Four Daughters Vineyard & Winery – Spring Valley, MN

D.Rough and I were driving the scenic route back from Illinois, when we drove past Four Daughters Vineyard on a very out-of-the-way country back road just south of Rochester. The building itself stuck out against the cornfields nearby and when we saw what it was, we turned the car around and went back. We’re always up for little adventures like this. It was lunch time, so we thought if they had some sort of food, we might grab a bite to eat and continue on. We’re VERY glad we stopped.

The building and the grounds look very inviting. The restaurant/tasting area of the building has very modern but homey architecture, complete with a nice open patio with tables and chairs for lunch. We walked into the nice open building and found an open table to sit at and looked at the menus. They have a Patio Menu and a Pizza Menu – there’s also a more full menu of offerings, but we didn’t see that until we had already ordered. The menu isn’t super comprehensive, but it does contain some really nice sounding dishes. It’s upscale fare, like you’d expect, but the prices are VERY reasonable. The best part is they have a wine tasting/flight for $5. You get to try six wines (pretty small samples) throughout your meal. Obviously, this sounded great to us. We also decided we would split a fancy pizza.

The server helping us was very down to earth and seemed relieved that we were pretty easy going and told her exactly what we thought of all the wines. We’re not pretentious or anything, but we know what we like and she could tell we weren’t the most formal people she’s ever waited on. She told us a little bit about the vineyards and said they just opened up for business in December of 2011, so it’s really new. The wines we got to taste were all made at the vineyard there:

• Riesling (sweet or off-dry white)

• LaCrescent (light sweet white with a hint of grapefruit)

• Frontenac Gris (sweet white with peach, apricot, and oak)

• Marquette (medium-heavy red wine with some spice and oak)

• Sparkling Moscato (very light white with some bubbles)

• Big Boy Blend (heavy and high-alcohol red)

The pizza didn’t take long to come up, but we kept watching servers brig pizzas to other tables. They looked really good. They had a cracker crust on them and an appropriate amount of toppings (not too skimpy, but not a complete layer of heavy cheese). We had ordered the Greek Olive and Prosciutto pizza – goat cheese, prosciutto, olives, and house-made herb oil. The prosciutto was the star of this show and there was plenty of it on the pizza. The olives added even more salt and flavor to the meal and paired with the (mostly) light wines, it was a fantastic meal. We had to pace our pizza eating, so we still had pizza left when the final glasses of wines came out for us to taste.

At the end of the meal, we even got to taste their homemade hard cider and the homemade sangria, made with the sparkling moscato. Both were good and light, but we thought the wine was the more important and flavorful draw to this place. Maybe if we were out on the patio, the sangria would have been more environment-appropriate, but I thought the cider was a bit too light for me. It’s very light, similar to Crispin, and I like the heartier ciders like Dupont Cidre Bouche Fermier or Strongbow. Again, that’s just me though.

There is a small shop area for wine-related nick-knacks that’s worth a look and the wine is sold right there, as well. It’s very reasonably priced at $16-28 per bottle (and even sold on Sundays!!!!)
We were thrilled with everything about this place. They have all kinds of tours and movie nights and date nights with special menus and wine tastings and appear to run through the winter as well. I’m sure the tours don’t continue through the winter, but the place has plenty of room for eating and wine tasting. There is a wide variety of clientele, which was nice. Looked like some fancy Rochester people, local bubbas, touring motorcyclists, families, and just about everyone in between. I hope this place does well – I know we were very impressed with the servers, the food, the wine, and the whole location. Now that we know this vineyard is on the back way home from Illinois, we might just be taking the scenic route every time!

