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Dining with Dara: Weekend Getaway for the Winter

Posted at 8:28 AM on January 25, 2012 by Jade (1 Comments)
Filed under: Dining with Dara

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Minnesota Monthly's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, stops by today to chat about great towns for a Saturday road trip when it's cold:


Lake City, MN, and a restaurant called Nosh: High up on the hills on the west (our) side of Lake Pepin at that widening of the Mississippi. Look out the window and you get a gorgeous — albeit frozen and frosty vista — Mississippi River, and the snow-dusted hills beyond. The restaurant is a little gem that has a wonderful beer program, and chef Greg Jaworski does some great comfort foods sourced from the farms near Lake City: dishes such as a braised pork shoulder with roasted polenta and cabbage slaw.


Nosh Restaurant (winter hours: open Wednesday through Sundays)
310 ½ S. Washington St., Lake City, (651) 345-2425


Northfield, MN, and a restaurant called the Ole Store: Northfield is a classic small town about 45 minutes southeast of Minneapolis with lots of shopping on a classic old redbrick mainstreet. Their restaurant the Ole Store ("ole" rhymes with "holey" — it's a St. Olaf thing) has what may or may not be the greatest carmel roll in the history of human kind.


And if you're in the mood to make a Saturday night stay of it, why not Grand Marais! Most of the big resorts like Bluefin Bay are open all winter, and this year it's been such a mild winter that a lot of the outdoor spaces are still pretty snow free, which is probably awful news if you're a hard core ice-climber, but nice news if you're a mild winter hiker. I talked to someone at the front desk at Bluefin Bay yesterday and she told me people are hiking at Temperance River pretty easily, though the staff recommend having crampons in case you get to an icy part. And after you've ice-hiked —


Chez Jude
Chez Jude, Grand Marais,
(winter hours: open Fridays and Saturdays)
411 West Highway 61 Grand Marais, (218) 387-9113


An adorable restaurant right across the highway from Lake Superior, and they're open on Fridays and Saturdays all through the winter.


Chef and owner Judy Barsness is known for her European-influenced comfort foods, with dishes such as zinfandel braised lamb shanks with sage fontina polenta. She also has a very close relationship with the folks who run the Dockside fish market across the street. It's sort of wonderful to have some smoked lake trout from Lake Superior and also see it in its most frozen, majestic, terrifying state. Have some chilled champagne and consider the true essence of freezing, freezing cold.


Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, veteran Twin Cities food and dining authority, is a five-time James Beard Award-Winning food writer who is also Senior Editor at Minnesota Monthly and author of Drink This: Wine Made Simple.


Comments (1)

Just to let everyone know the ole store is open on sunday, and the ole roll is delicious.

Posted by Tim Sperduto | January 25, 2012 9:05 AM

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