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

Nighthawks – Minneapolis, MN

D.Rough and I hadn’t been to Nighthawks, even though many of our friends had recommended it to us. We set up a time to meet our lovely friend AllBlack and have some brunch. The place is bright inside, but still has an upscale diner kind of feel. We waited less than five minutes before getting a table, even on a Saturday around lunch.

The menu has all kinds of delicious sounding really inspired and unique food items, especially the pancakes. We decided to split a table poutine and each of us would get our own meal. I went with one of the specials – the Brisket Hash. D.Rough got the chorizo cheddar corn pancakes and AllBlack got the breakfast sandwich. And since we were right next to Five Watt Coffee, both the ladies ordered a Big Watt Circuit Bender Cold Press.

 

The entrees arrived pretty quickly, and I was impressed with the size of these things, as well as the presentation. The brisket hash was outstanding. Really tender and flavorful pieces of briskets on a bed of three different potatoes, with some salsa, guac, and pickled onions – then, covered with an egg. Every bite had all the components in it and it was a really heavy duty brunch meal.

The chorizo cheddar corn pancakes were surprisingly great. It sounds weird to put al those things together, but it totally works. They had layers of ingredients worked in, not just put on the top section. Nicely done, Nighthawks.

The breakfast sandwich was also great (I heard), and the hashbrowns were perfectly cooked. Not soggy and limp – they were crispy and tasty all the way through.

Sadly, our table poutine came out after we were finishing our meal, so none of us were really in the mood to eat it. I lied – *I* was in the mood to eat it. It was great. It had a ton of cheese curds and a wonderful gravy. It was covered with a LOT of banana peppers (maybe too many) and then another fried egg. The flavors were great, but I embarrassed myself by only being able to eat half of it myself. Hahaha

I liked this place even more than I expected to like it – which was already going to be a lot. I should have listened to people sooner and gone here. Highly recommended!

www.nighthawksmpls.com

Prairie Dogs – Minneapolis, MN

A-Wow and I had a hankerin’ for hot dogs and I hadn’t been to Prairie Dogs yet. I was at their pop-up venture back in 2013, and I was really excite when I found out they were actually opening a store in Lyn-Lake – I just hadn’t gotten there yet.

First things first, they’re got a decent local beer tap list, which changes regularly. There’s a nice chalkboard with the current selections on the wall, so check there first, before even looking at the menu. When you look at the menu, you’ll be even more impressed. They’ve got some pretty unique appetizers and side dishes, house-made sausages, some sandwiches, and finally (what we’ve all been waiting for) a wonderful variety of hot dogs. You can also add any sort of extra ingredients you’d like to any dog or sandwich – very good idea. We decided to order some Foietine (poutine with Foie gravy and braised lamb neck) to split. Then A-Wow ordered  the All-American Dog and I ordered Micho’s Sonoran Dog.

The Foietine was a decent portion for the two of us to share. The foie gravy was very unique to this place and had a nice rich smooth tang to it. But the star of this dish was the lamb. The meat was really tender and added so much flavor. Fantastic.

The dogs arrived and looked impressive. The really awesome server suggested flipping the fried egg upside down on the All American Dog. This keeps the runny yolk from running off the sides of the bun, and keeps it on the inside. That being said, it still made this dog a wonderful beautiful mess. The dog also had crispy pork belly, hashbrowns (the cube kind, not the shredded kind), cilantro, and a nice sriracha aioli. The structured maintained its integrity for about two bites and then required a fork, as it landed in a pile on the plate. This thing was a tasty mess. You’ll be happy with this one.

The Sonoran Dog was a bacon-wrapped and grilled house-made dog (which itself was fantastic), with cilantro aioli, a bean spread, avocado, cotija cheese, onions, tomato, and salsa verde. Structurally, this dog held up really well to the final bite, but the flavors were really magical. The southwestern flavors were a perfect complement to the really meaty dog. A wonderful ratio of ingredients to meat, obviously helped, but overall, I would absolutely get this dog again.

I look forward to going back and getting some of the house-made sausages and more of the appetizers. I think this place is underrated, and I’m going to do my part to make sure I talk about it more to all my friends. (Sorry, friends.)

www.prairiedogsausage.com

Rabbit Hole (Poutine Crawl) – Minneapolis, MN

D.Rough and I had wanted to try the Rabbit Hole for some time. I had read about this amazing burger that was rated highly in the Twin Cities and she had heard equally good things about some of the other dishes they have there. It’s a bit of a Korean restaurant with some upscale flair, so that would likely flavor all of the meals there. Tonight, however was the next iteration of our little group’s Poutine Crawl. We go all over the Twin Cities eating poutine and comparing it like classy wine (not all in the same night – we space it out over months).

