Category Archive: Dining with Dara
Dining With Dara: Picnic Sandwiches
Posted at 8:12 AM on May 23, 2012
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Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl stops by today to talk about the perfect picnic sandwiches:
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Five's a Trend: Best MN Sammies, Mainly at Cheese Shops
What's the fanciest under $5 lunch on West Lake Street? How about a sandwich from Lake Street Wine & Cheese? The shop started its sandwich program recently, both hot and cold sandwiches, and it's some kind of wonderful.
Here's how it works: You walk in, you behold the $4.50 sandwich menu. You can order off that, and get, say, Raisin River chicken andouille sausage on ciabatta with sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, and mustard. Or you can start designing your own sandwich, based on what's on hand. So far, from their designed menu, I've had hot ham and cheese with jalapeño jelly, two kinds of cheddar (jalapeño and aged), with tomatoes on wheat (salty, spicy, a little rich, and pretty darn good); and turkey, brie, pears, and mustard on a thick white bread (good, in a creamy way.)
Off the menu, though, that's where I've been happiest. For instance, I got Molinari Genoa salami, smoked provolone, and hot Dijon on a baguette for a hearty submarine worthy of sticking into a bike's water-bottle holder and hauling up a mountain. And another time--oh joy, oh delight--I saw some fromager d'affinois, that gooey French triple-cream, that looked to be at the peak of perfection, oozing here and there. I asked if I could get some on a sandwich . . . Well, at nearly $20 a pound they said I could if I paid for it, which seemed fair to me. $1.96 on top of my $4.50 later, I had a truly swoon-worthy creation, with parma ham and pears too. I also noted to myself that if I was planning a picnic I could have added almonds, Spanish quicos (corn nuts), and a bottle of something cold from the beer coolers or wine coolers next door and headed right up Lake street to Lake Calhoun or Lake of the Isles for a very romantic, gourmet evening.
These wonderful new sandwiches also made me remember: Most of the great sandwiches of the Twin Cities are now from cheese shops. Such as:
Surdyk's
Ever had the grilled Kasseri cheese one, with kalamata olives? Vibrant. The La Mancha Melt with Spanish sheep's milk cheese, peppers, and paprika aioli? Powerful. Or the fresh mozzarella pesto one? If you're a cheese-eating vegetarian, Surdyk's is one of the best veggie lunches in town. And the meat ones, well, the Val d'Osta with prosciutto, fontina cheese, and rosemary jelly is a joy. If I could choose only one Twin Cities restaurant to eat every meal at for the rest of my life, it might be the Surdyk's sandwich counter. Need I mention that you can get stuff to make a luxe backyard picnic next door? I've seen people hit the liquor store first, then actually hand their wine bottle over to the cheese-counter folks and ask them to make something complementary. That's living.
Both France 44 in Minneapolis and the St. Paul Cheese Shop are owned by France 44, and they're both extraordinary. St. Paul is the one that shoots for the moon: House-smoked tongue, duck confit with black tea preserves; braised beef short-ribs with carrot ginger pickles; grilled appenzeller cheese with ramps and honey; and more more more! It's the gastronaut, locavore, you-ain't-gonna-believe-it sandwich.
The Minneapolis/Edina border France 44 cheese shop also has sandwiches, less crazy-ambitious, but nonetheless great. Like fennel salami, cloth-bound cheddar, garlic confit, and olive oil, or grass-finished roast beef with horseradish and a garlic aioli. I think of the St. Paul Cheese Shop sandwiches as the test market, and France 44 as the place where the successful ones go to prosper. Needless to say, they have libations for killer picnics in the attached liquor store.
Last but never least, the Nelson Cheese Co., the St. Paul outpost of the famous cheese store in western Wisconsin's fertile dairy lands. Me, I go for the "Town of Nelson," overstuffed with turkey, ham, baby Swiss, Monterey Jack, and good old mayonnaise on rye--but I know that many people always get the $28, serves-10 party sub, and I respect that decision.
So put these in your picnic file, your poker file, your last-minute-dinner on the deck file, or wherever you keep info about the great sandwiches near you. Because as far as this critic is concerned, the new conventional wisdom for Twin Cities sandwich greatness is: Cherchez le fromage!
Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, veteran Twin Cities food and dining authority, is a five-time James Beard Award-Winning food writer who is also at Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine and author of Drink This: Wine Made Simple.
Dining with Dara: St. Paul Saints Tailgating
Posted at 7:58 AM on May 16, 2012
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Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl stops by today to talk about St. Paul Saints Tailgating:
Tailgating Paradise Alert: St. Paul Saints Season Opens Now!
