We hope you’ll get involved, pre-order a copy, and help this book come to life.

Here are the first four ideas we’ve approved for the book; keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks as we announce the other maps and essays that we’ll be publishing.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

A Taxonomy of Ice Cream Trucks and Their Songs
written and illustrated by Andy Sturdevant

Writer and artist Andy Sturdevant (MinnPost, the upcoming Potluck Supper with Meeting to Follow) tracks down some of the many ice cream trucks plying their fattening wares in the Twin Cities metro area, observes their habits in their native environment, and documents both their offerings and their maddeningly cheerful songs.

Free Smells
written by Maja Ingeman | cartographer Matt Dooley

The taste of food is only part of the equation — the mouth gets all the glamorous attention, but the nose is a key player in the experience (and the anticipation) of eating. From barbecue to bakeries to the ongoing love-hate struggle that Northfield has with the Malt-O-Meal plant, this map and essay will dig into the way food becomes vaporized and airborne, dragging us toward (or shoving us away from) it in the process.

Sarah McGee / Heavy Table

Meat Me at the Mississippi
written by Jason Walker | cartographer Matt Dooley

A carnivore road-tripper’s delight: We track down and document traditional meat markets on and near the mighty Mississippi river, from Minnesota through Wisconsin and Iowa.

Andy DuCett / Heavy Table

East Lake Street
written by Susan Pagani | illustrated by Andy DuCett

Walking down East Lake Street is the equivalent of taking a global safari; food from around the world is available, often made by and served to first-generation immigrants with a vivid sense of how to make the food they grew up with. This stroll takes the reader through some of the most delicious (and baffling, and unexpected) bites available along this central but often overlooked stretch of road. [Read this story and view its illustration right here.]

The post Greenlighted Entries for the Secret Atlas: #1-4 appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

Local food critic and cookbook author Beth Dooley is here to help us move from a sincere desire to shop and cook locally to actually using and enjoying the Minnesota foods that appear at our local markets year-round. Minnesota’s Bounty: The Farmers Market Cookbook ($29.95 paperback, University of Minnesota Press) is the latest collection of recipes from Dooley, whose The Northern Heartland Kitchen we enjoyed upon publication two years ago. As in her earlier work, which also includes 2004′s Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland, Dooley focuses on the foods native to this region, but she takes a simple, streamlined approach to recipe development. In fact, she begins the book with the declaration, “I don’t like recipes. Period.” It’s a curious comment from someone whose name is attached to three cookbooks, but as Dooley further explains, she sees the recipes in her newest tome more as suggestions than strict instructions: “Just let what is in season, what looks the best, and you own appetite be the factors that help you decide what to eat.”

With that philosophy in mind, Dooley guides readers through a typical Minnesota farmers market ingredient by ingredient, dividing her recipes among fruits, vegetables, cheese, grains, and meat and fish. The recipes fall into two categories: “quick ideas,” in which she uses only a sentence or two to suggest how to throw together a soup, salad, or vegetable toss using the featured ingredient, and longer recipes with a full lineup of ingredients and step-by-step instructions. For experienced cooks, the quick ideas will not be groundbreaking — Dooley is not the first person to suggest tossing a handful or two of cranberries into chocolate chip cookie dough — but kitchen newbies and farmers market novices may appreciate the tips. And while the full-blown recipes for everyday ingredients, such as carrots or tomatoes, also won’t be earth-shattering to anyone who subscribes to Cooking Light or has a shelf-full of veggie-centric cookbooks, everyone can appreciate the ideas for using the less-familiar foods, such as fiddlehead ferns and bitter melon.

Jill Lewis / Heavy Table

Paging through the book, it’s hard not to wish we could skip ahead to August so we could savor the corn, tomato, eggplant, and summer squash preparations Dooley details so devotedly. Our never-ending winter hasn’t brought a bounty to our local markets just yet, but a few early vegetables are ready for recipe testing. Small spring radishes are ready to travel from the market to local plates, and Dooley’s Radish, Cucumber, and Mint Salad tampers those urges to jump into the full-on heat of late summer. The crunch of the tender radishes meets its match in the cucumber, but the cherry tomatoes add a delicate sweetness, and the honey-cider vinegar dressing offers a lovely tang to round out the dish. Even non-radish fanatics can appreciate the salad’s balanced approach and freshness, thanks to the liberal sprinkling of chopped mint.

Jill Lewis / Heavy Table

A similar zing comes from the Arugula Mint Pesto, which uses up the rest of the mint purchased for the radish salad and combines it with a healthy-sized bag of peppery arugula for a springtime sauce to top grilled fish, boiled potatoes, or, of course, pasta. Those accustomed to eating exclusively basil pesto may be surprised by Dooley’s version, which offers a sharper bite that is not tempered by the pine nuts or walnuts typically found in pesto recipes. But the bright green color and zesty flavor — along with the generous handful of grated cheese — answer any doubters.

Jill Lewis / Heavy Table

The cookbook’s main dishes fare almost as well as the sides. The Heartland Brisket cooks up tender, juicy, and aromatic: It’s definitely a winter dish, but for Minnesotans, that means we can enjoy it through April. The Wild Mushroom Pasta earns a B- rather than the brisket’s solid A. While the earthy mushrooms add depth to the pasta toss, the amount of sauce proves to be too skimpy for the volume of noodles. A thicker, more luscious cream would have clung better to the pasta spirals and provided a luxurious touch to the dish without overwhelming the delicate texture of the mushrooms. While Minnesota’s Bounty offers lovely images of the ingredients at market, it lacks photos of the finished recipes, so readers don’t get a good sense of how their finished dishes compare to the intended result.

A few instances of sloppy editing mar an otherwise solid cookbook. A recipe for Honey Mustard Basting Sauce does not list honey among its three ingredients, but maple syrup mysteriously makes the lineup. Dooley describes a cascabel chili as a mild red pepper, but the following sentence states, “It can be pretty hot.” And while Dooley mentions that a few featured ingredients, such as chicories and quince, are only spotted rarely at local markets, she doesn’t offer any hints on which markets are most likely to carry these items. Those of us whose eyes light up at the idea of locally grown apricots are curious to find out.

Minnesota’s Bounty may carve few new culinary paths for cooks accustomed to using farmers market ingredients, but for the rest of us looking to maximize the value of our well-intentioned purchases (or a CSA basket that provides more kohlrabi than ever imagined) will benefit from Dooley’s intuitive, easy-to-follow recipes. Take some time to dog-ear the cookbook’s pages now to take full advantage of its ideas when market tables are bursting with mid-summer freshness. July will be here before we know it.

Beth Dooley will appear 12 pm on Wednesday, May 22, at Byerly’s, 3777 Park Center Blvd., St. Louis Park, to host a class and book signing for Minnesota’s Bounty: The Farmers Market Cookbook. A full event schedule can be found on the University of Minnesota Press website.

The post Minnesota’s Bounty: The Farmers Market Cookbook by Beth Dooley appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

DWITT / Heavy Table

The post Hoban in Eagan appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

After ordering a half slab of ribs and fried catfish at Smoke in the Pit, Powderhorn’s new takeout barbecue joint, we wondered aloud if we should get anything else. “How about smoked wings?” the friendly woman behind the counter asked. “Sure, throw in four!”

Later, while enjoying our meal in Minnehaha Park, we’d lament not ordering a dozen — or more. A beautiful leathery brown, Smoke’s juicy, salty wings are deliciously, well, smoky. Unlike the deep-fried variety, these wings pack a ton of flavor without leaving your face a greasy mess. The chicken is so flavorful that we forgot about the side of dipping sauce.

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

Dwight Alexander, pitmaster and owner (top), lets the wings steep in smoke from smoldering sweet wood, but he can’t really tell you how long it takes. An old-school, proud artisan, Alexander doesn’t use a computer, timer, or any other fancy gadgets to aid his cooking process — he just waits and waits and waits until he senses the food is done. Hence, he gives ranges of time (“Oh, four to five hours…”) when asked how long he cooks this or that meat. Both humble and confident, the wiry craftsman from Little Rock, Arkansas, absolutely refuses to char his meat over an open flame (that’s not real barbecue) and shakes his head disapprovingly over those who do.

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

Alexander’s dry-rubbed pork ribs are just as flavorful as his wings. Seven or so hours on the grill produces an exquisite bark that’s as tasty as it is attractive. The meat is lean, exceptionally smoky, and impressively moist. These are “fall-off-the-bone” ribs — the bones pull right out of the meat with a slight tug. (If you prefer your ribs to put up a bit of a fight, you’re better off getting your dry-rubbed slabs from Q Fanatic in Champlin.) Like the wings, the ribs don’t need sauce, which is a good thing since Alexander’s barbecue sauce is too sweet and one-note for our tastes. We felt similarly about the baked beans and coleslaw.

Along with barbecued meats, Smoke in the Pit offers several fried dishes. We sampled the cornmeal-crusted catfish. The coating keeps the fish moist and adds excellent texture, but it’s a little too thick, leaving the overall dish a tad dry. Since we weren’t crazy about the barbecue sauce or coleslaw, we pined for lemon or hot sauce to complement the fish. Although it wasn’t ideal, we’d order the fish again.

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

Smoke in the Pit is a great addition to the Twin Cities’ barbecue and take-out scenes. Alexander and his wife Ivy, who takes orders and keeps the ship on course, are passionate about food and committed to making their storefront a Minneapolis institution.

Although their side dishes and sauce could use some tweaking, their meats — especially those wings — are sure to earn a committed following and become staples at picnics, potlucks, and other events requiring real barbecue.

Smoke in the Pit
Take-out barbecue in Powderhorn
3733 Chicago Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55407
OWNER / CHEF: Dwight Alexander
HOURS: Mon-Thurs, 11am-8pm, Fri and Sat 11am-9pm, Sunday closed
BAR: No
RESERVATIONS: No
VEGETARIAN / VEGAN: No / No
ENTREE RANGE: $5.25-24

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

The post Smoke in the Pit in Powderhorn, Minneapolis appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

For nearly five years, we at the Heavy Table have done our best to document and support the growing culinary scene in the Upper Midwest. If you can help fund this project, it’ll go a long way to realizing our vision and helping us scale.

You can see a quick video and read more about the project on Kickstarter.

Andy DuCett / Heavy Table – CLICK TO ENLARGE

East Lake Street
Written by Susan Pagani
Illustrated by Andy DuCett

“We all have hometown appetites. Every other person is a bundle of longing for the simplicities of good taste once enjoyed on the farm or in the hometown left behind.”
— Clementine Paddleford

There are only a few, flat miles of city street between the Marshall Avenue Bridge and Highway 35 West. To the casual observer passing through it, this stretch of East Lake Street may seem like an unexceptional collection of small businesses. Yet those of us who live and work here know it to be full of gems, hardworking local shops that keep the surrounding neighborhoods vibrant, livable, and well stocked with car parts, furniture, art supplies, printing materials, tools, groceries, gas — and, yes, great meals. Contained in this short distance are myriad restaurants and the cuisines of no less than 12 countries and four continents.

When we mention that fact, people will always ask, “Where can I get the most authentic such and such dish?” To which we reply, “Who are we to say?”

In talking to chefs, bakers and producers, it seems as though recipe creation is all about food memories. There may be the classic interpretation, but when it comes to flavor and texture, chefs are forever trying to recreate the full, sensual experience of their best meals. Manny Gonzalez once told us that he had vivid memories of going out to the movies with his father as a kid in Mexico City. More often than not, they punctuated their dates with a sandwich. Manny based his famous tortas on those meals, and people who have lived or traveled in Mexico City may recognize them as authentic — others may not.

For the diner, a meal can be like coming home or it can be a brief adventure. The awesome thing about living on the East Lake Street corridor is that we have the best of both.

Kelly McManus / Heavy Table

The Craftsman Restaurant
New American

What to expect: The dining room at Craftsman is likely the most elegant spot on East Lake. Here you’ll find the eponymous tables and high-backed chairs arranged around shelves of glimmering mason jars packed with house-made pickles and boozy fruits. This spare yet comfortable aesthetic suits the menu, which features all that is good about recent trends with an emphasis on regional game meats, charcuterie, lake fish and seasonal vegetables. The food is rich, no doubt, but it is also seasoned simply to let the flavors of the ingredients shine, which gives every dish a pleasing freshness.

The drink menu deserves a note, too. Seasonal offerings feature the aforementioned infused fruits and house-made bitters and liqueurs layered in classic and original cocktails that run the gamut from dry to sparkling to sweetly dangerous.

What to eat: At brunch, we like poached eggs with a side of thick cut bacon and creamy, creamy grits and a Bloody Mary. If you favor sweets in the morning, try the brioche french toast, which is custardy on the inside without being soppy and light enough that it won’t kill the rest of your day — unless you combine it with the Summer Thyme, a refreshing, herby citrus vodka concoction that goes down like juice but packs a punch.

Now, about dinner: The Craftsman’s charcuterie absolutely sings, so meat eaters should start the cocktail hour or meal with a plate, sampling such delights as rabbit rillettes, duck prosciutto, pickled ramp and lardo on toast. For entrees, we think the pork chop is the best in town — tender, succulent meat served with a satisfying side of mashed potatoes and greens — and it’s a staple of the menu. That said, if it’s being offered as the special, we’ll always take the lake herring, a delicate but meaty fish prepared with only a modicum of fuss to preserve its clean flavor and earthy sweetness. Vegetarians might want to start with the hummus plate — which features house-made crackers and a nice selection of pickles — and then, move on to any of the housemade noodles.

What to pack: Bring along a light throw or jacket: The Craftsman has a pleasant patio with very pretty, vine-covered pergolas that keep the sun out of your eyes during the cocktail hours, but also make it a wee bit cool on spring and fall evenings.

4300 E. Lake Street
612-722-0175
craftsmanrestaurant.com

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

Parka
New American

What to expect: You may find yourself wandering through a haven of Mid-Century lamps, low-slung couches and laminated nut dishes and into white space. You may find yourself, seated at a glowing neon bar. You may find yourself ordering pot roast off a limited yet abundant hot pink menu. And you may find yourself presented with ribbons of sweet gel and savory foam under a great chalk drawing of an Inuit family. And you may tell yourself: this is not my beautiful dinner. Oh, but it is.

At Parka, molecular gastronomy is used wondrously, separating out the basic tastes of a dish, and then bringing them back together in a way that is surprisingly harmonious. Mild wasabi foam, carrots candied like sweet tarts and potpourri, and a cube of succulent beef can actually equal pot roast. Same as it ever was.

What to order: Parka is a partnership between Rustica Bakery, Dogwood Coffee and Victory 44 restaurant. If you are looking for a beautiful pastry, a loaf of bread, or a sublime cup of coffee, you’ll find them here.

Despite its otherworldly presentation, the menu is a fair representation of Minnesota’s farms, fields and streams — with fish, rabbit, cow, pig, chicken and plenty of seasonal veggies — and its cooking. For starters, we have enjoyed a luscious smoked white fish, playfully delivered in a pop-top tin can and served on twists of house-made cracker so thin we could see through them. We liked that crunch in the mix with the dish’s pickle-y condiments, sweet yuzu gel, spicy jalapeño foam, and briny roe. For entrees, we recall an elegant cube of beer-can chicken nested in a bed of popcorn-flavored polenta, fresh greens and sweet piquillo, and surrounded by speckles of hot sauce gel. Oh yes, and a little chicharron, which served as a delightfully crunchy companion to the incomparably moist chicken.

At dessert, there was a banana cream pie, deconstructed but with all the flavors present and accounted for: imagine the rich creaminess of chèvre mousse amongst tangy-sweet gelatinous cranberry, offset by the gentle vegetal flavor of celery and the crunch of apples and pecan. And then wafers of chèvre meringue, hard and flat like little river stones.

What to pack: Bring your allowance because Forage Modern Workshop, the store next door, is filled with beautiful furniture and gently used retro items you will immediately recognize — this is your beautiful home.

4021 East Lake Street
Parkampls.com

Merlin’s Rest
British Isles Pub

What to expect: Here is everything you might hope for in a pub with the name Merlin attached to it. The walls are lined with county shields from England, Ireland, and Scotland, hunkering gargoyles, and commodious booths — which face out, so you can watch locals of every age wander in, grab their beer steins from over the bar, and enjoy their neighbors for an evening.

In an age where local is king, Merlin’s Rest offers the best of the British Isles import taps, single malt scotches, and Irish whiskeys. The pub is often host to musicians, but the sound is kept to a dull roar, making it one of the few spots in town where you can hear yourself and the merry chatter of the locals as they enjoy a wee tipple or a pint or two. Best of all, there is no television!

What to eat: In addition to the above, the pub offers a few specialty drinks. We found the Merlin’s Ginger, a ginger-infused Jamison’s whiskey layered with ginger ale and bitters infinitely quaffable — well-balanced with a ginger kick and a nice herbal twist from the Angustara.

The menu is pure English pub food. With beer, we like the Scotch egg: a hearty meatball encased in a hard-boiled egg, then fried and dunked in wasabi. Huzzah! The pies are surprisingly light, with tender pastry and a fair amount of gravy, which is lovely over the side of mashed potatoes. A standout is the speyside, which combines herbed white beans and mushrooms in a rich béchamel sauce. That said, we will always order the fish and chips — the fish light, flaky and tender, the fries crisp on the outside, light and potato-y on the inside.

What to pack: Bring your encyclopedic knowledge of everything: Merlin’s Rest hosts highly competitive yet very convivial trivia nights. Mind like a sieve? Bring your wool and needles: there’s also a knitters night.

