Apparently, you can go home again.

The latest Minnesota-born chefs to sharpen their skills in New York City and return to open a restaurant, Rikki Giambruno and Paul Baker, have set up shop on Grand Avenue, with a little postage-stamp of an Italian restaurant, Hyacinth.

The space, the original home of The Golden Fig gourmet grocery store, which moved to a much bigger spot next door, is just 1,200 square feet and had no kitchen. After putting one in, there was room for just 30 regular seats and an eight-seat bar/counter overlooking the open kitchen. The small size was very much intentional, Hyacinth owner Giambruno said.

“My favorite restaurants are always those intimate, small spaces where you can feel the stories being told,” he said. “I knew right away when I saw it that this was the space.”

Indeed, there’s something really charming about the smallness, even if it sometimes feels like you’re dining with strangers because the tables are so close. The tiny size also means that the staff can pay attention to details.

“Most chefs would tell you it’s kind of easy to lose the love when you’re producing a volume of food,” Giambruno said. “As a chef, being able to cook for a more limited number of guests, it’s creating the circumstances for us to put that love, care and attention into every dish.”

Giambruno, who briefly attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to be a journalist, said he realized through a job at a Lincoln cafe that the camaraderie and creativity of the kitchen fit him better than his college major. He moved to New York City, attended the French Culinary Institute (now the International Culinary Center) and landed a kitchen job at the now-closed Corton, which had earned two Michelin stars at the time.

He did whatever was asked of him and rose through the ranks of New York kitchens, ending his tenure there at Franny’s in Brooklyn. But the idea was, always, to come home.

“(This restaurant) was always going to be a personal thing that told the story of my family’s history and our love of community and the things that great food can do for a community,” Giambruno said.

It was while working at Franny’s that Giambruno met fellow Minnesota native Baker, whom he would lure back to the Twin Cities to become Hyacinth’s chef de cuisine.

The duo is putting out a tight, ever-changing menu of refined yet homey Italian dishes. And the community is responding — expect to wait two or three weeks to get a prime-time reservation. (The restaurant does keep the eight-seat bar and a two-top open for walk-ins nightly.)

The largest portion of the menu is devoted to antipasti, or smaller appetizers, meant for sharing. It’s also where I discovered some of my favorite dishes.

Early on, there was a watermelon salad that was fresh, bright and completely of the season, each bite exploding with melon, tomato and basil flavors, with some salty cheese and little grilled peppers adding complexity.

I could not have predicted that the new seasonal salad, with celery as its main ingredient, would be just as good, if not better. Every texture and flavor is represented, and they all work in harmony: crunchy, floral celery (an entirely unsung vegetable, in my opinion), tender, earthy roasted celery root, expertly, thinly sliced pears, anise-scented pecans, salty, funky, shaved blue cheese and a tangy vinaigrette.

The thought and care put into those salads carries throughout the antipasti: crostini topped with delicata squash and goat cheese, and studded with honey, raisins and toasty hazelnuts; giant, roasted green olives, kissed with an unexpected fennel conserva; crisp arancini stuffed with generous amounts of chicken.

Pastas are fresh and flavorful, without being overwrought. A simple, brightly floral (from the peppercorns) cacio e pepe; bucatini with briny mussels, complemented by fresh and unexpected bursts of saffron and dill; a fusilli that uses kale like pesto, ricotta for creaminess and pecorino for sharpness.

The main dish (secondi) list is short, featuring just four items at a time. A tender hen, nestled upon earthy mushrooms and croutons that soak up every bit of savory goodness is comfort food at its finest. And a simple steelhead trout, cooked until perfectly flaky and paired with an elegant potato gratin, in which thinly sliced potatoes are layered, shows restraint and abundant skill.

The vegetarian offering is one of the most refreshing items on the menu: a squash risotto, rendered in a skillet until crispy and charred. It was a dish born from a 2 a.m. creative spurt in Baker’s parents’ kitchen after he returned from Minnesota. Giambruno, who had been experimenting with a Persian crispy-rice dish that same day, was instantly on board.

Desserts are worth the extra calories, too.

Everyone loved the semifreddo, balanced with savory, salty hazelnuts and topped with a wonderful, soft toasty meringue. But I couldn’t get over the perfectly creamy, ethereally light panna cotta, which is among the best I’ve had, and the perfect end to a heavy meal.

Giambruno, who comes from a large, close family, grew up with a mother who was a home cook, a gardener, and sometimes cooked professionally. There’s a newspaper clipping in one of the bathrooms of Mary Giambruno’s contest-winning recipe for boccone dolce, a layered Italian dessert.

“She was kind of the main inspiration for the restaurant,” Giambruno said.

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Restaurant updates: Jameson’s Irish Bar debuts, Tria and others reopen for dining In fact, he named it for the street he grew up on in Victoria, Minn., where his large, loud Italian family would come together at the dinner table.

Hyacinth feels a lot like that, and the Twin Cities dining scene is much better for it.

HYACINTH

Details: 790 Grand Ave., St. Paul; hyacinthstpaul.com

Prices: Appetizers, $8-$14; pastas, $16 (half) to $24 (whole); entrees, $22-$28; desserts, $8.

Good to know: The restaurant can get loud when full, and service is included in the bill, so they don’t take credit-card tips. Parking can also be tight in the area, so plan ahead or use alternate transportation.