Saturday, October 20, 2018

Iron Range Eatery – Crosby, MN


D.Rough and I were "up north" at the family cabin and needed to find some food – mainly because we didn’t catch enough crappies to make dinner.  We had done some previous research on restaurants near the somewhat isolated cabin and found the Iron Range Eatery. The menu looked fantastic and the reviews are almost entirely raving (in a positive way). Reservations can be made for 5:00, 6:30, and 8:00 pm – very specific times, so they probably have some control over their workflow and such. It’s just a good idea to get a reservation, even though it’s a small town – this place fills up!

We decided to split the poutine, since someone else had it and it looked amazing. Battered fries with chicken gravy, cheese curds, and Applewood bacon. Yeah, it was crazy good.

We also got a caramelized pear and gorgonzola pizza – it just sounded right. It was! A really interesting – in a GOOD way – combination of flavors you don’t normally run across. The blue cheese wasn’t super overwhelming, and was balanced nicely with the sweetness of the pears. The walnuts also added some fun textures. A fantastic pizza!

I really “won” this dinner with my order, however – roasted sausage and chicken penne. It sounds like it could be blah, but it was some of the best pasta I’ve had recently. It’s their signature pasta and now I know why. It’s really quite spicy, so Minnesotans should steer clear of it, but the flavor was so incredible, I couldn’t stop eating it. The sausage was spicy and flavorful without being too fennel-y, and the chicken was moist and plentiful. The sauce was simply magic. I’d recommend this to anyone who can handle the heat. I will be hard-pressed to order anything else when I go back to this place, since it was so good.  Well done, Iron Range Eatery.


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