Barbette - Minneapolis, MN

Barbette is a French-American cafe sort of restaurant in Uptown. We went there with my mom as part of the Gerd's Mom Restaurant Tour which took place all of this last week. My first impression of entering Barbette was that I was so not cool enough to eat there. There was cool art, cool lights, cool staff, cool furniture, and I am not cool.

Let me tell you what is the coolest, though, and that is the Cheese Fondue Appetizer (the cool kids call it an amusement on their menu). The Cheese Fondue came with fresh mushrooms, diced apple, and baguette pieces. It ruled. I had a petite tenderloin which was served with spinach salad and leeks. It was also really good, but absolutely none if it was dipped in melted cheese. Let's be honest here though about the petit tenderloin - I could've eaten four of them. Just saying it was a bit too petit for me. Chao had some type of pork tenderloin with crunchy grass, baby food squash and albino beets. The baby food ruled. My mom had risotto with shrimp and veggies mixed in. Their dinners were good (yes I tried everything - I told you mine was petit), but mine was clearly the winner. I would 100% go back to this place to get Cheese Fondue and maybe some wine, but I might skip it for dinner. They also seemed to have good happy hour specials so that might be worth doing, also.

I am starting a new tag with the post and it will probably be a series so look out for that. It is called, "the server called Chao a girl." This happens often in restaurants when the server comes up behind Chao and sees only his long hair and then begins with, "Hi ladies." It is hilarious when this happens because they all react differently. Here at Barbette, it didn't even phase her and she moved right on. She was far too cool to be embarrassed.

Top 5:
1. Cheese Fondue
2. Hip place
3. Awesome lights over the bar
4. Cool art
5. Cute tables to sit at outside if you are into that sort of thing

Bottom 5:
1. No refills on pop
2. Petit is seriously petit
3. There is apparently a cold spot in the restroom
4. Small tables (too cafe-ish?)
5. The mushrooms were cut too big for the fondue

http://www.barbette.com/