Round Man Brewing Company - Spooner, WI

We were up in the Shell Lake area of Wisconsin and we’re always on the lookout for breweries we haven’t tried – totally kidding, since it’s always ME that’s looking for new breweries. This place has a really nice looking interior with lots of space and both a great-looking food menu and tap list. 

Ordering beers is always easy for me, since I usually go for a flight, since I don’t want to have to make decisions. Here’s what I got and how I ranked them:

• Log Chain Lager - B+
• Mud Duck (Milkshake Stout) - B+
• Red Headed Stepchild (Red Hazy IPA) - A-
• Omaha X (Imperial IPA) - B
• Ha-Spoonah Colada (Tropical Hazy IPA) - A

I was sampling these beers while I was perusing the menu, which is exactly how I prefer to do things. I had my eyes on a few things, but kept coming back to the Friday Fish Fry (which is basically fish and chips in Wisconsin). I decided to go for that, but I also had a hankering for a weird appetizer. I’m a sucker for Medjool Dates, and they had a dish with them in it on the appetizer menu – I’m not sure who talked who into getting this one, but it happened. D.Rough went with a strong choice of the Prime Dip – which is basically a fancy French Dip.

 

The appetizer was four dates sliced like a taco and stuffed with cheese and walnuts, and then drizzled with a sweet chili sauce and ancho aioli. These were good, but not mind-blowing, which definitely means we’ll need to go back and try one or two f the other appetizers. They had good flavor, but they were just fine.

D.Rough’s Prime Dip was sliced prime rib served with au jus and a side of pickled hot pepper relish (we skipped the horseradish). It was actually really flavorful and even with the dip it never really got soggy. It just added even more flavor. It was quite delicious, actually. 

I’ll apologize in advance for not having a photo of this impressive dish – I dug into this thing as soon as I saw it and completely spaced it out. The walleye (although it was Canadian walleye, not from Shell Lake) was fried to golden perfection and you actually tasted the fish and not just the batter. A generous portion, as well. The fries were really crispy and large and weren’t just filler like at some places. And the best part is that it’s all you can eat. When you get near the end of your dish, the server comes back and asks if you need a couple more pieces, which I did. And again, forgot to take any photos of the evidence. I suppose you’ll just have to trust me that the thing looks really delicious so I don’t have to steal someone else’s photo from the internet anywhere. Just get this thing. 

 

I actually liked the Ha-Spoonah Colada so much, I bought four crowlers of it to take home with me. I don’t do that very often, if that tells you how good these beers were. Top notch, especially for drinking at the lake.

http://www.roundmanbrewing.com

Estelle – St. Paul, MN

It’s my birthday week, and D.Rough is really good at spoiling me. She managed to get a reservation at this restaurant in the Tangletown/Macalaster/Groveland neighborhood area. I’ve been reading things about this place, so I was really excited to check it out.  This place is roughly focused in southwest Europe – think Italy, Portugal, and Spain mostly. It’s tough to get a table here and the bar-side of the restaurant is first come first serve, so it can be a challenge to get in here from 4-10. 

We started with some cocktails – D got the regular sangria (the seasonal sangria had too much going on for her particular mood), and I got a nice Sasseo Primitivo red wine. Both of us loved our respective openers. It was hard not to. 

The menu has so many delicious items on it that it’s difficult to decide. Small plates, small sandwich-y thigs, and bigger portions. We knew right away we wanted the Patatas Bravas, but then we also wanted the Arancini, and then we threw on some baked oysters, too!

The Patatas Bravas arrived first and were pretty much the star. The roasted potatoes are covered in a homemade picante tomato sauce (that’s the brava sauce) and then drizzled with a lemon aioli. There were some minor squabbles about who was going to each the last remaining potatoes, but since it was my birthday, I played that card. Bam. 

The oysters were also delicious. I enjoy a baked oyster from time to time – takes that snot texture out of it a little bit. They were cooked in a chorizo butter and covered with spinach, parmesan, and breadcrumbs. Totally delicious. 

D.Rough and I are suckers for any type of arancini (Italian fried rice balls). These were perfect. Small little mozzarella filled balls of happiness. Every time I have these, I wonder why I can’t buy them in a five gallon bucket. 

I also needed a new glass of wine, so I got a glass of Udaca Dao from Portugal.

