620 Club – St. Paul, MN

Keenan’s Bar or Keenan’s 620 Club has been a staple on West 7^th in St. Paul for many years. The owners retired, but some new folks decided to give it a go and re-opened it, after some remodeling. It popped up on my radar because of this and my wife reminded me about it, so we thought we’d better go check it out.

The menu is surprisingly robust considering it’s thought of as a dive bar. It isn’t a dirty skeevy dive bar, just a homey-but-clean kind of place with a pool table and TouchTunes and really good vibe. There’s also a board with daily specials on it, so don’t miss that one, either. Plenty of local Minnesota beers on tap and a full bar, for those of you that enjoy a fun cocktail.

We ordered some drinks, a fried chicken sandwich, and a Cowboy Killer burger right from the bartender and we didn’t have to wait long for our order, despite the place being full.

The Cowboy Killer burger had cheese, BBQ sauce, bacon and an onion ring on it. One of the juicier burgers I’ve had, as well. Super flavorful and just the right amount of messy. It comes with a delicious toasted bun and the thing wasn’t small at all. Lots of crispy crinkle-fries, as well.

The fried chicken sandwich was one of the better ones I’ve had. Really a thick chicken breast and served with lettuce, tomato, and Old Bay mayo – a delicious touch. Also, plenty of crinkle-fries to go around.

The light isn’t the best in the 620 Club, so the photos turned out a tad bit drearier than I had hoped, sorry. We would tell anyone to go here. While it might not be a destination to drive 6 hours to from another state, it’s definitely going to serve you up some great food if you’re anywhere in the Twin Cities. We’ll be back, for sure.

620 Club

Tori (Ramen) - St. Paul, MN

This old train car (literally an old railway passenger car) has been a few restaurants in the past. Probably more than I even know. I know I went here when it was Chris and Rob's. But, Tori (formerly Tori Ramen when they were up in the Summit Hill area of St. Paul) has taken it over and given a totally new vibe and menu. They consider themselves noodle specialists and it shows in the menu they have put together. I know this opened up during the pandemic in this location, but for some reason, it has taken me a bit to get here.

The inside is… unusual… in that it has a sort of dining room in the train car portion, then a very small bar area – apparently housed by local regulars – and then there’s this unusual area with one of those open-atmosphere garage doors that sort of spreads out onto the sidewalk. Not complaining at all, but I just didn’t want you to walk in expecting a traditional 90-degree-angles everywhere situation. 

We were seated pretty quickly and spent some time deciding what we were going to get. The menu has a handful of delicious sounding starters, a list of various ramen dishes – the items in red are the ones that are spicy – and then some add-ins. Super easy to understand. They’re also known for pretty advanced cocktails, so I went with the tiki-est of the drinks “Will There Be Rum?”, and the server assured me that yes, it DOES have plenty of rum. D got a strawberry lemonade. We opted for some cold sesame noodle to start and then D got the Dra(MN) – which is the chicken noodle, miso, and bali ramen’s combined – and I got the Com Saw Mi Da, which is chili crisp, gochujang, chicken, and a soft egg.

Drinks were fantastic. The strawberry lemonade was sweet, but not too sweet, and downright refreshing. The Will There Be Rum drink was an excellent tiki-style drink and it was a challenge not to drink it down in like three drinks. Would highly recommend this one.

The sesame noodles were perfect. A nice tall pile of noodles and red cabbage and cucumbers with tahini and black sesame seeds (the most evil of the sesame seeds). Not necessarily spicy, but there was some zing there somewhere. We slopped tahini sauce all over table by sharing this one, but fighting over a dish just means its really good and fight-worthy. You should try this one.

The ramen arrived more quickly than I expected, which ruled. The rich broth in both of our bowls looked the same, but this proved to NOT be the case. The Dra(MN) had a little bit of heat (it was in the spicy section of the menu) and had really good flavor. Lots of tahini flavor from the bali, without it being too peanut butter-y, and a surprisingly generous portion of noodles. Really good dish. 

The Com Saw Mi Da was incredible, though. Plentiful noodles and lots of chicken, but the broth was so tasty and spicy. Growing heat, too. By the end, I was sweating. This place doesn’t mess around. Both ramen dishes were some of the more memorable ramen dishes I’ve had, so we will definitely go back here again.

