La La Homemade Ice Cream – Minneapolis, MN

Who doesn’t love ice cream? Idiots, I guess. Everyone has strong feelings about their favorite ice cream place and we’ve had some friends recommend various places in the Twin Cities (and abroad, really). Oddly, none of our friends have mentioned La La, and it’s been around for a little while (like 1993, according to the website). We were in Uptown and figured we’d better stop by.

D got a couple of scoops in a cone and I really wasn’t impressed by any of the ice cream flavors – weird for me. I ended up going with a strawberry soda. We didn’t take any photos, so I apologize. Both of the scoops of ice cream were near-flavorless. I tried a couple of bites of each flavor and couldn’t tell them apart. Disappointed. My soda had less flavor than a La Croix sparkling water, and I’m not really a fan of those. Again, disappointed.

This is probably why none of our friends are really talking about this place. I hate to give negative reviews, but sometimes, you’ve got to call it like you see it. (That being said, the place is pretty adorable on the inside and the staff working there were SUPER nice, for what it’s worth.)

www.lalahomemadeicecream.com

Giordano's Pizza - Minneapolis, MN

Chicago has its own style of pizza. A lot of places claim to have “Chicago-style” pizza, but it’s mainly just some low-budget deep-dish sub-par pie. Being an Illinois native, I can tell you there are “The Big 3” places in Chicago – Geno’s East, Lou Malnati’s, and Giordano’s. (Some people claim Pizzeria Uno is in there, as well, but it’s a distant fourth in all honesty.) My favorite of The Big 3 is Giordano’s, mainly because they’re serious about toppings there. DEAD serious. When I heard Giordano’s was opening a location in Minneapolis, I admit I might have done a little freak-out dance of joy.

The last time I ate at Giordano’s, I was with a bunch of roller derby people in 2010. I can’t believe it was that long ago. But thankfully, I did a decent write-up and took a bunch of photos of my friends. FIVE YEARS AGO. That’s insane.

The place opened a little while ago and has since been swamped. They even quit doing delivery because they were just too busy. Now, you can expect an hour or two wait to get in (not kidding). SO your best bet is to call ahead 30-40 minutes, go pick up your pie, and walk two blocks behind the restaurant down to the Lake of the Isles and have a picnic. Some co-workers and I called on our drive over and ordered a meat lovers pizza with some cheesy bread. Why he ordered cheesy bread is beyond me, but he did. 

I was worried it wasn’t going to be as good as the pizza I remembered from all my years driving downtown to get this pizza. I was incorrect – it was EXACTLY as good as I remembered. It’s is also still an inch-and-a-half or two-inches thick. It sounds like an exaggeration, but it isn’t. They lay down a nice crust in a super deep dish pan, throw in the toppings, and then cover it with cheese and a layer of tomato sauce. The sauce is incredible. The meat is substantial, without being TOO much meat – and this is ME saying this, so take that with a grain of salt. The cheese is delicious. The crust is also quite good, and even a little burnt on the bottom, since they have to cook the thing for at least 30 minutes to make sure it’s done all the way in the middle. 

I fully admit I was only able to eat two slices of this pizza. It’s sooooo filling, it’s like 6 pieces. So order accordingly. Also, the cheesy bread is fine, but not needed.

If you haven’t been to Giordano’s in Uptown Minneapolis yet, do yourself a favor and make a trip there. It’s perfectly fine to call ahead and get it to go. Just be ready to carry a 20-pound box of pizza back to your house/apartment. Just a warning.

Giordano’s (Uptown)
2700 Hennepin Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55408
www.giordanos.com/location/minneapolis-uptown

Hola Arepa - Minneapolis, MN

D.Rough and I had random reasons to celebrate, so we decided to hit up a place we've been meaning to go to for months. Hola Arepa in Uptown. It was a Friday night, so we knew there was going to be a wait, but we were up for it - especially since they had a bar there. The host told us it would be about 30 minutes.

We put our name in and headed to the bar. As we were walking up, the people sitting there were leaving and told us to take their spot. We sat down and proceeded to look at the drink menu - soooooo many delicious sounding drinks. Apparently, these folks are known for their creative cocktails. All of them contain bitters, which I'm not a huge fan of, but I am able to order drinks without bitters like a grown ass man, so we're all good.