Thursday night marks the official start of the season for the St. Paul Saints. (That's Minnesota's biggest independent league baseball team, for those of you reading from space, or other restaurant critics.) Which also means--what? Stadium treats and glorious tailgating. Stadium treats galore. Such as:
Ellsworth Creamery cheese curds--some of the best of the summer, and available each and every game! Perfect paired with a: Summit! St. Paul baseball calls for a St. Paul beer, and this summer they'll be featuring Summit's Summer Ale, in addition to old reliables such as Summit's IPA. Love the Summer ale, it's bright, a little fruity, crisp, really something you can drink heartily in the sunshine. They also have Grain Belt Nordeast in cans--the can design is beautiful, if you haven't seen it. Last but not least, Ellsworth Creamery plain (not fried) cheese curds, so you can squeak in the stands. Follow it up with Sheboygan Sausage Company brats--get them at the first base kiosk if you want one in a pretzel bun.
Or, stuff yourself Thanksgiving-style with some good tailgating. Tailgating is allowed in the official parking lot, and people start showing up three or four hours before game time. Longer, I guess, if you're planning to smoke a brisket. But if you're looking for some great grill-ables on your way, how about one of these supremely good St. Paul sources?
1) Lemongrass Sausage or a live fish and a mess of herbs from Dragon Star:
Dragon Star,
633 Minnehaha Ave. W.,
St. Paul,
651-488-2567
Lemongrass sausage is one of the great sausages of St. Paul, made from, you guessed it, lemongrass and smoked pork. It's tangy and herbal and fragrant. You can get it at a bunch of Asian markets in St. Paul, and fully cooked at places such as the Hmong International Marketplace, as well as at Dragon Star Oriental Foods. A true palace of an Asian market, Dragon Star stretches as far as the eye can see, and in it I've seen live crabs, dozens of species of live fish, dozens of varieties of fresh herbs, young coconut, fresh persimmons, star fruit--if you're a fancy upper level cook, you could really turn some heads with your tailgating prowess.
2) Kobe beef or some fancy big slab of fish from Coastal Seafoods:
Costal Seafoods
74 Snelling Ave. S.,
St. Paul,
651-698-4888,
Two things never to forget about the Coastal Seafoods in St. Paul: The store has Kobe beef steaks (the super-marbled, super-buttery, super-expensive ones,) and all the other super-fresh seafood Coastal is famous for, from live oysters to big swordfish steaks, ahi tuna steaks, and marlin steaks.
3) Fancy locavore sausage or even wild boar ribs from Heartland:
Heartland Market's Butcher Shop,
289 E. 5th St.,
St. Paul,
651-699-3536,
I remain convinced that Heartland's market is one of the most important food stories in the Midwest--but don't take my word for it--walk in and drool for yourself. You might find a house-made pork chili and garlic sausage, an Italian sausage such as luganega, (with coriander and parmesan cheese). You might find two-inch thick pork chops, wild boar ribs, and whole Bullfrog Farms rainbow trout. Of course, the market is also full of fresh veggies, stock, eggs, the works.
4) Italian sausages from Cossetta's:
Cossetta's
211 7th St.,
West Saint Paul,
651-222-3476,
Here's what I love from Cossetta's: the thin Italian cheese sausage with parsley, which is curled in a spiral. You grill it, it gets incredibly crispy, then you pair it with Cossetta's foccacia, an authentically Italian version, which is crisp with good olive oil. However, I had a spirited discussion with the lady behind the counter at Cossetta's, who insisted that if people have never been to Cossetta's, which has been a St. Paul institution since 1911, and they plan to tailgate, they should without question get the plain old signature Italian sausage, a loaf of the Italian bread, and marinara sauce, which they would then heat up on the grill (in a metal pot) while the sausage cooks. So now you know. Either one is very worthy of a summer afternoon.
Featured Event Dinner Pick:
Each week we give Dara an event and she tells us where to go for pre/post eats. This week we're heading to the 331 Club Art-A-Whirl Music Fest.Northeast is all about the fusion of cultures--Ukrainian third-generation nordeasters, and newcomers from Ecuador, Somalia, and Lebanon living side by side. No single dish embodies this as well as the Football Pizza from Crescent Moon, the world's first (and only?) Afghani pizza. It's oblong, it comes with a cilantro-chutney-like tangy dipping sauce, the meat one is zesty and surprising, the spinach one is earthy and fresh.
Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, veteran Twin Cities food and dining authority, is a five-time James Beard Award-Winning food writer who is also at Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine and author of Drink This: Wine Made Simple.