The restaurant is just outside the Midtown Global Market – it’s a sort of indoor world bazaar of international food and shops in Midtown Minneapolis. The inside of the restaurant is pretty dimly lit – that adds to the classiness of a place, as we all know. It’s sort of an Alice In Wonderland theme, so there are all sort of fun tidbits on the walls. Make sure you look around this place. The menu has some pretty unique sounding items on it. You’ll just have to see for yourself. It’s very creative, however, and I think you’re going to find something you’d like to eat, even if it’s out of curiosity. To get the server to come to your table, you have to push this buzzer thing that is sitting on your table. Just be ready for that or no one will show up and you’ll end up thinking the service is slow – it ISN’T slow.

Tonight, many of us got the H&K Poutine (which is Korean inspired) and I somehow managed to talk D.Rough into splitting that top-ranked burger with me – the Appa Burger. But of course we ordered a couple of adult beverages while we waited for the food to come out. They’ve got a great beer selection, both tap and bottles, so they know their way to Minneapolis’ heart.

The dishes came out within a reasonable time of ordering them so don’t expect to sit around forever waiting for food. The poutine looked pretty fantastic to me. Again, it’s Asian inspired, so the poutine purists at our table already had issues with it. But for those of us who enjoy a little creativity, we were in for a treat. It’s got crispy and thick-cut fries mixed with onions, kimchi, parmesan, and cheddar, covered with a pork curry gravy, and then topped with a soft poached egg and a drizzle of kimchi aioli. Ridiculous? Yes. Delicious? Absolutely! The parmesan got lost a little bit in the mix, but every once in a while, you’d get a nice salty bit of parmesan flavor that was awesome. The kimchi wasn’t the scary kind you’ve seen in documentaries; it is the kind that’s like a vinegary slaw, so it was great with the other flavors. The poached egg was a wonderful touch, as well. The pork curry gravy was amazing and I don’t think I ‘ve had anything like that before. I’ll for sure have it again. Even the purists gave it a thumbs up, but they gave it the caveat, “If I was looking for REAL poutine, this isn’t spot on. But if I was looking for an amazing dish of tasty unique food, THIS is what I’d order.” From these guys, that’s high praise, indeed. Well done, Rabbit Hole!

The Appa Burger was next on the chopping block. It’s kind of got a little of everything on it, and if there’s one thing I lie on my burger, it’s lots of stuff. This 6 oz patty has smoked bacon, bleu cheese, gruyere, bourbon onions, arugula, tomato jam, kimchi aioli, and topped with a fried egg. It’s really difficult to see in the picture and it doesn’t do it justice. It’s a monster of a burger. The meat is super flavorful – something I pay attention to wherever I get a burger from – and the cheese worked really well together. I’ll admit this burger was a mess to eat (egg yolk everywhere hahaha), but I didn’t mind it. All the flavors that I wanted were there and it held up most of the meal. This won a Twin Cities Burger Award for a reason. It was fantastic.

Great work on many unique dishes, Rabbit Hole. I’m looking forward to my next visit, without question.

Top 5 things at The Rabbit Hole

1. Appa Burger

2. H&K Poutine

3. Great beer selection

4. Alice in Wonderland theme

5. Really unique things on the menu

Bottom 5 Things

1. The poutine isn’t purely Canadian here – it’s too fancy for a purist’s palate

2. I want to try everything on the menu

3. The buzzer thing for the server was weird at first, but we got the hang of it

4. I’ll admit, I was hoping to see rabbit on the menu

5. N/A (I had to try really hard to find the above “bottom” items. This place rules.)

www.eatdrinkrabbit.com

Groveland Tap (Poutine Crawl) – St. Paul, MN

A bunch of fun people I know do a Poutine Crawl in the Twin Cities. Not all in one night, but this was the next stop on the list. We’ve been to a bunch of places and everyone has different opinions, so there’s no reason to rank any of them. But this one had HIGH acclaim from Rocky. He raved about it and swears it’s the best in the Twin Cities. Of course, it was our goal to shoot Rocky down.

There’s a lot of good food items at the Groveland Tap. They’re part of a restaurant group that also does good food, so it just stands to reason they would also have good food. I forget that sometimes.

D.Rough and I decided to split an order of poutine and an order of Fish Tacos. We were sure that would have been enough.