I ordered an El Camino Rojo and D.Rough ordered a Cortez The Killer. We watched the drink expert make these ridiculously expert-level drinks and were pretty impressed. These drinks were strong. REALLY strong. And delicious, thankfully. We both liked the Cortez The Killer better, but both were super tasty. This also gave us time to check out the food menu so we were ready when we sat down at our table.

We ran into some friends, like you do in Uptown, and chatted the time away. We also ordered two more drinks. I opted for the Jolly Poltergeist and D.Rough got the Southerly Pariah - again, both were incredibly strong. To the point of weavy-ness. This time, I ordered the winning drink (the Jolly Poltergeist)(again, without bitters).

It was just over 30 minutes when the host called our name and sat us at a table being served expertly by Bryce - a fellow long-haired bearded gentleman. We were already leaning towards a couple of appetizers and finally decided on the Vigoron appetizer - steamed yuca, roasted pork, citrus-cabbage slaw, pico de gallo, and chicharron on a banana leaf. After a few questions, I ordered an arepa with roasted pork and sweet potatoes and D.Rough ordered the arepa with shredded beef and plantains. If you don't know what arepas are, you're missing out. They're sort of a taco-like hand food. Picture a circular cross between a pita and an english muffin, but made out of corn meal. Then stuff it with all kinds of different ingredients (mainly the kinds of things you would put in a fancy taco) like lettuce, shredded beef/pork, black beans, onions, and other things.

The Vigoron came out and we were extremely excited for this crazy thing. It was a mound of shredded pork with some other fun things to dip the pork rinds into. Seriously this thing was worth fighting over. I was very surprised both at how large it was and also how delicious it was. I'm glad we decided on this for an appetizer.

The arepas came out just after we finished our appetizer. And I'll be honest, it was really difficult to tell which one was better.

The shredded beef was had fantastic cumin flavor and the sweetness of the plantains really cut through. The cotija cheese flavor also came through brilliantly. I was really surprised how good this thing was.

The roasted pork arepa with sweet potato was also fantastic. The green onion aioli was extremely mild and complemented the roasted pork very well. Just the right amount of sweet potato so as not to be overpowering.

The yuca fries that came with our areas were wonderful. I got the chimichurri dip and D.Rough got the aioli verde dip. Again, we couldn't decide which one was better - we loved them both.

I'll be honest, I expected to just think this place was "o.k.". I was totally wrong about it. The place is wonderful. I know there are competing arepa restaurants in the Twin Cities that are cheaper, but the arepas at Hola are much larger, more full of ingredients, and are more filling. One arepa is more than enough here, especially if you get one of their enormous appetizers (which I would recommend).

Top 5 things about Hola Arepa
1. Vigoron
2. Shredded beef and plantain arepa
3. Roasted pork and sweet potato arepa
4. Delicious cocktails
5. Both the chimichurri dip and the aioli verde dips for the yuca fries

Bottom 5 things
1. You're going to wait in line, especially in the winter when the patio is closed. There's a really good reason they're as busy as they are
2. The bartender, who is an absolute wizard, is leaving Hola Arepa to start his own distillery!!!!
3. You're going to want everything on the menu
4. I've heard people call it "Holla" arepa. Those people are idiots
5. If you don't like bitters, order your fancy drinks without them - it's that easy

www.holaarepa.com

Lake & Irving – Minneapolis, MN

D.Rough and I set up a double date with two of our favorite people, LowVee and Kevin, at Lake & Irving in Minneapolis. They had some interesting things on the menu that I was looking forward to trying.

We grabbed some drinks and some ciders before ordering and then set out to find the best things L&I had to offer. We ordered some homemade corn nuts (duh) and some pork aranchini bites. D.Rough wanted the Buttermilk Chicken Sandwich with Duroc bacon, pepperjack, and served on sourdough. I had been dying to try the L&I Half Smokes – chili dogs with Duroc pork and beef sausage and chuck chili.

The corn nuts come in a small paper bag with an appropriate amount of grease residue on the outside of the bag. The little nuggets were super tasty and fried well – I’m not even sure how these things are made (probably wizardry), but I’m glad someone figured them out. We probably should have gotten two orders of these…

The aranchini bites were decent. Not fantastic, but just good. They were a little small, but they’re BITES, after all. They didn’t have a ton of flavor, but they kept our mouths full until the meals arrived. Again, not terrible or anything, but fell a little short (mainly because we’ve eaten these things in Italy and it’s hard to compare them to the US versions).