A couple of random notes about this place:

• This place is great for vegans and vegetarians, and they’re willing to make changes to dishes to make sure you’re happy.
• I heard the table next to us say they had called “bullshit” on the heat level and ordered the Fire Shoyu and the Vegan Fire Shoyu. Both of them commented to the server that they may have ordered outside of their expectations and it definitely wasn’t Minnesota hot. Hahaha
• This place has a reallllllly weird vibe. Like Portlandia almost-jokingly quirky atmosphere. Apparently, on weekends, they’re open until 2am still serving ramen, but they have a DJ and it turns into a club atmosphere. Super out-of-the-box. Just didn’t want to forget to mention that it won’t be a chill Japanese restaurant vibe here.

Neither of us could finish our ramen, and we brought a whole additional meal of leftovers home. You can also have them throw in some extra noodles for like $4 and bring some home to reheat with your leftovers. …which I did. And they were so good the next day.

I would definitely recommend this place and I’m looking forward to going back and trying some different dishes, but I doubt anything is going to beat what I got this first time.

https://toriramen.com 

Apostle Supper Club – St .Paul, MN

 

We finally booked a double date with SVB and the Weathermatologist, after months of me forgetting to check my calendar and confirm days that actually worked for all of us. I take full responsibility. There’s a new supper club in downtown St. Paul, right across from the Xcel Energy Center, and somehow we accidentally managed to pick a night where nothing was going on at the X, so we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. 

 

The website says it is a 1960’s Palm Springs inspired supper club, piano lounge, and tiki bar. And it’s also a funny coincidence that D and I were recently in Palm Springs at various tiki bars, so we have a close comparison. But it definitely has that feel once you get inside. 

 

The first thing you’ll notice is that there isn’t a parking lot. I’m not sure why people get so bent out of shape about that, especially since this is a downtown metropolitan area, where tons of restaurants exist perfectly fine without parking lots. There’s multiple parking ramps right across the street, so just suck it up and park there. If it’s an event night, you’ll just have to suck it up. Welcome to the big city. 

 

Once you walk inside, you’re already getting vintage vibes. Tufting on the green leather door and some seagrass behind a modern tiki painting. I’m already digging it. You’ll walk into a lavish and beautifully dark piano lounge. There are multiple rows of chairs and stools circling the piano player (who was slaying the night we were there). 

You can see the tiki bar on the side as you walk in, as well. There are rolling garage doors that undoubtedly lead out to an outdoor space. In the rear of the restaurant, there’s more of a dining room feel and you can also sit near the kitchen area and watch the goings-on there. Just make sure you get reservations, as this place fills up. 

D and I got there early (intentionally), so we could check out the tiki bar, called False Eyedoll. The drink menu is slim, but does have a good showing – better than some bars that sort of have a tiki offering. They’ve also got a small snack menu that had some delicious sounding dishes (wings, smokies, tacos, pickle roll ups, etc.). I started with the False Eyedoll – rum, lychee, peach, pineapple, lime, and mango. D got the Pain Killer – rum, pineapple, coconut, lime, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Both drinks were actually quite delicious and didn’t come from a mix. The bartender did a heck of a job and kept us entertained, too. I blew through mine too quickly and had to order a Glove Drop – jalapeno-infused tequila, pineapple, and lime. I’m not a fan of “spicy” drinks (but I AM a fan of spicy food), but this was actually really good. Lots of jalapeno flavor, without the spiciness. I really liked this one more than I expected. Then our friends showed up, so we went over to our reservation-booked table – eatin’ time!

 

Before I go further, let it be known there is a fuzzy wall on the way to the restroom. I love a good fuzzy wall, ever since Get Him To The Greek came out. This one is pretty spectacular.

 

The menu is pretty interesting. Lots of upscale and cheffy dishes to choose from. We had heard the portions aren’t large, so we kept that in mind. D and I started by splitting the coconut miso noodle salad. We also ordered some crinkle fries, because why not? D got the halibut & caviar and I caved and went with the waygu manhattan steak (our Lyft driver asked me if I was getting a steak as soon as he heard we were going to a supper club, so he is to blame for planting the seed). The waiter kept getting a bit confused with our order for some reason, which was weird, since it was pretty straight forward, both ours and our friends. He came back to our table no less than three times asking what we had ordered. Hmmmmm. 