3601 East Lake Street
612-216-2419
merlinsrest.com

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table

Gandhi Mahal
North Indian

What to expect: The dining room of Gandhi Mahal is so warm and aromatic it is as if you have climbed into the tandoor. Great loops of pink and green silk hang from the gold tin ceiling, skimming richly painted orange and yellow walls festooned with mirrored elephants, whose trunks are frozen in slow time yet seem to sway.

If you are there on a weekend evening, there may be a sitar player and drummer tucked into the restaurant’s front window. Their repertory of ragas is so peaceful, so energizing, so perfectly expressive of the depth and richness of the Mughal-style sauces and the fiery complexity of the chutneys, you may feel more than content to settle into your basket of warm, housemade naan and stay a while.

What to eat: At lunch, there is a buffet we like very much. There you’ll find fragrant rice pilaf — peas, onion, and a light yogurt — over which you can layer channa chat masala, a miraculously tender chickpea curry that will set your nose running. We are also fond of the crisp potato pancakes, which are sweet and soft on the inside, and the ideal vehicle for the spicy cilantro chutney.

In the evening, the menu is bespoke, and you may specify the protein — fish, fowl, hoof, or soybean — and spice index of any sauce. The Bombay korahi featured chunks of tender goat tossed with green peppers and onions in a luxurious red curry, faintly sweet and redolent with ginger and chilies. Also intoxicating, the moghal saagwalla, a dish in which relatively simple ingredients, spinach and mint, are combined with spices to create a light, rich sauce with a gorgeous mouth feel. Buy a basket of garlic naan so you can sop up every last bit of it.

What to pack: Be forewarned: The gifted saucier at Gandhi Mahal will not condescend to your Minnesota palate. Hot is hot. Bring your arthritis, fever, common cold, vertigo, and congestion; all will be healed by the mighty capsicum pepper.

3009 27th Avenue South
612-729-5222
gandhimahal.com

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

Harriet Brewing
Microbrewery

What to expect: From the outside, Harriet Brewing looks like nondescript warehouse, but roll up the loading dock door, and inside you’ll find a mash-up of man cave, psychedelic art fair, and tasting room.

Although the brewery has earned a reputation for its beer, people also just like to hang out there — not like you do at a bar, but like you do at a friend’s house. It’s a very sweet, community-minded kind of place. Resident artist Jesse Brödd has filled the space with the same sort of art he created for the Harriet labels: vibrant, colorful pieces that seem to swirl in space.

Most evenings, there’s a woman making glass beads in the corner and a band playing some bluesy, funk, jazz folk. And sometimes, there’s just a bunch of people hanging out on the couch, listening to vinyl records and sharing a pint. It’s all good.

What to eat: In the summer, various and sundry food trucks park in the lot next to the warehouse, and dish out everything from pulled-pork tacos to spiced donuts. Otherwise, there are no bar snacks.

For beer, we once fell hard for the seasonal Sol Bock, a beer as sweet and bright as the sun itself, with plenty of malt. Of the regular offerings, we like the West Side for its citrus and cinnamon notes. Much like the heavier herbal ice teas, it’s tasty but refreshing. On the flip side, we go for the Elevator Doppelbock, which comes off bitter at first, but then melts into cocoa, toast and bananas — it’s like dessert.

What to pack: In winter, bring an admirably long beard or an awesome knit cap. You’ll fit in like a native and you’ll be warm — not a lot of heat at the warehouse. In summer, take it all off and bring an umbrella; by 4 p.m., the sun hits that loading dock door like a laser beam.

3036 Minnehaha Avenue
612-315-4633
harrietbrewing.com

Teppanyaki Grill & Supreme Buffet
Asian Buffet

What to expect: Suspend your disbelief or this will never work out. You must believe that there is a grotto paradise, where triceratops, black adders, and miniature monkeys live in peace, cavorting among waterfalls and miniature Dutch windmills. They eat plentifully from an arbor of green grapes and crimson chili peppers, and do not think to explore beyond their own bamboo forest.

But you will venture out of the restaurant’s waiting area and beyond the grotto because you are not afraid to face the Supreme Buffet. You know that General Tso’s chicken, wakame salad, and kielbasa can also live in timeless harmony. You trust that in nearly 100 feet of warming tray, there is something you want to eat. It may have traveled a million frozen miles to get here, but you are determined to find it fresh, steaming hot, and delicious. And, despite all of the humanity — the hundreds of tiny, snot-fingered kids — who have peered into it, sampled it, and slopped it onto their plates, you know it will safe to eat. You will inhale ten dollars worth of it, and you will feel contented.

What to eat: Eat whatever calls to you. In keeping with a buffet that defies all order and logic, our list is rather random. A cold cucumber salad dressed with Szechuan peppers was fresh, bright, and lip-burningly hot. It was lovely with a donut hole rolled in sugar. The sushi rolls were all palatable, and a five-spice teriyaki chicken kabob was moist and tasty. The prime rib and mashed potatoes recalled TV dinners we have thoroughly enjoyed.

Our advice: Though their glowing red sauces beckon from across the dim dining room, do not eat the crawfish or the glazed bananas. If you must eat seafood, focus instead on the fourteen (14!) shrimp dishes available.

For dessert, there is ice cream. Although they are next to the sprinkles, don’t be fooled into putting a crouton on your mint chocolate chip — the garlic undermines anything you gain in crunch. Do try the mocha torte: t is deeply satisfying to slip your fork through the layers of cake and cream, and the whole is melt-in-your mouth, box-cake delicious.

What to pack: Bring a helmet, kneepads and your motion sickness bracelet — the parking lot is completely gonzo, and you will be lucky to find and exit your space without incident.

2216 E Lake Street
612- 728-3838

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

La Alborada Market
Mexican

What to expect: At midday, La Alborada is bustling. Staff are already restocking displays — glass bottles of coke, cactus paddles, piles of bananas and bolillo rolls — and there’s a line out the door for Antijitos Mexicanos. If you ask the owner, Orlando Cruz, he’ll tell you that the folks here are coming for more than their groceries: they are coming for tradition, to get a little bit of home. Accordingly, along with the fresh produce and baked goods, he stocks a fair amount of imported goods, candy, spices, horchata and the like.

The market has an old world ambiance: murals depict women in rustic kitchens, embroidered blouses slipping from their shoulders as they roll tortillas, and arched transitions, wooden display boxes and wagon wheels suggest an outdoor market. In the tiny Antojitos Mexicanos, you’ll find just a few tables, but look up: above the door is a full-size buggy hitched to a fiberglass cow.

What to eat: There are plenty of good sweets in the panaderia, but we’re here to talk about Antojitos Mexicanos and snacks. The barbacoa taco offers a sweet, mildly hot, very tender shredded beef. Add a dollop of green salsa and a few slices of radish, and it’s possible to polish off three in a matter of seconds. The carne asada taco delivers a rich mouth feel and char flavors, just right with a heap of bright, sweet cilantro and grilled onions.

Of the classic corn-husked tamales, we like the jalepeno-cheese, filled with a deceptively hot, smoky red salsa, slices of pepper, and, surprise, a squeaky chunk of curd-like anejo cheese. The pork oaxaquenos tamale is heaven in a banana leaf, featuring a mildly spicy pulled pork and unbelievably creamy white polenta. It goes down like a savory pudding, the ultimate comfort food.

What to pack: Bring your Spanish speaking skills, as there are few English speakers working at the market. Otherwise, bring your patience. The folks at La Alborada are warm and helpful; you will get your snacks.

1855 East Lake Street
888-311-1671
laalborada.com

La Poblanita
Mexican

What to expect: The quintessential hole-in-the-wall, La Poblanita will never draw you in with its ambiance. The charm of its wall mural — where a fellow gazes out from beneath his hat, ever hopeful of the pretty lass sitting on his flower-laden raft — is overwhelmed by the proximity of the galley kitchen, where fluorescent lights illuminate a laminated menu of plated botanas Mexicanas and a radio announcer’s lightning fast trill introduces a blast of musica, musica, musica.

But close your eyes: In the steam wafting out of the kitchen is corn, toasty and sweet. Here the chefs make each tortilla to order. Cooked on the grill, they are thick, imperfect circles that add a tender, less chewy, texture and a robust flavor to everything. Who needs white tablecloths and moody lighting? Lets eat.

What to eat: Every taco has its pleasures, but here we especially like the chorizo, which has a wonderful heat, smoky paprika and cumin flavors, and a rich, unctuous mouth feel – yet is not as oily and salty as is typical of the sausage.

We’d like to live in a pupusa. Essentially a handmade tortilla pouch filled with refried beans and mozzarella cheese, it is deeply satisfying with a generous heap of salsa (we like to mix the mild tomatillo with the smoky, mouth-searing red stuff). It comes with a warm coleslaw of carrots and cabbage, which adds a piquant note to the meal and cuts some of the pupusa’s fried goodness.

What to pack: Bring your most woeful day. Fresh corn tortillas are comfort food extraordinaire; a wonderful if fleeting cure for heartbreak and enmity.

1617 East Lake Street
612-253-8898

Ingebretsen’s
Scandinavian Deli

What to expect: Surely, Ingebretsen’s is the most cheerful sight on East Lake Street. With its pale blue and yellow facade, it resembles a giant Scandinavian hope chest decorated with folksy rosemaling flowers and scrolling hindeloopen — it’s so inviting, you want to take a peak.

Inside, it’s cozier than a Danish pancake. Here is everything you love about Scandinavian homes, from the understated Danish candlesticks to wonderfully complex, brilliantly colorful textiles. Looking for a critter? Here are round-nosed and admirably bearded Swedish nissar and Finish Moomintrolls — plus some really fabulous felted cats. Viking helmet? Yes. Whittling kit? Yes. Stieg Larsson? You betcha.

There’s something for everyone: How better to express your Scandihoovian dog’s snowbound lament than a “Wuf Dah!” water bowl?

What to eat: Ingrebretsen’s deli is piled high with canned fish balls, boxes of Korni flat bread, and blankets of lefse. In the refrigerator, you’ll find a fine assortment of prepared foods, such as baked beans, Swedish meatballs and pickled herring. We like the fruit soup, a stew of prunes, peaches, apricots, and raisins that tastes like pie filling and gives our oatmeal and yogurt a renewed sense of life.

The fellows behind the meat counter are rather famous, having dedicated nearly 100 combined years to butchering, smoking, and curing meats. While many will avow their hams are the best in town, we favor the Danish wieners. 25-percent pork, 75-percent beef, they are linked in long strands and produce a deeply satisfying snap when you bite into them. Also commendable: the lamb loaf, which bakes up juicy, with a nice caramelized mustard crust across the top. It has a savory, sausage-like flavor that holds its own at dinner – but is especially good in sandwiches the next day.

What to pack: Bring a snack: there’s no dining in at Ingebretsen’s, and to shop there on an empty stomach would be a mistake. If you do arrive hungry, bring a commodious bag.

1601 East Lake Street
612-729-9333
ingebretsens.com

Qoraxlow
Somali

What to expect: Were it not for the friendly fellows behind the counter and a pastry case filled with sambusa, one might think the dimly lit restaurant had long been closed. It’s booths and tables hold nary a napkin, table tent or condiment, and the walls are simply adorned with a shadow box papered in tropical fish.

Don’t let this spare aesthetic or the lack of menus turn you away. Approach the counter, and one of the staff will ask you to choose a protein: goat, chicken, or beef. He’ll tell you that it comes over rice and is served with soup, a fresh banana and your choice of drink, sodas or mango juice.

You may not be offered sambusa — delectable, fried triangles of ground meat and chili peppers — so speak up if you want some. And then find a table: you’re in for a treat.

What to eat: We were served a very simple beef stew. It had a spicy kick, but was otherwise reminiscent of the stuff we grew up with here in Minnesota. It came with a wedge of lime, which helped to cut the salty richness of the broth — as did the giant pitcher of mango juice that arrived with our meal.

The meats came on large platters, heaped with well-nigh addictive rice that was turmeric yellow and wonderfully aromatic with cumin, cardamom, and sage. Slivers of dried apricot and whole peas added texture and sweetness. The waiter announced with a sly smile that the chicken was better than chicken because it was chicken steak — and so it was! Beautifully charred, it was millimeters thick and yet still juicy and flavorful. We also enjoyed chunks of bone-in goat. Basted in a spicy, coriander-tomato sauce, it was fork-tender and delicious.

The banana was a surprisingly nice addition to these savory delights, providing another starch, slightly sweet and perfectly ripened.

What to pack: An open mind. No menus means no prices; however, our generous meal came to a very reasonable twenty dollars. If you are female, Somali or otherwise, you may be asked to eat in a separate space. Non-Somali couples may also be sequestered. And, it is quite possible that if you dine at dusk, one or two Muslims might roll out mats and perform the evening prayer. Feel free to set your fork down — the prayer ends in mere moments, and your food will still be warm.

1201 East Lake Street
612-822-4480

Dur Dur Bakery & Market
East African

What to expect: The aisles of Dur Dur market feel something like an East African Costco, stripped down and utilitarian – and filled with the staples of home cooking that are useful to have in bulk.

Explore rows and rows of safflower oil, ghee, mango pulp, French lentils, East African spices and milk powder in family-size containers. There is honey, so much honey, for your tea and your health — restore mirth, increase hemoglobin, prevent osteoporosis! At the back of the store is a butcher, offering a variety of halal meat; though, perhaps not for consumers because the display case is empty and there is no signage.

You might like to take home a burlap sack of basmati rice, imprinted with lions or flowers. They have handles and zippers and are the perfect size for carrying a pocket novel and sandwich to the park. Etsy will be mad with envy.

What to eat: Everyday, various and sundry East African bakers deliver fresh bread and pastry to Dur Dur. We tasted the influence of Italian East Africa, a briefly existing colony that included Ethiopia and Somali in the late 1930s, in some of the pastries. Tender, crumbly shushumow cookies are deep fried and coated in sugar syrup. They taste like fried Italian shortbread and go down easy with a cup of coffee. We also enjoyed korsanyo, a super soft egg bread that is folded like a croissant and filled with vanilla pudding.

Dur Dur also sells locally made hombasha — a slightly sweet Ethiopian flat bread, which is lovely at breakfast — and injera, a gluten-free, sourdough bread that resembles a porous crepe and is delicious wrapped around salads and saucy stews.

What to pack: A notepad: If you are looking for a specific spice or ingredient and don’t speak Somali or Ethiopian, it can be enormously helpful to write down what you need.

1552 East Lake Street
612-721-9449

Mercado Central
Mexican

What to expect: Created as a place for Latino entrepreneurs to make their start — such as the popular Manny’s Tortas — Mercado Central has transformed what was once a row of dilapidated buildings into three floors of successful businesses, including folk art, fashion, candy and some of the city’s best Mexican food.

Along the way, the Mercado has become a cultural center for the community. Most weekends, it is packed with milling shoppers. Around meal times, folks line up to buy tacos, tortas, tamales and other assorted goodies, winding through the tables and into the corridors. In the dining room, every wall is painted a different color. On a sunny day, it fills with light, and there’s a celebratory din about the place as families visit and sit down to a meal together.

What to eat: We like to start with a bowl of pozole from La Perla. Here the hominy is submerged in a sublime chicken soup, which much like pho, can be doctored up with sides of fresh onion, jalapeños, lime, radish and cilantro. While you are there, buy some corn and flour tortillas to take home (if they are warm, eat a few before sticking them in the refrigerator).

Next, we’ll wander over to La Hacienda for alambre carnitas, which is a plate of mini corn tortillas smothered with a concoction of smoky pulled pork and bacon, sautéed onions and green peppers, and cheese. It is glorious, but huge: one serving will feed two people.

What to pack: Bring some of that green, folding money as many of the vendors do not accept plastic or checks.

1515 East Lake Street
612-728-5401

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

Midtown Global Market
Variety

What to expect: Walking through Midtown Global Market, it’s possible to get very turned around. Even a person with a reasonable sense of direction can spend a fair amount of time looking for a booth they visited once before and end up never finding it.

You could ask someone, but where’s the fun in that? Wander a bit, and you will stumble upon all kinds of good eats, tucked in amongst the perfumeries and mirrored pashminas.

An egg the color of a latte, plucked from the nest of a happy Minnesota chicken. Beef tongue lovingly marinated in peppers and then tucked into a corn tortilla. A beady-eyed lobster, madly waving his red limbs and rubber bands. Here a plate of fried sambusa; there a cardamom-laden krumkake cone.

You may get lost, but you won’t go hungry.

What to eat: Such is the wealth of good food that you must develop your own progressive approach. From Manny’s Tortas, we fancy the special: a French roll spread with chipotle mayo and refried beans, and then layered with ham, steak, cheese, chile peppers and grilled veggies. It sounds unwieldy, but it’s actually remarkably balanced.

At the Left Handed, we love the orange-y overtones of the brussel sprouts, which are braised with garlic and bacon. The poutine looks a mess, but is in fact amazing. In a small, checkered to-go boat, curried gravy, poached egg and cheese are combined to create a pungent, creamy sauce that, when combined with crispy pork and French fries, is as delicious as it is weird.

For dessert, we go to the Salty Tart. If we are stuffed, a wee coconut macaroon — toasty, chewy, dense, and tender — is just right. If we have space, the bakery’s chocolate brownie is best in class, with a crisp crust that gives way to a moist, cocoa interior. And of course, the cream-filled brioche is a magic trick: a slightly salty, very light bread, filled with custard cream and coated in sugar.

What to pack: Bring your kids! In the center of the market is a stage that, at any given time, may be occupied by highly entertaining bands, mimes, or poets. And a bib for yourself: the torta’s juices are guaranteed to roll down your chin and wrists.