Top 5 things about Four Daughters Vineyard & Winery
1. Prosciutto and Greek Olive Pizza
2. Sparkling Moscato
3. Frontenac Gris
4. Awesome staff
5. The entire operation/grounds/

Bottom 5 things
1. It’s south of Rochester, so if you’re in that area, it probably isn’t in the bottom 5
2. I know you get six different wines, but I always wish the samples were larger. hahahaha
3. There’s nothing else bad here!!!
4. N/A
5. N/A

www.fourdaughtersvineyard.com

Blue Door Pub – St. Paul, MN

It has been a while since I reviewed the Blue Door Pub. It’s a fantastic non-divey bar that takes its food pretty seriously. They offer a variety of “fancy” Jucy Lucys (which are Minnesota’s famous burgers with cheese on the inside of the meat patties), and have quite a few other delicious sounding items to choose from, including Spam bites, a burger with peanut butter on it, and build-your-own grilled cheese sandwiches.

Words of warning I always give for this place: It’s always busy. It’s the perfect size for maximum capacity. You’ll always wait, but normally not long enough to frustrate you. They turn tables around pretty quickly here. And it’s worth the wait.

I was meeting Taco and TheDoctor for lunch, and fortunately, they got there before I did and scored a table. The hard part was over. The next difficult part was deciding which sandwich I wanted. I finally had it decided on when TheDoctor pointed out the special burger they had today. The Picnic Bluecy (they call their Jucy Lucys BLUECY Lucys because of the Blue Door name). This sounded brilliant to me. It was a burger with American cheese on the inside, covered with bbq pulled pork and then topped with chipotle cole slaw. Yeah, that was what I needed. I also got a side of buffalo tots, which I had never had before. And finally, we decided our table needed a basket of beer battered deep fried green beans to share, as well.

The green beans came out first and were piping hot. Also delicious. They are slightly greasy, but you convince yourself the whole thing is healthy since they’re green beans! Awesome strategy, Blue Door. They come with a seasoned sour cream ranch dip that’s awesome. They’re not floppy at all, either – the batter gives the illusion of crispiness, so you just keep shoveling them in. I love these things.

The burgers came out pretty quickly, especially considering how busy the place was at lunch. The burgers looked awesome, but I went right in for the tots. Holy Balzac, these things are awesome. I used to think nothing could top Cajun seasoned tots, but these buffalo tots win everything. They come with a blue cheese dipping sauce and the whole combination is incredible. The tots aren’t soggy (at first), so the crunch they have mixed with the spice of the sauce is exactly what you want. I’m telling you, even if you don’t know it, it IS what you want.

I’ve never had a bad burger here (and yes, I’m including the jiffy peanut butter burger in with the non-bad burgers) and this one was one of the best I’ve had. The bbq pork had a great flavor and went well with the chipotle cole slaw. I’m not generally a chipotle-flavored anything fan, but I really liked this slaw. And, of course, the meat and cheese of the burger was also top-quality. I love this thing. I was absolutely stuffed when I left, but it was one of the best lunches I’ve had in a while.

Top 5 things about the Blue Door Pub
1. Buffalo Tots
2. Picnic Bluecy
3. Deep fried green beans
4. Incredible menu options
5. They pride themselves on having good quality craft beers, if that’s your thing

Bottom 5 things
1. There’s always a wait here, just deal with it
2. There are foods here that will destroy your insides. You know what’s going to happen and you don’t care. 100% worth it
3. There are plenty of tots, but I ALWAYS want more. I may start ordering my own extra side
4. This isn’t the place to come with more than 3 or 4 people, or strollers, or baby carriers…
5. Make sure you read ALL the chalk-written specials and food/drink options or you’ll find something ELSE you should have ordered

www.thebdp.com

Decrease Your Species Tour – Beat Coffeehouse – Minneapolis, MN

Having scored a bachelor’s degree in music performance, I can say honestly that like a lot of different music. People sometimes follow that up with “except rap” or “except country”. I have no caveats. I’m all in. When I heard the Decrease Your Species tour was headed to town, I made sure I was there. I’ve seen a bunch of metal and hardcore shows at the Beat Coffeehouse, but never a rap show. Not intending to sound racist at all, but I had no idea the Twin Cities had any sort of underground white-guy rap scene. But it DOES. It isn’t the following that Atmosphere has or anything, but it’s there (and it’s YOUNG). I honestly teared up a little bit during the show when I realized I really missed my recently deceased friend ThrowerOfBolts – who was one of the hidden gems of white-guy rap back where I’m from. I’m not an expert on the genre or anything, but I’ll give it a go.