 

The server brought us a small table relish tray – various things like peppers and pickles and such. Good colorful showing to start with. We waited a bit for our food, which is fine, since we had plenty to get caught up on (see the aforementioned delay on me booking dinner with these wonderful people). The coconut miso salad arrived and it was FAR better than either of us expected. Noodles, herbs, cucumber, cabbage, carrots, edamame, and sesame seeds all combined into a pleasant hillock. And we both thought it was a pretty reasonable portion size. This was absolutely the best thing we ate at Apostle. Would recommend highly. 

 

I had to order another drink (since we took a Lyft), and went with the Passionfruit Collins – vodka, passionfruit, lemon, and soda water. Since I usually just get a Collins with vodka, I can’t tell if they’re usually separated like this one was, but the passionfruit puree was settled at the bottom and hard to stir, so I either got a mouthful of goo or a mouthful of straight vodka. Not sure I’d order this one again, even if that’s how the presentation is intended to be. Just weird.

We waited a bit more, and they brought everyone’s food out, but mine was not what I ordered, so they sent it back and said they’d start on my steak right away. Remember all the confusion at the beginning? That was part of it, although we had a pretty lengthy discussion of what temperature the steak should be cooked at, so I know what I ordered. D’s halibut was pretty small, especially for a pricey entrée. And it came with two asparagus sprigs. I know caviar is expensive, but I don’t get the impression this is the million-dollar stuff. The halibut was cooked about right, but even with the caviar and herb butter, the dish left a little bit to be desired. 

 

A little while later, the waygu steak showed up. I’ve had waygu steak a few times and this one was the ok-est of the ones I’ve had. It was cooked like I requested (thankfully), but there wasn’t a ton of flavor with it. The two baby bok choy stalks didn’t really add much to the presentation and the “chron sauce” that was supposed to be topped with herbs and capers (which it wasn’t) was unremarkable enough that I honestly couldn’t figure out what it was made of. The meat flavor was perfectly fine, but the most expensive item on the menu should probably knock my socks off, or at least make them itch.

 

We had to remind the waiter that our fries had never arrived. So, we ate those for dessert instead of ordering anything additional. The fries were actually cooked really well and perfectly crispy and salty, but I didn’t know until just now what the dip was supposed to be until I looked it up to remind myself. It didn’t taste like much, so I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be cheese or honey mustard or bechemel – it was supposed to be horseradish hollandaise, for what it’s worth.

 

We thought we were done with the mix-ups, until the waiter brought the bill which again, we thought was straight forward and didn’t have shared dishes, but had swapped some of our items. We didn’t even bother bringing it up and just figured it out amongst ourselves. We’re pretty easy going couples and just rolled with it and didn’t complain. But, when we left, the waiter said he hoped we enjoyed our meals and he hoped we got a better waiter the next time we were in. hahahaha. I’ve never actually had any staff say something like that before. I wasn’t even sure how to respond or if he was joking. But, probably an appropriate finisher to this extraordinarily lengthy and pricy meal that we could have expected. 

 

http://www.apostlesupperclub.com

Apostle Supper Club

253 Kellogg Blvd. W.

St. Paul, MN 55102

Phi Chay Thai Cuisine – St. Paul, MN

 

D and I wanted to check this place out, since we saw it had changed names/ownership. It used to be called Supatra’s and we really liked that place. So, we had high hopes as we went into check out this new iteration. 

The person working the register and hosting was really polite and helpful. And the interior of the restaurant looks like they didn’t change it a huge amount, so it still felt home-y. The menu is very large, so it took some time to narrow down what we wanted. We went the adventurous route today and tried some things we wouldn’t normally get. 

We ordered the Salt and Pepper Tofu Puffs, Coconut Curry Noodles with Chicken, and Pad Woon Sen, (stir-fried silver thread noodles) with pork. 

The tofu puffs arrived quickly, and piping hot. The little cubes of tofu were fried crispy and came with some peppers and onion, and also two dipping sauces – one was a rice wine vinegar sauce and the other was a peanut sauce. The tofu was seasoned with salt and pepper and the fry on them was perfect. I liked the peanut sauce a little more than the other, but both were very good. Really a much better appetizer than we expected. 

