Mudd Room – Mendota, MN

The Mudd Room is a speakeasy-style basement bar that’s done pretty darn well. It’s basically through the side door of Lucky’s 13 Pub in Mendota (NOT Mendota Heights). I was worried the entrance was going to be a bit more hidden, but they dumb it down pretty well for folks. Inside the door, there’s a phone on the wall that you’re supposed to pick up and it gives you a code. I’m not sure if it worked, because the door was slightly ajar, but we managed to find out way inside. You go down the stairs to a dimly lit, but beautiful bar and small dining room.

The bar is lit up red and looks really classy. There’s fancy bottles and booze infusions happening, so you know they’re making some good cocktails. There’s also a small stage for bands or solo acts – which is why we had popped in – and an occasional television showing old-timey shows. The bartender was very good and helpful (and patient with us). I can’t remember his name, but he was making sure everyone was well taken care of.

This place also has a “chef series” where they steal fancy chefs from local establishments and give them reign to do whatever they’d like food- and drink-wise. This month’s chef is Shane Oporto, formerly of La Belle Vie and Octo Fishbar. There are also some killer chefs coming up that you’re going to want to check out. Shane Oporto was rocking
a sort of Asian-inspired cocktail and food menu and really knocked it out of the park. (There are also regular menu items that the Mudd Room always has, which also sound amazing.)

We literally ordered one of each of the menu items Oporto had created. Pork belly steamed bun, shishito peppers, cod sandwich, and gyoza. But we started with some fancy cocktails. I got a Mudd Room Press – pineapple vodka, muddled cucumber, soda, and a splash of Sprite. D. got a Charlie’s Rita – El Jimador tequila, Tattersall Orange Cream, lime, and pineapple juice (she skipped the usual muddled jalapeno). The drinks were amazing, as you’d expect. They were both completely getting us ready for summer. Refreshing and strong – we had seen some comments about the drinks being strong, which is accurate, but that’s how we pour them at home, so it works out.

While we waited for our food, we listened to the musical stylings of Denny McGovern, playing all kinds of really solid songs from the 60s-90s. Some Eagles, Tom Petty, and related artists. Great work, Denny.

 

Our food looked amazing when it arrived. The pork belly was perfectly cooked, and covered in Bulldog Glaze (hopefully, FROM the Bulldog) and Japanese mayo. Since it’s a relatively small items, D and I had to do our best to share.

The shishito peppers were more up my alley than hers. They were served “elote style”, which I think means with some mayo and cheese, as well as Bonito flakes and furikake. I really liked these little bite-sized peppers, especially because about one in 5 peppers really packed a kick. I pretty much ate about 90% of the order, since D passed them my direction to focus on other items.

The cod sandwich sounds like it might not be stand-out, but it was really awesome. It was a fried cod filet with curry coleslaw and Japanese pickles. We both really liked this one and it’s a pretty generous portion.

The gyoza are like almost bite-sized dumplings filled with pork and ginger sauce. The dipping sauce was also magical and I ended dipping pretty much everything into it.

D had finished the first beverage and needed another – she went with the Tokyo Tea (Oporto’s nod to the Long Island Iced Tea) with gin, vodka, sake, rum, Midori, and ginger beer. I got the New York Sour – Redemption Rye Whiskey, housemade sour mix, fresh lemon & lime, egg white, with a red wine float.

We had a great time eating killer food, listening to great live music, drinking crafted cocktails, and just chilling after a long Thursday. We are looking forward to more amazing artists, both on stage and in the kitchen. I love this concept of showing off some local talent and letting them get a little mad-scientist in the kitchen. Brilliant. We’ll be back!

