The Strip Club Meat & Fish, is a strong contender for best restaurant in the Twin Cities.

For nearly 10 years they’ve delivered some of the best and most creative meals around.

On July 1, the restaurant will close its doors for good. Partners JD Fratzke and Tim Niver have decided to move on with other projects and didn’t extend their lease.

I’ll admit up front that I love seafood, and steak is obviously a highlight of any menu. Visiting The Strip Club was more than a treat for me — it was a sabbatical.

Since the menu is rife with expensive and cheap options, I decided to stack up a bunch of cheap stuff and then go crazy with one big item.

For an appetizer I had fried oysters, which were incredible. They were served with mizuna aioli, a Japanese mustard and a ginger coriander vinaigrette. Creative, yet simple.

Then came a bunch of sides that were cheap and delicious. The shrimp scampi is better than one can imagine a typically third-rate casserole could be. The potatoes confit were cooked slowly and were incredibly tender.

For the finale, I ordered a 10 ounce New York Strip steak served with foie gras and port wine shallot butter sauce. It was the most decadent (and expensive) thing I’d eaten in a while.

I’m a petulant child, so I order my steak cooked medium. The chef, probably confused, obliged.

It was dripping in delicious juices and each bite was better than the last. Apparently foie gras makes an excellent companion to beef. The poached carrots were tender and only lightly seasoned.

The Strip Club has an extensive cocktail selection as well. While I did not partake, the drinks are appropriately adventurous and maddeningly creative.

The Strip Club has a reverence for food. With some chefs, it can seem like they hate food and only cook to torture unsuspecting victims masquerading as “guests.” There is no reason to believe this is the case here.

The Strip Club’s ingredients are often locally farmed and cultivated. For that reason, the menu consistently changes based on farmers’ suggestions for which crops to work with next.

While my bill was big, occasionally I want to know what it’s like on the other side — where flavor isn’t a byproduct of a bland chipotle chili rub, or where ranch isn’t a natural sidekick for bacon.

At The Strip Club, I got what can only be described as the best dinner I’ve had in Minneapolis. It’s a shame it’s closing just in time for me to fall in love.

But some things come to pass.

You have three months left.

The clock is ticking.