The coconut curry noodles were different than we expected. D took a bite and said, it’s sort of like the Thai version of macaroni and cheese. The noodles were in a very mild and light curry sauce with a couple pieces of broccoli and chicken. The sauce was good, but didn’t have much kick, despite us ordering it medium. However, D added a scoop of the dried pepper that was on the table and it totally changed this dish. Made it much better and more flavorful. Even seemed to bring out more of the curry flavor. This dish ended up being really good, after we massaged it a little bit. 

The Pad Woon Sen was perfect right off the bat. A rich brown sauce coated all the silver thread noodles and vegetables. It had good spice level to it and the pork was really delicious, as well. I always wish there was a ton more when I’m done eating it, even though I was super full. This is one of those dishes that I would probably order again and I’m not usually an -order-the-same-thing-twice kind of person. Really good. 

Overall, an impressive showing from Phi Chay and an excellent replacement for a restaurant we really loved when it was around. We’ll be back here again. 

Emerald Lounge - St. Paul, MN

We needed a semi-fancy night on the town, and D wanted to surprise me. She took me to Emerald Lounge down on West 7^th in St. Paul. The space is right next door to Claddagh Coffee, which isn’t an accident – Emerald Lounge uses the kitchen from Claddagh to make really amazing and upscale appetizers and small plates (and breads and desserts). The atmosphere inside is like a casual and almost formal, but it’s really open to anyone at all. You don’t have to dress up or be snooty to go here (thankfully). There’s seating at the bar, a couple of smaller tables, and then some more casual seating areas like a living room setting – whatever you’re in the mood for (or whatever is available when you’re there). The emerald green colored subway titles behind the bar are really classy and visually quite stunning, and you can’t miss them.

We just wanted a couple of snack-y things, so we decided to split some of their PEI Mussels (aka Bangkok Mussels) and Beef Mandu (Korean dumplings). But we had to get some fancy drinks to start with. This place is very clearly a fancy cocktail bar. Lots of tinctures, bitters, garnishes in plain sight, and tweezers. Yes, I said tweezers. I always ask D when we go places if the food will be “tweezer-y”, meaning will the chefs deliberately place small items on my food with tweezers. In theory, I don’t mind it, but it’s a good barometer of how fancy a place is. I didn’t even know that cocktails could be tweezer-y, but alas, they CAN. I truly am jesting, but the tweezers are in plain sight. And they use them. The bar tenders, dare I say mixologists, were very fun and talkative, but they were also REALLY good at what they do. They know their craft. Like I said, I joke about the tweezers, but they know how to use them. 

I ordered a Green Lotus Grogg – three rums, lime, honey passionfruit syrup, crushed ice, and bitters. Delicious! D ordered the Pretty In Peach – tequila blend, peach, grapefruit cordial, lime, cava, with a cayenne cinnamon rim. Also, delicious!

The PEI Mussels were really some of the best I’ve had. These mussels were poached in Thom Kha Gai inspired broth (think Thai Curry/Soup) with plenty of red chili peppers and all kinds of mushrooms. It’s also served with a big chunk of crusty bread made next door. The richness of the broth was pretty stellar and the choose-how-much-heat-you-want chilis were fantastic. The mussels were really tender and not gritty. Just all-around fantastic work on these!

The Beef Mandu is a handful of bite-sized Korean dumplings with beef, tofu, garlic, ginger, and scallions, topped with chili garlic crisp and sesame soy dressing. These were little pouches of spicy joy. We ended up keeping very close track of sharing so no one got more than the other person. But thankfully, we share pretty well most days. D had heard people mentioning these were the best things there, and I’d be really surprised if that wasn’t the truth. They were great.

We had to end the night with some dessert. I went with the chocolate beet cake with goat cheese frosting - it sounded interesting. It WAS definitely interesting. D said she could taste too much beet, and I thought there wasn't enough beet flavor, which I know doesn't help you decide at all. But the goat cheese frosting was really delicious and prevalent. It's not for everyone, but I still thought it was pretty good. 

D went with a trio of desserts (which I believe change from time to time depending on the dessert chef's mood) - a lemon bar, a fancy truffle, and a nut bar with some frosting. The truffle was good, but not mind blowing. The nut bar was really pretty interesting and surprising. But the lemon bar was the clear winner this evening. 

