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

Travail Basement Bar – Robbinsdale, MN

D.Rough and I continued celebrating my birthday week with a visit to Travail’s newest offering – an upscale basement lounge experience with upscale food and very crafty cocktails. I understand it’s a challenge to get reservations here, and that they have three different “time slots” available, so if you’re interested, get on the website and reserve your spot! Totally worth it.

Like Travail’s other establishments, it’s sort of European-style seating – you WILL be seated at a table with other diners. I like to let people know this so they aren’t alarmed. It’s as fun as you make it – you may end up best friends at the end of the night or you might exchange a few questions about the food or drinks that the other people ordered – you get to decide. Pro Tip: Show up early for your reservation and you may get to decide where you sit, before the space gets filled and you’re stuck with whatever is left open.

The hostess, servers, bar tenders, and food delivery folks are all professionals. They want you to have a good time and enjoy yourself, and they are very gracious and helpful.

We started with a few cocktails, which is really what this place is known for. If you look around the rooms, they have most of the cocktails presented in little nooks, and deconstructed so you can see the ingredients. Bottles of booze and also some of the flavors you’ll be tasting – very interesting concept. Classy and informative (something I’ve never been accused of being). D.Rough got the house tiki-style drink – the Many Faced God (vodka, macadamia nut liqueur, pineapple, coconut, and damiania). I got the Ronaldo Burgundy (Bacardi heritage white rum, pomegranate, pineapple hibiscus milk punch). I'll apologize in advance for the photo quality - the dim lighting wasn't doing my camera any favors - but you'll get the general idea.

D.Rough’s tiki drink was REALLY good. Not too much macadamia and the pineapple and coconut were magical. Fantastic. 

My rum-forward drink was also incredible. It came with a smoky bubble on top AND in a bat-painted tea cup (on a bat painted saucer). A little bit fruity and plenty of rum flavor – I loved this drink!

We ordered a couple of food items to tide us over for the night. The Broadway Burger, the poutine, Salt & Peppa Shrimp, and the lobster egg. The kitchen sends out the folks who prepare this stuff and they explain what’s in some of the dishes and answer any questions – very top-notch.

The lobster egg is a soft boiled egg with lobster, truffles, brown butter, and tarragon, all served in an egg cup. Beautiful presentation and it tasted great too. It’s nice when you can recognize the flavors of each of the ingredient and none of them are overpowering. This is a well-put-together dish.

The Salt & Peppa Shrimp are deep-fried shrimp with garlic butter and jalapeno slices. A relatively simple dish but the garlic butter and jalapeno elevated it a lot. I considered ordering a second round of these, they were that good.

The poutine was fantastic – perfectly fried fries and a rich gravy that clearly was not an afterthought. There weren’t curds, but the gruyere foam was a fun change that I approve highly of. Great job!

The Broadway Burger was not just a restaurant burger. It had a lot of pickled things going on and some mustard situations, but it was a VERY juicy burger. Not sloppy, just really moist and juicy. I loved this thing.

I needed another cocktail and the Travail Basement Bar is not short on them. In fact, they’ve got a few different kind of drinks. They’ve got some small cocktails, for if you’re feeling like you just want a little bit or if you’re toasting someone (very fun idea). And, they’ve got a handful of fancy non-alcoholic drinks, as well. I politely asked the server if they could just add a bunch of rum to the pina colada-style non-alcoholic drink they had on the menu – The Bird C.R.E.A.M.  He assured me it wouldn’t be a problem at all to do so. And since he was already there, I also ordered the Potato Pavé – a thick stack of super-thinly-sliced potato covered with gruyere and cheddar sauce and serrano ham.

The drink was as good as I had hoped it would be – I actually liked it more than the Many Faced God, but only because it was rum, not vodka, and not nutty, otherwise, they were pretty similar. Delicious! And the Potato Pavé was fantastic. Cut-able with a fork and lots of cheese flavor. I’m glad I got to try this one.