First up (at least when I showed up – I may have missed the first group), Milky Way from Milwaukee. Great, super-solid content and super-fast delivery. The kid has a lot to say and it’s bustin to come out of him. He was even better than the last time I saw him at a house show in Davenport, IA. Good mix of multi-rhythm rhymes and tempo changes.

Next up, Codependents from Missoula, Montana. These kids are a little green, but still did a great job. They didn't mix up the rhythms much and kept it the same speed and pace, but were still likeable. I’m not sure about hard times in Montana, but if there are any, I hope they can channel it into some darker messages. I’ve always had issues with the “woke up one morning”-style of lyrics. Again, just me. These guys are right on the cusp of solid hip hop, so I hope they don’t give up. I also don't know how they didn’t end up in a mess, with four mic cords circling and circling the stage. Kudos to their ninja cord-untangling skillz.

Third up, Errol Hemm out of Chicago. I’m slightly biased having known this guy for years back in my home town. I had the honor of playing guitar for one of his metal bands and I respect his talents as a writer and frontman. He’s so much better than his earlier stuff lets on – he’s matured, having spent some time in Chicago and some rough situations, and he draws in the crowd (small as it was) with lots of volume, passion, and crowd interaction (read: comedic one-liner shots at his friends). I love this kid and it does me proud to see him taking life and music almost-seriously while spittin and rhymin on the stage to kids barely old enough to vote.

Finally, MC Nobody Cares out of New Hampshire. This guy probably gets told he looks like Steve-O a lot, but he was really quite good on stage. I didn’t know what to expect. I heard him talking metal outside on the sidewalk a bit, but his rap chops are waaaay solid. Good mix of fast raps and sung parts without being corny. He likes to keep it dark and doesn't “believe in that happy music therapy shit”, though he’s quite humorous on stage. He’s got really good timing and had some good crowd interaction. None of his stuff sounds the same (all the songs sounds identifiably different), and his style is unique even amongst the other guys he’s touring with.

One of the best parts of the night was going outside the coffeehouse between acts – the audience was out there freestyle rapping. If you were just walking past, it might have sounded like they were cracking wise or making fun, but these kids actually DO this stuff regularly and for fun. Generally, one or two of the kids would beatbox and the spotlight would get passed around the circle as one after another kid rapped it out for a minute or two. It wasn’t all good, obviously, but you have to start somewhere. Timing and quick thinking doesn’t come naturally to everyone, but you got to stay in there and practice. It was especially good when one of the touring guys would walk past, bringing in equipment from the vans or carrying merch, and they’d drop in a few lines of scary-solid freestyle and then walk away. I think Errol Hemm handed out an ass-whoopin, vocal-style, right before he started his set. I told you the guy is good.

3rd Annual Dr. Herman’s .10K Triathlon – Minneapolis, MN

For three years now, Dr. Herman and HB have hosted one of the most talked-about events in Minnesota (well, maybe the Twin Cities) – the .10K Triathlon. I had the honor of helping make this event happen this year and wince we’re trying to go big time with this event in 2013, we thought we’d better step it up a notch and make it as professional event as possible. I think we did pretty well.

If you don’t read closely enough, you’ll miss the small period at the beginning of the 10K. It’s a POINT 10K. Think about what this means. That’s .1K, since the zero isn’t necessary. Here, we’ll help you with the conversion. 1K is 3280.84 feet. This means .10K is 328 feet. Really. That’s how far the entire triathlon is. So we’ve had to modify the events. We still include biking, running, and swimming, but we’ve shrunk it down to fit the smaller format.

Here are some photos and video of the event.

As you can see, we have a good time. You don’t see many people NOT smiling. Everyone is having a blast.