D.Rough’s Buttermilk Chicken Sandwich looked better than it tasted (despite the poor quality of the photo due to dim lighting). The chicken was fried well, but didn’t end up being as juicy as she had hoped. The pepperjack flavor didn’t come through but the sauce drizzled on it was pretty good. She had to look for the bacon pieces, so obviously there wasn’t a lot of bacon flavor in the sandwich, either. She was fine with the sandwich, but she’d order something else the next time we go back.

The Half Smokes I had high hopes for, since they had been written up in Citipages or some other food-related publication. The dogs were cooked well and had good flavor, but I was really surprised at the minimal flavor of the chili that was on top when I tasted it alone. I couldn’t tell where the pork stopped and chili began – but there was a lot of it piled on the dog. It tasted fine, but I really thought it would be a big bold meat flavor and it wasn’t. It could probably be compared to a decent chili dog, but when you get them at a nicer restaurant, you expect something to pop or stand out. These were just alright, I’m sorry to say. Even the fries were just about average.

I’m not saying it was a terrible meal. I’m just saying I’d order something different the next time we go there. We’ll likely be back, but we’ve got a few other places in Uptown to hit up before then. That being said, our next double date with LowVee and Kevin is going to be something crazy. I’m sure of it.

Top 5 things about Lake & Irving
1. Corn Nuts – homemade!

2. Full bar, so good drink selection

3. Open late with limited food offerings
4. They do have a parking lot in back
5. The brunch menu looks pretty fantastic

Bottom 5 things
1. Half Smokes/Chili Dogs
2. Aranchini Bites
3. Average fries

4. Buttermilk Chicken Sandwich

5. It’s fairly pricey for the quality of the food we got that evening

www.lakeandirving.com

Pat’s Tap – Minneapolis, MN

A lot of people have told me I need to go to Pat’s Tap – mainly all of my friends who live in Uptown. I finally had a reason to go there – my wonderful cousin DishSoap was in town visiting and I wanted to try out something new. DishSoap is generally up for anything, so we dragged her to Uptown to check this place out. I also happened to mention it is a skee-ball bar, which may have helped the cause… Yes, I’m serious, it’s a skee-ball bar.

The place is packed. ALL THE TIME. Just put your name in at the hostess desk and grab a drink at the bar. D.Rough ran into one of her friends from college while waiting and we got (re)acquainted with her, which made the time pass quickly. The hostess said it would be a 45 minute wait, but it ended up being closer to 20-25 minutes. Even better.

The menu is full of amazing things. They do serious cheese-related items here, like curds, goat cheese fritters, and home-made cheese-its, but we were all in the mood for deep-fried pickles. So, we got those. D.Rough wanted the Harissa & Honey Roasted Chicken and DishSoap wanted the Bacon Cheeseburger. I opted for the Friday Fish Fry, which I’ve had a craving for recently (usually on non-Fridays when I can’t order it anywhere).

The deep-fried pickles came out and we were all thrilled. They were HEAVILY breaded pickle spears. Not pickle chips. And you HAVE to get the aioli dipping sauce that comes with them. These things were the best fried pickles I’ve ever had. There was a few fights over these as dinner commenced. We will be ordering these again. Probably one order for each person, so we don’t have to share.

For as busy as the place was, the food came out pretty quickly. I’m not sure if they have a giant kitchen filled with cooks or if they’re just amazingly fast, but either way, I was thrilled. We didn’t even have time to get up and check out the skee-ball action. It was packed over in that area with people playing, anyway, so we wouldn’t have gotten to play or anything.

DishSoap’s bacon cheeseburger looked delicious. It’s topped with Swiss cheese, fried onions, and of course bacon. She said it was a pretty amazing burger, so you’ll have to take her word on it.

D.Rough’s Harissa & Honey Chicken Sandwich had pickled chilies, Burgkäse emmentaler, garlic aioli, and is served on focaccia bread. She was really impressed with this sandwich. Lots of fun flavors, and the sweetness of the honey was impressive on the chicken. Great pretend-healthy option!

My fish was fantastic. The breading was thick, but not greasy. There was a lot of fish on the plate and with the lemon squeezed on it, tasted wonderful. It was exactly what I wanted. The tartar sauce added the right amount of tang, as well. The fries are pretty good here, so I would not steer anyone away from them. I’m a fan.

Great food, lots of good drinks at the bar, and an extremely lively atmosphere – and that’s all besides the fact that they have skee-ball. If we didn’t have to rush off to other plans, we would have stayed and played, but we didn’t. Next time, since we’ll be back soon. I guess my shifty Uptown friends weren’t lying about his place. It’s pretty awesome.

