Third Bird chef had W.A. Frost for a classroom

Lucas Almendinger, 31, the chef at Kim Bartmann's new Loring Park restaurant the Third Bird, talked with us about the link between cooking and guitar making, his great-grandma's German dumplilngs and what he thinks about Cub's doughnuts.

The Third Bird: 1612 Harmon Place, Minneapolis; 612-767-9495; thethirdbirdmpls.com

Our first impressions of the Third Bird

When you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up? I had no idea. At one point, I wanted to be a writer. But then I didn't know for a long time, and I probably was a little jealous of people who were, like, "I want to be a dentist" from the time they were 8.

What was your first job in food? My mom opened a restaurant in my hometown of Edgemont, S.D., when I was 14 or 15. That was my first job, besides helping my dad in his construction business a little bit. The restaurant didn't last long, and I started working at another restaurant as a dishwasher. Then I was offered $1 an hour more to work at Subway.

How did you wind up in the restaurant business for good? I didn't really like it. I liked cooking, but I thought the hours were not awesome. I went to school in Phoenix to learn to build guitars.

You're the second local chef we've talked to (Corner Table's Thomas Boemer being the other) who builds guitars. Strange coincidence or natural pairing?

I think there are a lot of parallels. The guitar-building community is driven by a sense of community and a sense of craft. That's where I learned what attention to detail meant. I will never forget when I made the internal parts of a guitar in school and the instructor said, "I'm telling you there is a difference between good and great in the stuff that people never see." I remade those parts.

I think there's a parallel. Like a bowl of soup -- all the details in that bowl. Starting with a properly sweated mirepoix, building those flavors from scratch, all those things people never see. You didn't just throw it in a blender.

What's your first food memory?

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Third Bird chef had W.A. Frost for a classroom