Making decisions on the larger plates was a little more difficult. We had to make strategic decisions. But we powered through and came up with splitting an order of Creste De Gallo – housemade noodles with jalapeno pesto, almonds, lemon, and parmesan. And the Fideuà – fideo-style noodles, with clams and shrimp, ham hock, white wine, tarragon, and parsley. 

The Cresto De Gallo was fantastic. The jalapeno pesto wasn’t spicy, but had a very surprisingly light jalapeno flavor, and paired well with the lemon and parmesan. The unsung hero of this dish was the almonds. Delicious flavor and a fun crunch to this dish. The more of this we ate, the more flavors came through and it just got more and more delicious. Loved this dish.

The Fideuà won the night, though. So many flavors in this dish and it was very rich and hearty. The shrimp and clams were little surprises of flavor in the dish, but they flavored the whole dish. The seasoning on this dish was so good and substantial – not an afterthought or subtle at all. I’ve been dreaming about this dish since we ate it. Sooooooo magical.

Since it was a birthday celebration, and my wife is Italian, we had to order cake. D.Rough got the Blood Orange & Olive Oil Cake and I got the Cereal Milk Soft Serve. 

The Olive Oil Cake had some white chocolate, cardamom, pickled citrus, and tuile and was really pretty to look at. We thought it was a tad heavy on the olive oil, but the citrus part was really delicious. 

The cereal milk soft serve was awesome, though. And, a really hefty portion (maybe because D.Rough spilled the beans that it was my birthday). The cereal they used was Cinnamon Toast Crunch, so it was sweet and delicious, and it was topped with chocolate-covered cinnamon toast crunch – brilliant idea. This was sooo delicious. I’m glad I caved and ordered it.

www.estellestp.com

Travail Basement Bar – Robbinsdale, MN

D.Rough and I continued celebrating my birthday week with a visit to Travail’s newest offering – an upscale basement lounge experience with upscale food and very crafty cocktails. I understand it’s a challenge to get reservations here, and that they have three different “time slots” available, so if you’re interested, get on the website and reserve your spot! Totally worth it.

Like Travail’s other establishments, it’s sort of European-style seating – you WILL be seated at a table with other diners. I like to let people know this so they aren’t alarmed. It’s as fun as you make it – you may end up best friends at the end of the night or you might exchange a few questions about the food or drinks that the other people ordered – you get to decide. Pro Tip: Show up early for your reservation and you may get to decide where you sit, before the space gets filled and you’re stuck with whatever is left open.

The hostess, servers, bar tenders, and food delivery folks are all professionals. They want you to have a good time and enjoy yourself, and they are very gracious and helpful.

We started with a few cocktails, which is really what this place is known for. If you look around the rooms, they have most of the cocktails presented in little nooks, and deconstructed so you can see the ingredients. Bottles of booze and also some of the flavors you’ll be tasting – very interesting concept. Classy and informative (something I’ve never been accused of being). D.Rough got the house tiki-style drink – the Many Faced God (vodka, macadamia nut liqueur, pineapple, coconut, and damiania). I got the Ronaldo Burgundy (Bacardi heritage white rum, pomegranate, pineapple hibiscus milk punch). I'll apologize in advance for the photo quality - the dim lighting wasn't doing my camera any favors - but you'll get the general idea.

D.Rough’s tiki drink was REALLY good. Not too much macadamia and the pineapple and coconut were magical. Fantastic. 

My rum-forward drink was also incredible. It came with a smoky bubble on top AND in a bat-painted tea cup (on a bat painted saucer). A little bit fruity and plenty of rum flavor – I loved this drink!

We ordered a couple of food items to tide us over for the night. The Broadway Burger, the poutine, Salt & Peppa Shrimp, and the lobster egg. The kitchen sends out the folks who prepare this stuff and they explain what’s in some of the dishes and answer any questions – very top-notch.

The lobster egg is a soft boiled egg with lobster, truffles, brown butter, and tarragon, all served in an egg cup. Beautiful presentation and it tasted great too. It’s nice when you can recognize the flavors of each of the ingredient and none of them are overpowering. This is a well-put-together dish.

The Salt & Peppa Shrimp are deep-fried shrimp with garlic butter and jalapeno slices. A relatively simple dish but the garlic butter and jalapeno elevated it a lot. I considered ordering a second round of these, they were that good.

The poutine was fantastic – perfectly fried fries and a rich gravy that clearly was not an afterthought. There weren’t curds, but the gruyere foam was a fun change that I approve highly of. Great job!

