Duplex – Minneapolis, MN

D.Rough and I were in a celebratory mood and needed to do a special occasion kind of 6-month anniversary dinner date type of thing. She had purchased a Groupon a few months back and we needed to use it. Both of our plans got canceled for the night, so we even got to go a little bit early and relax a bit. It was also sweltering outside and the weather stations had issued heat advisories for people, so we had that going for us.

Duplex is set in Uptown in a kind of old Key West house-style restaurant. It’s next to another Key West-style house-restaurant that I’ve reviewed before – Namaste. This place used to be called Pandora’s, which previously had amazing coffee and was a hot spot for D.Rough before she could drink. She’d hang there and drink mochas and smoke clove cigarettes – like all rebel teens do. We thought about eating inside in the air conditioning, but when we got there, there was enough of a breeze that we thought we could tolerate eating outside. The temp had cooled off SLIGHTLY and we were hoping for the best with the breeze.

We got our menus from a really nice host/waiter and tried to figure out what we wanted. Both of us wanted wine, and something light, so we got a bottle of Pinot Blanc from Alsace, France. It ended up being awesome. We also knew we needed Poutine, since people rave about it from this place and when they tried to take it off the menu, people revolted (that might be an exaggeration).

We had some difficulty figuring out what we were in the mood for, and the one thing I was looking forward to wasn’t on this particular iteration of the menu – the Elk Wellington/Turnover – so I had to figure something else out. We eventually decided to split a larger dinner salad – the spinach salad looked great – and also split the House Made Pappadelle with Duck.

We drank some awesome wine and had some enjoyable people watching – Uptown always has good people watching. The Poutine came out – house-cut fries with Eichten Acres raw white cheddar cheese curds and brown gravy. If you’re not familiar with poutine, then change something because it’s the greatest invention ever – thank you Canada for sending us this great gift. D.Rough and I have been comparing poutines all over town (wow, that sounded dirty) and we’re slowly building a sort of ranking system. Duplex’s version had a significant layer of melted white cheddar on it. To the point where it was difficult to cut through. The gravy itself was basically a simple brown gravy – nothing special. I will preempt this next statement by saying there is no such thing as bad poutine. It’s good anywhere you get it – just some are better than others. In the overall poutine rankings, Duplex doesn’t rank high – but it’s still REALLY good. In fact, if you’re new to poutine, then start at Duplex and work your way up. Duplex’s is better than Triple Rock’s version, but not even on the map compared to Forepaugh’s (#1) or Dakota Jazz Club (#2) or Bennet’s Chop House (#3).

Our food came out shortly after. Not rushed, but not slow either – just about perfect. The salad looked really good and fresh. It had spinach leaves (giant leaves), bacon, roasted apple, a goat cheese croquette, and a nice cinnamon walnut vinaigrette. The salad was fine, but even a little boring. Obviously, the bacon was the best part, but the other things were just kind of meh. The goat cheese was also good, but the apples didn’t even look like apples. In fact, I lied to D.Rough and told her they were oyster mushrooms. All the flavors seemed really downplayed for some reason and just didn’t taste vibrant or fresh. Bummer.


The Duck Pappadelle was fantastic, however! We both loved every bite of this. It was duck braised in white wine with tomatoes, carrots, onions, and pancetta served over house made pappadelle pasta topped with parmesan. The pasta was cooked al dente which is pretty much how you’ll find these super thick noodles at most places. The sauce in the dish was incredible and all of the flavors of the vegetables were very fresh. There was enough cheese to taste but not enough to overwhelm. The duck itself was perfectly cooked. I’m always a big fan of eating duck while it’s still hot as the fat congeals quickly once cool – we didn’t have to worry about this with this dish, as we devoured it and fought over the last bites.

We opted out of dessert since none of them really sounded appealing. I think these change from time to time, so you may not be sure of what is an option until you go there. Nothing for us, but then again, we had a movie to catch – Coco & Igor.

Overall, I think Duplex is nice, but maybe not fantastic. There are a lot of other places we’ll go before we come back here – one of those places is right next door – Namaste. The waiters are really good and fun and the wine list is pretty good, especially if you’re there for happy hour. But the food was just alright. Not terrible, but not stand-out quality.

Top 5 things about Duplex
1. House Made Pappadelle with Duck
2. Great wine list, ad not terribly expensive bottles unless you want them
3. Very friendly waiters covered in interesting tattoos
4. Great patio for people watching
5. The brunch items look fantastic – might have to go back for that…

Bottom 5 things
1. Spinach Salad just meh
2. Menu not reflective of seasons – lots of heavy dishes in the summer
3. Poutine, though good, was meh in comparison to other poutine pushers
4. Menu items on the website aren’t on the actual menu and can’t be ordered (I tried)
5. I understand the Dijon mustard glazes are pretty overpowering – not verified since I knew this ahead of time

www.duplexmpls.com