Midtown Global Market
2929 Chicago Avenue South

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The post Preview: The Secret Atlas of North Coast Food appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

If there was any doubt that the Twin Cities has established itself as a forerunner in the national food scene then last weekend surely diminished it. Three Minnesotans had just returned as winners designated by the James Beard Foundation, Andrew Zimmern and Anthony Bourdain were at the State Theater for Bourdain’s Guts and Glory tour (Zimmern being one of the JBF awards recipients), and the eighth — and sold out — North Coast Nosh was in full swing at the newly renovated American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis.

More than 35 local purveyors, restaurateurs, brewers, and roasters lined the exterior of the sun-soaked ballroom with delights ranging everywhere from small sippers of Aquavit to whoopie pies to — as expected now with every Nosh event — sausages and cheese. The room was full, the samples generous, and the participants jovial. And even though there were mild threats of getting down to skivvies by those manning the Modern Cafe booth (let’s blame the bourbon punch they were serving alongside the smoked paprika sauasge and celery root slaw) the night was really just good, clean, filling fun. There was a solid sense of community and support — two traits Minnesotans are noted for — as it was common to see cross-promotion between booths (such as Kalona SuperNatural half & half in cups of Peace coffee) as well as purveyors darting around the room to taste (and promptly compliment) samples from one another.

(Below, left to right: Saint John’s Abbey, Sweet Science Ice Cream, Caves of Faribault, and Verdant Tea.)

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

For the second time, Nosh attendees had the option to upgrade their tickets to a special Pre-Nosh (pictured above): an intimate presentation of four local purveyors. This event’s included Caves of Fairbault cheeses, samples from St. John’s Abbey’s self-sustaining food community, a generous dollop of Sweet Science Roasted Cherry Chocolate Chunk ice cream, and a sampling of Verdant Teas.

Pre-Nosh purchasers spent roughly 20 minutes in four different rooms, each dedicated to a different purveyor. Rueben Nilsson of Caves of Fairbault passed out plates with five different cheese samples of varying ages: Alemar Blue (75 days), Gorgonzola (94 days), St. Pete’s Select (116 days), and two reserve cheeses (207 days and 270 days). Not only did Nilsson cover the taste and texture behind each cheese, he covered the science behind its production. “You want protein breakdown because it adds smoothness to your cheese,” he said as he described the reserve cheeses. “I’d pair any of our cheese with a porter-style beer. I really like it paired with Indeed Brewery’s Midnight Ryder or Summit Oatmeal Stout.”

(Below, left to right: Fulton Beer, 45th Parallel Spirits, Barbette, Golden Fig, Fresh Bar, Cocoa and Fig, Fika at the American Swedish Institute, Kaveli Foods, Thousand Hills Cattle Company and Chowgirls Killer Catering, and Boom Island Brewing Company.)

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

A trio of presenters covered the sustainable food ecosystem at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville. “We’ve always been a self-sustaining community,” says Lew Grobe. “We even have our own fire department because we’re in our own zip code.” Nosh-ers sampled maple syrup tapped from their collection of 1,000 maple trees and learned about the effects of climate on food sources. “Last year we only had 30 gallons of syrup because of the mild winter. This year we had 600,” says Grobe. The syrup isn’t for sale because of the limited production and St. John’s donates their bottles. One ticket holder won one.

Ashley Olds of Sweet Science ice cream shared her lifelong love of ice cream. “I recently found a photo of myself at age five wearing a T-shirt with the words ‘ice cream’ written across it,” she says. Sweet Science isn’t available in retail yet. Olds is hosting monthly tasting events at the Foodcrafters Collective retail space in St Paul. She encourages tasters to arrive early. Last month almost 500 people came to taste, with a line going out the door and down the street. The next event will be hosted in a warehouse with accompanying live music.

(Below, left to right: Bad Weather Brewing, Gnocchi.me, Triple Crown BBQ Sauce, Gamle Ode Aquavit, Bread Star Rising, Gerhard’s Brats, and details from the American Swedish Institute, Saint John’s Abbey, and Peace Coffee.) 

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

David Duckler and his team at Verdant Tea discussed the origin of their line of teas. Duckler had received a grant from the CIA to interview Chinese farmers about their origins and was inspired to connect the farmers and their tea leaves directly to his peers at home. “I went there as a student of literature and philosophy and came back as a student of something else,” he says. Samples included an earthy, grounding, fresh-picked spring green tea and an oolong from northern China. Verdant also revealed their plans to open a tea bar in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis in June.

And in brief… a tour of North Coast Nosh VIII. 10,000 Licks offered bite-sized popsicles in three flavors, including chocolate sea salt. Just next door the pair behind Gnocchi.me were pan-frying warm plates of potato gnocchi with 10,000 Hills short rib and parmesan gremoulade. Next stop, three selections from Gamle Ode Aquavit (including a punchy dill-infused flavor). Barbette wowed with half-dollar sized bites of crunchy pied du cochon croquettes with a sweet gribiche sauce. Petite Sweets Pastries had a table filled with five different flavors alongside tiny shots of milk with polka dot straws. There were whoopie pies, Bourbon Butterscotch, and their own take on horchata — which was kind of like rice pudding sandwiched between two moist cookies. “I’m the scientist and he’s the taste tester,” joked owner Melissa Gallant of her boyfriend (who was helping man the booth).

(Below, left to right: Badger Hill Brewing Company, Corner Table, Angie’s Artisan Treats, Sassy Nanny Farmstead Cheese, Patisserie 46, Wild Run Salmon, and 10,000 Licks.)

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

Bad Weather Brewery served two of their three beers: Windvane red ale and Migration blonde ale. “As of right now I think we’re the newest brewery in town,” says co-owner Joe Giambruno. FIKA (the cafe within the ASI building) served small bites of compressed cucumber with creme fraîche, shallot jam, radish, and dill pollen. A new food start-up called Kaveli was on hand with samples of their pre-packaged Indian cooking blends — including a spinach-and-potato pakora fritter and their take on tandoori chicken and naan. And what would a North Coast Nosh be without the Corner Table? In addition to the standard and popular pâté en croûte there were samplings of three-hour smoked pork sausage alongside sweet corn madelines and remoulade. Stack them together and it’s their version of an open-faced sandwich. At the end of the night attendees trickled out, buzzing about their favorite stories, tastes, and sips.

(Below, left to right: Modern Cafe, Lucid Brewing, Petite Sweets Pastries, Crapola Granola, Fika Coffee of Grand Marais, Kalona Supernatural, Alemar Cheese, Joia Soda, and Peace Coffee.)

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

The post North Coast Nosh VIII: The Recap appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

Dale Yasunaga / Heavy Table

The two restaurants have decidedly different atmospheres. The original location in White Bear Lake (above, top) is dressed in warmer wooden and brass tones. The chairs gave a sense of patio seating with extra cushioning. The darker tones would likely give way to a more intimate feel for diners once the sun had set. On the other hand, the Forest Lake location (above, bottom) was far more open and bright. Large windows on various sides of the main dining room filled the space with light. The seating felt sturdier and more apropos for a restaurant, but the pattern of the booths did feel a tad dated.

Menus at both locations were quite similar. Both offered a wide variety of wines and specialty cocktails. The overall formats of the menus were identical, with just a few variations. Both locations offered a 3-course tasting — which drew selections from the regular menu — with a choice of starter, entree, and dessert. The tasting menu in White Bear Lake was more expensive ($40 vs. $30 in Forest Lake) but the selection of entrees seemed to provide more substantial and refined choices. Despite the similarity of the menus and styles of food, our experience from one location to the other was dramatically different.

Dale Yasunaga / Heavy Table

Our first experience with Acqua was in the new Forest Lake location, which opened four weeks ago. Both locations offered house bread (above, top left) that was warm and soft on the inside while crisp on the outside. The Crema di Funghi (above, top right, $10 a la carte), while nicely presented, was overly salty. The flavors of parsley and Hen-of-the-Woods mushrooms were masked by the level of saltiness. Salt and cream were the prominent flavors, which made the soup reminiscent of canned cream-of-mushroom.

The Mela Parmigiano (above, bottom left, $10 a la carte) was a salad of apples, shaved fennel, Parmesan-Reggiano, and chive. The mild licorice-like taste of fennel was non-existent. The Parmesan-Reggiano added a slight balance of salt to the salad, but the juices from the apple eventually mixed with the cheese and created a mushy texture. Since the apple comprised the vast majority of the plate, the salad ultimately tasted solely of apple with the occasional burst of cheese.

The most successful starter we sampled in Forest Lake was the Pettine e Foie Gras (above, bottom right, $15). The cooking of the scallop and foie gras was excellent, and the flavor combination of seafood, offal, and the wine reduction was varied and delicious. However, the experience suffered once again due to over-salting.

Dale Yasunaga / Heavy Table

The strong opening courses of our visit to the White Bear Lake location stood in contrast to the lackluster experience we had in Forest Lake. An order of Mitili (above, left, $15) presented us with a delightful bowl of large Prince Edward Island mussels in a broth of garlic, onion, Parmesan, and cream. The mussels were aromatic and carried with them a slight sweetness along with a sense of the sea. The broth was rich, creamy, and full of flavor. We troubled our server for additional orders of bread to enjoy the remainder of the broth long after the mussels were gone.

The second plate was a salad of roasted beets, greens, and fried lemon-honey goat cheese. While the effect of roasting the beets was not felt on the palate, they still contributed a welcomed sweetness to the salad. The slight bitterness of the greens worked to balance the dish. The real star of this plate was fried goat cheese, which was simultaneously rich and sweet with a pop of citrus. Eating all the components together highlighted the freshness and balance of flavor in the salad.

Dale Yasunaga / Heavy Table

The contrast between the two locations would be felt again in our entree course. The roasted half chicken with mushroom risotto and pan sauce (above, top left, $20 a la carte at Forest Lake) featured a well-cooked portion of chicken. The chicken was tender and moist, even in the breast sections. The pan sauce provided additional savoriness along with a concentration of poultry flavor. Sadly, the risotto’s execution worked against the other components of the dish. The risotto was unevenly prepared, with varying levels of textures from mushy to hard. The risotto was also bland and severely under seasoned.

Our second entree in Forest Lake was a bowl of spaghetti and tiger shrimp (above, top right, $20 a la carte) with tomato, white wine, garlic, lemon, and Parmesan. The dish had an overwhelmingly strong presence of acidity from the combination of tomato, lemon, and white wine that overpowered all other flavors. The proper cooking of the shrimp became moot in the presence of an otherwise single-note dish. This would end up being the least successful dish we sampled: one that we could not bring ourselves to finish.

Turning back to White Bear Lake, we once again experienced something entirely different. The first entree for this visit was the evening’s special, a beautifully grilled piece of Scottish Salmon (above, bottom left, $28). The fatty quality of the salmon was preserved through proper execution, which allowed the flavor of the fish to shine. The salmon was accompanied by a crispy risotto cake, sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke, and a lemon oil sauce. The acidity and sharpness of the lemon and sun-dried tomato smartly balanced the fat of the salmon. This was by far our favorite dish between both visits.

The Ossobuco (above, bottom right, $26) is a mainstay of Acqua’s menu and one of the more popular entrees. The generous portion of braised pork shank was served alongside white sweet potato puree and a port demi-glace. The pork shank was braised perfectly. The pork fell from the bone with ease and had a fatty, tender texture. The savoriness of the pork shank was enhanced by the port demi-glace, while the potato puree provided a layer of sweetness to round out each bite.

Dale Yasunaga / Heavy Table

Both locations have the same small selection of desserts. In Forest Lake we had started with the chocolate hazelnut semifreddo with dark chocolate ganache (above, top left, $8). The dessert was dense and rich; the slight nutty flavor of hazelnut matched well with the bitterness of chocolate. However, we did find the dessert to be a bit one-note. The chocolate souffle with toasted marshmallow and graham cracker ice cream (above, bottom, $8) was both the most interesting and the most flavorful dessert we had sampled. While the souffle was on the dry side, perhaps overcooked, it did have an intense chocolate flavor that matched well with the rest of the plate. The toasted marshmallow “sauce” and graham cracker ice cream provided subtle sweetness alongside an underlying nutty flavor.

The butterscotch budino with caramel (above, top right, $8) was the end to our meal in White Bear Lake. It did not have as firm a consistency as we had expected. In fact, it was quite runny and did not have any other textural contrast. Texture aside, we did enjoy the sweet and salty combination of butterscotch and caramel.

It is important to note that many of these dishes exist on both location’s menus. Through our experience dining in both restaurants, it was apparent that the new Forest Lake location and its staff were in need of more time to practice the correct flow of timing, service, and execution from the kitchen.

In the end both locations offer an experience of contemporary Italian cuisine in a comfortable and relaxed setting. Now that winter is behind us, the lakeside atmosphere and views of both locations will soon provide diners with a beautiful backdrop to enjoy a meal. It was easy for us to see why Acqua’s original location in White Bear Lake has enjoyed success since its opening; The food there is well-executed, full of flavor, and interesting. While we did not enjoy our visit to Forest Lake due to the great inconsistency of the food, it is our hope and belief that it will one day mirror White Bear Lake’s success.

Acqua
Contemporary Italian in White Bear Lake and Forest Lake, MN
White Bear Lake: 2.5 out of 4 stars (Good) | Forest Lake: 1 out of 4 stars (Notable)

Acqua White Bear Lake

651.407.7317
HOURS: Tuesday to Sundays, 5:00pm-10:00pm

Acqua Forest Lake

651.464.6130
HOURS: Tues. to Fri., 5pm-10pm; Sat., 11am-10pm; Sun., 11am-9pm

OWNERS / CHEF: Daren Close, Nicole Whetzel, Chris Walen / Chris Walen
RESERVATIONS / RECOMMENDED: Yes / Yes
VEGETARIAN / VEGAN: Limited / Limited
ENTRÉE RANGE: $20-$35

The post Acqua in White Bear Lake and Forest Lake appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

The wrapper around Bernatello’s new Lotzza Motzza Brew Pub Pizza promises over a half pound of Wisconsin cheese; the product’s website states that the pizza is “…for the Hungry Man! No weak stomachs allowed! You better be ready to Man-Up! A Serious Pizza Coma is in your Future!”

Challenge accepted.

This new Wisconsin-made premium frozen pizza packs a price commensurate with its hefty load of lactic goodness: we paid $8 for a pepperoni Brew Pub Pizza at Kowalski’s.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

After 20 minutes in the oven, the pizza came out looking like something from a 1970s horror film — brown and orange, melty, threatening and comic in equal proportions. The good news is that the company doesn’t bluff about its cheese: there are piles of it on this pizza, and it’s of reasonable quality — a bit oily, but properly salty with some stretch and flavor.

The bad news is that the developers of Brew Pub decided to offer “more than half a pound of Wisconsin cheese!” and then essentially quit there. The crust is of the thin, undistinguished, cracker-like variety, and brings nothing to the party except for structure. The tangy-but-garden variety sauce would be decent on any other conventional frozen pizza, but in this context it’s lost under the avalanche of cheese, buried like a red mitten in a blizzard. Pepperoni also went completely missing in action under the snowdrift of cheese.

So, cheesy, yes. Pizza coma, sure. Good pizza, no. William Blake wrote that “the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom”; if that’s truly the case, we can expect version 2.0 of Lozza Mozza Brew Pub to be a perfectly balanced home run of a pizza.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

The post The Lotzza Motzza Brew Pub Pizza appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

Brenda Johnson / Heavy Table

Celebrities endorse it. There’s a cancer therapy center dedicated to it. Even Starbucks Corp. has jumped in on it with their recent acquisition of a cold-pressed juice brand. And now Minnesota boasts its first fully-dedicated fresh-pressed juice bar. Truce (a cheeky portmanteau of true and juice) opened in late April in Uptown Minneapolis. Consume a heaping plate full of raw fruits and vegetables or quickly chug its equivalent from a $9, 16 ounce pre-packaged bottle? Dealer’s choice.

Co-owners and Minnesota natives Blaire Molitor (above left) and Allie Pohlad (above right) met during high school and later reconnected whilst they were both contemplating next steps after graduate school (Molitor in International Development and Pohlad in Holistic Health). The duo met for lunch and upon finishing their meal agreed that the best way to complete their meal would be with a fresh-pressed juice. “My friends took me to this small pressed juice place in Los Angeles that’s been around since 1979. I had an apple lemon ginger juice and was hooked,” says Molitor. “We both had been shipping in juices from Los Angeles and New York City at crazy shipping prices and we knew a ton of other people who were doing the same. We both love Minneapolis and felt that a place that is constantly on the top of ‘healthiest cities’ lists should have access to one of the best things you can do for your body.”

Brenda Johnson / Heavy Table

Enter Truce. It’s a clean and simple storefront just four blocks off Lake Calhoun Parkway and less than two blocks from the busy Lake St / Hennepin Ave intersection. Much like the branding, the space is clean and simple: all white subway tiles with a chalkboard menu. Truce uses a large-scale hydraulic press based on the Norwalk method. Translated to home juicers, this means less air and more juice in the bottle. Much like the open-kitchen concept adopted by many upscale restaurants, the press is fully visible to customers via a glass door. If you visit early enough you might catch pounds upon pounds of fruits and vegetables meeting their maker as they’re shredded and pressed (think tons of pounds of pressure) to extract as many vitamins, minerals, and juices as possible.

At the time of this writing, Truce offers six different juice combinations. Three of those are dedicated fully to greens. They all have a kale and spinach base and are incrementally sold at levels ranging from beginner’s all the way up to “Hardcore Greens” (a thick and hearty concoction without any hint of sweet and it tastes… like the ultimate health drink). But if you identify yourself as “hardcore” and are looking to add the tangy heat of ginger extract to your brew, go down a level to “Morning Greens” — a cooling and slightly sweeter alternative. The “AMP” is built for a sweet tooth, though the crisp burst of mint barricades it from entering a syrupy territory. Although the juices are meant to supplement your diet or act as detoxifiers, a few could actually double as an alternative for someone working to curb their desserts.

