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Voted Minnesota’s Best Fine Dining Restaurant and Best Seafood Restaurant by the Star Tribune Readers’ Choice Awards for 2022
Voted Best Restaurant in the Lake Minnetonka Magazine’s Readers Choice Best of Lake Minnetonka for 2022
Chef ERIK SKAAR named James Beard Award Semifinalist for Best Chef Midwest Region 2022
Vann named as one of Yelp's Top 100 Restaurants in the United States to eat at in 2022.
Mpls.St.Paul Magazine Critic’s Choice Awards for MSP Top 50 Best Restaurants 2021
Vann named Minnesota’s Best Fine Dining Restaurant by the Star Tribune Readers’ Choice 2021.
11 Dining Destinations Around the Lakeside City of Wayzata
“Vann is the brainchild of Tilia alum Erik Skaar. With Norwegian and Japanese influences and a coastal-focused menu, every visit to Vann leans into a studied simplicity with impressive results. The menu changes daily, ensuring the freshest seafood that’s just-arrived is prepared to highlight the briny beauties.” —Eater Twin Cities June 7, 2021
Dive Into a Multi-course Meal at These 5 Area Restaurants
Chef/owner Erik Skaar has an affinity for seafood, and he’s serving three adventurous courses for $65.
Pans and Pandemics: Vann Shifts Biz Model to Maintain Curated Menu
“In reopening June 20 2020, Skaar adjusted the way he serves Vann’s curated dishes, switching to a prix fixe menu of two to three courses anchored by familiar ingredients but filled out with the exotic…. The goal here is to get diners involved in the meal—choosing courses and expanding their food horizons with ingredients or combinations of ingredients they have never tried or may even be totally foreign to.”
Best Restaurant in the ‘Burbs 2020
“Chef Erik Skaar creates innovative dishes from locally foraged ingredients and exotic seafood, inspired by coastal cuisines that span the globe. The trick is that everything plays so well together—from the tightly curated daily menu, to the dining room’s refined decor, to the elegant composition of each plate. Oh, and there’s a uniquely suburban perk: free parking, steps from the front door.”
Quality Establishments Bloom in ‘Burbs
“The Twin Cities—here meaning Minneapolis and St. Paul proper—can’t rely on diners from the ‘burbs making pilgrimages into the ‘scary’ Cities like they once could. Quality establishments of their own have blossomed in the past year…. Now we are heading their way thanks to….Spring Park’s, Vann.
Explore Tock Showcases Sea Buckthorn Dessert
Vann was humbled to be included, along with Michelin-star winners Spiaggia (Chicago) and Lazy Bear (San Francisco), and seven other restaurants from England to San Francisco, in Tock’s article on 10 notable restaurants with uniquely flavored dishes. Making the list was our sea buckthorn sorbet, which was served with a chocolate ganache.
Renowned Twin Cities Chef Opens New Restaurant in Spring Park
“Menus are printed daily because dishes depend on…our foragers, our farmers and our fisherman. They are what write the menu. But, Skaar is being modest, it is his culinary genius that transforms the ingredients into delectable dishes”.
—-Feroza Mehta, Lake Minnetonka Magazine
Top Chefs Minnesota 2019 Include Erik Skaar of Vann—Spring Park
“If you give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day, but if you teach a man to cook a fish, he’ll open a restaurant.”
—Nancy Weingartner Monroe, FOODSERVICENEWS
Vann means “water” in Norwegian. On Spring Park Bay it means fine dining.
“ ‘Our intention is to pay homage to water as an ingredient"‘ says Chef Erik Skaar. ‘The menu is small and focused with sustainable fish and seafood as its backbone… Vann’s name is a tribute to water and to my Norwegian heritage.’”
——David Keiski, Lake Minnetonka Navigator Magazine
Vann…the food, the drink and the view
“This is a technique-driven restaurant; beautiful food wonderfully presented, precise and intricate in the kitchen, but not over the top…the reduced size of the menu allows detailed attention to each selection.”
—Scott and Lisa, LocalTies Medina
5 Best things our food critic ate in the Twin Cities this week
“This sophisticated and strikingly beautiful dish was a definite highlight of that highly recommended experience…Yea, I’m looking forward to returning!”
-Rick Nelson, The Star Tribune
The Pulse (LMCCCommunityTV) features Chef Erik Skaar of Vann
Chef Erik speaks with Jennifer Ray of The Pulse about his restaurant and background, then demonstrates how to make our famous Octopus dish!
At Vann, Novel is the New Normal What kind of seafood belongs on Lake Minnetonka? How about Nordic-Japanese with a taste of Seattle?
“I tried the fresh Lake Superior Herring at Vann, and friends, it was perfect…but not as good as the octopus, which was, as one might say in Norwegian, a seriøs triumf!”
-Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl, Mpls St Paul Magazine (Photo: Caitlin Abrams)
Vann: New Restaurant Review Lake Minnetonka has food critic Jason DeRusha craving seafood. Enter: a surprising take on octopus by veteran chef Erik Skaar.
"Two perfectly seared scallops, served with scrumptious lobster cream sauce…were just spectacular!”
-Jason DeRusha, Minnesota Monthly (Photo: Kevin Kramer)
Nordic fare in Minneapolis blurs lines between food and art
“Vann, an upscale new lakeside spot in Wayzata, run by a high-profile chef who is inspired by the seafood of Japan and Scandinavia.”
-James Norton, National Geographic
Vann delivers inspired, lakeside respite of Scandinavian seafood in Spring Park
“…delivers a killer view, food that’s a balance of the unexpected and the straight-up satisfying, accentuated by warm and knowledgeable service.”
-Stacy Brooks, City Pages
New Seafood Restaurant off Lake Minnetonka opening in July
“After cooking at top restaurants in Denver and Seattle — as well as the Bachelor Farmer and Tilia — Twin Cities native Erik Skaar is transforming a former barbecue joint with Lake Minnetonka views into Vann.”
-Rick Nelson, Star Tribune
New Lake Minnetonka Restaurant Vann does Seafood Right
“Every dish we tried was phenomenal — a rare occurrence at a brand spanking new eatery…we’re convinced you really can’t go wrong here as every course tempted us to lick our plates clean.”
-Kate Nelson, Artful Living