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