Additionally, since my wife’s family is Italian and literally do not believe something is a celebration until there’s cake, we ordered a slice of chocolate cake. Not just any cake – a serious cake, with chocolate mousse layers and a chocolate ganache outer layer. It even comes with a bit of edible gold foil on top – see? Super classy! And, amazingly moist and tasty.

Overall, zero things to complain about at this new restaurant. The staff are all very “interchangeable” and everyone can help you with any request you have. They’re all there to make sure you enjoy yourselves and return to the basement. We even joked with our server that in the basement, everyone looks tan! We will definitely return here and enjoy some additional menu items. We understand this will be an ever-changing menu, so we’re excited to see what new cocktails and food items are available the next time we go there!

www.travailkitchen.com/basementbar

St. Genevieve – Minneapolis, MN

D.Rough and I decided to go someplace a little upscale for our 4th anniversary dinner. I’d like to start a  trend that we go out to eat 4 times for our fourth, 5 times for our fifth, and so on, but I don’t think it will fly. St. Genevieve sets aside a small portion of its table for reservations, and then the rest are walk-in seating. We weren’t lucky enough to get a reservation, so we took out chances and showed up unannounced. There was a 90 minute wait on a Wednesday, so be ready for that. thankfully, there is a wonderful store next door to do some shopping and kill some time.

Once we got seated, we were really impressed with the place. Very nice without being snooty and the windows in the front open up onto the sidewalk for a really open atmosphere. It was pretty slick. This is the kind of place that not only has a nice wine list, but also a nice champagne list. D.Rough enjoys champagne more than most, so she ended up getting a nice glass of it. A glass which she thought was $9, but didn’t know that was for a half glass. (And, I didn’t tell her until afterwards, since it was our anniversary and we shouldn’t be watching our pennies.) It was a Chigny les Roses from Montagne de Reims. I got a really heavy red (Languedoc Roussillon) from that I loved, but D.Rough thought it was too meaty for her.

Also, a side detail. The coasters under your water glass are color coded for the servers. Red for tap/still water, and blue for sparkling/bubbly water. Genius time-saver idea!

The menu is quite French, so if you can speak any French at all, it may help you decipher some of the things. We do alright, so we ended up not starving – hahaha. We ordered some pomme frites (French fries with béarnaise aioli) and some Morels with Parisian gnocchis. St. Genevieve is also known for its Tartines (sort of a fancy open-faced sandwich), so we went a little extravagant and got the foie mousse tartine. We decided to split a large plate, so we didn’t over eat – we got the pork dish.

The pomme frites were awesome. Very crispy and the béarnaise aioli was good enough, we probably should have ordered another container of it so we didn’t have to ration it so much. Seriously good version of elevated French fries.

The morels were fantastic. I’ve never had morels before, but I know people fist fight over them in the woods. I know a lot of people that hunt these things and I’m glad I finally got to try them. These were fantastic and served with some of the best, lightest, fluffiest, creamiest gnocchis I’ve ever had. There was a sherry reduction on them and also a bit of fried chicken skin. Really? Yes, really, and it was awesome. It’s a pricy appetizers because of the morels, but it was really good.

The tartine was one of those things that I really liked, but D.Rough didn’t care much for it. A little too rich for her taste. A generous slathering (sorry for not using a more fancy word) of foie gras mousse on top, and then topped with some tarragon and pistachio. The kicker was the green strawberries, though. They were a really nice sweet tart pop in this dish. Really fantastic.

The pork medallions were really top notch. The pieces of pork were served together with some pieces of pork belly, but if you ate the together, it was quite a different flavor and texture combination. It was served on a small bed of cheese grits along with an onion puff and kind of a celery remoulade. The onion puff was referred to in another review as a grown up funyun and it was a pretty apt description. IT was also delicious. I think D.Rough got too much of the pork belly and wasn’t expecting it, but I really devoured this thing. One of the better pork dishes I’ve had recently.