Dining with Dara: Potter's Pasties
Posted at 8:20 AM on May 9, 2012
by Jade
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Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl stops by today to talk late night dining:
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Potter's Pasties: A Rave
I find a lot of food television ridiculous. I'd guess most of the reason people go to drive-throughs is because, in fact, when they turn on the front burner of the stove they suddenly find they don't have six finely sliced ramekins of vegetables conveniently positioned to the left of their cutting board. But I watch some of it, and have some favorite moments, like the time Gordon Ramsey led a parade of semi-failed restaurateurs down a British village street, marching as a "Campaign for Real Gravy," that is, gravy made from meat and onions and flour and water, and not industrial goo, which is what they had been serving. I loved the show because the people in the parade looked completely uncomfortable, even while they smiled for the cameras; it was a gloriously Orwellian moment for consumer-capitalism. People who have dedicated their lives to the dire opposite of what they've been suddenly summoned by a celebrity to support, smiling along and hoping for economic salvation. And I know why they don't make gravy, no one does anymore, it takes time, and who has time? Name one person who has any time--I dare you. See, you can't do it. Unless you've named a small child and then, aha! You lose anyway because they're not allowed to use the stove.
Anyhoo, this is why the real-gravy-rich traditional beef pastie from food truck Potter's Pasties completely floored me. Potter's, the product of local chef Alec Duncan, debuted last summer in St. Paul, and I missed it completely. I don't know. I've had a lot of pasties from up north, from spots like the pastie stand at the state fair, and they're never delicious. They're merely authentic. Surely you know what I mean? Tight meat and veg in a hot pocket can be a gruesome way to keep alive, and little more. Or it can be glorious: Pastry that's light and tender, but glossy and crisp, fillings that might have come straight off a fancy restaurant's line. Which, of course, it turns out is where Alec Duncan was raised up. He's a Minnesota native who apprenticed as a teenager with Charlie Johnson (of cult favorite Q-Fanatic, who himself learned at the side of Frédy Girardet, one of the greatest chefs of the 20th century). Duncan went on to work at St. Paul's 128 Café, Minneapolis's Café Barbette, was head chef at Stillwater's Cesaré's (the briefly fantastic wine bar), worked at high end Italian restaurant I Nonni--and then fled the country, for some back-packing, English teaching, and falling in love with a girl from Manchester. During their honeymoon the two conceived of a smash-up of Manchester and Minnesota, and Duncan then labored many months in Vietnam, of all places, perfecting his pastie dough.
"There was a big bunch of expats there, Aussies and Brits mainly, and every night I'd make pasties for them. The only comment I wanted was: Is this dough up to the standards of the Aussie or Brit? It took six months till one night they were like: 'Dude, this is it, write it down!' I wrote it down and left."
Good news for Minnesota, we've never had a pastie this good. A pastie (pronounced, of course, pass-tee) is, needless to say, dough wrapped around a filling. Legend holds that mine workers in England used to carry them down in their lunch pails as a filling lunch, and they've taken on a second life in northern Minnesota, after they were first brought north by miners. At the risk of getting a lump of taconite forced into my gas tank, I have to say I've never had an Iron Range pastie as good as one of Potter's Pasties. The basic beef one is the pastie I'm over the moon about--beef stewed with carrots, celery, onions, and vegetables for half a day at low heat, combined with roast potatoes cooked with rosemary, all of it combined with a traditional roux gravy made with the fond from the beef stew. It's just elementally good, gravy home cooking just like no one makes. I've liked other pasties I've tried from Potter's, a Thai vegetarian one was particularly good and surprising, kale and potatoes and carrots on fire with a good spicy curry, the filling moist, but not wet. A pork and apple one, with fresh chunks of green apple, was pretty and tasty, and very fine dining in its way. Speaking of fine dining, please know that the St. Paul Potter's cooks out of the kitchen at Osteria I Nonni, which allows him to work his fine-dining-on-the-street magic. If you really want to know what he's capable of, watch for a Potter's special like duck confit pasties with sweet potatoes, coriander, an espresso demiglaze, and candied pecans. ("It got really tough saying that to people over and over," notes Duncan.) And Minneapolis, a second Potter's Pasties truck is coming to town, probably, if all goes well, this month! All in all, I'm putting Potter's definitely and distinctly in the pack of local street food superstars like Hola Arepa, Chef Shack, Smack Shack, and the World Street Kitchen. If you're a street food fanatic and you haven't tried Potter's, you need to--this is a genuine, skilled, and homegrown campaign for real gravy, taken to the streets.
Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, veteran Twin Cities food and dining authority, is a five-time James Beard Award-Winning food writer who is also at Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine and author of Drink This: Wine Made Simple.
Dining with Dara: Food Trucks Revisited
Posted at 9:06 AM on May 2, 2012
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Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl stops by today to talk late night dining:
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Dara spoke with Tom Crann of MPR News and shared her thoughts about the upcoming food truck season.
Food trucks have been some of the biggest news in Twin Cities food the past couple years, with places like Hola Arepa, Vellee Deli, and the The Smack Shack .
And the new season is about to kick-off. All the big St. Paul food truck food courts start next week, and in Minneapolis, a new food truck seems to show up every day.
St. Paul has evolved little cozy villages of food, which we call 'food truck food courts', while Minneapolis has developed what I think of as a two-tier system, Marquette Avenue plus a free-for-all.