Top 5 things about Pat’s Tap

1. Deep fried pickle spears

2. Friday fish fry

3. Harissa & honey chicken sandwich

4. SKEE-BALL!!!!

5. Great cocktail menu

Bottom 5 things
1. You will have to wait. Maybe not long, but you will. Just get comfortable

2. Parking can be an adventure during busy times in Uptown. Or you might get lucky

3. If energy (noise) isn’t your thing, then don’t go here
4. I want SO many things on the menu

5. You may have to wait in line for skee-ball, it’s pretty popular

www.patstap.com

World Street Kitchen – Minneapolis, MN

I had been to the food truck version of this place a few times and been pretty happy with the food I got there. [And now that I’ve looked back at the blog, I realize I’ve never written about them! I’m a jerk, apparently.] I was happy that D.Rough suggested we go there to check out a couple of special dishes.

I love the inside of this place. It’s sort of modern and minimalist, but still clean and classy. The menu doesn’t appear to have many items on it, until you get to looking at it. Then, you’ll realize you have a considerable job figuring out what you really want to eat. Seriously. D.Rough and I had to grab a to-go menu and sit down and really hash out what we wanted to share. It was no easy task, I tell you.

We decided on the Plate O’ Dips (hummus, smoky feta, and spiced olive tapenade with grilled pita), “La Panza” Caramelized Lamb Belly Yum Yum Rice Bowl with pickled cucumbers, daikon, and bean sprouts, and “Kingston 12” Jerk Beef tacos with mint chimichuri and queso fresco.

And, D.Rough was in the mood, so she got a very unique version of a Piña Colada. Unique means amazing in this particular instance. She was quite happy with this whole situation.

The Plate O’ Dips was delicious. Small scoops of various dips are usually pretty tasty, but the smoky feta was fight-worthy. The pitas were ultra fresh and not at all crunchy – just the way I like them. And as a bonus, there were actually enough pita triangles to finish all the dips! This was a great way to start the meal.

The Kingston 12 was pretty fabulous. Two street-style tacos filled with delicious beef, chimichuri, scallions, and cheese. The meat was really tender and the chimichuri was a delicious counter to the meat. Fantastic.

The winner of the day was the Yum Yum Rice Bowl – plus it is incredibly fun to say! The lamb was awesomely tender and the added pop of the peanuts really made this dish complete, in my opinion. The cucumbers and daikon were good, but the peanuts really stole the show. D.Rough got one small piece of fatty meat and the rest of it was perfect. No complaints at all on this bowl of awesome.

Verdict=Fantastic. Looking forward to coming back there and trying the same or new things. Either. We don’t care.

Top 5 things about World Street Kitchen

1. La Panza Yum Yum Rice Bowl (both eating and saying)

2. Kingston 12 Jerk Beef Tacos
3. Piña Colada
4. Plate O’ Dips
5. Very serious menu (and some boozy drinks)

Bottom 5 things
1. If you come there expecting to share with someone, you WILL fight over who gets what
2. You’re going to want dessert afterwards, and there isn’t much on the dessert front, but it’s ok because you won’t have room
3. I can’t decide whether I like the regular menu or the brunch menu better. These guys really nailed it.
4. Parking isn’t the best on Lyndale…
5. I can’t think of anything bad, so I’ll quit making things up now

www.eatwsk.com

Origami (Uptown location) – Minneapolis, MN

D.Rough and I had some friends in town and we decided to get dinner with them. Much to our chagrin, they had chicken wings the previous night so we couldn’t take them to the world’s greatest wing place – D-Spot. They love sushi, so we decided to go to Origami. We hadn’t been to the new location in Uptown yet, and they have a really reasonable happy hour.

D.Rough and I showed up early, specifically so we could have a drink and a chat about our day. I really like doing that, for that record. She got a Penny Dropper (I can’t remember what was in it, but it was damn good) and I got a Mango Chu-hai (fruit puree, vodka, and club soda). Both delicious and refreshing. We also (our friends don’t know this) ordered some Takoyako, which is deep fried octopus dumplings – basically the octopus version of the conch fritters we ate in the Bahamas every day – like a hush puppy.