The poutine comes out in a small cast iron skillet. The server warns you not to touch the metal because it’s hot. Yes, we touched it. Yes, it IS hot. The crinkle fries alarmed some of us at first, but our minds were quickly changed. The crinkles held the gravy. The delicious delicious dark brown beef gravy. Lots of gravy. I can’t explain why it is so good, but it truly is. The curds were also the right temperature for being melty, but not dissolving. You knew when you had a curd, and then you were thrilled with how well it went with the fries and gravy.

Alright, Rocky, if it isn’t the top in the Twin Cities, it’s at least in the top 3. Kudos to you on your poutine-ranking skills, my friend!

The fish tacos were also fantastic. Plenty of crispy battered and fried fish in them and the toppings were fresh. A great flavor complement to the poutine.

Then when late people showed up to join us and also get poutine, it was incredibly difficult for all of us not to order a second round of poutine. It was THAT good.

Go for the cheap drinks, stay for the poutine. This place went straight to the Top 3 list of poutines in the area in MY personal book.

www.grovelandtap.com

Forepaugh’s (Poutine Crawl) – St. Paul, MN

It had been a while since our Poutine Crawl group had congregated, so I just threw one together. Thankfully, a bunch of people said they were in, once I said we were going to Forepaugh’s for some upscale poutine. (For the record, Canadians hate our upscale poutine – it’s meant to be trashy bar food, not classy culinary kitsch in a bar. Those Canadians… all drunk and metric.)

I also accidentally booked our group reservations during Restaurant Week in the Twin Cities. This means there is a special menu available so people can taste a variety of unique one-week-only dishes at a greatly reduced price. Forepaugh’s is pricey, so this is everyone’s chance to pay a much less exorbitant cost and get some amazing food.

Everyone there was going to be getting (or splitting) poutine. I had already warned the kitchen staff when I made the recommendations. Forepaugh’s has two different kinds. The regular version and the “Ultimate Truffle & Foie Gras Poutine”. I told you this place is fancy. I have had the regular poutine and absolutely love it. In fact, it’s one of my favorite in the world. This time, I was getting the baller poutine.

D.Rough and I also had starved ourselves, so we could have the restaurant week tasting menu. I was looking forward to it, in fact. You get to choose one from the appetizer, entrée and dessert sections for each person doing the tasting. We got the Chinese Scallion Flatbread and the Malaysian Chicken Samosas. We got the Forepaugh’s Ultimate Opus Burger and the Pan-Seared Walleye. And for dessert, we got the Deconstructed Banana Cream Pie and the Peanut Butter Crunch Bar. Let the awesome begin!

The Chinese Scallion Flatbread was actually pretty awesome. It was toasted sesame seed puree, fire-roasted chilies, scallions, goat cheese, olives, tomatoes, and fresh herbs. The flatbread had a great cracker crunch to it and the goat cheese was magical on this thing. Really quite wonderful.

The Malaysian Chicken Samosas were probably my favorite thing this trip. They came with a mango dipping sauce and pickled Fresno chilies. These wonderfully fried pillows made my mouth happy. They weren’t greasy tasting, but were packed full of delicious seasoned chicken. And when you added a chili to the bite, it just made the world a perfect place. Order these when you go here.

The truffle and foie gras poutine was good. Quite good, in fact. Not stark raving incredible, but really good. The fries were really crispy and clearly fried the way fries should be fried. Mario, in our group, commented, “You don’t NEED to fry cheese curds for poutine, but if you’re going to, you’d better do them like this.” The foie gras fingers (which slays me to say) were almost lost in the mix of flavors, but it was taste-able when you least expected it. It contained a few chilies to spice things up, but the best part was the red-win pan sauce used instead of gravy. Holy balls, was this fantastic. I’m not sure if it’s a $20 poutine flavor, but it’s $20 poutine ingredients, so maybe it’s worth it.

The Pan-Seared Walleye was a solid dish. It was in a coconut curry with fingerling potatoes, zucchini, hearts of palm, Chinese long-beans, shitake mushrooms, Thai herbs and Fresno chilies. Clearly, it had plenty of fun flavors happening. The super light breading on it was better than most batter’s I’ve tasted on walleye and the additional things they threw into the dish gave it flavors that stood out above any other walleye I’ve had. It wasn’t fish-fry walleye, it was fancy walleye (or as fancy as walleye gets, anyway).