Brenda Johnson / Heavy Table

Detox cleanses will ultimately be offered at one- to five-day intervals (priced at $50 per day) and two different levels. “Take it Easy” for the novice juicer and “Make a Truce” for a heavier focus on greens. “We have a cleanse guide that walks people through what to do leading up to the cleanse and how to safely come off of it, and we are always here to answer specific questions,” says Molitor. “So far the reaction has been great – juicing is one of the easiest ways to improve your overall well being, and we’re here to make it more convenient for everyone. We of course support juicing at home, but it can be messy and time consuming – I think those familiar with juicing are well aware of this so are very welcoming of someone doing the work for them,” she says.

Molitor describes the thought process behind the shop’s juice offerings: “From the start we knew what we liked and what we didn’t like – we wanted to be able to taste each individual ingredient in each juice – never having one overpowering flavor. We also didn’t want any of them to be overly sweet or bitter. We tasted every pressed juice we could get our hands on and made notes on what worked and what didn’t. We then tested recipes over and over again until we were happy with the flavor balance. We had friends and family taste them to get additional feedback. Everyone is looking for something different – some people hate ginger, some want extra – so we tried to appeal to as many varying tastes as possible.”

Brenda Johnson / Heavy Table

Molitor and Pohlad are walking advertisements of the benefits of juicing and are eager to share them with the local public. Both attribute juicing to warding off sickness, boosting energy, and even clearing their skin. “The word that comes to mind is vibrancy: since beginning a regular juicing routine I think we have both felt more energized, grounded, and generally well,” says Molitor.

Flavors:

Beginner’s Greens: kale / spinach / apple / lemon
Morning Greens: kale / cucumber / spinach / romaine / apple / lemon / ginger
Hardcore Greens: kale / cucumber / spinach / chard / parsley / lemon
Roots: carrot / orange / ginger / beet
Vacay: carrot / lime / coconut
AMP: apple / mint / pineapple
House-made Almond Milk and a variety of smoothies will be available soon.

Brenda Johnson / Heavy Table

The post Truce in Uptown appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

Let’s play with a metaphor for just a moment: If you think of St. Paul’s newly renovated, 40,000-square-foot Cossetta’s Italian market complex as a massive, economically significant cannoli, then its newly opened Pasticceria is the sprinkling of miniature chocolate chips on either end of the pastry.

It’s the eye candy that sells the whole package; the sweetness atop the sweetness that equals luxury; and it’s that little bit of something extra that seals the deal. Amid the comfort food of meatball hoagies and the daily staples like salami and olive oil in the market, the colorful cakes and innumerable butter cookies of the Pasticceria sparkle and focus the newcomer’s attention like a laser: This, says the marble-clad space, is a place that you want to visit.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

“There’s nothing in the Twin Cities that compares to this — we’ve taken the pastry shop to a whole new level,” says Cossetta’s Chef Ryan Caulfield (above). “In my mind, that’s the coolest part of the whole thing. I watch people’s faces when they walk in the door and it’s … amazement.”

Stepping through its doors, and gazing like a stunned idiot at the arsenal of sweets, the Pasticceria newbie is transported: to Italy, perhaps, or perhaps somewhere a bit closer (this visitor was taken instantly to Cafe Vittoria in Boston’s North End, but your mileage may vary). The marble, wood, and chandeliers are all imported from Italy, and when multiplied by the force of all the sugar and pastry dough, the space packs an emotional wallop.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

We were recently guided through the space (and its edible inhabitants) by owner Dave Cossetta (top) and Caulfield, the former proud (and besieged by congratulations offered by his regular customers) and the latter visibly weary, having not so long ago opened up Louis Ristorante & Bar, the complex’s new sit-down dining destination.

Explaining the rainbow of baked goods in the Pasticceria takes some doing. At the heart of it all, there’s the basement kitchen and bakery — a bunker of bread, a fortress of fondant — that was dug out of the rock at considerable expense.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

“If we were going to make pastries, building a basement kitchen became necessary,” says Dave Cossetta. “[It] was quite costly, but by doing that, we’ve made the first floor into kind of an Italian food mecca.” He isn’t overstating the fact: in terms of square footage, the Cossetta’s complex is 80 percent the size of Mario Batali’s internationally heralded Eataly project, and, on top of that, it serves a metro area far smaller than the five boroughs.

“We felt that the bakery and the pastry shop were a good complement for the market,” Cossetta adds. “There really isn’t an Italian bakery left in the Cities … or even in the state, so it just seemed to be a natural thing to do.”

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

One quick elevator ride later, we’re walking through the warrens, past ovens and blast coolers, and gazing upon row after row of mug shot style photos of the dozens (perhaps hundreds?) of baked goods that the pastry shop is able to produce.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

The consulting mind behind this array is New York’s “cannoli king” (he bested Bobby Flay in a Throwdown, so his notoriety is legit and considerable): Biagio Settepani (above). Settepani, of New York City’s Pasticceria Bruno, is spangled with medals and accolades. And when we bump into him in the basement, he’s midway through making a batch of croissants. As we’re speculating on how beer (and the elaborately proofed Italian panettone cakes) must have been created by a series of fortunate accidents, he jumps into our conversation.

“You have to give the chef credit, too! And his imagination!” Settepani chimes in, insistent upon the role of genius (and hard work) when it comes to the origin story of good food.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

Our tour of the basement complete, we pop back up to the Pasticceria for a guided tour of some of the shop’s most unusual eats. We start with a rum-kissed Baba Savarin (below).

“Traditionally in Italy, it’ll be in a jar soaking in rum, and when you order one they’ll pull it out and it’ll drip and drip and drip,” says Caulfield. “We cut ours open and fill them with pastry cream. The breakfast of champions, right?”

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

He’s not kidding — the Baba tastes like a Twinkie made by God, the liquored-up cake embracing the velveteen, gently sweet filling. It would be easy for this to go wrong: too boozy, too sugary — but it really walks the line.

We move on to the dazzling Cassata (below). “It’s a traditional dessert from Sicily, real popular around the holidays and it’s filled with mascarpone — well, a cannoli filling, basically,” says Caulfield. “So it’s got the cake, the filling, and the marzipan wrap, and candied fruit on the top.”

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

The gritty taste of almond-forward marzipan almost but not quite drowns out the bright spike of the candied fruit and the soothing, slightly boozy creaminess of the sponge cake. The Cassata looks like a dream, but evokes a flavor experience that will be nearly 100 percent shaped by your feelings about marzipan.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

We finish up with a Lobster Tail (below), a cream-filled dreadnought of a dessert. “It’s layers upon layers of dough shaped in that traditional way,” says Caulfield. “It’s like phyllo dough, sprinkled in powdered sugar and filled with pastry cream.”

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

When we bite into the Lobster Tail, we fall immediately in love with the contrast between the exterior and the filling, the chewy, salty pastry pushing back against the unctuous, creamy center.

After all the flash of the front-of-the-line desserts, we leave Cossetta’s having purchased a pound of the shop’s Italian cookies, the kind we know (and miss) from our days in Boston. At $16 a pound the cookies aren’t cheap, but they stand a cut above the New Jersey-made Italian cookies sold over at Broders’, the closest thing we previously had to a local fix for our old obsession. Cossetta’s Italian cookies are made with care, molto buttery and not too sweet, perfect with a cup of coffee or tea. They’re a point of pride for the new bakery.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

“You take something like the checkerboard cookie — it’s a small item, but it shows that we take the time to create those unique products,” says Caulfield. “It’s a big statement to have something like that on the menu.”

Pasticceria Cossetta at Cossetta Alimentari

PHONE:  651.222.3476
OWNER / CHEF: Dave Cossetta / Ryan Caulfield and Biagio Settepani

The post Dave Cossetta and Ryan Caulfield of Pasticceria Cossetta appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

Cheers to… DIY! In this edition of The Toast, we’re making our own bitters, looking forward to some major events, seeking out a cocktail in Rochester, and learning about cooking with beer. Kampai!

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table

Bitters Made Easy

The right bitters can take a cocktail from merely drinkable to extraordinary. If you’re a true aficionado, you may have tried to make them yourself. But it’s not that easy settling on a technique with no prior experience, much less tracking down a supplier of things like gentian root and quassia amargo.

That’s why Erik “Easy” Eastman (below, left) and Dan Oskey (below, right) thought to do all the leg work for you. The first product released by their newly formed company, Easy & Oskey, is a Make Your Own Bitters Kit currently available at South Lyndale Liquors (more retailers forthcoming). We spoke over a few cocktails at The Strip Club in St. Paul, Oskey’s home base, where he’s been perfecting (and Eastman’s been consuming) creative bitters for the last five years.

“When we opened, the question from our customers was ‘what are bitters?’” Oskey recalls. “Since then, that question has evolved to ‘how do I make my own?’” He estimates having honed in on 20 different flavors of bitters for use on Strip Club’s cocktail menu and now all of his trial and error is to your benefit.

Each of their DIY bitters kits comes with a list of approachable, step-by-step instructions that Eastman calls “worth half the cost of the kit on its own.” They also contain a mason jar, filter, funnel, labels, eyedropper bottles and spice packages. You need only supply booze and sugar, and you’ve got ten ounces of professional quality, homemade bitters in a few weeks.

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table

The kits are formulated to produce flavors of bitters you may have experienced – orange, cacao and cherry-vanilla, for example. But they’re still very much customizable. They mentioned Erica Strait at Foxy Falafel adding lime zest to their habanero kit. If you’ve ever had a Cobra Kai at The Strip Club (top photo), you’d see the wisdom in that infusion.

Cobra Kai
2 oz Kilo Kai rum
2 oz house sour mix (lemon and lime juice with some powdered egg white)
½ dropper of habanero bitters
-shake and serve on the rocks in a small collins glass.

“If you do this exactly like the instructions say, it’ll turn out great,” says Eastman. “But there are a lot of places for you to, say, hey I don’t want allspice in this, I’ll take out these five berries and replace them with cloves or whatever you want.”

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table

For even more creative leeway, they’ve got one kit (called Naked) containing a versatile spice blend that’s used as a base for any flavor you can imagine. Smoked paprika, apricot and hops, toasted sesame and black pepper were just a few of the flavors they mentioned trying. We talked about washing bourbon with bacon fat, using it with the Naked kit and finishing them with maple syrup. Bacon bitters in your Manhattan, anyone?

Eastman, a rabid home cook, extolls the culinary applications of these bitters. “Chefs don’t like to use a lot of black pepper with fish, cause you get the black granules and they burn,” he says. “With the bitters, it’s like an invisible seasoning layer of pepper. Oysters and scallops are also great with it.”

They’re aiming to remove the veil from the production process, so tweet them if you’ve any questions along the way. If you’re interested in an in-depth seminar on concocting your own flavors and cocktails, they’ll be hosting classes at South Lyndale on May 16 and June 13. The cost is $20, but participants get a $10 credit to use on the kits or any other purchase. Call the store to RSVP.

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table

Events!

You can still get tickets for the Solo Vino Rosé Tent Tasting on Sunday the 19th, but get them quickly, because they will sell out. “This is the largest rosé tasting that’s put on anywhere in the US,” Solo Vino’s Chuck Kanski tells us. “We will literally have about 110 rosés open, a couple dozen white wines, a dozen or so summertime reds and a dozen craft beers.” Your humble editor will be there, basking in the sun, getting a serious pink wine buzz on.

To coincide with American Craft Beer Week, May 13-19, the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild has organized 10,000 Minutes of Minnesota Craft Beer. Member breweries and brewpubs will be hosting special events all week long – tap takeovers, firkin tappings, release parties, brewery tours, brewer Q&As, you name it. As if you needed an excuse to go drink our state’s fine local beer, these events will offer a great chance to interface with the people making it happen. So go support them and drink local!

And don’t forget, we’ll have five brewers and two distillers sampling at Saturday’s North Coast Nosh (below). (Two) tickets are still available, and there will also be great food there, if that’s your thing.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

“The combination of the gourmet market and restaurant provides a very creative base to bring craft cocktails to,” he writes. “The food, the atmosphere, the outstanding patio, the items in the market, and the people here all help to enhance the cocktail program.” He’s a Northstar Bartenders Guild member, happy to spread the joy of craft cocktails in Rochester. “Being able to meet and share ideas with some of the best bartenders in Minneapolis and the country and try and incorporate some of those ideas here at ZZest is an exciting opportunity.”

Courtesy of Joshua Augustin

Stone Street
2 oz Old Overholt Straight Rye Whiskey
½ oz Zucca Amaro
½ oz Zirbenz Stone Pine Liqueur of the Alps
¼ oz rich simple syrup
1 dropper Bittercube Orange Bitters
Orange peel disc
-Express orange peel disc on outside of cocktail glass. Add all ingredients to mixing glass, fill with ice and stir 50 times. Julep strain into cocktail glass and small carafe.

Old Overholt is in The Toast’s pantheon of awesome cheap booze. Gussy it up with some Amaro and the outdoorsy/floral tasting Zirbenz? Heck yeah. Save us a seat on the patio, Max.

John Garland / Heavy Table

Cooking With Beer

If you even have a passing interest in learning more about beer, be on the lookout for the next round of classes from the Better Beer Society. We jumped at the chance to experience a recent class featuring noted home-brew chef and Beer Advocate columnist Sean Paxton (above) as he explained the myriad of different ways to cook with beer or brewing by-products. Check out his comprehensive Powerpoint presentation on the BBS website and the catalog of recipes on his website. A few of our major takeaways:

- Play up the the flavors already present in the beer. Seems obvious, but remember that bitterness is one of those flavors. He recommends not using IPAs or similarly hop-heavy beers while braising or deglazing and reducing as the bitterness will intensify.

- That said, bitterness is quite necessary elsewhere in cuisine. For example, you can infuse hops into olive oil and make a vinaigrette.

- For longer cooking times, save a quarter of your beer to add at the end to brighten flavors.

If the tuition of the upcoming BBSU 2013 fall semester remains at $75, it’s an insane deal for how much knowledge you’ll take away (and beer you’ll drink). After sitting in on this class, your editor will be signing up for the next full term.

The post The Toast: May 2013 appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

Readers: Win Pint Glasses

The Tap loves restaurant tips from readers, so we’re awarding a Heavy Table pint glass to the best tipster of May and June. The Tap is the metro area’s comprehensive restaurant buzz roundup, so if you see a new or newly shuttered restaurant, or anything that’s “coming soon,” email Tap editor James Norton at editor@heavytable.com.

We’re pleased to have sent two tickets to the May 11 North Coast Nosh and Pre-Nosh to reader Paul Schadewald.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

Pasticceria Cossetta (now open)
211 7th St W, St Paul, MN | 651.222.3476

Supported by a custom-dug basement kitchen and fit into the newly expanded, 40,000-square foot Cossetta’s Italian dining complex in St. Paul, the newly opened Cossetta’s Pasticceria doesn’t lack ambition. It offers dozens of varieties of cakes, cookies, and gelato flavors to visitors in a format that puts an emphasis on visual spectacle and traditional craft.

“There’s nothing in the Twin Cities that compares to this – we’ve taken the pastry shop to a whole new level,” says Cossetta’s Chef Ryan Caulfield (above). “In my mind, that’s the coolest part of the whole thing. I watch people’s faces when they walk in the door and it’s … amazement.”

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

“If we were going to make pastries, building a basement kitchen became necessary,” says owner Dave Cossetta. “[It] was quite costly, but by doing that, we’ve made the first floor into kind of an Italian food mecca.” He isn’t overstating the fact – in terms of square footage, the Cossetta’s complex is 80 percent the size of Mario Batali’s internationally heralded Eataly project, and, on top of that, it serves a metro area far smaller than the five boroughs.

This is an excerpt from James Norton’s upcoming profile of Cossetta’s Pasticceria, slated to run on the Heavy Table this Thursday, May 9.

Brenda Johnson / Heavy Table

Truce (now open)
1428 W 32nd St, Minneapolis, MN

Celebrities endorse it. There’s a cancer therapy center dedicated to it. Even Starbucks coffee has jumped in on it with their recent acquisition of a cold-pressed juice brand. And now Minnesota boasts its first fully-dedicated fresh-pressed juice bar. Truce (a cheeky portmanteau of true and juice) opened in late April in Uptown Minneapolis. Consume a heaping plate full of raw fruits and vegetables or quickly chug its equivalent from a $9 pre-packaged bottle? Dealer’s choice.

Co-owner Blaire Molitor (above, left, with co-owner Allie Pohlad) describes the thought process behind the shop’s juice offerings: “From the start we knew what we liked and what we didn’t like – we wanted to be able to taste each individual ingredient in each juice – never having one overpowering flavor. We also didn’t want any of them to be overly sweet or bitter. We tasted every pressed juice we could get our hands on and made notes on what worked and what didn’t. We then tested recipes over and over again until we were happy with the flavor balance. We had friends and family taste them to get additional feedback. Everyone is looking for something different – some people hate ginger, some want extra – so we tried to appeal to as many varying tastes as possible.”

Truce uses a large-scale hydraulic press based on the Norwalk method. Translated to home juicers, this means less air and more juice in the bottle. Much like the open-kitchen concept adopted by many upscale restaurants, the press is fully visible to customers via a glass door. If you visit early enough you might catch pounds upon pounds of fruits and vegetables meeting their maker as they’re shredded and pressed (think tons of pounds of pressure) to extract as many vitamins, minerals, and juices as possible.

