I've had a very nice scone (oat-maple) at Rustica. Probably the best scone texture I've encountered in the state.

I think that's pretty difficult right now. The good brands are either out of business or no longer sell in the Twin Cities. (I'm thinking of Old Tyme Jamaican Style, Cock & Bull, and Stewart's.) Even Target has stopped making their Archer Farms ginger beer, which was pretty passable. Cost Plus World Market used to occasionally carry Bundaberg ginger beer from Australia. You could check with them.

There may be some locally-brewed options just sold at restaurants. Off the top of my head, Big Bowl makes their own, and it's not bad. I think there may be a few other places that do craft cocktails and make their own ginger beer, but I can't tell you which ones offhand.

Good luck and report back!

Not me!

I don't get to Al's very often. It's not good for groups, and it's only good for families that have the patience to handle the cramped quarters, the waiting, and the shifting around in seats.

However, the food is really quite good, and the atmosphere is fun. I really like the egg Benedict and any of the pancakes.

Never heard of Pappy's! Thanks for the tip -- I'll take a look.

Grilled over charcoal -- there's usually an interior charcoal grill on the line.

You can't really do it without a grill. I don't think any of the local hot dog spots have grills. (I haven't been to the Wienery in years, though.)

Usually, Chicago hot dog stands offer a pretty full grilled menu -- burgers, Polish sausage, dogs, maybe other things. They often have a mishmash of stuff -- tamales, gyros, grilled chicken in pita.

As a Chicago expat, I like the Chicago-style hot dogs at Chris & Rob's. They do a decent job, though they would be MUCH better if they had a grill and made char-dogs. However, I haven't seen this variant at any of the Chicago hot dog places in the Twin Cities, though it's very common in Chicago. (The char-dog is a Vienna beef hot dog, regular size or jumbo, slashed to prevent it from curling up, and cooked on a hot grill until blackened. It's served with the traditional Chicago dog condiments.)

I had the sausage sampler at Butcher & the Boar, and the real standout for me was -- believe it or not -- the cheddarwurst. Don't laugh. It was seriously delectable. Nothing like the supermarket versions.

As I recall, Stella's (in Uptown) regularly has lobster rolls on the menu. It's been quite a while since I've been there.

Agreed on LBV. It's the most refined (and probably quietest) dining room in the state.

However, the OP didn't ask for the best or fanciest restaurant downtown, so plenty of other recommendations are viable. Solera has a fun spin on tapas, Bar La Grassa has amazing pastas and crostinis (and will the opposite of LBV in terms of noise level), Manny's offers the classic steakhouse experience, and there are many others to choose from.

I voted for toast as a protest vote. I find these dish-of-the-month polls started and egged on by Chowhound as pretty dumb. The threads generated are never particularly good, and the dishes are utterly random.

toast

Oh, that's good to know! We were also at Book of Mormon AND Butcher & the Boar on Saturday -- small world. We had dinner beforehand then went back for dessert after the show. A free dessert at Solera would have been even better.

Yeah -- I drove by Richfield again today. It's been painted yellow, and a temporary "Louisiana Kitchen Coming Soon" sign is up. There's plywood over the windows, but it doesn't look like anything else is being done right now.

Sounds good! I've had good meals at Pittsburgh Blue. I particularly like their seafood Cobb salad, which has either lobster or crab in it, along with shrimp and other more typical Cobbgredients.

For a good Cuban in Minneapolis, I recommend Victor's 1959 Cafe.

The Richfield one (66th & Nicollet) has a coming soon sign. Patch reported that they'll open in the spring.

Glad to hear! Haute Dish is an excellent choice. I haven't taken my daughter there -- do you recall if they have a separate kid's menu? She likes grown-up food, but I prefer to avoid paying grown-up prices if I an avoid it!

I will give a CAUTIOUS endorsement to Cafe Levain. If you walk in and the place is pretty empty, go for it. If it's busy, turn and leave.