Top 5 things about The Mudd Room

1. D and I did not agree on the order of our favorites, but we DID agree that there wasn’t a bad menu item that we ordered. My vote order was cod, peppers, gyoza, and bun. D’s vote order is bun, gyoza, cod, and peppers

2. Great diverse menu for both the chef series and standard menu

3. Cocktails and the gent that made/served them

4. Atmosphere – dark and mysterious, but very clean

5. Live music never hurts

 

Bottom 5 things

1. No reservations, but you SHOULD be alright

2. If you have trouble seeing menus when there isn’t light, you’re going to need to turn on your cell phone light

3. Only open Thursday, Friday, Saturday (but they do open at 4 those days, so you can maximize your drinking time)

4. Nothing else is negative here

5. N/A

 

https://www.facebook.com/MUDDROOMSPEAKEASY

Tumbled Rock Brewery and Kitchen – Baraboo, WI

D and I did a little road trip to get out of town and on our way back, we popped by Tumbled Rock Brewery & Kitchen. It’s a relatively new place near Wisconsin Dells that’s really pretty impressive. The place is very unique – one building houses the restaurant and brewery, and the other is a separate taproom/taphouse that can be opened independently from the full restaurant. Both buildings are separated by a really nice outdoor patio with multiple seating options, firepits, a stage for bands, landscaping, and even outdoor carpet. This place is likely to do some killer outdoor business.

The beer menu is pretty diverse, so I went with a flight, just to get a good sampling. A brown ale, a kolsch, a Scotch ale, a black IPA, and a white stout. All of them were solid performers, but my favorite was Scotty’s Scotch Ale (if you’re asking). The flight comes in a muffin tin with some snack mix, which is a fantastic and inexpensive idea.

 

We were starving, so we got a couple things to share. The Sheet Pan Birria Nachos and the Bison Sliders. 

The Bison Sliders were good, which I’ve had some mixed experience with. Sometimes people cook their bison too long and since it doesn’t have a ton of fat in it, it dries out quickly. Tumbled Rock didn’t have this problem. They were nice and juicy, had great toppings on them, and are served on pretzel buns.

The Sheet Pan Birria Nachos were really awesome though. Good coverage of toppings – black beans, pico, jalapenos, cheese, olives, sour cream, and avocado – though I always want more cheese no matter what. The birria beef was really well seasoned and flavorful. I’d get these again – keep in mind it’s really difficult for me to turn down nachos of any sort.

 

This place is a really fun pit stop if you’re passing near the Wisconsin Dells or playing disc golf at the nearby course. I have a feeling we’ll be there again soon!

www.tumbledrock.com

Emerald Lounge - St. Paul, MN

We needed a semi-fancy night on the town, and D wanted to surprise me. She took me to Emerald Lounge down on West 7^th in St. Paul. The space is right next door to Claddagh Coffee, which isn’t an accident – Emerald Lounge uses the kitchen from Claddagh to make really amazing and upscale appetizers and small plates (and breads and desserts). The atmosphere inside is like a casual and almost formal, but it’s really open to anyone at all. You don’t have to dress up or be snooty to go here (thankfully). There’s seating at the bar, a couple of smaller tables, and then some more casual seating areas like a living room setting – whatever you’re in the mood for (or whatever is available when you’re there). The emerald green colored subway titles behind the bar are really classy and visually quite stunning, and you can’t miss them.

We just wanted a couple of snack-y things, so we decided to split some of their PEI Mussels (aka Bangkok Mussels) and Beef Mandu (Korean dumplings). But we had to get some fancy drinks to start with. This place is very clearly a fancy cocktail bar. Lots of tinctures, bitters, garnishes in plain sight, and tweezers. Yes, I said tweezers. I always ask D when we go places if the food will be “tweezer-y”, meaning will the chefs deliberately place small items on my food with tweezers. In theory, I don’t mind it, but it’s a good barometer of how fancy a place is. I didn’t even know that cocktails could be tweezer-y, but alas, they CAN. I truly am jesting, but the tweezers are in plain sight. And they use them. The bar tenders, dare I say mixologists, were very fun and talkative, but they were also REALLY good at what they do. They know their craft. Like I said, I joke about the tweezers, but they know how to use them. 

I ordered a Green Lotus Grogg – three rums, lime, honey passionfruit syrup, crushed ice, and bitters. Delicious! D ordered the Pretty In Peach – tequila blend, peach, grapefruit cordial, lime, cava, with a cayenne cinnamon rim. Also, delicious!

The PEI Mussels were really some of the best I’ve had. These mussels were poached in Thom Kha Gai inspired broth (think Thai Curry/Soup) with plenty of red chili peppers and all kinds of mushrooms. It’s also served with a big chunk of crusty bread made next door. The richness of the broth was pretty stellar and the choose-how-much-heat-you-want chilis were fantastic. The mussels were really tender and not gritty. Just all-around fantastic work on these!