Flavors range from Beginner’s Greens (kale, spinach, apple, lemon) to Root (carrot, orange, ginger, beet) to AMP (apple, mint, pineapple). Smoothies and detox cleanses will be offered soon.

This is an excerpt from Alyssa Vance’s upcoming profile on Truce, slated to run on the Heavy Table this Friday, May 10.

Teque Arepa (now open)
7733 Flying Cloud Dr, Eden Prairie, MN

The popular Hola Arepa food truck has a new local colleague: Teque Arepa in Eden Prairie. The restaurant sells the titular South American flat, unleavened cornmeal patties and opened recently in the former location of a Roly Poly sandwich shop.

Ideal Diner (re-opening?)
1314 Central Ave. NE, Minneapolis, MN

Our readers love the Ideal Diner in Northeast, or at least they love keeping tabs on it; after last edition’s tip that the space was shutting its doors for good, another reader reports that the once-popular breakfast spot is now hiring and remodeling for a presumed comeback. Stay tuned, and keep those tips coming…

Hot Indian Foods (launching this month)

Hot Indian Foods, a new food truck dedicated to serving up “Indurritos,” masala popcorn, and Indi-Frites among other specialties, is having its official launch event at the Harriet Brewing tap room on Wednesday, May 15. A series of other events follow, including a May 23 appearance at the Fulton Beer taproom, a June 1 visit to the Northeast Minneapolis farmers market, and an appearance on June 2 at Grand Old Day.

NOW OPEN

• McCarron’s Pub & Grill, 1986 Rice Street, Maplewood | 651.788.7362
• Tavern 4&5, 16396 Wagner Way, Eden Prairie | 952.934.4545
• Zeke’s Unchained Animal, 3508 E Lake St, Minneapolis | 612.720.9878
• Tacos, Nachos, and Beer, 5 W. Seventh Place, St. Paul | 651.756.7586
• Cosetta’s Pasticceria, 211 7th St W, St. Paul | 651.222.3476
• Royal Bangkok, 315 University Ave., St. Paul | 651.788.9582
• Daily Diner Frogtown, 615 University Ave, St. Paul | 651.789.7661
• Potter’s Pasties, 1828 Como Ave. SE, Minneapolis | 612.819.3107
• Up Cafe, 1901 Traffic St. NE, Minneapolis, | 612.385.2556.
• Smoke in the Pit, 3733 Chicago Ave S, Minneapolis | 612.315.3145
• Spill the Wine, 901 West Lake St, Minneapolis | 612.339.3388
• Origami Uptown, 1354 Lagoon Ave, Minneapolis. | 612.223.8666
• Hello Pizza, 3904 Sunnyside Rd, Edina. Read our review here.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

• Morrissey’s Irish Pub, 913 W Lake St, Minneapolis | 612.465.8555
• Franklin Restaurant, 137 E Franklin Ave, Minneapolis. Formerly Azima.

CLOSED / CLOSING:

• Franklin Freeze, 2328 E. Franklin Ave, Minneapolis | 612.568.2630; has re-opened as “Pita King”
• Little Sushi on the Prairie, 8353 Crystal View Rd, Eden Prairie
• Ideal Diner, 1314 Central Ave NE, Minneapolis
• Kat’s Kitchen, St. Paul skyway
• Primebar, 3001 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis
• Cupcake Caramel by Sweets Bakeshop, 4747 Nicollet Ave, Minneapolis; 2042 Marshall Ave, St. Paul
• Glory Days Bar & Grill, 500 5th Ave NW, New Brighton
• Kinsen Noodles and Bar, 1300 Lagoon Ave, Minneapolis
• Fischerville Coffee House, 2150 Dodd Rd, Mendota Heights

COMING UP:

Minneapolis

• North 45°, 1313 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis | 612.332.6000. Opens late April.
• Ling & Louie’s Kitchen, 9th St and Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis
• The Tangiers, North Loop. 116 1st Ave N, Minneapolis | 612.599.2651. Opens May 2013.
• The Nicollet Diner, 1428 Nicollet Ave S, Minneapolis. Opens this spring.
• Terzo, 2221 W 50th St, Minneapolis. New wine bar from Broders; opens this spring.
• Tiny Diner, 1014 E 38th St, Minneapolis | 612.822.6302
• Marin, 901 Hennepin Ave S, Minneapolis. Opens summer 2013.
• Unnamed Gastrotruck restaurant, 2400 University Ave NE, Minneapolis. Opens in 2013.
• Rocky and Shem’s Ice Cream Shoppe, 56th and Chicago, Minneapolis. Opens in 2013.
• Sandcastle, Lake Nokomis, Minneapolis. Doug Flicker’s concessionaire restaurant at the lake. Opens spring 2013.
• Town Hall Tap, 5019 34th Ave S, Minneapolis
• Loose-Wiles Freehouse, 701 Washington Ave N, Minneapolis. Opens September.
• Kitty’s Corner Cafe, 806 Washington Ave SE, Minneapolis

St. Paul

• Bang Brewing, 2320 Capp Rd, St. Paul. Opens in 2013.
• French Meadow, 1662 Grand Ave, St. Paul. Opens in 2013.
• Burning Brothers Brewery, 1750 Thomas Ave, St. Paul.

Greater Twin Cities Area

• Tin Bins, near the corner of Main and Nelson Streets, Commander Grain Elevator, Stillwater. May 2013.
• Sakana Sushi and Hibachi, Plymouth. June.
• Travail, Pig Ate My Pizza, and The Rookery, Robbinsdale. Fall 2013.
• Forever Yogurt, The Shops at West End, I-394 & 100. Opens before summer of 2013.
• Egg and Pie Diner, 222 N Chestnut St, Chaska | 612.227.6999
• Hammerheart Brewing, 7785 Lake Dr, Lino Lakes. Opens in 2013. | 651.964.2160
• Sawatdee, 13300 Technology Dr, Eden Prairie. Opens in 2013.
• Osaka Seafood and Steakhouse, Woodbury Lakes, Woodbury. Opens in 2013.
• Punch Pizza, City Centre Dr, Woodbury. Opens June 2013.
• Black Sea, 1581 E County Road E, White Bear Lake
• Crooked Pint Ale House, Apple Valley; another location possible at 40th St. and Lyndale Ave.

The Tap is the Heavy Table’s guide to area restaurant openings, closings, and other major events. The Tap is compiled and published biweekly by the Heavy Table. If you have tips for The Tap, please email James Norton at editor@heavytable.com.

The post Truce Brings Fresh Juice to Uptown appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

[This post is sponsored by the University of Minnesota Press]

The Perfect Gift for Mother’s Day: Beth Dooley’s Minnesota’s Bounty: The Farmer’s Market Cookbook

Minnesota’s Bounty is a user’s guide to shopping and cooking from your local farmers market, and it applies a practical, easy approach to creating a truly seasonal kitchen. Seasoned cook and food writer Beth Dooley has suggestions and recipes that inspire simple, modern, and healthy meals following an ingredients-first philosophy, helping readers to be more confident and spontaneous both at the market and in the kitchen. Below are just a few of the delicious recipes you will find in Minnesota’s Bounty. A great gift for home cooks and farmers market lovers!

“Beth Dooley has written much more than a cookbook. This valuable resource and guide to Minnesota’s farmers markets is sure to inspire and nourish you with connection to your food, your farmers, and Minnesota’s rich  sustainable-agriculture tradition.” —Terry Walters, author of Clean Food

Mette NIelsen

Fresh Asparagus Soup
Serves 4 to 6
Perfect for Mother’s Day brunch or a spring lunch, this vibrant green soup is delicious hot or cold.
The soup is a creamy purée enriched with potato and just a touch of cream.

1 tablespoon butter
3 shallots, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces, tips reserved
1 small baking potato, peeled and diced
4 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
2 tablespoons cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice, or to taste

Melt the butter in a deep saucepan, and sauté the shallots until soft, about 3 to 4 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and add the asparagus stalks, potato, stock, and enough water to just cover. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until the asparagus and potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

While the asparagus and potatoes are cooking, bring a small saucepan of water to a boil and blanch the asparagus tips until they are bright green and tender-crisp, about 1 to 2 minutes. Drain, refresh under cold running water, and set aside.

Purée the soup with an immersion blender or in small batches in a blender until smooth, then transfer it to a large bowl. Pour the soup through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean pot. Warm the soup, stir in the cream, and season with the lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Serve the soup garnished with the asparagus tips.

Grilled Pork Chops with Basil and Plums
Serves 4
Sweet plums caramelized quickly on the grill are a perfect complement to pork.

4 bone-in pork loin chops
Olive oil or sunflower oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
4 plums, quartered and pitted
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped basil

Bring the chops to room temperature. Brush the chops with oil, and season them with salt and pepper.

In a bowl, toss together the plums, maple syrup, and 2 teaspoons of oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Prepare a charcoal or gas grill for medium-high heat. Place the chops on the grill rack over the hottest part of the fire, and sear both sides until golden, about 2 minutes per side. Move the chops to a cooler part of the grill, and cook until the pork is firm, about 3 to 4 minutes per side. An instant-read thermometer should show 140 degrees. Place the plums on the grill and sear
until golden, about 20 to 30 seconds per side. Transfer the chops and the plums to a platter, and drizzle them with a little vinegar. Garnish with the basil.

Mette NIelsen

Breakfast Blueberry Cobbler
Serves 4 to 6
This dish is perfect for a lazy Sunday at the lake when everyone sleeps in and gets up starved (and is far easier than pancakes to whip up). Cobblers are named for the cobbled look created as the batter rises up to become a golden, buttery crust.

3 cups blueberries
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Toss the blueberries with the sugar and set them aside. In a large bowl, stir together the flours, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, salt, and milk. Stir in the melted butter. Spread the blueberries in an ungreased 8- or 9-inch-square baking pan. Spoon the batter over the blueberries. Bake until the dough rises and is golden, 45 to 55 minutes. Serve warm.

Get all of Beth’s scrumptious recipes plus great tips for shopping your local farmers market in time for Mother’s Day! Minnesota’s Bounty is available at better bookstores or to order click here.

The post The Perfect Gift for Mother’s Day: Beth Dooley’s Minnesota’s Bounty appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

Brenda Johnson / Heavy Table

It’s hard to think spring when snow continues to rear its ugly head, but on April 30, it was hot at the American Swedish Institute‘s Valborgsmässoafton celebration, Cocktails at the Castle. Guests celebrated like a Swedes with smoked sausages and red cabbage, a bit of caramel corn, a cocktail or two, and indulged in some birchwood plaque decoupage design.

Brenda Johnson / Heavy Table

Local bands Teenage Moods, Dan Mariska and the Boys Choir, Zac HB, plus DJs from Slipmats Radio performed on stages indoors and out … fire dancers mingled amongst the crowds (safely!) … two talented wood carvers chopped logs into pieces of art and actors spontaneously preformed “Hamlet” in the mansion. In addition to live entertainment, cozy couches and fire rings in the grass, and traditional food prepared by the onsite restaurant, FIKA, ASI hosted a Yelp Photo Hunt. And for those who rode in on two wheels, Angry Catfish Bicycle Shop + Coffee Bar provided safety checks.

This is an event not to be missed – the next incarnation (the Hot Shop Herring Glass Blowout) takes place Thursday, July 25. Cross your fingers that Gustav, the mechanical Hahla horse, will still be waiting patiently like an old wooden horse should.

Brenda Johnson / Heavy Table

The post Cocktails at the Castle at the American Swedish Institute appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

DWITT / Heavy Table

The post Brunch at the Strip Club appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

Shepherd Song Farm

Jason Gibbons, executive chef at Zelo and Bacio, goes to great lengths to source, prepare, plan, and deliver consistent, high-quality food in a high-volume setting. For him, it is only natural to partner with local farmers who feel the same way about what they do. His Leg of Lamb Scallopine is perfect for Mother’s Day or any family dinner and uses locally raised, Shepherd Song, 100 percent grass-fed, leg of lamb.

Shepherd Song Farm

“Like us, Larry and Judy, Shepherd Song Farm, are committed to what they do and we’ve established a mutual respect for each other’s craft,” Gibbons says. “Through very intelligent research, practice, and years of perfecting their craft, they produce consistent, high-quality products that they take great pride in. While the restaurant and farming business are very different from each other, they do mirror each other in that we are judged by the consistency and quality that we deliver.

“From a flavor standpoint,” he continues, “I think anyone that tries Shepherd Song lamb is surprised by its wholesome, clean flavor. The animals are lean yet rich. This is directly related to their intellectual farming techniques regarding genetics, nutrition, and overall stewardship of land and animals. I’m hooked — it’s the only lamb I serve (or eat)!”

Order Lamb Scallopine at Zelo or Bacio during May or try their recipe at home. Purchase online for free metro delivery and for a 15 percent discount using code: lamb15.  Code is good through May 31 for lamb leg purchases.

Leg of Lamb Scallopine by Executive Chef Jason Gibbons

Serves 4

Ingredients
Leg of lamb, trimmed, sliced, pounded thin into 12 to 16 1-oz pieces
Flour as needed
Sea salt to season
Fresh ground black pepper to season
2 to 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed
&#8531 c light bodied Italian white wine
&#190 c homemade stock (use the bone from the lamb
for the best flavor, or substitute chicken stock)
&#189 lemon
2 tbsp mint or Italian parsley, finely sliced
2 tbsp whole unsalted butter at room temperature

Shepherd Song Farm

Instructions
Debone the leg of lamb, reserving the bone to make the stock.

Trim fat, then slice into small (&#189 to 1 oz by weight) pieces.

Pound pieces between plastic wrap with the flat side of a meat hammer. Use gentle but deliberate pressure to evenly pound meat to about &#8539-inch thick.

Lightly season lamb slices with salt and pepper. Then dredge slices through the flour, shaking off any excess flour.

Add 1&#189 tablespoon of the extra virgin olive oil and the garlic cloves into a 12″ or larger skillet at medium heat.

Place as many lamb slices as will fit into the pan in a single layer so they lie flat.

As soon as you see the outside edges of the lamb slices begin to change color, flip them over with a pair of tongs and continue to cook for 20 more seconds.

Remove lamb slices from the pan and set onto a plate.

Continue this process with remaining lamb slices. Add extra virgin olive oil if needed.

Deglaze the pan with the wine, squeeze in the lemon half, add the stock and begin to reduce the sauce.

Add the lamb slices back into the pan while the sauce is reducing and cook for no more than 20 to 30 seconds more (this will keep them very tender).

Remove lamb slices and place onto serving plates or platter.

Add the mint or parsley to the pan, then turn the heat to high and reduce sauce until about &#188 to &#8531 cup remains and sauce is beginning to thicken enough to coat a spoon.

Remove sauce from the heat and add room temperature butter, swirling pan or whisking constantly until butter is fully incorporated into sauce and sauce is thick but pourable. Adjust the seasoning of sauce with salt and pepper, remove the lemon half, then pour over lamb slices.

Suggested accompaniments: sauteed spinach or artichokes for the spring or summer, roasted butternut squash for the fall or winter. For a wine pairing, consider a light- to medium-bodied Italian white with good acidity such as a Pinot Grigio, Greco, or Verdicchio.

The post Leg of Lamb Scallopine by Chef Jason Gibbons appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

James Norton / Heavy Table

Sometimes in life, we find ourselves in the hospital. The experience, if at all prolonged, tends to be a sonata of boredom, high tension, angst that eventually unspools into exhaustion, and seriously disrupted daily rituals. Always stressful, but under the best of circumstances (awaiting the birth of a baby, for example) it’s a song played in a major key.

The recent birth of my son at Fairview Southdale Hospital put my wife and me into the thick of it. There we were, on the heels of a life-changing, exhilarating, thoroughly exhausting jumble of circumstances, more or less stuck in a hotel room that played host to a revolving cavalcade of nurses, doctors, friends, and relatives  — plus the odd tout for the resident infant photography service.

And although we’d packed some utilitarian snacks and understood our rights (and my ability) to sally forth into the city to import our food, we were collectively exhausted enough after the whole “PUSH 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10″ experience and disoriented enough by the ongoing battery of tests, paperwork, and adventures in breastfeeding to go to the lowest common denominator of food: calling room service and ordering hospital food.

What a surprisingly good idea.

As a two-word expression, “hospital food” ranks right up there with “eel mucus,” “dry socket,” and “soy bacon” on the list of expressions least likely to stimulate the appetite. But the approach at Fairview was — and I say this as thoroughly non-compensated real-life customer — profoundly appropriate to the circumstances.

James Norton / Heavy Table

The food was healthy without being depressing or repressive. The meals were balanced, the ingredients were fresh, the dishes were familiar without being absolutely tedious. The comfort factor was high: scrambled eggs or cinnamon French toast (above) for breakfast, or pork chops or pasta for dinner. That most dishes were lightly seasoned or even bland was, under the circumstances, a feature, not a bug. Similarly, the bulletproof black plastic bowls, mugs, and trays that the food came on seemed charming and earnest and somehow encouraging in dangerous times, like insisting on having high tea while in a bomb shelter during the Blitz.

But how was the food? Fine and amazing. “Fine” because there was nothing remarkable that would merit a visit to the cafeteria independent of a health care crisis. “Amazing” because, under the circumstances and in the context of hospital food, it was not merely edible, but actually often tasty.

A sausage personal pan pizza was substantial without being heavy or greasy, and the crust offered a bit of chew and resistance, while the brightness of the sauce rounded out the entree. A black bean veggie burger (like the veggie breakfast patty) gave evidence of being house made, or at least of being made by a decent brand — it was gently seasoned, mellow in texture, and substantial. The fajitas were about as gringo as they come, absent all the seasoning and char that clinches the flavor of a great interpretation of the dish, but the ingredients at least tasted fresh and the dish leaned on the vegetables for flavor, not greasy chicken or heavy, gloppy guacamole. And the oatmeal raisin cookies — crispy, light, kissed with cinnamon, and not overly sweet — were comforting as its gets, a happy conclusion to simple meals.