The restaurant is managed and staffed very poorly, and they simply fall apart when crowded -- nobody is expediting or organizing the checks, servers aren't assigned compact zones, so they're all over the floor, no bus staff, no manager on the floor -- it's pretty awful. I made the mistake of coming by on a busy Saturday night, and our two-course dinner stretched to two long, uncomfortable hours. The food is only decent, not worth any kind of wait or aggravation.

Regarding other recommendations, I would urge you to get a reservation now. Popular places fill up quickly, and really hot ones like Bar la Grassa (a great recommendation) are almost impossible to get on short notice.

I would encourage you to consider In Season, Haute Dish, Craftsman, Solera, and Vincent, in addition to the other recommendations you've received. But, do see about reservations before you try to go anywhere.

The desserts I've had at Ngon were excellent. I remember a take on coffee cake that was based on Vietnamese iced coffee flavors. Fantastic. I don't know what the offerings are now. If they don't appeal, Izzy's is a great option.

I get the chopped Italian salad instead.

There's a good sushi restaurant downtown -- Sakura Ichi. Or maybe head a little further out to Claremont for a burger at the Back Abbey.

I haven't heard of that place. I've gone to the Norske Nook in Osseo for pie, though. Where's Stockholm? What do they do well?

What are you disagreeing with? I didn't say anything about free-roaming chickens. I said that the orange color of yolks comes from choosing particular feed ingredients that affect the color. Color and flavor are not related. Psychologically, you may feel they are, because the color looks "richer", ergo it must somehow taste better.

Here's an article from Chow that goes into some of the science on this: http://www.chow.com/food-news/55099/d...

Thanks for clarifying.

The orange color has to do with the feed the chickens eat. In some countries, they associate the orange with quality, so the chickens are fed things like red peppers that create that dye. It doesn't actually affect taste.

Scrambled eggs made with orange yolks are kind of weird-looking, from an American perspective.

Explain.

I like the sound of harissa hollandaise. They have sriracha on the table at Uptown Cafeteria, and I've been known to add a few squirts to their benedict. Definitely livens it up a bit.

Great post and reviews! I guess I liked Al's for exactly the reason that you were slightly turned off -- the higher acid/lemon content in the hollandaise.

Another two I'd add -- Uptown Cafeteria. They used to serve three eggs to an order, which was great for us, a family of three. However, it was recently reduced to two. They come with good potatoes (cube-style, not shredded). The benedict is good but nothing out of the ordinary. I'm a big fan of their cheesy peppery biscuits and yogurt parfait, as well.

Pittsburgh Blue offers a very good (but pricy) benedict on their weekend brunch menu. The brunch starts with an amuse of little cinnamon churros. I like that their brunch actually offers a range of lunch options as well as breakfast fare, so you can mix and match depending on your preference that day. Too many brunch places are purely breakfast-focused.

It would be great if posters to this thread actually described what they liked about the dish or made it distinctive, as opposed to just tossing off the name of the restaurant.

I think the eggs benedict at Bon Vie are quite good but not so exceptional as to close out discussion. They're a traditional preparation, although I think they are a little too generous with the hollandaise.

I really like the eggs benedict at Al's Breakfast. The hollandaise is particularly lemony, which is my preference. Also, you can order just one egg, which is good if you're trying to control your portion or want to create a combo breakfast with, say, some of their excellent pancakes.

French Meadow does a nice benedict with a tomato-flavored hollandaise and charred ham. It comes with a salad tossed with a nice, sharp vinaigrette, or you can add their very good, crispy hash browns.

Turtle Bread does a slight variant -- their benedict is on thick bread -- I think it's brioche, though I could be misremembering. Again, salad for a side or you can have potatoes (cubed), tossed with Parmesan cheese and seasonings.

Eggs benedict

It's an LA thing. For some reason, doughnut shops often have pink take-out boxes. Also, doughnut shops are extremely common in LA, which is probably why they (or the doughnuts) appear so often in movies and TV shows.