The Beef Mandu is a handful of bite-sized Korean dumplings with beef, tofu, garlic, ginger, and scallions, topped with chili garlic crisp and sesame soy dressing. These were little pouches of spicy joy. We ended up keeping very close track of sharing so no one got more than the other person. But thankfully, we share pretty well most days. D had heard people mentioning these were the best things there, and I’d be really surprised if that wasn’t the truth. They were great.

We had to end the night with some dessert. I went with the chocolate beet cake with goat cheese frosting - it sounded interesting. It WAS definitely interesting. D said she could taste too much beet, and I thought there wasn't enough beet flavor, which I know doesn't help you decide at all. But the goat cheese frosting was really delicious and prevalent. It's not for everyone, but I still thought it was pretty good. 

D went with a trio of desserts (which I believe change from time to time depending on the dessert chef's mood) - a lemon bar, a fancy truffle, and a nut bar with some frosting. The truffle was good, but not mind blowing. The nut bar was really pretty interesting and surprising. But the lemon bar was the clear winner this evening. 

Overall, this place is worth going back to. Lots of people watching to do and if the people don’t entertain you, then the cocktail magicians at the bar will. 

Top 5 things about Emerald

1. Beef Mandu

2. PEI Mussels

3. Green Lotus Grogg

4. Pretty In Peach

5. Atmosphere/Ambience

 

Bottom 5 things

1. This place doesn’t take many people to be packed, just be patient and wait

2. Someone will complain about the prices, but it’s totally worth it

3. Best not to come with a big group unless you’re ok with sitting in multiple areas

4. Nothing is actually a negative here – it’s delightful!

5.

 

www.emeraldstpaul.com

Burger Dive @ Bay Street – St. Paul, MN

I’m not going to try to explain Burger Dive’s business model in detail, but I’ll explain it as well as I can. There’s a couple of guys that love burgers and they’ve set up some sort of burger operation in the kitchens of multiple dive bars. They’ve got one in Potluck in the Rosedale Mall and they’ve got another in Bay Street in St. Paul. I don’t know the ins and outs, but I do know they know their way around a burger. 

D and SalsaSandwich were having a sister day, so they invited me to come along and have a burger with them, since SalsaSandwich loves a monumental burger. The choices on the menu were challenging, so some decisions had to be made. To buy us some time, we ordered some jalapeno cheese curds, which ended up being the right call. Plenty of jalapenos on top, and potentially inside the curds, as well. Hard to tell since it was dark in the dive bar that is the lovely Bay Street Bar. These folks clearly know their way around a deep fryer, as well, so we had high hopes for the burgers.

 

Once I had decided, the server came back and told me about the special of the month – a grilled cheese burger. Well that ruined everything since now all I could think about was the burger he described to me. I caved and had to go with the special, mainly because any of the other burgers, I could just come back and get them whenever I wanted to. I made my decision and had to stick with it.

 

The grilled cheese burger is two smashed patties on buttered toast with American cheese, cheddar cheese, cheddar aioli, and sliced tomato. All of this served with a little cup of tomato soup to dip it in. This thing was killer. Crispy edges on the burger patties and the right amount of cheese – not even a sloppy amount – just nailed it. The soup was really quite delicious to dip the burger into and the whole thing really came together even better than I expected it to. If they ever offer this burger again, I’ll be the first in line to get one. Super good. 

My apologies for not taking any other pics of burgers, since as soon as they hit the table, they were smashed directly into faces (we were a little hungry this particular day). But the fact that SalsaSandwich ate absolutely every bite of burger and every french fry and didn’t bring anything home was a testament to how good these monstrous burgers were. We’ll be back!

Top 5 things about Burger Dive at Bay Street

1. Grilled Cheese Burger

2. Very robust menu

3. Jalapeno Cheese Curds

4. They have pull tabs!

5. Outside seating area for the warmer days

 

Bottom 5 things

1. It’s hard to explain that it’s a restaurant inside a dive bar, that’s called something different

2. It’s a dive bar, so set your expectations accordingly (it’s perfectly safe to go there, I promise)

3. There’s really not anything bad about this place, honestly

4. 