The Broadway Burger was not just a restaurant burger. It had a lot of pickled things going on and some mustard situations, but it was a VERY juicy burger. Not sloppy, just really moist and juicy. I loved this thing.

I needed another cocktail and the Travail Basement Bar is not short on them. In fact, they’ve got a few different kind of drinks. They’ve got some small cocktails, for if you’re feeling like you just want a little bit or if you’re toasting someone (very fun idea). And, they’ve got a handful of fancy non-alcoholic drinks, as well. I politely asked the server if they could just add a bunch of rum to the pina colada-style non-alcoholic drink they had on the menu – The Bird C.R.E.A.M.  He assured me it wouldn’t be a problem at all to do so. And since he was already there, I also ordered the Potato Pavé – a thick stack of super-thinly-sliced potato covered with gruyere and cheddar sauce and serrano ham.

The drink was as good as I had hoped it would be – I actually liked it more than the Many Faced God, but only because it was rum, not vodka, and not nutty, otherwise, they were pretty similar. Delicious! And the Potato Pavé was fantastic. Cut-able with a fork and lots of cheese flavor. I’m glad I got to try this one.

Additionally, since my wife’s family is Italian and literally do not believe something is a celebration until there’s cake, we ordered a slice of chocolate cake. Not just any cake – a serious cake, with chocolate mousse layers and a chocolate ganache outer layer. It even comes with a bit of edible gold foil on top – see? Super classy! And, amazingly moist and tasty.

Overall, zero things to complain about at this new restaurant. The staff are all very “interchangeable” and everyone can help you with any request you have. They’re all there to make sure you enjoy yourselves and return to the basement. We even joked with our server that in the basement, everyone looks tan! We will definitely return here and enjoy some additional menu items. We understand this will be an ever-changing menu, so we’re excited to see what new cocktails and food items are available the next time we go there!

www.travailkitchen.com/basementbar

In Bloom – St. Paul, MN

For those that don’t know, there’s a new indoor marketplace on St. Paul’s West 7^th area – called Keg & Case. Think of it like an upscale Midtown Global Market. There are some fancier and niche-ier shops and food vendors there, as well as a really good brewery upstairs, and a higher-end “anchor” restaurant called In Bloom. D.Rough and I got reservations there for lunch, since it would save us a few pennies, even if it had a slightly more limited menu. We’re glad we got reservations since they do get pretty busy on weekends. 

Our server, Dan, was great. I’m sure we had had him as a server at some other previous restaurant, but neither of us could pinpoint it, however. He made sure we were well taken care of. We started with some fun cocktails, since that’s one of the things we’ve heard people mention about this new place. D.Rough got a House Gimlet and I got a Prince of Wales. D.Rough’s was very good and tasted like other Gimlets I’ve had. 

Mine had brandy, Madeira, orange curacao, and cava in it. So it tasted like BOOZE. Loved it. Also, I was surprised the beer menu didn’t contain any beers made by the brewery upstairs, but maybe they’re working that out. In the future.

Everything on the menu sounded delicious, but we finally decided on the cockles (basically clams or mussels, if you don’t get all scientific and genus-y on my non-biology brain) and the roasted mushrooms. I know it sounds weird, but that’s what we ordered. The wait wasn’t long at all and the place was full, so we were pretty happy with that. The cockles arrived in a bright yellow corn cream sauce with some guanciale (which we love), and cornbread crumbs on top. The cockles themselves were delicious, but the corn cream sauce was outstanding. Brilliant. We were about three seconds from licking the bowl clean when the server showed up. He said we’d be surprised how many people don’t drink/eat/sop this incredible liquid up. Fools.

The roasted mushrooms were also fantastic. There were multiple kinds of mushrooms roasted (I’m positive the mushroom come from the fancy mushroom shop also residing in the Keg & Case market) and then also decorated with medium-sized potato dumplings. They were all sitting in a rich and earthy mushroom cream sauce, as well. I know it’s weird, but we were quite thrilled with this dish. Don’t be scared of it, friends.

We had finally narrowed (with Dan’s help) what we were going to eat for our main meal – Cavatelli pasta with Venison Ragu, and an order of American Wagyu Beef. D.Rough talked me out of ordering duck hearts or venison tartar, but there’s always next time.

