Hyacinth

Hyacinth is a forty-seat Italian and Mediterranean kitchen on Grand Avenue in St. Paul's Summit Hill, opened in August 2018 by chef Rikki Giambruno — formerly of Brooklyn's Franny's — and named for the street he grew up on in Victoria, Minnesota. Since 2023 it has been led by chef-owner Abraham Gessesse, a founding member of the original team. The room is small, the pasta is made in house, the menu changes often around whatever is good, and it sits consistently among the most acclaimed restaurants in the Twin Cities, drawing top Star Tribune reviews and James Beard recognition.

For a restaurant of that size, the beverage list is notably generous to people who are not drinking. It carries a dedicated non-alcoholic section that runs spirit-free cocktails alongside a house-made lychee soda, non-alcoholic beer and a non-alcoholic sparkling wine — the last of which matters disproportionately at a forty-seat restaurant where tables are often marking something. Recent named pours include the Spiritless Spritz, the Final Say, and the seasonal Flightless Paper Plane, the last a zero-proof reading of the Paper Plane cocktail. Visit Saint Paul recommended precisely that drink, noting it "tastes like a cocktail: tart, bitter, and herbaceous without being too sweet," which is the exact combination that separates a considered spirit-free build from a glass of juice.

One practical note: the non-alcoholic list rotates alongside the kitchen's frequently changing menu, so the specific drinks named here will vary by visit. That is a feature rather than a warning — a rotating zero-proof list is a maintained one, and it means the bar is thinking about these drinks seasonally in the same way it thinks about the food. Dinner Tuesday through Sunday, closed Mondays. Grand Avenue is the densest restaurant strip in St. Paul, and between Hyacinth and Bar + Cart a few doors down, that single street now holds two of the better non-alcoholic drinks lists in the metro — which makes it the obvious place to start an evening that does not involve drinking.