In St. Paul the trucks Tweet, and they use a hashtag, that is, the number signal (#) plus a word which allows you to speedily search Twitter for all the food trucks #foodtruckcourt.
All the office workers up in their cubicles watch Twitter, because all the food-trucks use Twitter and Facebook to let people know where they're going to be, and then starting at 11 a.m. people flood into the streets to stand on line and Tweet about it to whoever's still sitting at their desks.
So far this year there are going to be three St. Paul food truck food courts -- all of which are set to kick off the first week in May. Monday, Monday's food truck court includes 128 Mobile Cafe, Vellee Deli, and Hola Arepa, and will be at Wabasha and 5th, near the Ecolab building -- Tom, that's the one that MPR lost due to light rail construction.
Then comes Wednesday; Wednesday includes Chef Shack Gastrotruck , and Fork in the Road. On Thursdays, now, at Kellogg and Robert, near the river there will be a new food truck food court, with a mix of established and new food trucks, including Neato's Burgers, Home Street Home, Potter's Pasties and Pies, and Messy Giuseppe.
There seem to be more coming out of the woodwork every day. There's one called the Bacon Trolley that debuted this week, another new one called Neato's Burgers which has French fries cooked in duck fat -- a foodie obsession with many, including me. Foxy Falafel , which only used to have a bike, now has a truck. Anchor Fish and Chips is launching a truck sometime in the next month.
There's a locavore one called Home Street Home which will have meat from Buffalo, Minn., and pulled pork slow-cooked in Summit IPA served on St. Paul's own Agnes Baking Company bread. Bloomy's Roast Beef just launched -- a kickstarter success story, dedicated to slow-roasted roast beef sandwiches, in a truck. There's also the current category leader for crazy unhealthy: Tot Boss , which includes, yes, you guessed it, bacon wrapped tater tots, which you dip in cheese sauce. They're launching May 1.
There is even at cupcake truck, Cupcake Social . I can't even figure out if that's very 2012, or very 2011.
Half of the new ones haven't launched yet, and there are more coming -- there's an Aussie's Kebabs place that just got funded on Kickstarter.
But that's what's magical about this food truck phenomena: The start up costs are low, the number of customers willing to take a flyer on something new is high -- all you need is four wheels and a dream at this point.
And in Minneapolis the Park Board is going to release a plan in June which would allow food trucks into city parks. This plan will need community approval, city council approval, and so on, but if it happens, get ready for there will always be Motor City -- but the Twin Cities might just become known as Motor Snacking City.
Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, veteran Twin Cities food and dining authority, is a five-time James Beard Award-Winning food writer who is also at Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine and author of Drink This: Wine Made Simple.
Dining with Dara: Ask the Critic, Twitter Edition
Posted at 8:20 AM on April 25, 2012
by Jade
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Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl stops by today to talk late night dining:
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Ask The Critic, Twitter Edition
This week we decided to get all digital--not so digital that this edition will be delivered by Holographic Tupac, mind you, but rather digital, all of the questions for this week's segment came in over Twitter. Play along! I am @DearDara, and The Current is @TheCurrent, Mpls.St.Paul Magazine is @mspmag.
@TheEuroConnect Wanted a Grand European tour, without leaving the Twin Cities: "Which restaurants in the Twin Cities offer the most authentic European experiences-ie. German, Scandinavian, Eastern European, and Turkish."
Okay! For German, that's got to be the Gasthaus Bavarian Hunter in Stillwater (strolling accordion players on Friday nights!) or Minneapolis' own Black Forest Inn, for the great imported beers and don't forget: Spargelfest (that is, asparagus-fest) kicks off May 18, and should include the spargeltini--yes, I do mean an asparagus martini.
Scandinavian: Café Finspang at the Midtown Global Market (very modest home-style take-out, but authentic), Ingebretsen's for the do-it-yourselfer, or the Bachelor Farmer for very well made but modest Swedish meatballs, gravlax, and so forth.
Eastern European: Kramarczuk's! The cabbage rolls are divine, the goulash is one of the great undersung wonders of the Twin Cities, the varenyky are tender and good. Moscow on the Hill, too: Ukrainian dumplings, best borscht in town, and, of course, chicken Kiev--made with Wild Acres local chicken.
Turkish: The Black Sea in St. Paul! Cheap, a little weird, it's like a Turkish diner, not fine dining, but really so good. The mercimek red lentil soup is fantastic, sour and deep tasting, and the yumurtali ispanek, a sort of sauteed spinach with poached eggs, is comforting, healthy, and altogether good.
@DessaDarling had a basic question (asked to me by @SnazzySlaxxLorr) about the spice turmeric, to wit: "What is turmeric supposed to taste like? ... poured a mountain of it on dinner, undetectable."