The Ultimate Opus Burger is a serious thing. It also comes with fries, which, after the poutine, I didn’t really need. But the burger was good – two angus patties gruyere, braised short-rib sauce, truffled eggs, greens, tomato raisins, lardon, and bacon vinaigrette. The flavor on the inside was top-notch and worthy of another try at this. The bun, however, was the downfall. It was a onion bun, but it was toasted so much it was almost a giant crouton. So, you weren’t able to crush this thing down enough to stuff it into your face. Bummer and it hurt my jaw opening my mouth and then cut up the insides like Cap’n Crunch when chewing. It also made the rest of it seem dry, until I used up all my sauces trying to lubricate it. Again, this was a top-shelf burger, but I might order it differently the next time – it’s also the priciest burger I’ve seen on a menu – thank you, restaurant week!

The Peanut Butter Crunch Bar was what D.Rough had been waiting for. She’s a big fan of peanut butter and chocolate. This was almost a cheesecake in its presentation and included a Guinness and white chocolate ice cream layer, ginger Chantilly cream, pretzel meringue, and salted caramel. Sound rich? It is. But it’s really good, as well. She was happy with her dessert decision.

The deconstructed banana cream pie I thought was pretty darn good. Chocolate-hazelnut praline, underneath caramelized bananas, vanilla custard, and agave nectar, and two dollops of homemade vanilla bean whipped cream. I’m not even a fan of banana cream pie, but this might make me change my mind. It was delicious. The crust on the bananas was very delicate and the whipped cream was like biting into a fluffy kitten (you know what I mean). A great finish to a seriously stuffing meal.

I think people were pretty happy with their poutine choices. We drank a lot and spent a LOT of money here, but overall, the sentiment was that Forepaugh’s does a fine job at offending Canadians everywhere with their upscale poutine. Looking forward to our next poutine crawl night!

Top 5 things about Forepaugh’s
1. Malaysian Chicken Samosas 2.
Deconstructed banana cream pie
3. Pan-Seared Walleye
4. Ultimate Truffle & Foie Gras Poutine
5. Peanut Butter Crunch Bar

Bottom 5 things
1. Super toasted bun on the Opus Burger
2. This place is pricey, but you’re paying for great chefery and an awesome atmosphere. I'm not kidding about that.
3. Didn’t get to go upstairs and see the haunted third floor
4. I see they have a rooftop patio over the entrance of the restaurant. I would have asked for that if I had known. Next time!!
5. Now, I want to go back for happy hour every day…

www.forepaughs.com

Ward 6 – St. Paul, MN

The guys and I needed a night on the town, and some of us had been interested in trying Ward 6 – a relatively new restaurant on Payne Ave. I’d heard great things about the food and the beer selection there from most people. I also heard there’s usually a wait to get in, and since we had five in our group, I headed over a bit early to get our name on the list.

The inside wasn’t what I expected. It’s bright and airy and fun (especially with the sun shining). I’m not sure why I was expecting a dark and quiet pub, but I was mistaken.

I took a quick look at the specials board and found they had a lot of interesting food items for dinner. Roasted Red Pepper soup, turkey meatballs, seared pork loin, a couple of bizarre charcuteries, and some cocktails and beer special. Noted. I grabbed a seat at the bar, since I might as well drink if I’m waiting for my friends. Thankfully they showed up right on time and only had to wait a couple of minutes since I had gotten there early. Slam rolled in a little later.

There’s a pretty comprehensive beer list with almost entirely craft brews from Minnesota. Pints are $5 and smaller glasses are $3, so you can try different varieties. They’re also separated under categories to make it easier for non-beer-snobs to decide on what to order. On the back are wine and cocktails which included some standards and also a couple of creative options. Finally, they have five adult milk shakes which all sounded really tempting. It was difficult to talk myself out of ordering one.

We got seated at one of the larger round tables and scoped out the menu. There’s a lot of appetizer items (or technically “Food For Drinking”), a handful of sandwiches and salads, 4 or 5 entrée-sized dishes, and a kids section. They do have breakfast, as well, which I will be returning for at some point. They do have a decent selection of vegetarian options, so if that’s your thing, you should be ok. And, what they do have available for veggies sounds pretty good. Enough about vegetarians: I had been told about the fatty melt and told myself a number of times I wasn’t going to get it – I was going to try something normal. I absolutely caved when I couldn’t decide and ordered it anyway. There were too many other things I wanted to try and it clouded my judgment. We also ordered poutine and an order of chicken wings to share at the table.

Chicken wings came out first. They have a house-made buffalo sauce on them that was actually pretty delicious. Maybe even my favorite thing of the night. “Someone” thought it was on the spicy side, but he’s Minnesotan. It wasn’t spicy at all – hahaha. But the wings were quite fantastic and large.