James Norton / Heavy Table

Best of all: Every order we made (by simply dialing **741 from our janky, old-school wall phone) was fielded by an alert, competent, thinking adult, who correctly recorded not just the dishes ordered, but the correct sides and toppings (butter and jam for muffins, for example, or pepper on the side for scrambled eggs). The restaurant takeout norm of 45-65 percent accuracy has been shattered… by a hospital. (See also: the excellent Bite Squad.)

Because of the circumstances, it’s difficult to assess the value of the food served (mom’s food was part of the overall package; my guest meal was $6.50 for breakfast or $8.50 for dinner, a price that included a main, four sides, and beverage), but from a psychological perspective, having a bit of nutritional joy and competent service under stressful circumstances was priceless.

And therefore: The next time you or a loved one gives birth or otherwise gets stuck in a Fairview hospital for an extended stay, don’t forget to order the oatmeal raisin cookies.

At Your Request Room Service Dining
Hospital Food
3 out of 4 stars (Excellent)

Fairview Hospitals
**741
HOURS: 6:30am-6:30pm
BAR: None, unfortunately
RESERVATIONS / RECOMMENDED?: Yes / Yes
VEGETARIAN / VEGAN: Yes / Yes
ENTREE RANGE: $6.50-8.50

The post At Your Request Room Service Dining at Fairview Southdale Hospital appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

Jill Lewis / Heavy Table

When he named his signature Camembert-style cheese Bent River, Alemar Cheese Company founder Keith Adams drew his inspiration from the Minnesota River, which takes a sharp turn just outside his Mankato-based cheesemaking operation. And geography has played a similar role in choosing the moniker for Adams’ second cheese, a beer-washed, strongly named beauty called Good Thunder.

“There’s no great mystery to it — it’s a little town about 10 miles outside Mankato. I’ve always loved the name,” Adams laughs. “Good Thunder, Bent River — it all kind of works together. When I was trying to think of something interesting to name the cheese, that one won out.”

Bathed in Surly Brewing‘s Bender, an oatmeal brown ale, Good Thunder stems from Adams’ years-long desire to create a washed-rind cheese, as well as a connection with Linda Haug, the former owner of Linden Hills’ Cafe Twenty Eight and the wife of Surly brewer Todd Haug.

“I’ve been thinking about a washed-rind cheese for a long time. Because I’m basically a one-man band, I didn’t feel like I had the luxury of making another cheese until I made enough Bent River to meet demand. And once I decided to do a beer-washed cheese, I thought of Surly first,” says Adams, noting that Surly is planning to open a restaurant at its new brewery complex in Minneapolis. “I thought that if they’re going to have their own restaurant, wouldn’t it be special to have their own washed-rind cheese? They said sure and gave me beers to test, and I started experimenting.”

Over the course of six months, Adams developed the Good Thunder recipe, which starts out similar to Bent River but uses a different blend of cultures. Rather than adding Penicillium candidum, which gives cheese a snowy white, bloomy rind, Adams uses Brevibacterium linens, which gives Good Thunder its orange rind and distinctive “stinky feet” aroma. Adams washes the hand-molded and -salted cheeses with a solution combining Surly Bender, B. linens, and brine once a week for three weeks, and after the cheese sits in the ripening room for a few more days and is wrapped in traditional French cheese paper, it is refrigerated for a couple more weeks before it’s ready for market.

Jill Lewis/ Heavy Table

The result is a dense, fudgy cheese that may be a bit odiferous, yes, but offers a rich, umami-filled bite. Good Thunder doesn’t mimic the buttery flavor profile of its sister cheese, Bent River. Rather, it assertively stands on its own merits with a meaty, smoky sturdiness you won’t find in any other Minnesota cheese.

“Texturally, it doesn’t break down as a traditional Camembert or Brie — it doesn’t get very gooey — but it ripens from the outside in and you can see when it turns into all paste,” Adams says.

While Adams’ regular customers may be accustomed to Bent River’s sweet decadence, he hopes that Good Thunder will find a following as well. Distribution will be sporadic at first while Adams tests the demand, but Surdyk’s is due to get a delivery today, and Adams plans to bring the cheese to his stand at the Minneapolis Farmers Market and the upcoming North Coast Nosh VIII.

“My hope is that there will be a growing market for washed-rind cheeses and the more people who taste it, the more enthusiastic they’ll be. I made the cheese because I wanted to taste it — I didn’t do any market research or anything — and hopefully there will be some people who will come along with me and we’ll build up an audience as we go along,” Adams says. “Washed-rind [cheeses] are very interesting to me because you get this alchemy — you’ll taste the flavors of whatever it is you’re introducing the cheese, but you get something deeper and different, too. That’s the fun part of working with different beers.”

The obvious pairing for Good Thunder is Bender, of course, but Adams is looking for customer feedback to learn the best matches for his robustly flavored cheese. My advice to Adams: We’ll work on the pairings. You just focus on making more Good Thunder.

Good Thunder is scheduled to be delivered to Surdyk’s, 303 E. Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, today and will appear at other area cheese shops and farmers markets as available.

The post Good Thunder from Alemar Cheese Company appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

Dale Yasunaga / Heavy Table

That was until Smack Shack recently opened its doors in the North Loop area. Yet another “food truck to brick-and-mortar” story, Smack Shack has been long anticipated. Owner Josh Thoma created the enormous full-restaurant incarnation of Smack Shack after enjoying success with his food truck and its famous lobster rolls. The space inside is surprisingly large, with seating for scores of hungry lobster fans. The ambience is bustling and borderline hipster-esque in its cavernous warehouse space. Lobster traps and plaster lobster molds adorn the walls and checkered red tablecloths are reminiscent of outdoor lobster boils on the East Coast.

When Josh Thoma set out to create the restaurant version of his food truck, he didn’t settle for offering just lobster rolls. The behind-the-scenes infrastructure of Smack Shack is staggering, centering around an 1,100-gallon salt water tank specially built and designed for the restaurant. The tank holds 400 to 500 lobsters at any given time and is replenished with shipments of fresh, live lobsters six days a week. Chefs stand by as orders pour in, cooking many of the delicious crustaceans in the 100-gallon steam jacket kettle (above, top left) that greets diners as they walk in the door.  All of the technology that goes into maintaining this large supply of fresh lobster is designed to support the demand of the many lobster-laden items on Smack Shack’s menu.

Dale Yasunaga / Heavy Table

The full menu at Smack Shack is naturally seafood-centric with dishes featuring lobster, clams, oysters, crab, and fish. For the less seafood-minded there are also more terrestrial options including steaks, burgers, and salads. The drink menu features a variety of wines and beers along with other mixed cocktails, such as the hurricane, that pair well with Smack Shack’s coastal style of food.

The first item to arrive from our appetizer order was the lobster guacamole ($16, above top). Large chunks of sweet, slightly briny lobster meat sat atop a smooth and creamy preparation of guacamole. While we appreciated the freshness of the lobster, the size of the chunks was a bit cumbersome when we tried to get both lobster and guacamole on a single chip. Both the chips and guacamole were a touch too salty, which at times overpowered the delicate lobster.

Next to arrive was a bowl of Boston Clam “Chowda” ($6, above bottom right) with oyster crackers. The chowder was rich and creamy with a touch of saltiness from bacon. We felt the chowder was a little light on the clam but enjoyed it overall. The final appetizer was a side of lobster mac and cheese ($10, above bottom left). In this dish, al dente elbow macaroni was dressed in a mixture of melted taleggio cheese, chives, and lobster. The combination of gooey cheese and sweet lobster was delightful, while bread crumbs provided a welcomed textural contrast. However, that quantity of lobster was slightly lacking.

Dale Yasunaga / Heavy Table

No visit to Smack Shack would be complete without sampling the lobster roll that started it all. The lobster roll ($16, above left) featured a refreshing salad of lobster, tarragon, and cucumber on griddled milk toast. The combination of flavors in the lobster roll actually became more prominent and enjoyable as we took more bites. The sweet, oceanic flavor of lobster was perfectly complemented by the herbaceous quality of tarragon and the freshness of the cucumber. A spritz of lemon juice elevated the flavor with a zing of citrus. The side of chips was very crispy, but sadly over salted.

Dale Yasunaga / Heavy Table

The final plate of the night was Smack Shack’s new flagship menu item, the lobster boil. The boil comes with the featured lobster along with potatoes, corn, coleslaw, drawn butter seasoned with Old Bay, and toast. This dish is ordered by lobster weight, with a minimum of a 1.5-pound lobster ($29 per pound). The lobster boil pictured above was a two-pound order with sides for two. It was a colossal presentation of lobster that turned heads as it made its way from the kitchen to our table.

The lobster is cooked in the aforementioned steam jacket kettle in a broth seasoned with Old Bay. Breaking into the lobster was a messy affair, but one that was certainly rewarding. The lobster was cooked well (although the residual heat eventually made later-consumed sections a bit overcooked) and the mild spiciness of the seasoning in the broth carried nicely into the meat. A few splashes of lemon juice and a dip into the drawn butter made the lobster boil a particularly flavorful experience. However, the accompanying sides would have benefited from a tad more seasoning.

For those who are less comfortable with breaking down an entire lobster, Smack Shack offers a “lazy lobster” variation of this dish ($2 upcharge) with the tail removed and the claws already cracked. We opted for the non-lazy version to not only get the full hands-on experience, but also to have access to the torso portion of the lobster that contains the tomalley — the soft, green innards of the lobster. While not for everyone, fans of offal would enjoy the lobster tomalley as a pseudo seafood pate, which was delicious spread on the provided toast.

Smack Shack brings a refreshing and exciting segment of seafood to Minneapolis in a fun, lively atmosphere. The level of commitment and investment to ensure the lobster’s freshness was evident throughout the dishes we sampled. Despite a few missteps in seasoning, Smack Shack delivers an enjoyable (albeit pricey) exploration of lobster.

Smack Shack
Seafood specialty in the North Loop
2 out of 4 stars (Good)

603 Washington Ave N
Minneapolis, MN 55401
612.259.7288
OWNER / CHEF: Josh Thoma / Josh Thoma and Jason Schellin
HOURS: Mon-Thurs 11am to midnight; Friday-Sat 11am to 1am; Sun 9am-2pm (brunch) and 11am to 11pm
BAR: Beer, wine, and extended bar
RESERVATIONS / RECOMMENDED: Yes / Yes
VEGETARIAN / VEGAN: Limited / Limited
ENTREE RANGE: $16-$45

The post Smack Shack in Minneapolis appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

Natalie Champa Jennings / Heavy Table

Here’s how well Sweet Science‘s new Stout Oat Crunch has been received in the weeks since it debuted: During last Thursday’s soul-crippling blizzard, a large group of regulars braved the roads just to get their hands on a $9 pint. No joke, this stuff is completely worth the trouble.

The active ingredient is Fulton Beer’s Worthy Adversary stout, and the collaboration between the two companies began, in part, at a Heavy Table North Coast Nosh. So you can be sure to taste the Stout Oat Crunch at our upcoming Nosh among a huge array of great local eats.

Since we last spoke to Ashlee Olds (below) she’s been churning, five to six pints at a time, to an increasing fan base. Thanks in part to the sudden popularity of the Stout Oat Crunch, her April 2013 sales are on track to best her entire 2012. We met up with her and Fulton co-founder Brian Hoffman at the Fulton brewery last week for a few pints, both beer and ice cream, of course. Olds was initially attracted to Fulton because of its similar philanthropic commitments, and was then won over after tasting the stout.

Natalie Champa Jennings / Heavy Table

“Initially, I was going to use War and Peace,” says Olds, referring to Fulton’s coffee-infused stout. “But then I tasted [Worthy Adversary] and it was just caramels and chocolate and things that ice cream is already.” The heady Russian imperial stout offers the perfect malty base, with some residual sweetness that supports and enlivens the sweeter praline.

“We infuse it in a brown sugar base and then add a little shot of fresh stout at the end for a more layered flavor,” she explains. “I played around with different components to add to it and it dawned on me that oat praline would be great. It plays off the grain in the beer.” Once packaged, the moisture migrates to the praline chunks, leaving them more chewy than crispy.

Aside from beer dinners, this is Fulton’s largest foray into commercial collaboration, and was one that Hoffman (below) was all too happy to take part in. “It was awesome on my part; Ashlee really did all the heavy lifting,” he says. “The Nosh event at Peace Coffee was the first meet up. Then they came in, tasted the beers we had on tap, I sat and drank and explained the beer. And ate their ice cream, of course.”

Stout Oat Crunch is tracking to replace Salted Caramel as her most popular flavor. It’s her only non-gluten-free flavor, which is no small feat considering the streusels and crumbles she often employs. Other flavors you need to seek out: her impossibly fudge-like chocolate sorbet and the Rhubarb Cinnamon Almond, which features a magnificent compote swirled in an amaretto-cinnamon base.

Natalie Champa Jennings / Heavy Table

Olds conducts retail hours at her shop in Midway St. Paul from 7-9pm on Thursdays and a more expansive tasting of 15 to 20 flavors once a month. This summer, you’ll spy Sweet Science at farmers markets, including Linden Hills, on Sunday mornings. At the Nosh on May 11, she’ll be sampling during the main event, but will also offer an in-depth presentation at the Pre-Nosh, which will include (most likely, she says) a Pre-Nosh-exclusive flavor. And better yet (fingers crossed), you won’t have to brave a snowstorm to taste it.

Natalie Champa Jennings / Heavy Table

The post Stout Oat Crunch from Sweet Science appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

Dale Yasunaga / Heavy Table

Hell’s Kitchen, the ever-popular establishment that resides underfoot in downtown Minneapolis, is known for many things: bison burgers, huevos rancheros, caramel pecan rolls, and lemon-ricotta hotcakes. The culinary team works with the goal of creating “damn good food,” balancing great flavors with the growing demand for organic, healthy, and eco-friendly options. And so, when Chef de Cuisine Joseph Wuestenhagen went looking for something new and exciting to bring to the menu, he ended up with a rather unique protein that is sure to turn a few heads.

Kangaroo is a relative newcomer to the food scene here in the U.S., and restaurants that serve it are few and far between. Proponents of kangaroo consumption point to the positive attributes of the protein: It has a low environmental impact and provides a healthy alternative to red meat. Kangaroo meat is very lean, containing even less fat than an equivalent serving of chicken. Populations of wild kangaroo produce far less methane than cattle and, since they lack hooves, kangaroo cause less damage to farm and grazing land.

As strange as serving kangaroo may sound, it is actually quite befitting of Hell’s Kitchen. The eco-friendly meat fits naturally into a menu that already features free-range bison, free-range eggs, and organic beef. The particular variety served at Hell’s Kitchen comes from Australia, hunted from a population of free-range kangaroo. Hell’s Kitchen Co-owner Mitch Omer is excited about serving a product that is not only better for the customer, but also better for the environment: It’s “something we have to serve.”

After testing the new protein as a special, and receiving universally positive feedback, Hell’s Kitchen added a kangaroo entree to its regular menu last Wednesday. It was met with enthusiastic interest, selling out on its first night. On Friday, Hell’s Kitchen served up 46 orders of kangaroo, another sellout.

Dale Yasunaga / Heavy Table

Regardless of the many virtues of kangaroo’s use as an alternative to red meat, flavor is the ultimate factor for many adventurous gourmands. Hell’s Kitchen’s preparation features a medium-rare loin of kangaroo served alongside sweet corn and aged cheddar polenta, pickled vegetable salad, bacon maple chutney, and a blackberry gastrique. Despite its natural leanness, the kangaroo loin was delicious and incredibly tender. The kangaroo had a “beefy” chewiness to it with a slightly sweet, mild game flavor. The spice rub on the loin added a hit of smokiness. The rest of plate expertly complemented the kangaroo and provided a very well-balanced tasting experience.

For those interested in trying something new, hop on down to Hell’s Kitchen and try this for yourself. Wuestenhagen and his team are certainly turning kangaroo into some “damn good food.”

Hell’s Kitchen, 80 S 9th St, Minneapolis; 612.332.4700

The post Kangaroo – From Australia to Hell’s Kitchen’s menu appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

Readers: Win Tickets to the May 11 North Coast Nosh

The Tap loves restaurant tips from readers, so we’re awarding two tickets to our May 11 North Coast Nosh at the American Swedish Institute to the best tipster of March and April. The Tap is the metro area’s comprehensive restaurant buzz roundup, so if you see a new or newly shuttered restaurant, or anything that’s “coming soon,” email Tap editor James Norton at editor@heavytable.com.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

In Season (closing this summer, re-opening as new concept with a new name)
5416 Penn Ave South | 612.926.0105

As fans of the impeccably edited cooking of Don Saunders, we were initially horrified to hear that his flagship restaurant, In Season, would be closing early this summer. But it’s not an ending for the much-saluted South Minneapolis restaurant; it’s an autumnal rebirth.

“In a nutshell, I’m closing In Season for the summer and we’re going re-open [this fall] with a very chef-driven, weekly changing, tasting-menu only concept,” says Saunders. “We’ll only be open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. I’ll be cooking there, and the idea is that it’ll be an approachable tasting menu.”

Four-course meals at the new Saunders concept will cost diners between $40-50 he says, with optional upgrades. We’ll have details on the new name and decor when they’re available.

North 45° (opening late April)
1313 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis

The newly re-opening Millennium Hotel Minneapolis will bring with it a new restaurant called North 45° which promisingly offers local brews and “a creative market-driven menu that includes locally sourced selections from Axdahl Farms, Cady Creek Cheese, Saint Agnes Bakery, Russet Potato Farms and more.”