Turmeric Trail: It's supposed to be pungent, peppery, and dusky, a little like mustard, and a little like saffron. But it goes bad! When it gets old. Then it tastes a lot like dust. If you've got some in a cupboard that's two or three years old, it's done, it's just dust now. Sorry. If you want some that's really really fresh, here's a hot tip. There's actually a wonderful chef here Rhagavan Iyer, he's written a book called 660 Curries, and he has recently launched a line of spices called Turmeric Trail, which has incredibly fresh spices. The turmeric-based one is so fragrant you can smell it across the room, when it's still in its packaging. Buy it through his website, or at local shops, including Golden Fig and the Minnesota Arboretum gift shop.
Finally, several people wanted to know: Are there any good outdoor patios with good happy hours that serve till 6 p.m.? (Some restaurants don't offer happy hour deals on their patios, some restaurants only have happy hour till 5.) This answer goes out to Molly @in2bizarrefoods, Maggie @bodicegoddess, and Sharon @shrnhnngn:
Answer: There are plenty!
In St. Paul, the Salut on Grand Avenue has happy hour every day, on the patio and everywhere, from 3 to 6 p.m., $4 well drinks, $3 pommes frites with béarnaise, $5 for a couple of sliders, and $3 profiteroles--that's some good eats. Right in downtown St. Paul, Great Waters, the all-too-often-overlooked brewpub has $2.50 pints both in and outside from 3 to 6 p.m., as well as $5 Rasta Wings, and nachos.
In Minneapolis, let's start east, and move west. In Northeast: Psycho Suzi's! Happy Hour every day from 3 to 6 p.m., and $3 tap beers--of course this includes the patio, with the gorgeous Mississippi River and downtown Minneapolis skyline views. Now to LynLake: Moto-I. A snazzy and chic rooftop deck, and the happy hour pricing is offered on all 3 floors from 2:20 till 6 p.m. Half price (house made) sake, and $3.50 taps--and not just any $3.50 taps, but 12 local Minnesota craft brew taps, including Surly Furious, Summit's Unchained series, and Harriet Westside. Urban Eatery, across many lanes of traffic from beautiful Lake Calhoun offers Happy Hour pricing from 4 to 6:30 p.m.; $3 tap beers and those sliders are pretty great--a good place to meet groups, there are 100 seats on the patio.
Finally, to the western suburbs: Lola's Lakehouse sits on the water in beautiful Waconia, and offers a happy hour daily from 3 to 6 p.m., with $2.50 taps, and happy hour food such as fish and chips and mini Kobe beef burgers.
Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, veteran Twin Cities food and dining authority, is a five-time James Beard Award-Winning food writer who is also at Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine and author of Drink This: Wine Made Simple.
Dining with Dara: Drinking at the Stadium
Posted at 8:20 AM on April 18, 2012
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Beer Here! New Twins Season Considerably Enlivened by New Minneapolis Beer Scene
Mention the Twins this year and people start wincing and moaning. In this critic's opinion, that's because they're not drinking enough. Actually, this is a banner year in new developments in beer for Twins fans!
Two reasons. One, in the stands: Surly's Bandwagon! Surly released an only in the stadium beer called Bandwagon. I was there last week, I asked the nice people at the door: Where is it? They said "Oh ya can't miss it, just look for the line! The really long line! It's a long line you can't miss it!" Well, they were right. Beginning of the game maybe 200 people, in two separate lines, one heading north, the other south. By the 6th inning though there were only about 10 people on line, and I made my move: Good stuff! A lot like Furious, but if possible even hoppier, with a woodsy non-fruit tobacco-box element. Big, strong, good. Not cheap, at $8.75, but you don't need two. Is it worth buying a cheap ticket just to get one? Depends on how much of a Surly fan you are, but actually, I'd say why not. Sometimes tickets are only eleven bucks! Now you're paying $19.75 for a Bandwagon, and that's still less than the Surly Darkness mark-up madness that went on last fall. Now get a Kramarczuk sausage, and declare conclusive sports victory. Yours, anyway.
Even bigger news: Fulton Brewing's new tap room is open two hours before every Twins home game, and is then open all through the game, and after. Here's why this is big news: Fulton's new brewery is in the shadow of the stadium, easy peasy walking distance, but also easy bask-in-the-energy-right-there distance. Of course you can hit the place on your way to the Twins. More interestingly, you can pull a classic urban non-ticket-holder move and get a Fulton Sweet Child of Vine for five bucks, sit on Fulton's patio, and listen to the radio-broadcast of the game amplified by the roar of the actual real life stadium-sized crowd. That's pretty cool. And that's not all!
Food trucks of course are this year's super phenomena. Fulton doesn't make food, but they invite food trucks to park in their parking lot, and they keep a schedule online: Nate's Dogs, Vellee Deli, Hola Arepa, Fork in the Road. So now you're drinking good beer, hearing baseball, eating good food off a truck--is this the good life circa 1920? If so it's something new in downtown Minneapolis, and very, very welcome.