The poutine wasn’t what I had hoped. The sausage gravy was alright (note: I’m a sausage gravy snob, since my family is from Alabama and know how to make sausage gravy), and there was plenty of it, but I honestly didn’t touch a cheese curd the entire time I was eating. The fries were standard, as well. I wanted them to be so much more, but they were just ok. Better than some places, but not as good as I thought they might be. Again, my expectations…

The fatty melt looked pretty intimidating. It’s a burger between two grilled cheese sandwiches. And we all commented on how this place is fancy and cuts the crust off for you. It’s true. The sandwich is massive though. Really tall and there’s no way to smash it down to get it to fit in your mouth. You have to eat part of the top and then part of the bottom. The meat on the burger had good flavor, but I felt like the grilled cheese sandwiches would taste more cheesy. I forgot at one point that they were grilled cheese and thought I was just eating bread. It wasn’t until I was almost finished that someone asked about the bacon on the sandwich. I honestly hadn’t tasted it until then. I saw a small piece there, so I knew it was on there, but clearly it wasn’t enough. I feel bad giving this sandwich a meh review, but again, maybe my expectations were set really high. I should have gone with a standard burger, I feel like, and maybe the logistics of eating it wouldn’t have been so distracting – at one point, everyone had finished their meals and I got asked, “are you still eating that sandwich?”. Again, it was fine and am impressive thing to tell your friends about, but I wanted it to have more flavor excitement, not just horror factor.

I got to try a bit of the fish and chips and while the flavor was good, I had just had a crazy good fish and chips meal at a restaurant in Wisconsin that made this fried batter seem soggy. The flavor was good and there was a generous portion, but if it were crispier, it would have made the whole thing less greasy and soggy to me. I feel like if I had ordered this I’d be full quickly and moving slow the rest of the night.

The pot roast sandwich looked really good to me and got a “good” review. I loved the fact that it had blue cheese on it. The only complaint I heard was the bun was too hard to crush down to make it fit in your mouth.

The relish tray – one of the vegetarian options – was presented well and was appetizer sized. It had kimchee, pickled onions, fruit compote, olive tapenade, red pepper tapenade, cilantro somethingorother and some spiced nuts. It looked pretty, but I was disappointed it came with slices of French bread to eat it with. I thought there would be something racier like pita points – I know, racy, right? I didn’t get a review of this dish, nor was there in fact any comment spoken about this one at all from the person who ordered it. Take that how you want to.

I finally caved and ordered one of the adult shakes. I held out as long as I could. I wanted one of each, but since this was going to be day four of having ridiculous milkshakes, I only ordered one. I got the Sour Sophie – Vanilla Vodka and sour cherry syrup and just a hint of chocolate sauce. This was really quite good. You couldn’t taste the alcohol (which I THINK is good), but the cherry was just the right amount of sour to be tasty and not obnoxious, and there was just a hint of chocolate in the aftertaste. It was a really well-done milkshake and I’m glad I got it.

Overall, I was ok with my meal. I believe my expectations were set rather high for this place. I do appreciate the fact that this place takes pride in its cooking and creativity and drink selection. I feel like it’s better than bar food and less better than many nice restaurants I’ve been to. I will absolutely go back, but I’m going to tailor my expectations appropriately and maybe just enjoy a couple of appetizers and some drinks. That’s where I think this place can shine for me, personally. And it could absolutely be chalked up to ordering error on my part. (Please realize this is only my review, and this place has gotten TONS of great reviews from people – which may have adjusted my expectations really high up there to an unachievable place – it happens.) And, if you have a mouth that you can fit an 8-inch sandwich into (cough Sandra Bernhard cough), then feel free to order any of the sandwiches.

(For the record, I’ve already planned another trip there with a friend, so I guarantee it’s worth going back for. And I’m actually looking forward to it. …I just didn’t want you guys to think I was jaded.)

Top 5 things about Ward 6
1. Chicken wings
2. Sour Sophie shake
3. Fantastic beer and cocktail list (including all the different beers I had or shared)
4. Amazingly helpful and friendly staff
5. I love that the menu for both beer and food changes regularly and has creative things

Bottom 5 things
1. Fatty Melt wasn’t what I wanted it to be
2. Poutine wasn’t what I wanted it to be
3. Sandwiches are logistically difficult to eat
4. You’ll likely have to wait in line to eat here
5. Now that I’m looking at the brunch menu, I’m mad I didn’t go on a Saturday or Sunday…

www.ward6stpaul.com