The new spot also promises in a press release to “introduce molecular gastronomy to Minneapolis as part of its all-new catering menu,” a claim guaranteed to delight chefs at Travail, Victory 44, Heidi’s, and elsewhere.

The release goes on to explain that “molecular gastronomy is an artistic culinary technique that combines food and science to satisfy the pallet and wow the eye.” According to Wikipedia, a pallet is “a flat transport structure that supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift.”

Truce Juice (opening 2013)
1428 W 32nd St., Minneapolis,

If you’ve cruised around Hennepin Avenue south of Lake Street recently, you’ve probably notice a new spot at the corner of 32nd St. called Truce Juice — the concept is billed as “the first pressed juice bar in Minneapolis,” featuring hydraulically-pressed juice made “…daily, which distinguishes it from other juices and makes it one of the most nutritious beverages available.”

Ideal Diner (closed)
1314 Central Ave NE, Minneapolis

A reader tip that suggested that the “on vacation” Ideal Diner in Northeast was, in fact, out of business. An Apr. 6 Facebook post confirms that the business has shut its doors for good.

NOW OPEN

• Royal Bangkok, 315 University Ave., St. Paul | 651-788-9582
• Potter’s Pasties, 1828 Como Ave. SE, Minneapolis | 12-819-3107
• Up Cafe, 1901 Traffic St. NE, Minneapolis, MN | 612.385.2556.
• Smoke in the Pit, 3733 Chicago Ave S, Minneapolis | 612.315.3145
• Midori’s Floating World, 2629 E Lake St, Minneapolis. Had been closed temporarily due to water main break. | 612.721.3011
• Spill the Wine, 901 West Lake St, Minneapolis | 612.339.3388
• Origami Uptown, 1354 Lagoon Ave, Minneapolis. | 612.223.8666
• Hello Pizza, 3904 Sunnyside Rd, Edina. Read our review here.

Becca Dilley / Heavy Table

• Morrissey’s Irish Pub, 913 W Lake St, Minneapolis | 612.465.8555
• Hello Pizza, 3904 Sunnyside Rd, Edina | 952.303.4514
• Franklin Restaurant, 137 E Franklin Ave, Minneapolis. Formerly Azima.
• Rincon 38, 3801 Grand Ave S, Minneapolis | 612.824.4052
• Sushi Fix, 862 E Lake St, Wayzata | 612.532.0305

CLOSED / CLOSING:

• Little Sushi on the Prairie, 8353 Crystal View Rd., Eden Prairie
• Ideal Diner, 1314 Central Ave. NE, Minneapolis
• Kat’s Kitchen, St. Paul skyway
• Primebar, 3001 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis
• Cupcake Caramel by Sweets Bakeshop, 4747 Nicollet Ave, Minneapolis; 2042 Marshall Ave, St. Paul.
• Glory Days Bar & Grill, 500 5th Ave NW, New Brighton
• Kinsen Noodles and Bar, 1300 Lagoon Ave, Minneapolis
• Fischerville Coffee House, 2150 Dodd Rd, Mendota Heights
• Dean’s Tavern, 1986 Rice St, Maplewood
• Midway Rendezvous Coffee, 518 Snelling Ave N, St. Paul

COMING UP:

Minneapolis

• North 45°, 1313 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis | 612.332.6000. Opens late April.
• Ling & Louie’s Kitchen, 9th St. and Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis
• The Tangiers, North Loop. 116 1st Ave N, Minneapolis | 612.599.2651. Opens May 2013.
• Zeke’s Unchained Animal, 3508 E Lake St, Minneapolis | 612.720.9878
• The Nicollet Diner, 1428 Nicollet Ave S, Minneapolis. Opens this spring.
• Terzo, 2221 W 50th St, Minneapolis. New wine bar from Broders; opens this spring.
• Tiny Diner, 1014 E 38th St, Minneapolis | 612.822.6302
• Marin, 901 Hennepin Ave S, Minneapolis. Opens summer 2013.
• Unnamed Gastrotruck restaurant, 2400 University Ave NE, Minneapolis. Opens in 2013.
• Rocky and Shem’s Ice Cream Shoppe, 56th and Chicago, Minneapolis. Opens in 2013.
• Sandcastle, Lake Nokomis, Minneapolis. Doug Flicker’s concessionaire restaurant at the lake. Opens spring 2013.
• Town Hall Tap, 5019 34th Ave S, Minneapolis
• Loose-Wiles Freehouse, 701 Washington Ave N, Minneapolis. Opens September.
• Kitty’s Corner Cafe, 806 Washington Ave SE, Minneapolis

St. Paul

• Tacos, Nachos and Beer, 5 W 7th Pl, St. Paul. Opens this winter. | 651.756.7286
• Daily Diner Frogtown, 615 University Ave, St. Paul. Opens April 15. | 651.789.7661
• Bang Brewing, 2320 Capp Rd, St. Paul. Opens in 2013.
• French Meadow, 1662 Grand Ave, St. Paul. Opens in 2013.
• Burning Brothers Brewery, 1750 Thomas Ave, St. Paul.

Greater Twin Cities Area

• Tin Bins, near the corner of Main and Nelson Streets, Commander Grain Elevator, Stillwater. May 2013.
• Sakana Sushi and Hibachi, Plymouth. June.
• Travail, Pig Ate My Pizza, and The Rookery, Robbinsdale. Fall 2013.
• Forever Yogurt, The Shops at West End, I-394 & 100. Opens before summer of 2013.
• Egg and Pie Diner, 222 N Chestnut St, Chaska | 612.227.6999
• Tavern 4 & 5, 16396 Wagner Way, Eden Prairie. Opens in late April.
• Hammerheart Brewing, 7785 Lake Dr, Lino Lakes. Opens in 2013. | 651.964.2160
• Sawatdee, 13300 Technology Dr, Eden Prairie. Opens in 2013.
• Osaka Seafood and Steakhouse, Woodbury Lakes, Woodbury. Opens in 2013.
• Punch Pizza, City Centre Dr, Woodbury. Opens June 2013.
• Black Sea, 1581 E County Road E, White Bear Lake
• Crooked Pint Ale House, Apple Valley

The Tap is the Heavy Table’s guide to area restaurant openings, closings, and other major events. The Tap is compiled and published biweekly by the Heavy Table. If you have tips for The Tap, please email James Norton at editor@heavytable.com.

The post The Tap: In Season to Reboot and More appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

Black Forest Inn

Nestled in the heart of Eat Street, the Black Forest Inn has maintained its authenticity and success for 48 years. Paying homage to their German roots, Erich Christ and his brother, Gerhard, set sail on a culinary journey back in 1965, joined by Erich’s wife, Joanne, in 1968. Their craftsmanship and strong work ethic are what have kept its doors open for decades ever since. Nowadays, something can be said for a business cultivated and rooted in family values and tradition.

As the weather warms and the days grow longer, the most sought-after seats will be outside in the coveted beer garden. The twinkle of the white lights intertwined with vine-covered passageways makes for a picturesque experience. Although the restaurant is located on a bustling city street, the calming sounds of the fountain will put you at ease. On a warm night, enjoy German alfresco with an über-sized serving of Spaten Lager or a glass of wine from the extensive selection. No matter what you choose, you’ll be treated to an enjoyable night filled with authentic German cooking in a majestic, quaint setting.

From Black Forest’s authentic, handmade spaetzel noodles to its insanely tender pork roast (teeth optional), a taste bud feeding frenzy will ensue from start to finish. Never skimp on dessert, either. The Sacher Torte (adorned with apricot glaze and chocolate  ganache to boot) or Apple Strudel, the best-selling dessert, will put you in a euphoric state of mind.

This year, winter was a force to be reckoned with. Now that Mutter Nature is on our side, round up the crew and head over to the Black Forest Inn’s outdoor patio for beer, brats, and the wind in your hair. If history keeps repeating itself, this family-owned, hardworking institution will be around for another 48 years and beyond.

The post It’s Patio Season at the Black Forest Inn appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

DWITT / Heavy Table

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Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

As winter turns to spring… and spring turns back to winter, we Minnesotans could use some comfort food to buoy our spirits. Rather than turn to classic Midwestern comforters like hot dish, wild rice soup, or Swedish meatballs, we suggest a trip to Marla’s Caribbean Cuisine for Jerk Chicken Roti ($11) and Sweet Potato Pie ($3). This Trinidadian comfort food not only consoles, it knocks the funk right out of you.

Although Marla is known for several dishes (on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, Guy Fieri raved about the oxtails with red beans and rice and the channa and potato curry), we can’t get enough of the staples. Jerk Chicken Roti is a destination dish, both because it’s worth crossing town to get and it will make you want to jump on the next plane to the Caribbean. The chunks of grilled dark meat are impressively moist and pleasantly smoky. The chicken is marinated and served in a complex, sexy jerk sauce that’s relatively sweet and seriously spicy.

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

The sauce is perfect for mopping up with Marla’s excellent dhalpuri roti, a thin, flaky bread (thinner than naan but thicker than a tortilla) that’s filled with yellow split peas and flavored with toasted cumin seed. For those who like bread with a little more substance, Marla also offers paratha roti. Although too doughy for our tastes, it too is a great conduit for the jerk sauce. At $11, the large portion is a solid value. One order is enough for two people, though there is a $3 plate-sharing fee.

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

To lift your spirits even higher, it’s imperative to end the meal with a slice of Marla’s sweet potato pie. With a light crust and luscious, pillowy filling, this rich dessert is more flavorful and sweeter than a typical pumpkin pie. Like everything we’ve tried at Marla’s, the pie has great character.

So, if you’ve got the late winter / early spring doldrums and hopping on a plane for the West Indies isn’t an option, Marla’s is a wonderful alternative. The calypso music, mellow vibe, and fiery food will transport you to Caribbean shores, where it definitely doesn’t snow in April.

Marla’s Caribbean Cuisine, 3761 Bloomington Ave S, Minneapolis; 612.724.3088

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Katie Cannon / Heavy Table

There is something luxe about dining at Vincent – A Restaurant. Even a midweek lunch, even on the most impossible spring day — when chunks of ice are flying down Nicollet Mall and pummeling the restaurant’s great windows — even when the dining room is filled with grownups in fussy work clothes. Even when all these things would signal otherwise, the light-filled dining room, the low murmur of conversation, the comfortable chairs, and a glass of wine at your elbow (if you’re lucky) all conspire to create a relaxed air. It feels like a real break in the day.

The other day, we had just such an experience as we lingered over the Signature Prix Fixe Lunch ($13.50). The prix fixe offers two courses, with a choice of Belgian endive salad, an open face sandwich of leg of lamb, or a farro risotto. We opted for the latter and were not sorry for it. Non-rice grains can sometimes fail to produce the creaminess that risotto implies, but this was not so with the humble farro. It came off elegantly in the buttery mascarpone broth, a nutty companion to the warm tomatoes and sweet squash mixed through it. Anchoring the plate: a duck leg, cooked to perfection — soft meat, crispy skin.

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table

For our second course, we chose the chef’s choice cheese over a crème caramel. The plate was small, just a nibble of Gruyère de Comté served alongside a dollop of marmalade, a few red stems of micro chard, and a tiny pile of dried fruit and nuts, all of which enhanced the toasty flavors of the cheese. It was a light and satisfying end to a rich meal.

We also enjoyed the omelette du chef ($11), which featured goat cheese and a very mild chorizo and was most remarkable for its lovely creaminess — it was difficult to tell where the egg ended and the cheese began. And, of course, there was the famous Vincent burger ($15.50). There’s a reason why this burger wins “best of” time and again. As our dining companion said, “It is just exactly the burger you crave to beat a hangover.” A savory but not overly spiced, patty of ground beef stuffed with braised short ribs and smoked gouda and served on a toasted bun, it was texturally perfect and sublimely juicy.

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table

Thinking back on the meal, it was flavorful and satisfying. Yet in the age of foam, gel, and unexpected pickles, these plates were relatively uncomplicated — no bold flavors, no cheek, no surprises, just very simple French cuisine prepared beautifully.

Of course, the same might be said of other fine dining restaurants in town, but as a chef and restaurateur Vincent Francoual has been lauded for serving classic French cuisine with a twist of the experimental, eclectic, and inventive. We wondered why he would choose now to tone it down. “Nowadays, the new food, I feel like it’s based more on beauty first and then the taste after,” Francoual answered, “and that’s why, while I think it’s interesting, I don’t apply it as much here. We all read the same cookbooks, all the chefs in town, so I don’t believe there is any more creation. The only guy who really reinvented food was Ferran Adria, but I think this reinvention is a slippery slope. What I like about cooking is that you don’t control it, and everything with modernist cooking, all the additives, is about control.”

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table

“So when the foodies come in here, I’m a bit stressed,” he adds, laughing. “As you say, the bell and whistle, the technique, it is interesting to people, but I have as much fun cooking a burger as I do searing a foie gras.”

So for the moment, Francoual says, he is less focused on invention than on cooking straightforward dishes that combine three or four flavors with minimal additions, perhaps for texture or adding structure to the sauce. “We try to keep it simple. That’s why I have a white plate: I just want the food to be natural.”

We certainly found this to be true when we returned to Vincent for dinner.

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table

The brown butter skate “revisited” ($13) was served lukewarm and, also unusual for fish, had a creamy texture almost like a rillettes. A puree of chickpea and preserved lemon balanced out the butter, while a fried caper added a wonderful crunch of salt. It was a favorite of the table.

The kitchen was kind enough to divide a bowl of Ezilda soup ($9) into four espresso cups — each one with a bit of toasted crouton, a curl of cabbage, a few savory white beans — so that we all could sample it. It tasted of sage, sweet clear broth, and comfort; it was the perfect foil to a snowy evening.

We also devoured a plate of escargot ($12), and while the little snail bodies were delicious, none of us were ashamed to admit that most of our delight was in dipping our bread in the garlic parsley butter.

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table

For dinner there was a cassoulet ($28.25). Served in an earthenware cassole, it included traditional Tarbais white beans, preserved duck leg, garlic sausage, and pork sausage. Although delicious in its individual bits — snappy sausage, slightly toasted beans, fork-tender duck — as a whole its flavors were very soft, and we thought almost too uniform.

This may have been the chef intentionally leaning toward the inherent flavor of the meats. “If I give you a protein, I want you to taste the protein,” says Francoual. “If you are going to have a salmon, I’m might to try add some spices to enhance the flavor the salmon more than to cover it up — we really try to keep things simple.”

We did not try the salmon, but we found this philosophy carried out in pan-seared beef tenderloin ($41) that was cooked to an ideal medium rare and modestly spiced with salt and pepper. It was served alongside whole, sweet cipollini onions and gouda mashed potatoes, but we were partial to a salty rainbow chard that made a perfect bite with flavorful steak.

Similarly, our bowl of steamed mussels “mariniere” ($21) were plump and tender, with the butter and wine playing up the naturally sweet and rich side of the bivalves. They were served alongside French fries that were crispy on the outside and tender inside, but still tasted like potatoes — and provided a fantastic sop for the shallot, butter, and wine broth.

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table

The star of the meal was a braised lamb shank ($25), cooked for 48 hours, so that it arrived at our table falling off the bone, sweet and mild, and fragrant with winter squash, cinnamon, fennel, and rosemary. It sat on a fluffy bed of couscous, slivered almonds and golden raisins, a delicious use of texture.

We could not skip dessert, of course. Vincent’s childhood dessert ($8) was a dreamy combination. A pitcher of warm chocolate sauce, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and a handful of miniature Madeleines, light lemon cookies with a cake-like texture. The sauce was all cream and cocoa, only lightly sweetened — we were tempted to drink it. Also popular: The floating island ($8) a delicate poached meringue afloat in a jam jar of luscious creme anglaise (we did drink it).

Alas, many of these items are set to disappear with the snow. Like all of us, Francoual is looking forward to spring, and the end of the April will see a brand new menu that merges the best of the bar and restaurant menus, plus a few new items.

Among the highlights, there will be a new and lighter lamb shank with rosemary, red wine, and dried prunes. A shrimp wrapped in brioche and served with — despite the chef’s modernist misgivings — a deconstructed deviled egg. A new grill section will include such delights as côtelettes de porc, a very thin pork chop with herbs de Provence and a side béarnaise sauce. There will also be a “convivial” section of the menu, dedicated to plates for sharing.

For the vegetable lovers, Francoual has added an artichoke dish in which the heart is braised and then halved, so that one part can be pureed, the other fried. And he’s working on an escarole dish. “A lot of people can sear meat or fish,” he says, “but it’s hard to get creative with vegetables and make it flavorful, so vegetables really excite me. I feel like I am an old fart, excuse my French. I’m not really trendy when it come down to food, but I love to have a beautiful plate, I love good flavor.”

And what about the magical hamburger? Yes, it will still be on the menu, the chef says, with maybe a note of sadness. “Ah yes, that’s all Vincent – A Restaurant will be remembered for is a burger, but I like it.”

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table

That and much more we expect, but if we’re throwing things out there, we will remember the comfortable elegance of Vincent’s dining room and stellar service we received. From the wine recommendations to the extra step of dividing up our soup, everything was done with care and warmth — our server had a hearty laugh and was attentive without squishing us. Our meal was well timed, and it was possible to converse without screaming. It was, actually, convivial.

“To me, food is a way to enjoy the present moment and to be with people,” says Francoual. “I mean, we all need to eat to survive, but then I also believe that food is about sharing. Sometimes I joke: We have a strike across the street at the orchestra; I think I should prepare a meal for everyone together — the management and the musicians — and we can find some way for people to talk to each other through the meal. So I think conviviality is very important. I just love when guests are having fun here, around the table.”

