Sunday Brunch with the Jensens – Minneapolis, MN

As I mentioned in a previous post, Gerd and I have some friends who meet regularly for brunch on Sundays. The Jensens are a group of girls who are completely unrelated, but share the same exact last name – weird. But the Jensens invite all their friends with differing last names and it’s a rip roaring time. I went last weekend and kicked myself for not going over the past few months. It’s soooo much fun talking with smart people about books, politics, music, aMURka!, films, sports we hate and everything else that comes up. (I would love to give everyone a hilarious nickname, but I’m truly just not that creative.)

This week, the adventure started at the VFW for drinks at 11:30, and then we would head to the Country Bar for eating. And yes, that’s 11:30am. First off there’s all kinds of signage about being a member only (not the sweet jacket from the 80s) and you had to buzz a buzzer to get in. Seriously, it was kind of intimidating, I’ll admit it. They let us in anyway. Many of us. We threw back 3 or 4 or 5 drinks each and played some darts and talked about the most hilarious stuff. The drinks here are dirt cheap – they’re called “eye openers”. I think I spent 7 bucks buying a ROUND of drinks. Why? Because this is aMURka!

Some highlights from the VFW include the people that had to call a cab to drive them home when we arrived. Did I mention we got there at 11:30am? This brought our own conversation around to “did these people get there at 11 when they opened and pounded like 10 drinks, or were they still there from last night? If they got there at 11, they were drunks. If they were continuing their evening, then they were animals. BIG difference. Also, we had a Cujo conversation and I got to defend Lea Thompson for being hot. HotGirlsBrother played darts with a girl and somehow managed to finish the round by scoring two bullseyes but accidentally for the other girl. It was hilarious because he was genuinely angry about his turn of fate. Ha ha.

We headed to the Country Bar down the block to eat something (we walked, don’t worry). This was my first time in the place, so it was a little odd for me. This is a country bar staffed by Asians and they serve Mexican and Cajun breakfasts. It’s definitely country though. Here’s a shot of the inside, which has never seen a swiffer duster since it’s opened.

We ordered more drinks (dur) and our breakfasts. I got a Cajun breakfast which was really quite good, though a bit oniony. A couple of eggs, some hashbrowns, scrambled with Cajun sausage, peppers and onions. Not really spicy, but had good flavor, so I won’t complain. Don’t get me wrong, this is a bar that just happens to serve breakfast, but it’s a pretty good breakfast. The table ordered the jalapeno cheese curds, and they were absolutely delicious. I might go back, just to get those sometime. People will fight over these things. In fact everybody’s breakfasts looked good and people talked about how good the food was. I don’t think you could get anything bad here for breakfast. It is all good food.

There was again, more hilarious table conversation and yelling and drinking of beverages, comic book-to-movie talk, and stealing of food – these people know how to have a good time. HotGirlsBrother ended up playing darts with some of the locals and one of the Asian cooks. But not until two of the locals put Dio’s Holy Diver on the jukebox. Seriously, in a country bar. That rules on 34 different levels. The other locals were well into the drinks and it was sooo hilarious to watch not-drunk-enough-HotGirlsBrother try to comprehend what the drunk local was talking about. At one point, I heard drunk local yell, “You tryin to re-gull-ate like Bill Clinton, brotha.” Everyone seemed confused. Really hilarious though.

Since I love reviewing restrooms, I thought I’d do this one for you. Let’s just say it’s a restroom for five. Let’s also say it’s a restroom I might think again about using. Room for four at the trough and then one throne. It’s kind of difficult to see, but there also isn’t any toilet paper. Apparently this is a regular thing as a number of people, including the locals and the staff, commented on it. Like I said, I might just hold it if I were you. Yes, that is a bucket under the trough. Yes, that is a kerosene space heater next to the non-functional steam heater. I’m glad you asked.

Seriously, this is a fun place to hang out with a crowd of people or if you want a cheap and easy breakfast, especially if said breakfast includes spicy cheese curds. Gerd, you would have been horrified, but loved every minute of this brunch!

Top 5 things about this week’s Jensen brunch
1. Cheese curds
2. Lost track of how many drinks I had before 1pm - hilarious
3. Cajun breakfast
4. Intelligent but drink-infused conversation deserves Pulitzer prizes all around!
5. Dio at a country bar run by Asians serving Cajun food

Bottom 5 things
1. Gerd would have complained and then told everyone how awesome it was
2. Country Bar restroom
3. Watching someone clean their fork in a pitcher of beer – don’t ask
4. I found out gay guys do not automatically think construction workers are erotic – blew my mind!
5. Fort Knox of VFWs – actually this was more funny than frightening