Did we need dessert? No. Did we get it anyway? Yes. D.Rough went with the butterscotch crème brulee and I got the orange chiffon. I didn’t even really know what orange chiffon was, but it sounded intriguing and I was in the mood to gamble.

The orange chiffon was like nothing I’ve ever had before. It was sort of a fluffy cake with blood orange reduction drizzle on it. It also had black sesame macarons on it, as well as… wait for it… fennel sorbet. The cake was delicious, especially with the blood orange sauce on it. And the black sesame macarons were also good, but the sorbet I struggled with. Seriously struggled with it. I tried really hard to like it, but I just couldn’t. I almost ate all of it, hoping it would change my mind, but it didn’t. It was the most bizarre thing I’ve eaten in a long time. It was like a pizza flavored black licorice sweet ice cream. I’m sure it was fantastic and very high-brow, but it was rough for me.

Thankfully, D.Rough’s was mindblowing. The butterscotch crème brulee was quite good. Impressively good, if you must know. It had banana malt ice cream on top with cacao nib brownie pieces and caramel corn. This thing was an immensely elevated crème brulee. Get this thing.

Top 5 things about St. Genevieve

1. Pork medallions with pork belly pieces

2. Morel mushrooms with gnocchi

3. Butterscotch crème brulee

4. The atmosphere here is energetic and loud and open and fun, but still very upscale

5. The wine and champagne list is pretty baller

Bottom 5 things

1. Fennel Sorbet

2. D.Rough would put the tartine here, but I liked it

3. Be ready for the price tag, but it was worth it (just be careful on the wine ordering)

4. You’ll likely have to wait in line, unless you email the place weeks in advance

5. There isn’t a website (use FaceBook, yelp, or various articles to learn more)

St. Genevieve

5003 Bryant Ave. S.

Minneapolis, MN 55419

My Wife is a Wizard – West St. Paul, MN

I brag about my wife, D.Rough, probably more than all of my readers care for. Well, she’s awesome and I need to tell people about it. My apologies.

We went to a dinner party the other night and she thought she’d try some fun things. She’s got some significantly more advanced cookbooks and recipes than I’m comfortable tackling, and she pulled a couple of things from them for this party.

This party, she made Kimcheez-its from scratch, along with a nice blue cheese dip. Yes, there’s actual kimchee in the crackers she baked, combined with the orange powdered cheese from the blue box of Kraft macaroni and cheese. Yes, we now have a box of JUST macaroni in our cabinet with no accompanying cheese dust. It was 1000% worth it, though!!!

For dessert, she made Fruity Pebble-milk ice cream. Yes, she actually steeped crushed up Fruity Pebbles in milk to extract the flavor and some various bits of colored flecks, and threw that into the ice cream maker we own. Then, because for some reason she felt that wasn’t awesome enough, she made a fruity pebble crumble for the top. I have no idea what else was in it, but I remember Fruity Pebbles and butter being involved.

Needless to say, we’ve now been forced to make Fruity Pebble-milk ice cream for additional parties. And, we’ll probably continue to make it because it’s quite amazing.

Thanks for being a wizard in the kitchen, D.Rough.

Corner Table – Minneapolis, MN

Sometimes, my birthday falls during Twin Cities Restaurant Week, which means sometimes we try out two or three new restaurants in the Twin Cities. For my birthday this year, D.Rough booked us at The Corner Table, where I’ve been meaning to go for a few years now. This night it was a set menu with some choices for starters, entrees, and desserts, so I was looking forward to eating some delicious food.

For a limited menu, they really found a way to make me want everything on it. We had some difficulty choosing, as usual, but finally decided on a bowl of sunchoke soup and also a pork belly with chow-chow, chile-raisin vinaigrette, and pepita oil. And of course the wine pairing for the upcharge was totally worth it.

(Apologies for the low light levels in the photos) The first course was exquisite. The sunchoke soup was not at all what I expected and was really wonderful. Nice and warm and smooth, but with a lot of flavor, and a nice pop when the olive oil they drizzled on top found its way onto the spoon.

