Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Eat Street Social – Minneapolis, MN



D.Rough and I did an impromptu traditional date night (movie and dinner) and ended up at Eat Street Social for dinner. I’d been there before for drinks, but hadn’t even glanced at the menu. We were taking a gamble by showing up on a Saturday night at 7, but we were feeling lucky. And thankfully, even though it was busy, they were able to get us in without any wait at all.

The inside is very dark and intimate. It’s also decorated with paintings by our favorite Minneapolis artist – Nicholas Harper, so we were pretty excited about that. This place also has a private tiki bar room for special occasions and for rental (called The Torpedo Room), but it wasn’t open at the time.

The first thing of note is the cocktail menu. This place is known for its craft/vintage cocktails. Some craft cocktails means “old guy drinks” – not so, in this case. Yes, they do have a special Old Fashioned on their list, btu they have a ton of other delicious sounding things. I ordered a Gold Rush – Bakers 107, honey syrup, and lemon. It was one of the best drinks I’ve had – absolutely brilliant. And it comes with the leftover pour in a small carafe. So it’s like a two-for-one. D.Rough for a Tea & T – green apple fig tea-infused Broker’s Gin, cranberry-oleo tonic, lime, and seltzer. She REALLY liked this cocktail.

We thought we’d split a small plate and also an entrée, but it was difficult to decide which ones to order. We settled on the Truffled Corn Gnocchi and a nice Sirloin. I’ll interrupt here to explain that the service at this restaurant is top-notch. Our server – Ari – was super attentive without hovering or being annoying and was extremely easy to chat with and ask questions. We had at least 4 people fill our water glasses when they got below the halfway point and this place is happy to swap out dirty silverware between courses. It’s one of the best service experiences we’ve had in a really long time.

The Truffled Corn Gnocchi looked really good. Yes, it’s a small plate, but it IS in the small plate section. That being said, it was REALLY good. It’s plenty of gnocchi in it, along with corn, sugar snap peas, grape tomatoes, cippolini, onions, garlic, and summer corn consommé (like a broth). D.Rough was a little intimidated by the whole cloves of garlic in the dish, but I cut them up into smaller pieces and ate all of them. The broth was fantastic, and the fresh vegetables had a lot of bite to them, so they clearly weren’t overcooked. It was wonderful.

The Sirloin was really impressive looking on the plate. I apologize this photo doesn’t do it justice at all. The sirloin itself was one of the best steaks we’ve had in a while – super tender and medium-rare like we ordered. A nice crust no the outside and not overseasoned. No gristle at all and not tough. It was an amazing steak . The steak was great, but the other things on the plate were what really made the meal shine. It comes with blue cheese scalloped potatoes, bacon-roasted broccoli, and a sour cherry demi glace. We need to figure out how to make these potatoes since they were fantastic. The bacon-broccoli was also spectacular and the sour cherry sauce made everything even more tasty. We recommended it to the table next to us when they asked how it was (they were impressed with the presentation), and we’d recommend it to anyone (who isn’t a vegetarian). Get the sirloin – even though I’d guess everything else on the menu is wonderful, too.

I’m really glad Eat Street Social worked out even better than we expected. We’ll be going back here soon.

Top 5 things about Eat Street Social
1. Sirloin
2. All the “other things” that come with the sirloin
3. Truffled Corn Gnocchi
4. Gold Rush
5. Service was worth mentioning, for sure (thank you, Ari)

Bottom 5 things
1. A meal can add up here, if you’re not careful, but it WILL be worth it
2. Seemed to fill up after we arrived – probably worse when the outdoor patio isn’t open
3. We wished the Torpedo Room was open so we could check it out
4. There’s no parking lot, but they do have a valet and close-by on-street parking
5. I’m really struggling trying to find anything bad about East Street Social


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