Photo by Carlos Gonzalez
Dining with Dara: Soda Fountain Renaissance
Posted at 8:00 AM on April 4, 2012
by Jade
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Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl stops by today to talk about the growing number of Soda Fountains in our fair state:
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The Soda Fountain Renaissance
I bring news of the new soda fountain renaissance. Let's talk about two places. One in St. Paul, one in Minneapolis. Let's start in St. Paul.
I spent my morning at the construction site which will soon be Lynden's Soda Fountain, in the space that used to be Kopplin's, next to the Nook on Hamline Avenue.
It's going to be beautiful. White marble counter, eight stools, a classic St. Paul soda fountain which was rescued from a St. Paul church, the Christ Household of Faith near Cathedral Hill, brought to Chicago and full rehabbed, then brought back here. They're going to have all the classic glass service-ware, and are sourcing syrups and such from a Brooklyn artisanal soda supplier called P&H, so they'll have classics like lime phosphates, but also new-fangled flavors like hibiscus. It will open this spring, possibly as early as mid-April.
Lynden's Soda Fountain
490 Hamline Ave., St. Paul, 55116
651-235-5646
Your other destination will be in Minneapolis, at the brand new Eat Street Social, where a couple of famous local culinary-cocktail bartenders, Nick Kosevich and Ira Koplowitz, have engineered a total from-scratch soda fountain.
They also run a bitters company, Bittercube, in Madison, Wis., and so they have sources for all the crazy things that pharmacists at the turn of the last century used to use. For instance, they cook down two sorts of cocoa nibs (roasted, shelled, but otherwise unprocessed chocolate beans) into an alcohol-free liquor, and then blend that with powdered Dutch chocolate, for their egg cream.
What's genius about Eat Street Social is that they installed a special super-charged bubbly water dispenser, the kind that soda jerks used to use a hundred years ago, and that super-charged water allows them to suspend more flavor compounds in their sodas. The egg cream is deeply chocolatey, the Green River Phosphate is ultra-lime-flavored, and their house-made cola has more cola flavor, because it's literally made from Kola nuts.
Eat Street Social
18 West 26th Street Minneapolis, MN 55404
612-767-6850
And, as a bonus:
Three, St. Paul Corner Drug has not stopped being a soda fountain for
90 years. Is that not crazy?
St. Paul Corner Drug, on the corner of Snelling and St. Clair in St. Paul, has had an operating soda fountain since 1922. They have Kemp's ice-cream, chocolate syrup, and you can sit at the counter at one of the six stools and have a chocolate-soda-chocolate float while you wait for your prescription.
St. Paul Corner Drug
240 Snelling Ave. S., St. Paul, MN 55105
651-698-8859
Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, veteran Twin Cities food and dining authority, is a five-time James Beard Award-Winning food writer who is also at Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine and author of Drink This: Wine Made Simple.
Dining with Dara: Late Night Munchies
Posted at 8:20 AM on March 28, 2012
by Jade
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Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl stops by today to talk late night dining:
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Life changes--and nothing changes in life more than your late night dining options. For twenty-odd years you could go to Little Tijuana for your after-show options--and now you can't. (You didn't know? It closed in December of 2010, after there was structural damage to the roof, which led to a necessary kitchen remodel--and owners hope to reopen this spring.) But what if you want to eat after a show now, now, now? Or at least this spring? Here are my top picks for late night grub:
Top 5 Late-Night Dining:
Tilia - 7 days a week until 1 a.m.
2011′s restaurant of the year, Tilia, helmed by one of Minneapolis' greatest chefs, has had one fatal flaw. You can't get in. Except after ten o'clock at night, when you absolutely can. Serving nightly till 1 a.m., Tilia is the foodie ace in the hole--and never forget, those sorta jerk chicken thighs are genius.
Tilia, 2726 W. 43rd St., Mpls., 612-354-2806
112 Eatery - F-Sa until 1 a.m., Su until 10 p.m.; M-Th until 12 a.m.
Stumbling distance from First Avenue and so many other music venues, 112, by James Beard-winning chef Isaac Becker, has some of the most craveable food in town, including a legendary fried egg sandwich with harissa, and foie gras meatballs that aren't particularly livery, but are particularly great.
112 Eatery, 112 N. 3rd St., Mpls., 612-343-7696
Haute Dish - Th-Sa until 12 a.m.; Su-W until 10 p.m.
Chef Landon Schoenefeld is utterly creative, his "tater tot hot dish" of house-made mega tots and short ribs has turned into one of Minneapolis' signature dishes. And it turns a night at the rock show into a celebration worth remembering all year.
Haute Dish, 119 Washington Ave. N. Mpls., 612-338-8484
Moto-I - 7 days a week till 1:45 a.m.