Overall, this place is worth going back to. Lots of people watching to do and if the people don’t entertain you, then the cocktail magicians at the bar will. 

Top 5 things about Emerald

1. Beef Mandu

2. PEI Mussels

3. Green Lotus Grogg

4. Pretty In Peach

5. Atmosphere/Ambience

 

Bottom 5 things

1. This place doesn’t take many people to be packed, just be patient and wait

2. Someone will complain about the prices, but it’s totally worth it

3. Best not to come with a big group unless you’re ok with sitting in multiple areas

4. Nothing is actually a negative here – it’s delightful!

5.

 

www.emeraldstpaul.com

Hope Breakfast Bar - St. Paul, MN

We’ve driven by Hope Breakfast Bar many many times and every morning, especially weekends, there’s a line out the front. We’ve heard our friends rave about this place and it’s been on our list for a long time. We finally made it happen and it was definitely worth the wait. It’s kind of a breakfast and brunch place with really nice atmosphere and really top notch food.  

You CAN get reservations, instead of waiting in line, but we took our chances. They said it was a 30-45 minute wait, and it was right about 35 minutes. Easy. Even while standing outside in the drizzle with our coats on watching people. We got a chance to check out the menu while we waited, also, which meant we were ready to rock when we finally got seated at the bar. If I’m not mistaken, if you have reservations, you get a table and they turn spots at the bar around pretty quickly for walk-ins. Just trying to make sure you know what to expect. (Meaning don’t walk in and expect to get a table for 8)

They’ve got some regular coffee drinks and juices, but also some cocktails, wine, and beer. Really adventurous ones, not just bloody marys and mimosas, either. D got a caramel coconut coffee (not pictured) and I got a 7^th Avenue Cereal Bowl, which is a cocktail made with Rumchata, milk from Cap’n Crunch, and crunchberries on top. Really impressive and delicious, as well. Even had a couple customers ask what I was drinking so they could order one.

We had some trouble deciding what to order since everything sounds great. We saw a couple of people order pancakes of various flavors and they all looked good and fluffy and fun. We decided to get Baby Cakes, which are a set of small pancakes with various syrups (blueberry, maple, and banana cinnamon cream cheese. These were everything we expected and more and we couldn’t decide which syrup was our favorite. In fact, we ask for lids for the syrups, so we could take them home and eat them on other things.

We decided to get our own entrees that we wanted and then share them. I finally decided on the chicken fried steak, covered in mushroom sausage gravy, with a biscuit, scrambled eggs, and hashbrowns. D got the Hawaiian Bowl, which is Hawaiian bbq beef, peppers, cilantro rice, poached egg, avocado, and some fried noodles. 

D’s Hawaiian Bowl was more in line with my taste than hers. She liked it a lot, but I’m a rice bowl fiend and can’t get enough of stuff like this. I had almost ordered this dish, but when I heard she was going to, I went with my second choice, knowing I could steal some bites of hers. Aside from the pineapple pieces in the bowl, there wasn’t a ton of Hawaiian flavor in it. It was sort of an Asian/teriyaki rice bowl without many noodles. It had great flavors and everything was fresh and colorful, but it wasn’t the Hawaiian breakfast she was hoping for. Thankfully, I get to eat all of her leftovers, so I win twice.

 

My chicken fried steak was really pretty impressive. I’m sort of a gravy snob – not even sort of – and this mushroom sausage gravy stood up pretty damn well. The chicken fried steak wasn’t greasy at all and had really great flavor. The hashbrowns were plenty crispy (without me having to ask for it – which I forgot to do), the eggs were scrambled just right, and the biscuit was flaky and not dry. Even D was all in on my chicken fried steak and that’s never really been her jam. That should speak volumes, my friends.

 

The service was really impressive, with servers/bartenders checking on us without being overbearing. They were very friendly and chatty about the various foods people ordered and how fast the cooking staff was. Made the whole atmosphere even more friendly and welcoming. This place is busy for a reason and now we know why. We both said we’ll be going back as we drove back home with our leftovers. 