The cavatelli was a perfect al dente and wasn’t dough-y at all. The venison ragu was good, although the venison could have been a tad less cooked for my taste – but I know how I like my venison cooked and I understand there are rules with restaurants and serving not-fully-cooked meats. It does, however, make me want to try this at home sometime… The whole dish had a light coating of SarVecchio Parmesan cheese on it which gave it a nice salty pop, as well. This dish was pretty great and I’m glad we tried it.

The America Wagyu was good – great, in fact. It was extremely tender with very little fat/gristle. Great flavor and served with a sear on the outside and some pink on the inside. Perfectly cooked. It had some roasted chestnuts, Cipollini onions, and a few pieces of bacon in a nice sauce, as well. Really a good dish. The only reason I didn’t rave about this is because I’ve had Japanese Wagyu and the American version simply doesn’t stack up, especially for the price you pay for either of them. Again, a great piece of meat here at In Bloom, but I’ve had the real thing and now I’m super snobby and can’t take a step backwards. Hahaha. My apologies for my snooty attitude. I’ll try harder.

We knew we needed dessert, and even though the thing that D.Rough was not available this particular day. We went with something called a Chocolate Cremeux. It’s a little difficult to tell what is when they bring it out, but it’s because there’s an inch-thick layer of whipped cream on the top. That covers what appears to be some sort of delicious sugary macadamia nut brittle or praline (we think). And then THAT is covering a nice thick layer of chocolaty fudge at the bottom. The whole thing is fantastic, and I’m glad they were not serving the thing that D.Rough wanted. Hahahaha. KIDDING!

While this might not be an “every night” sort of place for us (it’s pricey), we really did think it has something special. The ambience is great. The service is great. The food is great. The open kitchen that you can watch is great. The cocktails are great. Pretty much everything is great. Definitely worth the trip!

www.inbloomstp.com

3 Dots & A Dash – Chicago, IL

Most of you know D.Rough and I have a deep love for tiki drinks – think rum and fruit juice on a Polynesian island. We’ve tried to find a way to get to Chicago’s 3 Dots & A Dash for a few years now. We finally made it happen!

A lot of tiki-lovers have issue with this place because it’s loud and expensive, but we didn’t care. We saw a few comments that said you should get a reservation if at all possible, so we did long ahead of time. Even so, we could only get a spot at 10:30pm, which was fine by us. 

It has a sort of speakeasy feel, with an entrance in an alley (although, it’s pretty well marked once you’re in the alley), and a dark staircase into the basement (once you get past the bouncer). If you don’t have reservations, be prepared to stand outside in a line about 200 people long waiting to get a standing spot near the bar – just letting you know. 

When you walk down the staircase, you’re facing a beautiful glowing wall of skulls, which is sort of a signature feature in the place. Very tasteful and fun, in my opinion. There’s a spot to stand near the hostess stand where we waited a couple of minutes for our table to be made ready. Everyone is so nice here!

As I said, if you don’t have a reservation, you don’t get a table. GET A RESERVATION. There is a long row of 4-person tables in the middle of the dining room and then larger booths and spaces for parties along the walls of the dining room. It’s very well decorated and definitely has a relatively authentic (but upscale) tiki feel to it. Yes, it IS loud, but it’s a combo of both music and talking energy, which we thought was enjoyable. Sorry, old people, it isn’t a quiet 1960’s Polynesian basement den with calming ukulele sounds in the background! The server we had was pretty fantastic and went through the layout of the impressive menu. Single person drinks on these pages, multi-person drinks on these pages, ridiculously expensive drinks (like $400 or served in a pirate ship with a full bottle of rum) on these pages, specific fancy sipping rums on these pages, food on these pages, and merchandise on these other pages.

D.Rough and I had intended to keep it tame and have one or two single-person drinks. That was the PLAN. Every drink on this menu sounds amazing, however. But we started tame. D.Rough got an Aloha Felicia and I got a Fat Bottom Mermaid. 

These drinks showed up VERY quickly, which was amazing. (Note: a lot of the drinks are made in the back of the house, since the bartenders serving non-reservation people can’t keep up with the crazy demand of the tables, so you won’t get to see your drink being made, if that’s your thing.) Both of these drinks seemed to be tailor-made to our tastes. Mine was rum and crazy fruit juices, and D.Rough’s was rum and crazy coconut and other juices. Completely different tasting drinks and we loved both of them. In fact, they were some of the best tiki drinks we’ve ever had.  They’re probably pricy for drinks at a tiki bar in say Omaha, but in Chicago, this is how much drinks cost – deal with it.