Here’s what it looks like from the participant’s point of view. If you get motion-sick easily, you may not want to watch this one. It’s pretty bouncy and shaky. But, clearly, I'm not the fastest runner. Not even close. However, I WAS in the lead after the first race (and technically the second race, too).

Here are the top 3 leaders from each division.

MEN'S TRIATHLON:
1st place: Brian Cole, 16.6 seconds
2nd place: Kade Almendinger, 17.1 seconds
3rd place: Eric "Taco" Jensen, 17.4 seconds

WOMEN'S TRIATHLON:
1st place: Amanda Richardson, 21.2 seconds
2nd place: Katie Sisneros, 21.5 seconds
3rd place: Ashley Krohn, 21.9 seconds

MEN'S RELAY:
Chao Eng, Eric "Taco" Jensen, Dan "Doc" Herman: 19.72 seconds

WOMEN'S RELAY:Margaret Martin, Amanda Richardson, Katie Sisneros: 22.78 seconds

We handed out trophies and everything. Winners could get their photos taken with Michael Jordan, as well! Bonus! And yes, my team did take first in the Men's Relay event. Suck it, other participants! (I just like to smack-talk, I don't really mean it.)

I know it’s 11 months away, but I’m already looking forward to next year’s event. It’s going to be bigger and better than 2012. By bigger, I mean more people, it will still be 328 feet. But it will be 48.2% more awesome!

(Big thanks to Matt Pul-Chevy and Meredith Westin for many of the photos here. I took video, and realized I had almost no still shots. Appreciated!!!)

R.A. MacSammy’s Food Truck – St. Paul, MN

It’s food truck Wednesday! I saw on Twitter that R.A. MacSammy’s was going to be at Mears Park in downtown St. Paul. That’s the truck that has eluded me for a number of months of going to Food Truck Wednesday in St. Paul. It’s a Mac n Cheese food truck. Brilliant idea!

While waiting for Sithlet and Garrison to arrive, I scoped out the offerings of all the food trucks at the park, but I pretty much knew I was going with the mac and cheese. There are a couple of offerings on the menu, obviously all of them are based around mac n cheese or at least cheese itself. There was a broccoli spinach mac and cheese with a bacon vinaigrette that I almost got, but I was feeling like building my own. Basic mac n cheese price and then you add toppings from the list for $.50 each.

I decided to first ask if there was a limit to toppings – the man working said absolutely not. Whatever you want. That’s what I wanted to hear. I still felt bad, so I slimmed down my topping additions to brats, bacon, jalapenos, blue cheese, and broccoli. It sounded glorious. Thankfully, it was.

All the dishes are made to order, but it’s quick. It took just a few minutes for all of it to be assembled and work its way through the line of people waiting for their own orders. You have the option of having toasted bread crumbs on the top as a finisher if you want, and of course I did.

The cheese itself has a great flavor, but the toppings were really fun. Every bite, was a different combination of toppings. There was plenty there, as well. Sometimes when I do food truck Wednesdays, I get a little appetizer from one of the food trucks. I’m glad I didn’t do that today, I was stuffed at the end of this serving of mac n cheese. And I was really happy. I look forward to going to R.A. MacSammy’s again!

www.ramacsammys.com

The Lowry (Poutine Crawl) – Minneapolis, MN

Again, this was a make-up visit of the Twin Cities Poutine Crawl I’m involved in. I missed the actual night the group went, but I wanted to get caught up. A-Wow and I walked over from Rye Deli, since it’s a block away and prepared for our second course of poutine for the night.

The staff here are really friendly. Some of the best in the Twin Cities, as far as I can tell. Someone, whom I can only assume is the owner, is a character (in a good way)(I like my restaurants with characters) who goes around to the tables hobnobbing and cracking wise and making sure if people aren’t having a good time, finding out what he can do to make sure that gets turned around. What I’m saying is don’t go here to break up with a girlfriend or anything.

