i am glad you said "a steak and a good bloody mary" because a good steak might be hard to find that early... i would try "the Rail Station" for a good bloody mary and the steak and eggs.

http://www.railstationbarandgrill.com...

how about Becky's?

http://collections.mnhs.org/cms/large...

reidys market at 3904 42nd Ave S Minneapolis is not a real candy store (or a real market) but sprinkled among the usual suspects are some nice surprises like Chuckles and the little 25 cent Ferrara Pan boxes (boston beans, jawbreakers, lemonheads...)

this breaking news from Ferrara Pan ; Newsflash!
Boston Baked Beans aren’t really beans: they’re candy-coated peanuts!

i will hijack this thread... has anyone been to Babani’s lately?

lobster rolls have been around minneapolis for a while. while not a regular item on the menu Jax on university avenue has made excellent lobster rolls on several occasions.

jim wrote "I wonder, is DongPo a good restaurant-chain in China or is it like the Applebee's of China?"
i do not know and cannot seem to find much information however the host at teahouse told me that the DongPo menu was huge (he claimed 50 pages) and that they planned on bringing more guest chiefs from DonPo in the near future.

i liked the swiss alps restaurant in highland.

i had lunch at murrays today. the steak was great. the toast was great. the pretzel role was great. i ate in the bar but could see part of the dining room. it is nicely spruced up but still feels the same... which i like.

the problem i have addressing the question is this: these are little business that operate on very limited funds so they are driven into questionable pieces of real estate. these people clean up the buildings to the best of their ability and limited finances and then start selling great food. the surroundings are never going to appeal to many criterion. i myself think the food trumps all.

i would have preferred more Pollo Campero's... Popeye's bought a bunch of locations out of a KFC bankruptcy. a creditor confirmed about the company what many of us thought about the food;

"The franchisee's main creditor, GE Capital, preferred the smaller Popeyes offer and expressed a palpable distrust of KFC in the Minneapolis courtroom of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Nancy Dreher."

http://www.startribune.com/business/1...

if she likes On's i think she will be OK with Homi...

hmmmm, while hortensia and miguel run a good operation it is in a run down neighborhood. my guess is that your mother may not be ready...

i think the Colossal Cafe can take care of you

http://www.colossalcafe.com/

felony charges have been made, an arrest warrant has been issued

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/...

these used to be available at most grocery stores. they are dehydrated and are often sold under the name "dehydrated marshmallows". i think kraft made them. you can buy them on amazon or any number of online sources. they are terrible.

business in the abstract is all alike. the questions of finance can turn very generic. when you go to SCORE or SBA their advice is often generic and primarily about finance. these little immigrant restaurants are another matter, they bootstrap themselves up from very little. often i think SCORE and the SBA should be taking advice from the immigrants rather than the other way

i am chiming in on the Little Oven "classic red sauce and pasta kind of meal" i like little oven but greatly prefer Mama's...

i just thought of one that i am surprised has yet to be mentioned... Chimborazo!

http://www.chimborazorestaurant.com/

Leo's has long been a spot where you can run into the eastsiders; 3m employees, east side cops etc. i bet any east-side politician eats there several times a week during campaign season

does anybody cook deckle?

yes Mama's does pizza but i think of it as a "red sauce joint" the mostaccioli with house made sausage is great

mama's in saint paul at the corner of rice and front

the challah french toast at Byerlys is pretty good.

the Lindey's problem goes on and on.... i think the knotty pine and the sirloin is interesting maybe once, the pickled watermelon rind is a welcome novelty but the abundance of very good steakhouses renders Lindey's downright homely.

i can not say which is the best but my favorite is the "black and bleu" ribeye at the Porterhouse it costs 29.95 in the eighteen ounce version and a bit more for the twentyfour...

i went to Val's again this week. it really does have charm. greasy charm but charm non the less. if i lived closer the single burger would be top of my snack list.

it is just a bit south-west of smith avenue. 1037 Dodd Rd, West Saint Paul, MN

no one seems to have mentioned Pizza Shop on dodd road. they make an excellent pizza.

there are a lot of things called cuban sandwiches around, and i like a lot of them: i already named two. i even like the Elian Gonzalez but not as much as i like the one at Burrito Cubano (not that i expect anyone to travel that far... but keithinmpls if you are up around 94 and north 50th it would be interesting to hear your comparison).
i used to eat something called a cuban sandwich on the upper westside in NYC. they made the sandwich with a crusty bread like a short baguette and then they would roll it flatter with a rolling pin in order stuff a bunch of them into a little glass case so they would be ready for sandwich rush-hour.

that is right. no such thing.