JimGrinsfelder's Profile
How Do MSP restaurants compare to Chicago, Dallas, Miami, San Francisco Rests??
Bachelor Farmer is a bit precious?
Maybe you'd enjoy Kramarcyzk's or Gasthaus Zur Gemutlichkiet
http://www.kramarczuk.com/
http://www.gasthofzg.com/
For Vietnamese are you into Pho? Banh mi? Something else? Generally Quang is good on Nicollet. iPho by Saigon in St. Paul is very for Banh Mi and other stuff good as well. If you're really into just Pho, I don't think Pho Cadao can be beat. I like their St. Paul location.
Also good here (and not expensive): Dong Yang in Hlltop for Korean in the back of a grocery store.
On a nice weekday, food trucks on Marquette between 6th and 8th. Hola Arepa and Smack Shack are really good.
Los Ocampos on Lake street for sopes (a bit like an arepa) or Posole (big enough for 4 to share).
Oh and Sonora Grill in Midtown Global Market for amazing sandwiches.
Filfilah in Columbia Heights
KC, I tried Filfillah a bit more than a year ago on a quest for real lamb shawarma. They had it but when I got mine the lamb was dried out to the point of being inedible. Maybe they deserve another chance.
Eden Prairie - Edina Update
In EP, you have a Punch Pizza, a tired but not horrible Campiello's and ...
SW Edina borders EP. NE Edina, where the good stuff is, is about an 8 mile drive from SW Edina. If you're going to NE Edina, you might as well go on over to 50th and Penn and then you've got both Broder's for really tasty italian.
Where to take some visiting Food Snobs?
In days of yore, large family restaurant situations made me angry.
When someone says "I want this" knowing full well that there are a dozen or more other people, it's the height of selfish. I tend to tell people where we are going because if I ask for input, it inevitably devolves into something like your current French stand-off.
How about heading to Bayport for BBQ? Everyone loves BBQ. And if they don't, screw 'em. Or better yet, if the dinner party is comprised of your husband's family, let him work it out.
Where to take some visiting Food Snobs?
I suggest you take him to the Gopher Bar and let George deal with his snobbery. And then you can take him to the ER at United to get the hockey stick removed from his pipes.
If that won't work for you, the places mentioned above, Vincent, Alma, La Belle Vie, Piccolo, are all very good.
Se Salt
If there was a local-only fish restaurant, Road Salt would be a damn fine name.
I eat only local foods. My definition of local is anything from Planet Earth. If it's from Mars or the Moon, I'm just not into it. The sauces from Jupiter are just to heavy for my taste. The meat from Mercury is typically over-cooked. Don't get me started on Uranus...
Se Salt
Is there some world-wide shortage of the letter "a" of which I am woefully unaware? I see it now that you point it out...clever overloading of that letter a. I plead old-age and stupidity.
Best Hamburger in Midwest
For a slider, if you should find yourself in Fort Wayne Indiana, run, don't walk, to Powers on Harrison.
Powers makes griddle-fried sliders (small and thing burgers on small buns) with what appears to be 3x the beef-weight in onions, these things are my favorites. I can't enjoy a White Castle (steamed) because I grew up on Powers (grilled-fried).
Se Salt
When Thomas Keller wants to up the sodium level of a dish in his NYC restaurant, does he use Per Se Salt?
I'll take your word on the name. I was confused by the sign painted on the side of the building.
http://tinyurl.com/6mk89ky
To re-iterate my point from my original post: Sea Salt is a Twin Cities treasure! I will definitely be going back again and again.
Se Salt
The crowd was lined up halfway to the parking lot today. They were serving beer to the people in line and everyone seemed reasonably happy to stand around on a very nice evening and have a beer while waiting.
The calamari tacos were pretty darn good. I liked the tortilla, the crunch, the corn kernels in the topping. The grilled mahi mahi tacos were not as interesting. Not bad, but not as good as the calamari tacos. The green salad was very basic. I'd skip it next time. The oysters on the 1/2 shell were not bad, but not great either. I'd skip them next time.
The best best thing about Se Salt is the location and the next best is the very good beer selection. Surly Shadenfreude on tap! Summit Saga IPA too!
