I recently had the opportunity to visit Minneapolis. After attending a few years of college over
in St. Paul (at the wonderfully liberal and global, Macalester College), I had
not been to the Twin Cities in a very long time. A short visit in June reminded me why I loved
the area, but I must admit, it was awfully nice to be there in late June and
not November through March. As is the
case with all my travels, I made sure food took center stage. Here’s a brief rundown of my dining
experiences.
Brit's Pub – I spent
much of two afternoons at Brits working on my book. On day one I sampled the Scotch eggs. Oh my, they were soooo good. Crisp on the outside, just spicy enough to
wake up dreary taste buds and perfectly cooked eggs. A couple hoppy IPAs recommended by my server
and a few hours later, I had fallen in love with the place even if I had not
written as much as I had hoped. The next
day I committed to drinking water and root beer – I had to get work done – but
had to sample the cod bites. True to a
good pub, the fish was great. More
important to me on days like these was the accommodating staff. I love feeling as though they truly don’t
mind me taking up some space and dropping lots of money. In these situations I am always inspired to
tip particularly well. So thank you
staff at Brit’s for your patience and your recommendations. A word about décor…If you are looking for a
British pub, you’ve found it. A
fireplace downstairs that features a shrine to the royal family, soccer and
rugby on the tube, appropriate pub grub, and rooftop lawn bowling…what can I
say?
Loring Kitchen and
Bar – Just on the north edge of
Loring Park in downtown Minneapolis sits a quiet, comfortable restaurant with a
diverse menu, trendy, cool interior and sidewalk seating perfect for passing a
summer afternoon. We had a couple
drinks, cauliflower fritters, quinoa and black bean sliders and walleye
sliders. Every bite was delicious. The flavors in the sliders popped with
freshness and made wonderful afternoon snacks.
Though not exactly on a thoroughfare, the park across the street
provided for good people watching. In
the evening we have to assume this place is very hip.
The Local – Nicolett
Mall`s other ode to the traditional pub (a few blocks north of Brit’s) has a
more Irish theme and a very lively evening culture. The atmosphere of this place is something
special. A gigantic back bar, multiple
snugs, including one called the Kissing Booth and an overwhelmingly dark,
intimate interior, the place feels like the kind of place I would love to call
my local. The food is also
excellent. The quinoa salad had some of
the creamiest avocado and the fish and chips met all expectations for a good
pub. Service was great. The only reason I didn’t spend some writing
time her was the lack of wall plugs for my laptop.
Bar La Grassa –
This place is special and precisely the sort of place I look for. At 8:30 there was a 45 minute wait unless we
wanted to sit at the kitchen bar and watch the work. That was right up our alley. But this speaks to the popularity of the
place. The music was hip, and the décor
respected the history of its warehouse setting.
There were guests dressed in coat and tie and others in jeans and all
seemed comfortable. However, as every
big city has seen in recent years, it’s easy to make a place hip and comfy and
not so easy to support that with quality food and great service. BLG need to worry. From the moment we took our seats at the far
side of the kitchen we were treated to amiable, helpful, very well-informed
service. We were first treated to an
amuse bouche of marinated gigante beans that were flavorful and bright. This served to heighten our expectations for
the rest of our meal, and we were not disappointed. Our server poured my wife’s wine, but then
poured another small glass of her second choice wine just so she could try it. We sampled a bruschetta with white anchovies and avocado and a crispy
salad saporoso – both truly excellent.
Next I had to try the carbonara.
This too, though not as great as Salt Lake City’s Vivace, was delicious
and creamy. Our server explained that
they are prepping the eggs for carbonara using sous vide. I love that he knew this and that the chef is
looking for ways to safely stay committed to traditional carbonara in light of
most Americans’ squimishness with “raw” eggs.
My wife had the pasta negra (black pasta made with squid ink) and sea
urchin, mussels and tomato.
Exquisite…one of the most delicious pastas I’ve had in a long time. For dessert we tried the house made
limoncello – also very flavorful, but maybe a touch thin. By the time we were done much of the
restaurant was empty. The hostess
offered to call a cab if one wasn’t on the corner, but that wasn’t a
problem. A wonderful evening marked by
all the elements of a great meal – great, knowledgeable and warm service,
casual, comfortable atmosphere and excellent food.
Key's at Foshay Tower
– Looking for a typical diner
breakfast? This is it. Keys feels like it’s been here forever, the
sorts of place that politicians and journalists shared stories off the record
over coffee and cigarettes 60 years ago.
Breakfast here can be as large and artery-clogging or as simple and
healthy as you like. The sausage patty
satisfied any craving for grease and spice I needed for June. The oatmeal hit the spot, warmed the
soul. My egg was cooked perfectly with a
runny yolk, but crispy burnt edges.
Efficient service showed just the sort of warmth to out-of-towners that
makes a diner a perfect place for breakfast.
Zelo – For those unfamiliar
with Minneapolis, Nicolett Mall is a wiggly downtown street made so to slow
traffic and encourage pedestrian meandering.
It is lined with shops and restaurants, many on the second floors
accessible by skyways – elevated sidewalks that connect most of downtown (it
gets very cold during Minnesota’s very long winter). Those restaurants at street level virtually
all have sidewalk seating in the summer along Nicolette, and it must be one of
Minneapolis’ true gifts. And perhaps by
virtue of those long, frigid winters, the sidewalk seating is exceptionally
popular all summer. We took in one of
the most inviting of the sidewalk seating areas and ate at Zelo. Zelo sits at a busy intersection featuring a
bus stop and Target’s flagship store; the people watching is superb. We tried four dishes, the fried calamari, ahi
spring roll, salad Brasiliana and lemongrass crabcakes. The calamari was very lightly breaded and
tender. The spring roll was beautifully
presented and so delicious it was hard not to come back to Zelo again just for
that. The Brasiliana was crisp and
bright with hearts of palm and bib lettuce, one of the best restaurant salads I
have had in a long time. And the
crabcakes…filled with flavor, filled with crab and amazing. In fact, they may be the best crabcakes I’ve
had – and certainly the best I’ve had anywhere more than 10 miles from the
ocean. As delicious as the food was, the
service was actually better. Lauren, our
server, recognized our pace and let us linger between courses, just as we
wished. When we asked her for places to
see, drink spots, live music spots and other places to eat on our visit she was
warm, welcoming and helpful. In fact,
she was the first one to mention Bar La Grassa.
She was a great ambassador for her city.
Furthermore, our server truly made the experience at Zelo memorable –
thank you. 