A-Wow described this poutine as a pot-roast-style poutine. I needed to find out what this meant. So we ordered it, and we also decided to have something more substantial, since we had basically eaten a bunch of appetizers. We decided on the steak and pierogies, which the waiter offered to split up for us evenly on two plates. To maintain the waiter’s idea that A-Wow and I ordered some girly drinks from the cocktail menu and hoped for the best. I got a Battle Cat (really, there are some He-Man themed drinks, including a Snarf) and A-Wow got a Moon Bear.

The drinks came out quickly. Mine (The Battle Cat) was a girly drink on the bottom and a beer on top – really. Vodka, orange curacao, lemon juice, cranberry juice, simple syrup ,and then Summit EPA on the top. Actually, it was delicious. I even drank them separately just because I was up to the challenge. A-Wow’s Moon Bear was a bit more manly even for a girly drink – rum, lime juice, orange curacao, orange syrup, bitters, and Laphroaig, with a fancy cinnamon stick sitting in it. It was a little rough for me, but I’m not a Laphroaig fan nor a bitters fan. A-Wow seemed to polish it off pretty quickly, so I’m guessing he thought it was good.

The poutine arrived first and looked stunning. When A-Wow said it was pot-roast-style, he meant there’s actually shredded pot roast IN it. Like a generous helping of it. IT also had carrots, celery, onions in it – just like mom’s pot roast. The meat was extremely flavorful, which I Was thrilled about. There were actual cheese curds in the dish and you could taste them! The fries were better than average and held up really well, mainly because of the lack of identifiable gravy in the dish. There really wasn’t any to speak of, at all. I was disappointed by this fact, but to be honest, it didn’t NEED any gravy. It was an awesome dish – it just may ruffles poutine purists’ feathers to call it poutine when there isn’t any gravy present. They have a point, but I’m guessing they’d get over it really quickly if they tasted how delicious this almost-poutine is. I loved it. Again, the dish is technically an appetizer, so it appears small, but it’s the perfect size for sharing, especially if two of you have ordered an entrée… which we had.

The steak was marinated and finished in some sort of teriyaki sauce which was absolutely fantastic. There were about 6 or 7 slices of perfectly cooked medium slices of steak. The cooks split our steaks and pierogies, so we both got equal portions. I can’t talk this steak up enough – it was really quite excellent. The pierogies were delicious, but I’m not a fan of horseradish which was what the dip was made from. So I ate them without the dipping sauce. The pierogies were made with onion and cheddar and covered with a handful of fried shallots. The pillow-like puffballs filled with cheese were decent and I probably would have eaten a bunch of them, even though they weren’t the best in the Twin Cities. They were good though, don’t get me wrong.

Lowry’s boasts a really good meal and I’d be happy to come back here again. While we were waiting for our food and chatting, we kept hearing people talk about the breakfasts Lowry’s makes. They all sounded delicious and looked even more delicious when the servers started bringing them out. Dang, I should have gotten breakfast. Next time, especially since they have chilaquiles – one of my favorites! Lowry’s has an interesting upscale bar atmosphere that is backed up by really delicious food and fun people working. You’re going to have fun and get full at this place. What more do you want?

www.thelowryuptown.com

Rye Deli (Poutine Crawl) – Minneapolis, MN

As I mentioned some time back, I’m part of a Twin Cities Poutine Crawl. Our group doesn’t hit up all of the poutine restaurants in the area in one night, but we pick one and set a date and head there en masse to enjoy and discuss what we liked and would have changed. I missed the night when the group went to Rye Deli and Lowry’s (the restaurants are a block apart, so why WOULDN’T you hit them both?). So, A-Wow and I decided to do a make-up session on our own to get caught up.

I had driven by Rye a bunch of times - it’s in the Lowry Hill area in north Uptown. I say I’ve driven by because due to the traffic configuration, there isn’t a lot of parking near the building, despite it being on a main thoroughfare (Hennepin Ave.). You’ve got to be a bike person, a walking person, or get creative if you’re driving.