It came with a drizzle of eel sauce and a dab of seasoned mayo – delicious. There were only five, but D.Rough and I were able to share the remaining 5th wheel and both eat half. Great crunch on the outside of the puff ball and the octopus was soft and not chewy/rubbery. Great appetizer. The server even cleared it away from the table before our friends go there to judge us. Hahahaha

Once our friends arrived, we pretended like everything was all bright and new and we had just gotten there. It’s like two separate happy hours!!!! I ordered the lychee-tini that I had my eye on earlier, and D.Rough got a pinot grigio.

The happy hour menu has a lot of different drinks on it, but the food menu is just as impressive. It was difficult to decide what to get. We made our server laugh when we ordered, “Futo Maki through Spicy Crab Maki”. The server heard those two rolls, and we corrected him by emphasizing THROUGH. So he added Spicy Yellowtail Maki, Spicy tuna Maki, Spicy Scallop Maki, and Spicy Crab Maki to the order. Hilarious. Thankfully, he hadn’t brought up the appetizer we had snuck in before our friends got there. Hahaha.

I’ll make this review really short, we made a mistake and ordered basically five of the same thing and one roll that actually tasted different than the other five versions. Completely our mistake. That being said, the rolls were pretty good, they just all tasted too similar in our minds. The Futo Maki is quite good, despite it being vegetarian (have to get my digs in where I can). The ingredients were fresh and it’s kind of an oversized roll. I liked it a lot.

The other rolls, like I said, were good, but they all tasted pretty similar. So you have five bite rolls, and five of them that tasted the same. That means you have twenty five pieces that tasted the same. Thankfully, they WERE good, otherwise, it could have been an nightmare.

Overall, aside from ordering error, we were happy with our meal. The happy hour menu will for sure keep us coming back, and I’m looking forward to trying some of their whiskey – which is one of the best selections in the area.

Top 5 things about Origami Sushi (Uptown)
1. Takoyako – octopus dumplings
2. Substantial happy hour menu
3. Very friendly staff
4. Futo Maki roll
5. There’s a parking ramp above it and a parking lot right outside (both cost dollars, but are close)

Bottom 5 things
1. We ordered all the things that taste the same (delicious, but the same)
2. The Chu-hai wasn’t very boozy
3. The restaurant isn’t visible from the main street – you have to mean to go there
4. Nothing else was a down-side
5.

www.origamirestaurant.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.

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

Rudolph’s BBQ – Minneapolis, MN (Bar-B-Quest 2012!)

It was that time of the week when we had to hit the Bar-B-Quest bracket. I say “had”, but it’s much more like “rejoiced in”, in our case. LowVee, HotGirlsBrother, and I were all busy at night, so we decided to do another lunch outing – this time at Rudolph’s. HotGirlsBrother had only been here once before and sat in the bar area, which is ridiculous since he lived a block away for a number of years. However, LowVee and I HAD been here and liked it a lot, a while back.

Once in side, they seated us in the limbo area between the fancy restaurant and the front-of-house bar area. No worries at all. You can get all the food wherever you’re at. The menu is really fun to look at since most of the dishes are named after movie stars, young and old. Classy and goes along with the Rudolph Valentino theme they have going on. I assure you it isn’t a red nosed reindeer theme here. We knew we wanted a cast iron skillet full of corn bread, without question, so we got that. We also ordered a full slab of ribs (the Bogie) and a half slab (the Rudy).Those both came with sides, so we got two coleslaws, some baked beans, and some fries. They have coke products, so I ordered a root beer and the other two ordered Arnold Palmers. I was bummed to find out they switched from 1919 rootbeer to MiniSoda rootbeer. Sadface, but MiniSoda is still just fine.

The food came out pretty quickly, which rules, since it was lunch time and I was on a schedule. The first thing the server brought us was the cornbread. I love how they serve it here. They bring it out to you in the cast iron pan with a serious scoop of butter on top of it. The cornbread is super hot so it melts the butter right on top of it. It’s fantastic and probably the best cornbread in the Twin Cities (please don’t make us do a cornbread bracket!!!). LowVee moved the butter scoop around the top of the cornbread until it was almost dissolved and soaked into the sweet and moist bread. Awww yeah. It was a great appetizer and allowed us to save a piece for eating with out meals.

Sides first: The coleslaw is really good. Not just regular good, but really good. Seasoned really well, great texture, great ratio of mayo-to-vinegar, and some nice bites of carrot thrown in. Really great stuff. I think they sell the mayo mix as well if you want to make your own (why the heck wouldn’t you just buy the coleslaw already made here!?!?!?!), if that’s your thing.

