovered once you set some creamy deviled eggs and house-made potato chips with sour cream next to your ice wine-enhanced martini. Finally, as for the soul-food shack: The place makes fantastic fried catfish, golden and curling, pale as cod, as light as bubbles. That they serve them with crispy, tender homemade fries just proves, Mission accomplished.