The inside of the place has a variety of seating and ordering options. You can choose counter service and order off the large menu boards behind the counter, or if you sit down, the lovely staff come over and take your order and chat you up. Very casual, but also very fast turnaround on everything. We saw quite a few people coming through the doors to order and grab food and none of them waited very long at the counter for their food. Others would come in and sidle up to the full bar or grab a table and were eating within minutes. There’s also a nice outdoor patio with lots of seating if that’s your thing. It was a bit hot outside for a long-haired guy, so we ate inside at a table.

The news articles mention Rye is not a New York-style deli, but a Montreal-style deli. What does that mean, you ask? They have some specialties made with a version of pastrami they call “smoked meat”. It’s more of what they refer to as a “fast-casual” restaurant. Very comfortable places to sit and relax, or grab food quickly and keep walking to wherever you’re going. While it doesn’t advertise itself as a Jewish deli, they have all the delicious standards we love at our delis. A-Wow may or may not have referred to it as a fun Jewish deli for hipsters. Believe me that’s a compliment.

A-Wow and I knew what we wanted – Poutine, obviously. But fortunately for us, Rye’s happy hour goes until 7pm – SCORE. That means a bunch of food (including poutine) was extra cheap, as were beer, wine, and cocktails (they’ve got a full bar and have a lot of fancy craft brews I’ve heard my beer snob friends discussing). We ordered the poutine, with smoked meat, of course. We also ordered Fried Kreplach – little crisp wonton skins fried with brisket inside and served with a seasoned sour cream. We were heading to Lowry’s immediately after eating here, so we didn’t want to fill up.

The food came out really quickly and we dug into the poutine first. We could easily tell the kreplach was going to molten on the inside since they just came out of the fryer. The poutine had small cubes of the smoked meat through the dish. It was delicious. I was worried it was going to have the consistency of Spam (not that I don’t love Spam, but Spam ISN’T pastrami), but it was more firm, smoky, and pastrami flavored. Quite good. The cheese looked like melty curds unlike the cheese we had at Tom Reids on our last trip. The curds had a really mild flavor to them and I expected them to taste more like cheese. Fortunately, they had a great texture to them and you knew you were eating cheese – your brain can fill in the gaps. The fries themselves were better than average. Some still had bits of the skin on them, which I really like, and they were fried crispy enough to hold some crunch for the first part of the dish. They obviously get a little mushy towards the end, but that’s part of the allure of poutine. That’s how the scientists in Canada intended it to be made.

There was about the perfect amount of gravy on the dish – enough that you had some on each bite, but not enough that the fries were swimming in it. I only wish the gravy had a bit more flavor, however. I assumed it was beef gravy (mainly due to the coloring), but honestly couldn’t taste any beef flavor that I recognized. The salt level was about right (for me), but I wish the gravy was a tad more flavorful. As it stood, the poutine was pretty darn good. Head and shoulders above Tom Reid's (I don’t think we’re really comparing or ranking all of these different poutines, but how can you not do that?). The portion was about right for two people to share as an appetizer, or one person to get decently filled with starchy goodness. It appears small in the serving dish, but a little poutine goes a long was, as some of the group found out the first event we had.

The Kreplach was actually much better than I expected. The brisket on the inside had a great flavor and seasoning. It was almost ground up, but still had a firm texture. A-Wow and I both thought the meat could have been a tad more moist, but that was only us looking for something to complain about – there wasn’t anything. I really could have eaten a bucketful of these things. I keep finding all these delicious finger foods that I want buckets full of. This is pretty close to the top of the list right now. I’m going to pretend this is the deli version of pizza rolls. You know you shouldn’t like them as much as you do, but you’ll absolutely eat every one of them in sight, given the chance. So good.

I would order the poutine every time, especially if that every time includes happy hour prices. It was a solid showing. And all of the other food we saw them serving to people looked delicious, as well. I was intrigued by some of the breakfast offerings, so I might have to invent some random reason to make it over here for breakfast sometime.

Really a good restaurant that sounds like it’s doing well in Minneapolis. I’m glad to hear it. I’m looking forward to going back!

www.ryedeli.com