The Buttered Tin – St. Paul, MN

I had been planning to hit up The Buttered Tin for a number of months after I found out about their extra-special treat they make their – a house-made Twinkie (spelled Twin-Key for legal reasons). What could be better than that? The place is open for breakfast and lunch, so D.Rough and I went sort of in the middle of those times and ended up being able to order either breakfast or lunch. We both went with breakfast, based on what they had to offer. It wasn’t an easy decision, since most of their menu sounds pretty good.

I finally decided on the Bread Pudding dish they had that day as a special, and D.Rough got the Creamy Polenta. The server was super friendly and answered a ton of questions we had about various dishes. Plus, you can watch your food being made through the giant glass window into the kitchen. Makes it seem like the food comes out super fast (it actually WAS pretty quickly).

The creamy polenta was good, I won’t say amazing because it was even more liquid-y than either D.Rough or I expected. It had great flavor though. There are bits of something with color in there – peppers or seasoning or something really delicious. It has a smoked bacon and mushroom ragout on top with a poached egg, which, when combined all in one bite, makes a darn good rib-sticking breakfast. The grilled bread that comes with it is for sopping up the bits when you’re through, as well.

The bread pudding, which I have been eating in every restaurant I can find recently, was really good. I’d order this again and again. It was a tough choice between this and hash, but I’m glad I went with this. It was clearly bread pudding but it wasn’t the mega-dense almost pound cake consistency that some bread puddings are. This one was even a bit on the savory side, with blue cheese, ham, fingerling potatoes, and arugula, with a dollop of homemade herbed sour cream on top for some contrast. This bread pudding is delicious.

D.Rough and I were incredibly crushed to find out they had run out of the house-made twinkies for the day and we wouldn’t be going home with one. I’ll complain about it for years, but I know all I have to do is drive ten minutes to this place and pick one up sometime (which I plan to do).

This place is pretty good for breakfast, brunch, or lunch. I have a feeling we’ll be back here sooner, rather than later…

www.thebutteredtin.com