Minneapolis has been buzzing the last few months about the new, killer ramen at Moto-I; I finally visited and I can affirm, yeah, it's pretty fantastic. Salty, rich, good chewy noodles, plenty of pork (in the pork one) a full on hangover killer, when the hangover can still be killed.
Moto-I, 2940 Lyndale Ave. S., Mpls., 612-821-6262
Amsterdam Bar & Hall - 7 days a week until 2:30 a.m.
Don't cry, St. Paul, you've still got Mickey's Dining Car (see below) and the light and lively Dutch sandwiches (and beyond awesome imported Dutch and Belgian beers) of new Amsterdam Bar & Hall--a couple of little grilled cheeses and fries are a highly pleasant way to wrap up a night of revelry.
Amsterdam Bar & Hall, 6 W. 6th St., St. Paul, 612-285-3112
The best of the rest! If that isn't enough late-night dining for you, add these to your social calendar:
Zen Box Izakaya - Th-Sa until 12:30 a.m., M-W until 10 p.m.
Zen Box, 602 Washington Ave. S., Mpls., 612-332-3936, zenboxizakaya.com
Republic - F-Sa until 12 a.m., M-Th until 10 p.m.
Republic, 221 Cedar Ave. S., Mpls., 612-338-6146, republicmn.com
Mayslack's - F-Sa until 1 a.m., Su - Th till midnight.
Mayslack's, 1428 NE 4th St., Mpls., mayslacksbar.com
Mickey's Dining Car - 7 days a week, open and serving 24/7
Mickey's Dining Car, 36 W. 7th St., St. Paul, 651-698-0259, mickeysdiningcar.com
Pizza Lucé - Su-Th until 2:30 a.m., F-Sa until 3:30 a.m. (downtown location),
F-Sa. 2:30 a.m. (Uptown location)
119 N. 4th St. Mpls., 612-333-7359, and 3200 Lyndale Ave. S., Mpls., 612-827-5978, pizzaluce.com (also a St. Paul location, if needed).
Hell's Kitchen -Th-Sa 2 a.m., Su 11 p.m., M-W until 10 p.m.
Hell's Kitchen, 80 S. 9th St., Mpls., 612-332-4700, hellskitcheninc.com
Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, veteran Twin Cities food and dining authority, is a five-time James Beard Award-Winning food writer who is also at Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine and author of Drink This: Wine Made Simple.
Dining with Dara:Eat Street Social
Posted at 8:22 AM on March 21, 2012
by Jade
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Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl stops by today to chat about the soon to be opened Eat Street Social:
Too Early Review: Eat Street Social
Until further notice, the bar of the summer of 2012 has been declared: Eat Street Social! I just love this place.
Here's why: The drinks, the drinks, the drinks. Owners Joe Wagner and Sam Bonin had the good sense to hire Nick Kosevich and Ira Koplowitz, who are sort of bartenders with benefits--they have deep roots in the Twin Cities, as Kosevich used to bartend at the late lamented Town Talk Diner (and Koplowitz used to work at Chicago's legendary Violet Hour). The two went on to found the artisanal bitters company Bittercube in Madison, Wisc., and they also work as bar-consultants, developing restaurants' bar programs, consulting on bar design, and so forth. Because of this relationship, Bittercube helped Wagner and Bonin design the bar-of-their-dreams, with a super-charged soda-water dispenser and a basement kitchen for machinations such as breaking down enormous blocks of ice and cooking things such as house tonic, as in gin-and-tonic. (Eat Street's tonic starts with real cinchona bark, the natural source of quinine, which in its whole state adds other elements to mere tonic water.)
What does this mean to the average drinker? Something fantastic. The Queen Charlotte is something like a lemon-drop, yet something much more delicate and wonderful--it's layered with fresh lemon and lemon liqueur, perked with house-made grapefruit decoctions, and given a subtle perfume with violets. Each sip is like something in a flower garden in Italy maybe a hundred years ago. Their variation on the Old Fashioned, called Of the Older Fashion, is even better, made with Old Weller Antique Bourbon, Bittercube's own bitters, and Muscovado syrup. It's intense and robust, fragrant and deep; it's an old fashioned super charged and bathed in black light. There aren't better cocktails in Minneapolis right now. And their non-alcoholic, Americana-evoking fountain drinks, such as their Green River Phosphate (lime) or Raspberry Rickey, are historic.
But that's not all. In addition to the drinks, Eat Street Social has the ambience, the ambience, the ambience. Similar to Wagner and Bonin's first effort, Northeast Social, they have created a space that feels exactly like it has been a classic American bar for 100 years with dark wood everywhere, high ceilings, tile, and an all over feeling of just-right urbanity.