Top 5 things about Hope Breakfast Bar

1. Chicken Fried Steak

2. Baby Cakes

3. 7^th Street Cereal Bowl

4. Atmosphere

5. Really vast menu for brunch

 

Bottom 5 things

1. There’s going to be a wait – deal with it

2. On-street parking only – deal with it

3. Right after you order, you’ll see the kitchen send out food that you wished you had ordered – deal with it

4. Literally everything here is instagramable – look at all the pictures that I took, so everyone will be taking photos of their food – deal with it

5. As you can see, anything I could even think of that people might complain about are irrelevant and people should just deal with whatever their issues happen to be - hahahaha

 

www.hopebreakfast.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

2019 Minnesota State Fair – St. Paul, MN

This year’s adventure was a little different from 2018, 2017, 2015, and a bunch of previous years. This year, I went on opening day with a handful of my co-workers as sort of a culinary tour guide. I’m not sure I was any good at it, but I’ll let you know what they say when we get back to work.  Thanks for hanging out with me all day, Sherri, Lisa, Hannah, Tami, Vicki, and Jim (and his family)!

I started at one of my favorite breakfast places – The Blue Barn. They’re always known for some creative stuff, and this year was no different. 

I tried the Breakfast Potato Skins – deep-fried potato skin filled with scrambled eggs and peppers. It is topped with a blackened beef chislic – a South Dakota bar food staple – and drizzled with béarnaise. The meat has an unusual texture, which makes me wonder about South Dakotans (hahaha kidding!), but was actually very flavorful. It’s sort of like a kafta kebop (lamb skewers). I thought the béarnaise on top was a nice touch. An unusual dish for breakfast, but still good.

I also tried the Blue Cheese Corn Fritz – these are deep fried blue cheese and corn fritters with chimichurri sauce. The had a good fry on them, but the cheese didn’t really shine through. I was hoping for more bite on them. The chimichurri sauce was fantastic, though. If you had just called them corn fritters and gave me the sauce, I wouldn’t have even needed to know there was cheese there.

The best thing I tried at the Blue Barn was the Nashville Hot Chicken on a Stick – it was a large flattened chicken strip coated with cereal (Special K, if I’m not mistaken) for a breading, and then sweet-heat butter glaze. There was also a great hot sauce drizzled over them and served with some pickles. Really a good and simple snack, for breakfast or anytime.

We stopped at Lulu’s Public House for some adult beverages. It’s never too early to double-fist beers at the State Fair! The Berry Go Round  by Schell’s Brewing was pretty darn good and a great way to start off the day. It’s a lemon-y beer with raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries. Nice and tart/sour. Loved it.

The Onesie Twosie Lulu Lucky from Surly was also excellent. It’s a delicious IPA worth checking out. It isn’t going to change the IPA game, but I enjoyed it.

Next was the Turkish Pizza at the Blue Moon Diner. Way better than I thought, actually. It’s a flatbread naan topped with spicy minced beef, onion, tomato, lettuce, cucumber salad, herbs, and lemon juice – you can have it rolled up like a cone or like a pizza. I do wish they toasted the naan a little bit. As it is, it’s super floppy and soft and it’s very messy to eat, since they don’t have a lot of plastic knives at the state fair, I’ve noticed. Get it rolled for easier eating, I suppose (or they can cut it if you’re going to share it). Not mind-blowing, but it was extremely good, in my opinion.

We headed to the Coliseum for a Deep-Fried Dilly Dog from Swine and Spuds. This place has a pretty good track record for creativity. This monstrosity takes the cake for me. It’s a bratwurst, shoved inside a fat pickle, then battered and deep-fried. Oh, and it’s on a stick. I’m not even sure what kind of sauces you’re supposed to put on this thing, but I didn’t even use any. It’s like the best corndog you’ve ever had. I’ll be talking about this for a while. Also, my co-workers were impressed I could get my mouth around it. (I’m sure everyone is going to focus on that last phrase for the next year or two…)

We walked over to Mancini’s for a beer and another dog. This time it was the No Bologna Coney – it’s an Italian mortadella pork sausage flavored with pistachios and peppers, covered with  a muffaletta salad and served on a split-top bun. This thing was pretty good, especially the muffaletta. I wish the sausage had a touch more pistachio, but it was still really good (and messy).

The beer was Funnel Cloud F2 Ale from Bad Weather Brewing. I thought it was middle of the road and nothing special. I tasted neither funnel cakes nor caramel nor vanilla. Might have just had my expectation set to high – it was just an ok ale.  

