I have the best boss in the world. She lives out of town,
but she comes into Minneapolis pretty regularly to keep our team in top shape.
The hotel she usually stays at is halfway between my house and the office, so
sometimes I pick her up on my way into work … and sometimes she buys breakfast.
Today we had a lot to talk about, business-wise, so I suggested we try Hot
Plate – I’ve heard people talk about it, but had never been. There’s a huge
cedar tree blocking the sign, so we drove past it twice trying to find it – it’s
in the same building as an old radio repair shop, so if you see that, you’re in
the right spot.
The inside looks more like a jumbled antique shop than a
restaurant, but in a home-y way, not a hoarder way. There are tons of paintings
on the walls. Not fancy paintings either, the old paint-by-numbers kind. There’s
also a lot of Precious Moments style little statues with phrases at the bottom
(not actually Precious Moments though, since some of the sayings are a bit
off-color for some people’s taste). It’s kind of awesome and overwhelming at
the same time.
We grabbed a booth and checked out the menu. It’s got some
typical breakfast items that you’d expect, but then some of them have been given
some special treatment. Plus, there’s a “south of the border” section that has
really wonderful items that include various salsas and tortillas. I’ve heard
the Pumpkin Pancakes were really amazing here, but I kept going back to the
South of the Border section. Despite changing my mind about 5 times before
finally ordering, I got the Carnitas Scramble.
The food arrived and looked even better than I had suspected
it would. A really generous portion of eggs and carnitas with jalapenos, and a
pile of fried potatoes. The carnitas were actually quite good and the jalapenos
gave it some pop. I like pretty much anything mixed with eggs, so it’s hard to
go wrong there, as long as you throw in good ingredients. Hot Plate totally did
that. My boss got the peanut butter pancakes and a plate of bacon – and she
raved about everything.
On our way out, we noticed a sort of game corner. There were
board games and even some old school electronic games like football and Simon,
and even MERLIN (I had to control my excitement for that one). Then I saw a Speak
N Spell and also a Speak N Math – I was such a nerd kid, I geeked out hard over
these two finds. Very impressive, Hot Plate, if there weren’t already 10
reasons to come back, I would totally come back here and relive my youth.
5204 Bloomington Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55417
www.mrmosaico.com/hotplatediner>
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