The beans were a little meh and they didn’t appeal to any of us. They were a little bit of a flavor black hole – they sucked the flavor away from whatever you were already eating, which is always sad. We left the small container almost untouched this time. The last time we were here, the beans were pretty darn good, which is disappointing.

And this photo is very strong evidence that HotGirlsBrother DOES, in fact, take relationship-crippling-sized bites. Seriously, that coleslaw is just heaped on the fork. I'm glad we got two of those large dishes of coleslaw to share amongst the three of us. (There was an incident at a previous BBQ place where LowVee accused HotGirlsBrother of taking too large a bite and it turned into an "incident". I just like to poke the bear...hahahaha)(Love you, man!)

The fries were also really good. They looked like ordinary fries, but were deceptively crispy. Really good job on the fries. Those didn’t last long.

The buttered bread they brought out was toasted just the way I like it. I thought it would detract from the awesomeness of the cornbread, but I liked them both on their own merits. That being said, the cornbread was mind-blowing.

Now, for the ribs! The flavor of the ribs here at Rudolph’s is really good. This is how a dry rub should be done. Not overly salty, not fake smoke flavor, not spice-heat. Just fantastic flavor rubbed into the meat before cooking. Really awesome job on this aspect. The sauce is also really awesome. We ended up using a huge amount of the sauce (great for fries, as well) on all of our ribs. I think I’m going to switch to this sauce, since you can buy it in local grocery stores now. It’s that good. This is a huge change for me, since I didn’t really care for the sauce the last time I was here (until I combined two different sauces).

The meat itself was pretty good. Not amazing, but still had to some good flavor. You just had to work at some of the pieces. Some fell off the bone and some you had to really wrestle with. This was demonstrated by my taking long enough to get all the meat off my first rib bone as it took for LowVee and HotGirlsBrother to get through two ribs each. Bastards. The bones still came away pretty clean though (and they give you a nice bowl just for your rib bones, which rules). Pretty good showing for Rudolph’s BBQ.

We did like that they brought us wetnaps at the end of our meal, as well. This is always useful, since we get absolutely covered in BBQ sauce when we eat ribs. Hahaha. Classy, Rudolph. Classy.

Ruolph’s is going up against Capp’s in this bracket, so we’ll have to see how they fare. For now, here’s the bracket, as up to date as we can get, at this point.


Top 5 things about Rudolph’s BBQ
1. Cornbread with butter scoop – it even made HotGirlsBrother a believer!
2. Coleslaw
3. Dry rub on the ribs
4. French fries
5. Amazingly nice server and host – they appear to like what they do

Bottom 5 things
1. It’s a little bit pricier than other rib places – keep in mind, this is an ACTUAL full-service restaurant and you get what you pay for. Just warning you – those that are cheap-skates
2. Baked beans were really flavorless
3. Rib meat was a little tough in spots
4. Bummed they switched from 1919 rootbeer
5. I couldn’t get drinks from the full bar, since I had to race back to work for meetings

www.rudolphsribs.com

El Meson – Minneapolis, MN

D.Rough and I like to celebrate things with nice food. It was our anniversary, so I planned a nice evening of fun for us. She has been talking about trying paella for months now (she’s never had it), so I thought it might be nice to eat at El Meson – they have amazing paella. She was totally down for a nice night on the town.


We arrived at our reservation time and got seated right away. The place is dark inside, and there was a decent crowd of people inside – not packed, but there was a nice buzz in the room. D.Rough had looked at the website before we left and noticed it was happy hour. There were all kinds of specials on appetizers and cheap wines. And we had made it to the restaurant just in time to capitalize on the happy hour deals.


We started with a bottle of Pacific Peak Cab-Sav (not something we usually get, but sounded good for some reason), and some delicious sounding appetizers. We got the Aceitunas (a Spanish olive sampler) and the Cantapalitos (grilled mini chorizo sausages with artichoke hearts and onions in a sherry vinaigrette). It took us a little bit longer to decide on the food, so we just took our time and waited for that food to come out.


Thankfully, they bring out a really nice toasted bread with butter on it for you to snack on. By the way, this bread is super addictive. We tried to stop eating it a few times and ended up going through multiple baskets of it… whoops.