If you want super-duper fancy seafood, you will be disappointed. Go to Sea Change instead.
I'd like to try the peel and eat shrimps and the soups.
iPho by Saigon (old Saigon Bakery)
Ok, they've moved, then they closed for remodeling and renaming and reopened just as the light rail construction got crazy. If they survive this with their sanity, bank accounts and food quality intact, it will be a miracle. A delicious delicious miracle.
I was there this week and found out that ordering 6 banh mi entitled me to 2 free additional banh mi. So I got 8 sandwiches for $20. They were still very good. Me and mine tend to favor the simple grilled-pork.
To get there with the street construction in its' current state (note date of post), you're best coming on the side streets from the south. If you have to go in on University, you can NOT turn into iPho's lot, but the lot next door might have access to the alley and from there you can get to iPho's lot.
Craftsman on Lake
We went for dinner on Mother's Day. It was pretty good.
The pork rillettes appetizer with house-made mustard was good and the barley+asparagus+pickled herring salad was terrfic. The green salad with candied walnuts also very good. The kitchen did good work with ramps and fiddleheads.
The hangar steak with fries was very good.
The pasta special was good, not great, the house-made papardelle was the highlight. The flavorfree sausage might have been the low..
The pork chop was good, the mashed potatoes and sauces under it were better.
The flavors of the gnocchi with smoked chicken were a bit muddled.
The Riondo Prosecco we drank with the meal was tasty. The waitress was good, but a bit swamped one or two times during the meal.
The highlight? The hangar steak and the weather and general atmosphere of the out-door seating was terrific. Private space, but you can hear the hustle and bustle (traffic) of Lake street.
They do a lot with local sourcing and making things in-house. This was my third trip. The wine list was much better than the first visit some two years ago, though still not as good as the food or the beer selections. I thought the white wine choices were more interesting than the red wines. I'd definitely go back for a fourth trip.
Blue Door vs. NE Bulldog
Maybe my sense of smell is deserting me, but when I wsa there last week, I didn't smell anything amiss.
Rack Shack Ribs
I hear you MSPD and I agree wholeheartedly. I was hoping, when I wandered into Rack Shack to catch a good one.
Blue Door vs. NE Bulldog
I have eaten at both in the last two weeks.
Ambiance
Blue Door: Funkier, longer waiting line. Smaller space. Almost like something I'd expect to find in NYC. I like the feel of the Blue Door over Bulldog NE.
Bulldog NE: Slicker space. Cooler down-town crowd at lunch.
Burgers
Honestly, I liked both of them but wasn't in love with either of them. They're about the same size, both have nice quality buns. The Blue Door specializes in cheese-stuffed and Bulldog seems to have more odd (odd is good, imo) flavor combinations like garlic chunks + stilton or japanese togarishi + slaw.
Beers
Both places have good beer selections with lots of decent local brews.
Tots
The Bulldog clearly won the Tot war. They have a superior Tot. The Blue Door tots were not moist inside and didn't have great crunch on the exterior. They seemed like basic store-bought tots that had been held in a warming oven or steam table, while the Bulldog's super-tots seemed to have been deep-fried to order in properly hot oil and delivered within a few minutes of coming out of the fryer.
Rack Shack Ribs
I was in Eagan this week and I tried the ribs and the slaw and a couple of the sauces at The Rack Shack. I was not thrilled. I think Big Daddy's and Ted Cook's are both better.
Place to buy super hot peppers locally?
http://www.etsy.com/listing/94378378/organic-bolivian-rainbow-pepper-seeds
I successfully grew Bolivian Rainbow Pepper plants in the Twin Cities in large clay pots and they matured nicely. I set the pots outside when the temps got high enough (may-september) and the peppers were intensely hot...and very good looking.
Carbonara with peas
I know it's probably too late, but ...
In carbonara-style pasta dishes that I've made, the egg/cheese mix is cooked by the heat of the spaghetti and the heat of the bacon/onion/olive oil mixture. Cooked penne is not as flexible as cooked spaghetti. Will it distribute heat the way spaghetti does?
p.s.
I usually include thawed frozen peas in my spaghetti carbonara-ish.
Where to get Pineapple Bratwurst in the cities?
