To justify the cost of a 3-star Michelin meal, restaurants often turn to luxe ingredients; the ones that can feel contrived, maybe even a little vulgar. Dinner tonight at Addison’s takeover of Demi featured many of these ingredients.

Yet the uni that crowns Addison’s tentpole dish, chawanmushi, is instead an accent, yielding to silky egg custard, bok choy, and celtuce. The A5 wagyu, a Hida breed, makes an appearance, too, its unmistakable custard-like flesh juxtaposed with a dark, appealingly chewier (than expected) crust. There is caviar, but it isn’t the star of the pre-dessert. Rather, it’s a briny counterpoint to yuzu and matcha custard.

Oftentimes, the hallmark of a chef deserving of those accolades is one with a strong point of view — assuming faultless ingredients and execution. Yes, the uni doesn’t have that phantom tang; the paper-thin churro that encases chicken liver shatters in the right places; and the kampachi sashimi has precise amounts of acidity and sweetness. But Addison’s chef, William Bradley, goes further.

He forays into different cultures while grounding it in California. Which means the opening salvos — ‘California’ style salad encased in a pizza roll, that churro — may feel close to its San Diego homebase, while the other dishes venture farther: that sashimi, adorned with kiwis, preserved pear, and perilla flowers (Korea); that chawanmushi (Japan); a mi-cuit seabream in broth flecked with ginger (Southeast Asia); and that tarte tatin (France), adorned with jamon iberico (Spain?). They uniformly deliver bouts of pleasure.

None of these ideas are outrightly novel — caviar in dessert was made famous by Joshua Skenes’ banana pancakes and caviar — but need they be? Sometimes, all you need is voice. Tonight’s dinner spoke loudly, thanks to the (near) two decades Bradley molding Addison into the storied institution it is today, and to Demi for bringing this to the Twin Cities. Less