Best bet: Braised lamb shanks — and, after, the floating island.

Vincent – A Restaurant
French in Downtown Minneapolis
4 out of 4 stars (Superb)

1100 Nicollet Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55403
612.630.1189

HOURS:
Lunch
Mon-Fri 11:30am-2pm
Dinner
Mon-Thu 5:30-9:30pm
Fri-Sat 5:30-11pm
CHEF / OWNER: Vincent Francoual
RESERVATIONS / RECOMMENDED: Yes / Yes
BAR: Full
VEGETARIAN / VEGAN: Yes / No
ENTREE PRICE: $15-$45

The post Vincent – A Restaurant in Minneapolis appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table

With a name like Egg and Pie Diner, one enters the doors of Chaska’s newest restaurant with two expectations: There’s hearty, tasty breakfast waiting, along with a fresh slice of pie. Well, breakfast is served all day, though the words “hearty” and “tasty” aren’t the first adjectives that come to mind, and you might get a little pie if you ask repeatedly. But unless you like waiting a long time for unremarkable food, Egg and Pie likely isn’t going to be your breakfast / dessert nirvana.

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table

Egg and Pie Diner is owned by a former partner [updated: 4-17-13] of Betty’s Cafe and Pie in Eagan and offers a similar ’50s theme, and the menu reflects its second-run status with very little originality. Omelets, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, and eggs Benedict — check. The O’Brien hash browns ($7) promise diced ham, onions, and peppers mixed with shredded potatoes, but instead the dish arrives with the meat and vegetables tossed on top of the hash browns and two eggs to the side. The plate was passable, but when the buttered white toast is the highlight of the dish, you know it’s nothing special. Similarly, the corned beef hash ($5.50) tastes like the meat comes from a can, and the “two eggs any way you like them” is a misnomer when you ask for poached and are told that’s not an option. The pancakes ($5 for a short stack) fall in between fluffy and flat and need a generous pour of syrup to make up for the lack of malty sweetness.

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table

The classic french toast ($5 for three slices) offers a respite from mediocrity — the bread is cut thick and is appropriately eggy, the texture is light, and the delicately browned crust soaks up the syrup nicely. The stuffed version ($7) turns the toast into a vaguely McGriddle-type concoction, with a sausage patty, egg, and slice of cheese wedged in between two slices. The wan-looking sausage adds little to the dish, so a platter of the solo toast is the better way to go.

As for the pie, it’s completely hit or miss what kinds are available — and if you’ll be able to order any in the first place. It took three requests to get the daily lineup, and sadly, only two graced the small pie case. While the filling of the blueberry cobbler pie ($3.50 per slice, add 99 cents for a la mode) bests the blueberry versions Heavy Table sampled during Pie Week two years ago, it also doesn’t taste like it is made with fresh berries. With a scoop of vanilla ice cream, the pie is a decent dessert but not one to remember.

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table

The ho-humness of the food would be easier to swallow (pun intended) if Egg and Pie’s service was up to par. But keeping customers waiting upward of 40 minutes for an uncomplicated lineup of breakfast dishes is hard to defend, especially when the restaurant is only half-full. The ever-annoying Disappearing Server Syndrome also afflicts Egg and Pie, and the response to a comment about the slow service merely elicited a “Yeah, well, we’re busy” from the cashier. Charming. At least with nothing priced more than $9 for breakfast, the bill doesn’t make the situation worse.

Like its nearby counterpart Tommy’s Malt Shop, Egg and Pie Diner lures customers with the promise of a classic dining experience but falls way short. As one member of our group remarked on our way out of the restaurant, “That place made no compelling case not to go to Perkins.” Luckily (?), there’s one only 3 miles away.

Egg and Pie Diner
Classic diner fare in Chaska

222 N Chestnut St
Chaska, MN 55318
952.361.5945
OWNER: Ayman Abdelsamie
HOURS:
Mon-Sat 6am-9pm
Sun 7am-3:30 pm
BAR: None
RESERVATIONS / RECOMMENDED: No / No
VEGETARIAN / VEGAN: Yes / No
ENTREE RANGE: $3-9 for breakfast, $4-14 for lunch and dinner

Katie Cannon / Heavy Table

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Dale Yasunaga / Heavy Table

Dark skies and steady rain dampened what would otherwise have been a pleasant drive through the western Wisconsin countryside in my journey to Shady Grove. As fields and farmhouses whizzed by the window, my thoughts began to wander from the road to the meal ahead. Could a chef-driven, fine dining experience be found out here?

The owners of Shady Grove are Chef Steve Snook and his wife, Heather — a team that has made a splash in the local dining community. Diner reviews linked from Shady Grove’s website describe a restaurant unlike others in the area. Just outside of cheese curd hotspot Ellsworth, WI, among neighborhood bars and grills, Shady Grove seems to stand out from the crowd. The allure of a possible diamond-in-the-rough, hidden gem of a restaurant in the rural countryside was too good to pass up.

Dale Yasunaga / Heavy Table

Pulling into an unmarked parking lot and an unassuming house further elevates the air of mystique around Shady Grove. Through the doors visitors are welcomed into a fairly large dining room and a full-length bar. Warm wooden tones, red leather seats, and white tablecloths fill the space within, creating an inviting atmosphere.

The menu at Shady Grove is an eclectic mix inspired by varying influences from classic steakhouse to Asian. There is a sense of judicious effort in the menu to source local ingredients. In addition to the regular menu, Shady Grove showcases a nightly “feature menu” which changes frequently and with the seasonality of ingredients.

Dale Yasunaga / Heavy Table

Two seafood appetizers kicked off our night’s sampling of Shady Grove’s menu. The crispy calamari (pictured at top) with Asian slaw ($9) started as a special, but through its popularity among regulars made its way onto the regular menu. In this plate flash fried calamari is served alongside a slaw of cabbage, carrots, and parsley tossed with green curry vinaigrette. While the curry vinaigrette gave off a pleasant heat along with a satisfying zing of acidity, the calamari was under seasoned and just a tad soggy. The slaw would have also benefited from a more finely cut julienne.

The second appetizer of crawfish beignets ($9, above) came from the nightly feature menu. The beignets were executed nicely with just the right level of density and outer texture. However, the heavy handedness of brandy and tarragon worked to mask the flavor of the crawfish.

Dale Yasunaga / Heavy Table

The first entree we sampled was a plate of duck breast with a cranberry-chipotle sauce ($18, above left). In this plate the flavor of perfectly medium-rare duck breast was accentuated by a unique combination of molasses, balsamic vinegar, red wine, and orange zest. The sauce was simultaneously tart, spicy, and sweet, creating a delightful sense of flavor on the palate. Cracklings atop the duck breast add a welcomed texture variance to each bite.

The second entree, a Gehl’s Buffalo Hill Ranch bison strip steak finished with a wild mushroom sauce ($29, above right), was sadly not as satisfying. The steak was cooked unevenly, in stark contrast to the perfect doneness of the duck. The unevenness of the cooking coupled with the lean cut of bison made for a dry steak. The wild mushroom sauce was pleasing in its savoriness, but ultimately could not compensate for the preparation of the steak.

Dale Yasunaga / Heavy Table

Shady Grove’s dessert selection is varied, including items made in house and those sourced from outside vendors. We selected two of the in-house preparations, the first of which was a salted caramel chocolate tart ($7, above right). The tart showcased the deliciousness of the salty / sweet play of salted caramel, although in a hard-to-chew crust. The second dessert, a lemon custard with blueberries ($6, above left), was very tart with bursts of sweetness from the fresh fruit. Whipped cream added another layer of sweetness to balance the lemon custard.

The attentiveness of the owner and the waitstaff ensured a comfortable flow to the evening as well as proper timing between courses. The staff also appeared knowledgeable about the menu and demonstrated a genuine interest in their customers. The high point of the meal — the duck entree — demonstrates a great potential in Shady Grove and its chef. If this potential can be realized throughout the menu, we’d be more than happy to make the drive out for dinner once more.

Shady Grove
Fine Dining / New American in Ellsworth, WI
1.5 out of 4 stars (Notable)

N6240 St Rd 65
Ellsworth, WI 54011
715.273.3787
OWNER / CHEF: Heather and Steve Snook / Steve Snook
HOURS: Thurs-Sun 5pm to Close
BAR: Full bar
RESERVATIONS / RECOMMENDED: Yes / Yes
VEGETARIAN / VEGAN: Limited / Limited
ENTREE RANGE: $17-$27

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Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

If you are a server at Meritage in St Paul, then you should anticipate being prepared for a written exam every six months. Academia in the service industry? Not entirely. This exam tests employees on their knowledge of wine. If they don’t pass, they’re not on the floor.

Questions range from knowing the main grape varietal for the wines of Sancerre and Pouilly Fume to the Rioja region of Spain. The restaurant provided a Wine School for employees in order to give them the education needed to answer them. Then the program evolved. Customers can take it, too. The next round begins July 24. It meets every Wednesday for eight weeks.

There’s room for growth, too. Wine School for graduates delves deeper into French varietals. “It’s a deeper take on Bordeaux and Burgundy. They are the most complex in France, so they really give us something to talk about,” says Nicolas Giraud (above left), a transplant from France and the Wine Director at Meritage. He adds that they could easily host one class on Burgundy alone. “It’s a beast.”

Giraud, along with other staff members like Peter Eckholdt (above right), teach Wine School to eager enthusiasts. “It’s in a beautiful conference room with a huge dry erase board, and we can draw maps and make it interesting and interactive. When Peter and I host it, we laugh and joke around together,” says Giraud. “Yeah, there’s a pretty good dichotomy going on,” says Eckholdt.

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

Giraud and Eckholdt discussed their bond over wine, as well as their travels together, over a bottle of 2007 Russian River Valley Gary Farrell Chardonnay (from Giraud’s personal collection) and steak tartare at Vincent.

“It’s a funny story, how I found Gary Farrell. When I travel to the wine country, a lot of the wineries have a guest house where the trade people can stay. It’s very convenient. You really get to stay in the vineyard. You can run naked through the vines in the middle of the night if you want — not that we’ve done it,” says Giraud. “Not yet,” adds Eckholdt. Since meeting years ago, the two have learned, traveled, and toasted together over a shared fondness for wine. “Wine is about geography. There’s science involved. How climate affects the grapes. So wine becomes a bigger thing than just a beverage you like. Then there are the people involved, and their stories. Pairing food with wine,” says Eckholdt.

So where did the two of you meet? 

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

GIRAUD: I was the Chef de Cuisine at a restaurant in the south of France. Vincent got my resume, and we met in New York. He invited me to come, and I secured a visa.

ECKHOLDT: I was somewhat submersed in wine from working at Vincent and going to tastings. At some point, before I had traveled to any winery, I had a point where I tasted some wine (not knowing what it was) and guessed what I was drinking. So I told myself that I knew a little more about wine than I thought I did. And then I met Nico.

GIRAUD: That was February 2006. Within two days of being here I met Peter.

ECKHOLDT: The first trip we took together was down Hennepin Avenue to Surdyk’s to show Nico where he could get cheese.

GIRAUD: That was my third day in the country.

Tell us about your wine travels together. 

GIRAUD: I think France was our first trip. It was 2009. I can’t believe it took that long. Three years since we met.

ECKHOLDT: Yeah. I don’t think we had been to Duluth, yet. Occasionally we’ll go up there just to get out of town and drink a bunch of wine.

GIRAUD: The last time we went up there, we brought 40 bottles of wine for a three day trip with eight people. We took three home.

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

ECKHOLDT: Some of the best meals I’ve had have been up there at the New Scenic Cafe.

GIRAUD: So, we had this amazing trip in 2009. We started in Paris, went to Burgundy, Provence, and then to Barcelona. There were five of us. We are going to do that trip again in 2019.

ECKHOLDT: Then we went to Oregon and Washington in 2010. Then California in 2012.

GIRAUD: “One time in California we got to stay at this beautiful chateau on a vineyard.”

ECKHOLDT: We were on a mountain looking down on the town of St. Helena. Once we got to the guest house, we couldn’t believe where we were staying. What is so significant about the Napa Valley is the cold air that comes in from the bay at night. We could see it visually. As night settles in, you could see the fog over the valley. All the city lights went away and it almost looks like a lake. There’s just murky white air covering it. But by noon the next day it goes away, and you see the valley again.

GIRAUD: Honestly, you could cut off my pinky if you told me I could stay there anytime I wanted.

ECKHOLDT: I don’t know if I would go quite that far, but I would consider it.

GIRAUD: Or a toe for sure.

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

Where will your next trip take you? 

GIRAUD: This year I will take my wife on vacation to the Pacific Northwest. Hopefully in August I’ll take some customers on a trip to Oregon. Of course we’ll have a home for the guests. But if that means I have to build a tent in the backyard, I’m fine with that. It’s no problem.

ECKHOLDT: If budget was no issue, the next trip I’d like to take is a tour of Alsace [France], Germany, Austria, northern Italy.

GIRAUD: I’d also go to Croatia. Their climate is perfect for grapes. You don’t see a lot of them, yet. But one of the top producers there is owned by a family from Minnesota.

What advice do you have for someone trying to learn about wine? 

GIRAUD: Taste. There’s no other way. Wine is linked to your memory. Like for me, I’ll try something and it will remind me of a time in a restaurant three years ago.

ECKHOLDT: Well you’re a little extreme.

GIRAUD: I am.

Isabel Subtil / Heavy Table

ECKHOLDT: Nico’s right. Just drink wine. Drink responsibly, of course. Pay attention to what you’re drinking. Know if you’re drinking wine from Napa Valley, or a Cotes du Rhone. That will help your memory catalog. Your mind will take mental notes even if you don’t realize you’re doing it. The “World Atlas of Wine” is a good reference book. Also, to actually visit wineries makes wine more accessible. We’ve always told people to go to Willamette Valley in Oregon. It’s a little cheaper than California. The vineyards are a closer drive from the airport, and there are less people.

GIRAUD: Customers who come to Meritage ask for education. It’s easy to sell wine to someone who is open minded. I can pick out a bottle and tell them why I chose that wine. I can tell them about where it came from. For example, we have wine from Israel and Lebanon. When I get people to try it, they love it. But otherwise they would have never tried it. But now, they’ll order it again.

The post Nicolas Giraud and Peter Eckholdt of Meritage appeared first on The Heavy Table - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Upper Midwest Food Magazine and Blog.

Crystal Liepa / Heavy Table

Many Midwesterners know about spaghetti suppers or church basement dinners — gatherings at long cafeteria tables beneath fluorescent lights. Often they are fundraisers or happen after services. The meal isn’t always great, but it has something. Like familiarity, or more likely the comfort of 20 or 50 other people sharing something they need, the echo of many hands and favorite family recipes.

In a lot of ways, the Filipino (or Pinoy) brunch in Circle Pines couldn’t get more Midwestern. Every Sunday from 10 to 4, Mena-li Canlas (above) lays a spread in the Pines Market convenience store and marks up a whiteboard with the day’s menu in joyful colors. A plate of rice and two entrees is $6.25; rice and three entrees is $7.50. It’s a good idea to check Facebook for the menu or call ahead.

“This is not restaurant food,” explained Canlas with a warm smile. She runs a word-of-mouth-based catering company called Tita Li’s Kitchen. “This is lola food,” she says. “’Lola’ means grandma.”

Crystal Liepa / Heavy Table

Canlas gave us a loving tour of her table: sweet and oily chorizo-like sausages, adobo dark-meat chicken that was tender and moist, crispy fried chunks of melty pork called lechon, and Filipino fried rice, which is essentially garlic-scented white rice. Canlas’s brunch was humble and heavy and nothing like we’ve ever seen. I kept imagining the buffets of rust-colored sloppy joes and sweet cookie salad I grew up finding at family reunions. How strange and wonderful to stumble upon someone else’s version of home-cooked weekend food.

Our plates were a fascinating mosaic of Asian, Spanish, and Latin American flavors. The lengua (Spanish for “tongue”) with mushrooms could easily pass for a tepid cream of mushroom-based pot pie without the crust. And Pancit Palabok is a medley of noodles, chopped bacon and shrimp, green onions, and hard-boiled eggs. It was porky, tangy, squishy, and totally confusing. But so is cookie salad.

Crystal Liepa / Heavy Table

Dessert gets its very own table at Canlas’s brunch. Pairs of empanadas sit close to piles of yellow button cakes made from rice flour, and a large purple and white jellyroll called Ube Roll. We dug into a slice of Leche Flan Cake ($3.50), which the woman at the table described as “egg on top, cake on bottom.” The fluffy chiffon cake is soaked in a golden, liquidy caramel that starts off almost boozy and ends up mellow and full of vanilla. On top, something like strained custard is buttery and marvelous.

When pressed by a friend, Canlas sheepishly admitted she’d been featured in a book published in 2012 called Asian Flavors: Changing the Tastes of Minnesota since 1875, by Phyllis Louise Harris. And thank goodness, because Filipino food is hard to find in the Twin Cities. What we do have is this friendly, sparse spot in Circle Pines for a glimpse into what it’s like to have a family meal in a Filipino kitchen.

Crystal Liepa / Heavy Table

Filipino Brunch by Tita Li’s Kitchen
Filipino comfort food in Circle Pines
2 S Pine Dr (Pines Market / Clark Station)
Circle Pines, MN 55014
763.432.0768
CHEF: Mena-li Canlas
HOURS: Sun 10am-4pm
BAR: None
RESERVATIONS / RECOMMENDED?: No / No
VEGETARIAN / VEGAN: Limited / No
ENTREE RANGE: A la carte, combos $6.25-7.50

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