The night was going well. We were happy with our drinks, with our server, with the random people talking to us as they walked past, and with our entire situation. We looked at the single-person drinks, and then a little deeper into the menu and decided that since we were here and it was sort of a special destination for us, that we should possibly take advantage of the circumstance and get something special. We literally wanted every drink on the multi-person drink pages, but we finally decided on the Bali Bali – rum, Armagnac, gin, and various juices – but for 4-5 people. Also, the picture on the menu sold it, as well. 

It arrived just as fast as the other drinks, but it was bubbling and glowing and “smoking” all over the place from the dry ice. People from around the bar literally came over to our table to take photos and video of it – really one of the most impressive drinks I’ve ever had. AND, it was D-LISH-OUS! Sure we were getting a little crazy with our ordering, but we felt like this was worth it, even for the presentation alone – not to mention the taste was way better than we expected.

We polished that drink off and thought we had better order some food, since we didn’t appear to be slowing down. We ordered the Lanai Luau Chips. These seemed like they might soak up some booze! They’re like vegetable pork rinds (which I’m sure just horrified a bunch of my vegetarian friends), served with a delicious mango guacamole. There were more of them than I thought there would be, but we definitely finished them off. Really tasty snacks.

We weren’t sure the chips were going to be enough so we ordered the Thai Fried Chicken…. and then some more drinks. I got the Saturn & Negroni and D.Rough got the Idle Hands Do The Devil’s Work. Again, these drinks were perfectly suited to our regular drinking tastes, except they were monumentally better than what we normally drink. The Saturn & Negroni is gin, homemade orgeat, and tropical juices and the Idle Hands is like a classic non-blended daiquiri, but with banana rum. Both were killer. And the Thai Fried Chicken was much better than we thought it was going to be. Great fry on the outside of these chicken pieces and just a tiny bit of spice in the wonderful glaze that was on them. We’re really glad we got these! 

Somehow, I talked D.Rough into getting another drink with dry ice in it – I’m sure I’m SUPER smooth and convincing when I’ve had eleventeen drinks. So I ordered the Shotstopus. 

It’s basically shots of 151 rum and juices but served on an awesome octopus display with dry ice. D.Rough was ready to be done when it came out, so I basically drank both shots (slowly, so I could actually taste how amazing they were). And they were awesome, in case you were wondering.

At this point, I was feeling on top of the world. SO much so that I spoke German with our server – who was originally from Germany. Fact: I don’t speak German. (To be fair, I took German in college for a bit, but that was a hundred years ago and I’ve lost it all…until I get a “few” drinks in me”)

Thankfully, D.Rough talked me out of ordering any more delicious drinks. She’s the brains AND the looks of this operation. She asked if this is a regular occurrence when I find tiki bars with my friends while I travel around the country for roller derby tournaments. (She’s an actual athlete that takes care of her body while the rest of us schlubbs regularly request late check-out of hotels and eat Advil like M&Ms after tiki nights.) So I suppose I’m more “in practice” than she is. That being said, no one was surprised when I woke up the next morning in our hotel room (thankfully) fully clothed and cradling the TV remote like it tried to get away from me during the night. Worth it. Worth every penny of the most expensive tiki night we’ve ever had. So much fun!!! 

And then the following morning, D.Rough and I continued the tiki fest by putting fun tiki garnishes in the copious amounts of water that we needed to drink!

You will be amused to find out where we went for lunch the next day on our way out of town…… hahahaha

www.threedotschicago.com

Young Joni – Minneapolis, MN

It was a nice night for a double date with D.Rough’s sister and Brother in Law, and we just happened to get a table at Young Joni. I’ll start by saying the entrance is painfully hidden. I walked by the entrance a few times while other tables laughed at me and eventually the hostess had to come out and open the hidden door for me. They really need to put some sort of indicator on the all-glass front so people know where to find the door. Our table was against those windows, so we watched at least 20 different groups of people who were unable to find the door and needed to be helped. Just wait outside the place until someone comes out – that’s my advice.

It’s an upscale restaurant by the folks who opened Pizzeria Lola, so we knew it was going to be good. We weren’t disappointed. They’re also known for their pizzas, and a few other dishes, so we split a lot of things four ways and got to sample a lot.

We started with the Brussel Sprouts, the Cauliflower Appetizer (it’s actual name), and the Bi Bim Grain. D.rough and I also split an Amatriciana Pizza.

The brussel sprouts were awesome. Nice shavings of parmesan cheese on them and a little pork belly that wasn’t fatty mixed in. Delicious, really.