Off to Dino’s Gyros for more delicious beers – they always have a great selection there. I went with the new Surly Mango Medusa, which was pretty good. Not my favorite mango beer, but it was really good.  The winner of the entire day was the Berry Manilow by Utepils. It was lemonade and raspberry, but not at all chemically. Just fantastically light and fun for the summer. I’m hoping they throw this in cans or bottles for me to stockpile in my house. Great work on this beer.

At Dino’s I also tried the Feta Bites, another new item. They had less flavor than I expected, but the dipping sauce that came with them did help – it was a creamy olive tapenade that was pretty rad.

I really wanted to try the Shrimp and Grits Fritters from Funky Grits in the Food Building. I’m a grits fan, cheesy or otherwise. These were a little dried out, sadly. The dip was ok. They were mainly just overly-fried dough balls served with an aioli. I had higher hopes for these.

There aren’t very many repeats for me at the state fair, but Mouth Trap cheese curds usually make an appearance. They definitely do if I have other friends to share them with. They’re so good and I love them.

Sometimes, O’Gara’s has delicious-sounding items and sometimes they follow through on it. I was a little disappointed with the Irish Whiskey Boneless Wings, though. They seemed like just regular wings and had no whiskey taste at all. The sauce that was on them was a little flacvorless, to be honest, although the fry on the outside of the chicken was excellent and the chicken inside was also excellent. I think they just missed some flavor powder with the whiskey sauce. Not terrible, and great if you just want some boneless wings, but not rave-worthy. (Go with the Rueben bites instead)

You can’t do wings without beers (well, I suppose you could, by it seems pointless), so I got a MN Haze from Lakes and Legends Brewing. It was a decent beer. No complaints and I’d drink it again. I also tried Castle Danger’s Peaches and Cream Ale. It was one of the better beers at the fair. Lots of flavor and very smooth. 

I’m a cookie dough fiend, so I had to check out the Deep Fried Cookie Dough at Kora’s Cookie Dough. It was cookie dough wrapped up in a wonton skin and deep fried. It was greasy but decent. I’m glad they added the chocolate drizzle and powdered sugar – both of them helped. It just feels texturally funny to eat warm cookie dough. Maybe that’s just me, though.

We popped over to The Hanger for the Wingwalker donut holes (I know there was some controversy over the original plan to have injectable syringes for what is now dipping sauces). The donuts themselves ended up being sadly boring, but the lingonberry sauce, the Bavarian cream, and chocolate dipping sauces were really great. I even shared mine with some strangers sitting next to me on the bench outside, and they concurred. Dips yes. Donuts meh.

I was starting to wind down, but I kept hearing about these Carnitas Taco Cones. It was honestly good, but was pretty much just a standard taco when it all comes down to it. The filling was great and a good amount. And the shell was perfectly fried into a cone. Note: This item got the most comments from passers-by out of anything I ate at the fair. It’s visually impressive.

I had to make sure I got at least one 1919 root beer. It’s my favorite at the state fair and I normally drink a gallon of it. I kept it to a low roar this year, but I still love it so much.

I ended up skipping the cheesy sriracha funnel cake, even though it was on the list. I just wasn’t’ feeling it towards the end of the day. I’m not always a funnel cake fan, so it doesn’t surprise me. But, if you find out I should have gotten it, please let me know. I’m curious about it!

On the way out of the fair, I had to make one last stop to get the Hot Hen from RC BBQ. It’s BBQ potato chips covered in buffalo chicken, blue cheese fondue, pickled jalapenos, and blue cheese crumbles. The topping was really good, but I wasn’t impressed by the BBQ chips. If you’re going to lay down a foundation, give it a little something, so it isn’t plain. I basically ate all the toppings off the top and powered through as many potato chips as I could. 

Overall, it was another great day at the Minnesota State Fair. I didn’t have a lot of mind-blowing new items, but a few definitely stuck out. Same for beers. I’m not disappointed at all. I had a great time hanging with my co-workers and running into a few friends that I have missed terribly. Let me know if you try anything I missed or if you disagree with any of my comments. I love a good food argument!

Top 5 (food) things at the 2019 Minnesota State Fair

1. Deep Fried Dilly Dog
2. Nashville Hot Chicken on a Stick
3. No Bologna Coney
4. Turkish Pizza
5. Carnitas Taco Cone