Lenny Russo, a native of Hoboken, New Jersey, looks like he should own the top Italian restaurant in town. Instead, Russo became a student of the ethnic cooking of his adopted region, and his menu contains dishes like a smoked freshwater fishcake with dilled crème fraiche and a golden chanterelle mushroom conserve; braunschweiger with garlic aioli, sauerkraut and walnut croustades; and a casserole of white beans, wild boar, smoked pork and pheasant confit marketed under the moniker "Midwestern Cassoulet." Among the numerous glowing comments for this "absolute gem," this one says it all: "If the Twin Cities restaurant scene is distinctive by virtue of its use of local farms, then Heartland is the superlative among the distinctive."