The Cauliflower Appetizer (it’s actual name) was perfect. Lots of roasted veggies (something they’re known for) and some jalapeno rings that made the whole dish sing. I loved it.

The Bi Bim Grain was unusual, but I really liked it. More Asian vegetables than most places have, and some of them were pickled quite nicely. There were purple daikon radishes, nori, and something called Job’s tears, and faro.  The dish was topped with a perfectly cooked soft-boiled egg and some saffron strands. Great appetizer!

The Amatriciana Pizza is a red sauce pizza with pecorino cheese, guanciale (pork cheeks), and lots of onions. Panchetta also, I think. It was quite good and the crust was nice and crispy while being super thin. Not too much sauce probably helped this thing, since it let the toppings shine a little bit. Nice pie they’ve got here. 

And since dessert must always be at least looked at, we found ourselves with the Cone Trio. Tiny ice cream cones with various dips. They were fine, and a good way to finish the meal. I didn’t eat much of these. And the brother in law got the Church Basement Bar sampler. Which he said tasted like they were bars right out of the church basement. It’s been a while since I went to church, so I couldn’t tell you. hahaha

I think you’ll like this place if you can find your way in. There is also a hidden bar entrance in the back that you have to enter from the alley – which ALSO has a hidden entrance. It’s weird how difficult his place is to actually get inside. And, oddly enough, the website isn’t up and running yet, so that is ALSO difficult to get into. Geeeesh.

Top 5 things about Young Joni

1. Amatriciana Pizza

2. Cauliflower Dish

3. Bi Bim Grain

4. Brussel Sprouts

5. There IS a parking lot next to the building – hooray!

Bottom 5 things

1. Can’t get inside the restaurant

2. Can’t get inside the speakeasy-style bar in back

3. Can’t look at their website

4. You’ll have to wait for a table – which isn’t necessarily bad

5. It’s priced for date night, but after you eat, you won’t mind paying it

www.youngjoni.com

Draft Horse – Minneapolis, MN

This place had been on our list to try for a few different reasons, but it took us forever to get here. The place is proud of the fact that it leverages local (and in many cases in the same building) suppliers of meat and veggies for its delicious sounding menu. They’ve got a few star items and we tried to get a couple of them. 

We had to wait a bit for a table, but we were expecting that. So we grabbed a few beers and watched the servers bring out delicious smelling plates to various tables. We chatted up the bartender and a couple of servers that helped us make our decisions. We got seated and as we were looking at our menus, the table next to us kept offering their food for us to try. They had ordered too much and were SUPER generous about sharing with us and another table. Really Minnesotan and really awesome.

We ordered a meat plate to start with, since it’s difficult to go wrong with those. We also got a pork cassoulet to share. For our entrees, D.Rough got a roast chicken pot pie and I, after changing my mind a few hundred times, decided on the pork shank.

The meat plate and pork cassoulet came out first and we dug in. Great mixture of meats on the meat plate, and each one tasted different (sometimes the meat boards end up tasting the same, but I like variety of this one). Great choice.

The pork cassoulet was quite good. I would get this again, without question. The beans were nice and soft and not grainy and the rustic bread complemented it really well.

The chicken pot pie was good, but not great. I know D.Rough was expecting more flavor, but it was just ok. Plenty of food, but we wished it had more flavors in it (aside from a boat-load of onions).

The pork shank was massive. Really waaaaay too much food. I should have split this between two or three people. The rub it had was fantastic, so I was pretty stoked about eating the rest of it. The skin was a little thick and chewy in spots, but one I got down to the meat, it was incredible. I really loved the flavor of this giant chunk of meat. The seasonings on the outside had clearly soaked into the meat below and gave this meat serious flavor. It was perfectly cooked, as well – not dried out.  I’m glad I got it, but I’d only get it again if I were sharing with a few people. It’s not a one-person portion.

Great restaurant with a slightly higher price tag than our usual stops, but we’re glad we went there to have a nice date night.

Top 5 things about Draft Horse
1. Pork Cassoulet
2. Pork Shank
3. Meat Plate
4. Super friendly people that shared their food with us
5. Love the locally-sourced food

Bottom 5 things
1. Wished the Roasted Chicken Pot Pie were better
2. It's upscale pricing
3. You're going to have to wait, since it isn't very large inside
3. Nothing else was bad!!!

www.thedrafthorsempls.com