TraceyBelle, if you're in Roseville and you want to pick up a pretty darn good brat, stop by the Speedy Mart on Como Ave, just east of 280. Go to the back of the store where they have the meat counter and buy some of their fresh bratwursts. (I don't know if they have a pineapple-laced brat).
Where to get Pineapple Bratwurst in the cities?
Sauerkraut on pizza is surely a sign the end times are nigh.
How Do MSP restaurants compare to Chicago, Dallas, Miami, San Francisco Rests??
The restaurants in MSP are hundreds, sometimes thousands, of miles closer to my house than the restaurants in Chicago, Dallas, Miami or San Francisco. That's the major characteristic of restaurants in MSP that keeps me going back time and again.
Scott Ja-mamas
I'm not surprised. Scott is nice, but his food, like Capp's or Roosters in St. Paul (also nice people) is not worthy of the monkier BBQ.
The only places I've had good Q lately (not great, but good) in the Twin Cities are: Big Daddy's on University at Dale in St. Paul and Ted Cook's 19th Hole on 38th in Minneapolis.
I've heard good things about Bayport, but mostly about their brisket, not pork ribs or pulled pork. I haven't made it out there yet, but Bayport BBQ is on my list for this summer.
My wife is from Birmingham AL and that's a place where it's easy to find pretty damn fine BBQ. We just don't stack up.
A Case for Q Fanatic
I've tried Q Fanatic twice. Both times were more than 6 months ago and both times I was disappointed.
Shwarma- Best Of, and Jerusalem, Garlic 'n Lemons, Falafel King, etc., plus Lamb Kabobs
I had a chance to try the both lamb and chicken shwarma at Falafel Corner in Harvard Square. It was, in my unqualified opinion, pretty good. We ate in the store and also had the grape leaves and a bird's nest for dessert.
It was good stuff. The lamb was tasty, not dried out. The cucumber + bean salad under the grape leaves was topped with feta crumbles and tasty mint leaves mixed in.
Disclaimer: I've never eaten Shwarma in anyplace more exotic than Toronto, Boston, Chicago and Minneapolis.
the Smack Shack Downtown Minny Food Truck
I gotta bring this up again because today I'm in Boston and last night I went to Summer Shack (near Fenway) and saw that they price their lobster rolls at $22.
Granted, Summer Shack is not on a pier. It's more like the seafood version of Famous Dave's.
Lobster Rolls and Chowder near Fenway Park
I ate at Summer Shack by Fenway last night.
The bad: Two in our party had steamed lobster and it was overcooked. The lobster potstickers were bad.
The good: everything from the raw bar was pretty damn terrific. The oysters tasted very fresh and were properly shucked with lots of liquor and no shell bits. The service was friendly without being intrusive.
I didn't take the chance to try the pan roasted lobster. I wish I had. The lobster roll at Summer Shack is $22. And I didn't try it. I'm going to stick it to my fellow Minnesotans who whine about the price of a lobster roll from a truck in downtown Minneapolis ($18 for the king size, IIRC).
I thought it wasn't bad. I'd like to try ICOB. Maybe tonight.
All Things Croissant
I'm not sure about Ham & Gruyere or Spinach & Feta, but I thought I had some pretty good pan au chocolat at Patrick's in Edina. If pan au chocolate's on offer, I can't bring myself to order anything savory.
Victory 44
I don't get to the NW quadrant of the metro very often. The other day we were visiting that part of town and decided to stop by Victory 44 for lunch. I'm so glad we did. It was terrific. The food, the beer, the atmosphere, the service. The only thing wrong with this place is that it's like 15 miles from my home.
I had the Korean BBQ Pork. It is really korean-influenced, not what you'd get in a Korean restaurant. And it's amazingly good. My wife had eggs benedict and they were terrific. We split a draft Domaine du Page from Two Brothers and it tastes really good on tap. I'd only ever had it in bottles before. The people who sat us, took our orders and brought our food were very good to us.
The menu is not huge, but it reminded of something Mitch C. wrote very recently about Sonora Grill and how he appreciates them for their focus. Victory 44 also deserves appreciation for its' focus.
If you live NW, go often. If you don't live NW, treat yourself and make the trek.