The pork belly was really good, and even a bit larger than had expected. It wasn’t too fatty (meaning there was actual meat and flavor, not just soft gristle), and there were little mustard seed everywhere that gave it a great texture. One of those dishes where you needed all the flavors in each bite to really make it hit home. Well done.

For the main course, D.Rough got the potato gnocchi, red table ham, chestnut soubise, and hen of the woods mushroom, and I shocked D.Rough by getting the faro risotto, roasted squash, saba, and pecorino cheese (pecorino is my kryptonite).

 

 

The potato gnocchi was really good. It actually had a lot going on with it, and was a pretty generous portion for such a heavy dish. Again, the flavors were perfect when combined in the same bit and the earthy mushroom balanced everything out nicely. I really liked this one.

….But I liked my risotto more. This dish had awesome texture and lots of vegetables in it, and was seasoned better than I ever expected. Rich flavors, probably from whatever they cooked the risotto in, and the pecorino was stellar. LOVED this dish. I need more pecorino and risotto in my life, I’ve discovered.

For dessert, D.Rough got the crème caramel, which was sort of like a flan, and I obviously got the sweet potato donuts with molasses and toffee cream. D.Rough didn’t have much to say about the caramel crème, but I really liked it. But I love custardy things like flan and panna cotta. I think I liked this one more than she did.

But, the donuts came out with a birthday candle (thank you wonderful server!), and the donuts were magical. I’ve never had sweet potato donuts before, but I will now try to find them everywhere. Such a unique flavor and the molasses and toffee cream kicked the whole thing up another level. I really liked this dessert more than I usually do.

Overall, a wonderful birthday dinner with the woman I love and a new restaurant for me to look forward to going back to!

Top 5 things about Corner Table
1. Farro Risotto
2. Sweet Potato Donuts
3. Potato Gnocchi
4. Pork Belly
5. The wine parings were spot on

Bottom 5 things
1. I still wish I had gotten the cow tongue reuben
2. The menu changes all the time, so it’s hard to get the same thing twice
3. It’s a small dining room, so you need reservations
4. It’s a little spendy on non-Restaurant-Week evenings
5. It’s impressively dark inside, so your photos won’t turn out (sorry bloggers/hipsters)

www.opentable.com/corner-table>www.opentable.com/corner-table

D.Rough’s Birthday Raclette Party – West St. Paul, MN

D.Rough and I don’t like to do normal things for birthdays, so we decided to have a cheese party for her birthday. D.Rough and I saw a piece about raclette cheese on a television show and knew we needed to have some. We just happened to have a friend who is a fancy certified cheese monger and she volunteered to help us host a ridiculous cheese party for D.Rough’s birthday. We invited a couple friends over (it was a pretty small list, due to the limitation of the number of people a wheel of raclette cheese would feed, so we apologize to anyone who didn’t get an invite).

Raclette is a type of fancy Swiss cheese that’s heated up until bubbly and them the molten cheese is scraped off onto a plate and served with boiled potatoes, cornichons, and other vegetables.  It’s sort of a cooking cheese by the ski lodge fire sort of thing. We rented a special raclette grill and had our friend PepperJackie order a bunch of additional cheese for us. We were going to knock this out of the park!

The raclette experience is pretty awesome. The swiss already have the fondue market cornered, but this kicks the whole thing up a notch. We added like 4 pounds of nice deli meat, 17 pounds of potatoes, a bunch of vegetables, some chutney, and pepper jelly. Oh, and a billion bottles of wine – hahahahaha.

Needless to say, it was apretty amazing birthday. Huge thanks to PepperJackie for bringing all the awesome cheese, explaining what everything was, and (wo)man-ing the raclette grill all night for all of us. She really knows her stuff and when she starts hosting these parties full time, we’ll be pushing her on all of our friends.

Yaaaaay for D.Rough’s birthday!!!

Yaaaaay for cheese!!!

Yaaaaay for piles of meat!!!