I’m not an olive person – I never have been. That being said, I’ve found that if I don’t get the traditional olives, I can eat them and enjoy eating them, for the most part. I think of it like Budweiser – lots of people drink it, but the snooty people with taste think it’s terrible. Fancy beers make cultured people happy. Maybe it’s the same way with olives for me. The olive plate was delicious. Yes, there were pits in the olives you have to eat around, but the flavors of the different varieties of olives were really awesome. They were served in a sort of vinegar-y celery bed which may have also included lemon rinds. We aren’t even sure, but we ate it right up. The balsamic reduction they had put over the top of it all just made the things taste even better.


The Cantapalitos weren’t at all what we had expected. It’s basically a sort of sautéed onion salad. Onions do bad things to me, so I eat around them. Fortunately, the sausages themselves were awesome. These things aren’t cocktail weenies, they’re quality chorizo sausages, just tiny versions of them. The artichoke hearts were sautéed in the sherry vinaigrette and D.Rough and I ended up fighting over them. They were also great. So aside from the huge amount of onions (which D.Rough didn’t mind), the dish was fantastic.

We had finally decided what we wanted to eat. I was determined to get the paella, but so many other things on the menu sounded too delicious. We decided to save the paella night for when we go out with TheDoctor and HB for our double date night. I opted for the Carne a la Brava and D. Rough got the Pescado Caribe. Again, we turned to the bread to carry us through to the entrees. Eventually we just had to push it away from us – it is really quite good.


The food arrived just as the place got REALLY busy – not much of a wait time, which was nice since we were starving. The Pescado Caribe is explained like this: A pan-seared filet of grouper encrusted in Jamaican seasonings, served with a mofongo of yucca with Chicaron (smoked bacon) in a lemon butter sauce, topped with mango salsa. It was a really nice piece of fish. Not hugely flavorful on its own, but when combined with the mango salsa and the lemon butter sauce that was very simply poured into the middle of the plate, it really popped. Nice and light and the pan-searing gave it some nice crunch. The mofongo on the side of the plate was also brilliant. Sort of like mashed potatoes with much more texture (mashed fried plantains, actually) with brilliant pieces of bacon in it. I could eat this all day. The greens were simply prepared and good, so nothing to complain about on this plate at all.


The Carne a la Brava is explained like this on the menu: Piementon crusted beef medallions serves with a Valencia saffron rice, braised fingerling potatoes, sautéed artichoke hearts and chorizo, in a tempranillo demi glaze. The rice was this really creamy and almost cheesy side dish. If you could turn the best fancy macaroni and cheese into a rice dish, you would create this. Really rich and heavy and rib-sticking. Perfect, in other words. I assumed this would be the best thing I ate this evening. I was wrong. The fingerling potatoes were perfectly sautéed with artichoke hearts and chorizo sausage. Again, D.Rough and I fought over this dish. I will make the prediction that she and I will have many years of fighting over sausages. This moved slightly above the saffron rice, but both were stellar.

The meat I had on this plate was some of the best meat I’ve ever had. I didn’t know you could make meat this soft and still not chewy. It was … uh… luscious. I can’t even explain how melty this beef was. It was like someone had soaked the meat in butter and it was dissolving the meat in your mouth before you even chewed it. Even D.Rough thought this was a game-changing piece of beef. It was perfectly cooked medium, so you could see the pink insides without it being bloody and the outside has a nice sear on it without being charred at all. I would recommend this to anyone who loves steak or chops. It’s fantastic.

Overall, this was an amazing meal. We commented on the old-school presentation of the food. We’ve been to a lot of places with flashy modern plating techniques, which are nice, but this rustic feel works well with the ambience and the food. I sound super snooty talking about plating, but it’s true – we did discuss it like a couple of d-bags. You should really go here as soon as you can. They have happy hour every day and also flamenco music and dancers on Saturday nights. If you come for the paella, be prepared to wait while they cook it (about 45 minutes). But if you get there in time for happy hour, you’ll be able to much on delicious appetizers and drink cheap wine.

We wanted dessert, but we were in the mood to move around a bit. So we hopped in the car and headed to another destination. It’s our anniversary – time to live a little.

Top 5 things about El Meson
1. Pork medallions
2. Fingerling potatoes, artichoke hearts, and chorizo
3. Pan-seared grouper
4. Saffron rice
5. Happy hour specials are REALLY amazing

Bottom 5 things
1. Aside from my own personal issues with onions, this place doesn’t have a single thing wrong with it. Truly.
2.
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www.elmesonbistro.net