Living Our Bucket List Life: Bethlehem: The Mint (January 2016)

My spouse and I dined at The Mint for dinner on a Saturday evening in mid-January 2016. (We have dined at The Mint several times previously in the years since it opened in June of 2011.) The Mint is open for lunch on weekdays and dinner Mondays through Saturdays (closed Sundays). We would visit more often if it were open for lunch on weekends. (Years ago, the hours were more expansive, but they must not have been profitable for the restaurant.) The Mint accepts reservations by telephone or via the Open Table reservation system, and we recommend reservations on weekend evenings because the restaurant gets very busy. The Mint is owned by the Lombardo family, who also own the Stefano’s restaurants in Bethlehem and Northampton, but The Mint does not focus on Italian food as the Stefano’s restaurants do.

The Mint is located on Broad Street several blocks from where it intersects with Eighth Avenue (so it is in West Bethlehem rather than in Downtown Bethlehem). The restaurant is located in an old bank building, and the vault remains as a private dining area. The décor is modern, with interesting contemporary lighting, purple walls and gray walls, metal chairs with purple upholstery, and greenish tile. Bright aqua doors (now with doorknockers) lead to the restrooms, although there are no signs, so unless you ask staff or see others going through the door, it is not immediately apparent. The Mint has its own parking lot, but additional street parking is available. In nice weather, you can dine on the front porch/patio, and there is also an outdoor covered lounge area in the rear of the building. The bar area is separated from the main dining area by one step (with the bar area being higher in elevation). The old vault is located off of the bar area, which also has some seats for lounging. In a nod to its original purpose as a bank building, The Mint supplies generous cloth napkins wrapped in money bands.

The Mint serves upscale American comfort food with a twist. The restaurant has changed their menu several times since it opened, so we always look forward to returning to try something new. On our most recent visit, we shared the housemade potato chips (served with an aioli dipping sauce) listed on the snacks menu, followed by the chili and doughnuts, then the BBQ duck macaroni and cheese (which also included crunchy tater tots atop the shells and below the duck) and the Seoul bowl (ramen with beef, 60-minute egg, shiitake mushrooms, bok choy, and kimchi). The Mint serves about six different types of macaroni and cheese, and our BBQ duck version was truly tasty. The ramen bowl was also good; however, it was a bit difficult to eat because although it arrived with fancy chopsticks, the restaurant provided no Asian spoon to go with them. The restaurant offered four desserts on the night that we dined, and we chose the “crack” pie, which arrived warm and topped with whipped cream. It had the taste of a pecan pie but without the nuts, and was absolutely yummy! (The portion size may seem small – a tiny pie in a size similar to a cupcake – but it is just the perfect size because of the sweetness and richness of the ingredients.

Service was very good at our last visit. The only issue that we encountered was when we tried to pay our bill using a Visa gift card that we received for Christmas, only to be told that the restaurant does not accept Visa gift cards because it “messes up their system”.

We really enjoy the atmosphere and food at The Mint; we only wish that they were open for weekend lunch hours, which better suit our needs.