A fairly amazing-sounding Better Beer Society brown bag series event at Butcher & the Boar, some revised menus at local restaurants, a local foodie’s epic Mother’s Day feast, tasting notes for Summit Pilsner and Steel Toe’s Provider, the Star Tribune’s Taste 50, and a new urban farm in Minneapolis.
According to @MetroMixTC, Kenwood now boasts a farm, @Aebleskiver suggests gardening with the pros as part of a “Backyard CSA” (apparently it’s all the rage), @CommonRoots invites you to an art opening on Sunday at the café (Why should you go? Art, free snacks, and happy hour), @MPR comments on Obama’s choice of beer, and @CrispinCider’s delicious new Honey Crisp Cider is coming soon to a liquor store near you!
Becca Dilley / Heavy Table
Lack of pretense can go a long way. Established in a former creamery — and boasting the tiled walls, slanted floors, and oddly divided interior space to prove it — Superior, WI’s Thirsty Pagan Brewing is a brewpub / pizza parlor that offers straight-down-the-middle Midwestern grub with little fuss. There are similar brewpubs in similar towns that overreach with curried mussels and calamari and other crap that doesn’t particularly fit the situation; TPB, if nothing else, has put together a menu of dishes that perfectly fit the atmosphere, attitude, and price range of the place.
Becca Dilley / Heavy Table
There are some cute and soulful touches to the restaurant’s interior: old Fitger’s and Hamm’s signs on the walls, for example, and a distinctive approach to serving pizza. It comes out in circular, beaten-up, high-edged pans, which help keep the deep pies coherent. The pans come out hot, so they’re put down on framed cork boards that act as giant pizza coasters. If the pizza of Thirsty Pagan had been cut into squares (rather than wedges), it would be a dead-ringer for a high-end version of Rocky Rococo — thick cheese with nice deep browning on top, a doughy but adequately cooked crust, and a bright but not overly thickly applied nor overly sweet sauce. This is Midwestern soul-food pizza, not East Coast stuff, nor Neapolitan, nor Chicago “deep-pool-of-pizza-soup.”
Becca Dilley / Heavy Table
Price is good — a 13″ and a 10″ pizza together were sufficient to (slightly overfeed) five people, at a total cost of about $27. This was supplemented by a TPB cheese bread ($8) which was a round 10-inch flat loaf of soft, cheesy garlic bread meant to be dipped in an accompanying warm marinara sauce. The marinara gets particular plaudits for being a bit spicy and not over-sweet. A number of $8 subs, including a veggie incarnation, line the menu for those not wanting to share a pizza.
Beer on offer was respectable, if not spectacular. North Coast Amber was clean and easy to drink, tasting pleasantly of malt and caramel; the hopped up, 8.6% ABV Guten Hopfen IWA (India Weiss Ale, whatever that means) was astringent and tasted strongly of grapefruit juice. A Yellow Jacket honey beer (named for the UW-Superior Yellow Jackets) tasted like a wheatier, sharper, more mature version of Leinie’s Honey Weiss. There’s no question that TPB is an ambitious brewpub, with a constantly changing rotation of offerings, a hand pump system for dispensing fresh brew, and a number of varieties inspired directly by the brewmaster’s German brew-school days.
Thirsty Pagan Brewing
(Good)
1623 Broadway St
Superior, WI 54880
715.394.2500
OWNERS: Steve and Susan Knauss
BAR HOURS:
Sun-Thu 4pm-2am
Fri-Sat 4pm-2:30am
DINING HOURS:
Sun-Thu 4-10pm
Fri-Sat 4-11pm
VEGETARIAN / VEGAN: Yes / No
AVERAGE ENTREE: $8-$12
Becca Dilley / Heavy Table
Chowhound jfood refers to himself in the third person as he credibly kneecaps The Front Cafe, tiny, charming, Nordic Ware-spawned kobold cakes, Vita.mn readers (again) refer to St. Paul as a suburb and comedy ensues [via Emily], the joy of making buttermilk sandwich bread, Simple, Good, and Tasty recaps its dinner at the Red Stag (and so does Les Petites Images), and the Strib previews Lush, a new gay bar in Northeast.
Lucia’s is adding an afternoon happy hour during the Uptown Art Fair. On August 7-9, stop by from 2:30-4:30pm for an extended bar menu, discounted wine and cocktails, and $3 tap beers. [Hat tip to dedicated reader Laura.]
Eric Faust / Heavy Table
The coffee is black, the omelets are thick, and the hash browns are plentiful. When Uncle Louis opened on November 2, 1993, they had one goal: “making the best breakfast in town.” Pizza Luce, the Amazing Grace, and Chester Creek Cafe all offer breakfasts that can rival and sometimes surpass Uncle Louis Cafe, but if you are looking for an omelet, a bottomless cup of coffee, and a hearty tablespoon of whipped butter on your French toast, Uncle Louis is the place.
Eric Faust / Heavy Table
Uncle Louis Cafe is the Duluth version of Al’s in Dinkytown. The L-shaped bar is lined with emerald green stools that give customers on the end a full view of the cooks flipping hash browns and cracking eggs. Three eggs with black olives, tomatoes, onions, and green pepper, cheddar cheese, and taco meat make up the Taco Omelet ($6.59), one of the best sellers on the menu. Served with a side of American fries or hash browns and toast, pancakes, or French toast, it is hard to believe that you can get it all for less than $7.
Other popular entrees include the eggs benedict (ham), florentine (spinach), or theodora (gyros meat). Each comes with sides. The French toast or pancakes are popular sides because of the homemade apple cinnamon syrup that are available alongside blueberry and regular syrup.
On April 19, 2007, Uncle Louis Cafe shut down after a serious fire caused by an electrical short. Customers demanded that the cafe reopen, and owner Penny Briddell worked hard to reopen as soon as possible. Half a year later — on November 2, 14 years after the original opening — Uncle Louis Cafe reopened serving up the same menu that they always have.
They have no plans to change, and people would be upset if they did. Uncle Louis Cafe is a black coffee, eggs, and hash browns kind of place that is doing everything they can to meet their goal of “serving the best breakfast in town.”
Uncle Louis Cafe
520 E 4th St
Duluth, MN 55805
218.727.4518
HOURS:
Mon-Fri 6am-2:45pm
Sat-Sun 7am-2:45pm
OWNER: Penny Briddell
ENTREE RANGE: $5-10
Yarusso-Bros. Italian Restaurant (635 Payne Ave, St. Paul) is celebrating its grand reopening this weekend, just over five months after a fire destroyed the building. Stop by to congratulate the 76-year-old institution, enter to win gift certificates, and, on Sunday, enjoy all-you-can-eat spaghetti.
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