5.

 

www.burgerdivemn.com

Hope Breakfast Bar - St. Paul, MN

We’ve driven by Hope Breakfast Bar many many times and every morning, especially weekends, there’s a line out the front. We’ve heard our friends rave about this place and it’s been on our list for a long time. We finally made it happen and it was definitely worth the wait. It’s kind of a breakfast and brunch place with really nice atmosphere and really top notch food.  

You CAN get reservations, instead of waiting in line, but we took our chances. They said it was a 30-45 minute wait, and it was right about 35 minutes. Easy. Even while standing outside in the drizzle with our coats on watching people. We got a chance to check out the menu while we waited, also, which meant we were ready to rock when we finally got seated at the bar. If I’m not mistaken, if you have reservations, you get a table and they turn spots at the bar around pretty quickly for walk-ins. Just trying to make sure you know what to expect. (Meaning don’t walk in and expect to get a table for 8)

They’ve got some regular coffee drinks and juices, but also some cocktails, wine, and beer. Really adventurous ones, not just bloody marys and mimosas, either. D got a caramel coconut coffee (not pictured) and I got a 7^th Avenue Cereal Bowl, which is a cocktail made with Rumchata, milk from Cap’n Crunch, and crunchberries on top. Really impressive and delicious, as well. Even had a couple customers ask what I was drinking so they could order one.

We had some trouble deciding what to order since everything sounds great. We saw a couple of people order pancakes of various flavors and they all looked good and fluffy and fun. We decided to get Baby Cakes, which are a set of small pancakes with various syrups (blueberry, maple, and banana cinnamon cream cheese. These were everything we expected and more and we couldn’t decide which syrup was our favorite. In fact, we ask for lids for the syrups, so we could take them home and eat them on other things.

We decided to get our own entrees that we wanted and then share them. I finally decided on the chicken fried steak, covered in mushroom sausage gravy, with a biscuit, scrambled eggs, and hashbrowns. D got the Hawaiian Bowl, which is Hawaiian bbq beef, peppers, cilantro rice, poached egg, avocado, and some fried noodles. 

D’s Hawaiian Bowl was more in line with my taste than hers. She liked it a lot, but I’m a rice bowl fiend and can’t get enough of stuff like this. I had almost ordered this dish, but when I heard she was going to, I went with my second choice, knowing I could steal some bites of hers. Aside from the pineapple pieces in the bowl, there wasn’t a ton of Hawaiian flavor in it. It was sort of an Asian/teriyaki rice bowl without many noodles. It had great flavors and everything was fresh and colorful, but it wasn’t the Hawaiian breakfast she was hoping for. Thankfully, I get to eat all of her leftovers, so I win twice.

 

My chicken fried steak was really pretty impressive. I’m sort of a gravy snob – not even sort of – and this mushroom sausage gravy stood up pretty damn well. The chicken fried steak wasn’t greasy at all and had really great flavor. The hashbrowns were plenty crispy (without me having to ask for it – which I forgot to do), the eggs were scrambled just right, and the biscuit was flaky and not dry. Even D was all in on my chicken fried steak and that’s never really been her jam. That should speak volumes, my friends.

 

The service was really impressive, with servers/bartenders checking on us without being overbearing. They were very friendly and chatty about the various foods people ordered and how fast the cooking staff was. Made the whole atmosphere even more friendly and welcoming. This place is busy for a reason and now we know why. We both said we’ll be going back as we drove back home with our leftovers. 

Top 5 things about Hope Breakfast Bar

1. Chicken Fried Steak

2. Baby Cakes

3. 7^th Street Cereal Bowl

4. Atmosphere

5. Really vast menu for brunch

 

Bottom 5 things

1. There’s going to be a wait – deal with it

2. On-street parking only – deal with it

3. Right after you order, you’ll see the kitchen send out food that you wished you had ordered – deal with it

4. Literally everything here is instagramable – look at all the pictures that I took, so everyone will be taking photos of their food – deal with it

5. As you can see, anything I could even think of that people might complain about are irrelevant and people should just deal with whatever their issues happen to be - hahahaha

 

www.hopebreakfast.com