So what about the food? Not bad! I've eaten widely from Eat Street's menu, and while I never found anything that had a "You gotta try this, it's awesome!" wonder to it, I found a menu that was pretty darn solid. Tops? Anything from the pantheon of Midwestern supper-club classics: the nicely charred burger, the grilled sirloin, the good thin fries, the beautifully crispy and salty whole pan-seared poussin (that's a small chicken, to you and me.) Not quite there? Anything seafood: the truly generic calamari, scallops that were past-prime, and perfectly adequate mussels. I predict this will be one of those restaurants that sell mostly burgers, and in the end the owners will think, "People just want burgers," when in truth, the dish is the sweet spot of what the kitchen pulls off well.
So now the big question: For your culinary cocktails of right this second, do you go to The Bachelor Farmer or Eat Street Social? Of course, the answer is both! Every cocktail lover should experience Pip Hanson's magic at The Bachelor Farmer, but it has a see-and-be-seen destination quality to it. Sometimes you don't want to see or be seen! Eat Street has a come-in-your flip-flops relaxed quality that's hard to resist, and the Bittercube folks have engineered a bunch of systems that allow them to serve their super-fancy-deluxe-awesome drinks without your having to wait a super-fancy-deluxe-awesome amount of time. For instance, they have a day prep bartender who spends his time doing things such as making big batches of the cocktails, and then decanting them into small apothecary jars, so service isn't particularly slower than it is at the average corner bar that only makes gin and tonics out of the soda gun.
Eat Street Social
18 W. 26th St., Mpls.,
612-767-6850
Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, veteran Twin Cities food and dining authority, is a five-time James Beard Award-Winning food writer who is also at Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine and author of Drink This: Wine Made Simple.
Dining with Dara: It's A Fish Fry
Posted at 8:00 AM on March 7, 2012
by Jade
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Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl stops by today to chat about the new generation of chefs in Minnesota:
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Best Fish Fry in Minneapolis?
It's Fish Fry Season! Why? Because of Lent; Easter Sunday this year is April 8, and while there's really no official fish fry season, we all know there is - my guesstimate is that it ends sometime between Easter and the Minnesota Fishing Opener, May 12. So get out there and eat some fish.
Where? Well, obviously churches and VFW's are the emotional gold-standard for fish fries, (St. Albert's is the one to beat). Yet, I can't always get my schedule to mesh with theirs, so I prefer restaurant options. My current top-three? Two new, one classic:
The Oceanaire:
50 S 6th St Mpls., (612) 333-2277
The Oceanaire recently moved from their run-down old digs in the Hyatt to prime real estate on the corner of 6th street and Nicollet Mall, and on my visits so far it's been the fish and chips (and the fresh oysters) that stand out as most craveable. Cod crisp as can be, so fresh you can practically hear the ocean slapping the side of the table, and onlyfive bucks during happy hour.
Eli's East:
Eli's East; 815 East Hennepin Ave., Mpls., (612) 331-0031
Is walleye your favorite? Then get yourself to the new walleye king of Northeast, Eli's East, where they're serving a tempura-battered walleye that's supremely delicate, and downright yummy. Tip: The burgers are pretty fantastic too, and the chicken coq au vin might be the best $12 chicken stew in the state. Actually, I'm sort of loving this little unpretentious supper club. Check it out!
The Anchor Fish & Chips:
And the Anchor, the king, the queen, and the full royal court of the local fish and chips scene. Pacific, sustainable cod fillets as long as opera gloves, crisp as potato chips, British as all get out. If you haven't had the fish and chips here, you are not a true fish and chips lover. And: Do you know I went a couple weeks ago and got in--no wait? I can't guarantee it will happen again to anyone else, but it happened to me, so I'm here to say it in public, cross my heart and hope to die, it happened. And it was good.
What, your fish fry desire is not yet sated? Rick Nelson has a good round-up--including this surprise, he's really liking Cafeteria, which does all-you-can eat.
Finally, Kathie Jenkins at the Pioneer Press put together a great map of East Metro fish-fries, for those in a completist mood.
Eat up! Next thing you know it will be the fishing opener, which, dare I remind you, brings open water and sunscreen season. Yippee!
Photo Credit: Todd Buchanan
Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, veteran Twin Cities food and dining authority, is a five-time James Beard Award-Winning food writer who is also at Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine and author of Drink This: Wine Made Simple.
Dining with Dara: Food and Wine Experience
Posted at 8:00 AM on February 22, 2012
by Jade
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Minnesota Monthly's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, stops by today to chat about the new generation of chefs in Minnesota:
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Food & Wine Show 2012; Secret to Finding the Good Cheap Wines & A Ticket Giveaway!
It's that time of year - the time for the most delicious weekend of the year, the big MPR benefit we call the Minnesota Monthly Food and Wine Experience. It's the second year we've had it at Target Field, and I'm here to report that it's actually a really spectacular venue to have it in, you get to see all the high-roller spaces, the Champion's Club and whatnot, it feels really splashy and spectacular. There are three ways to get in, either with Saturday or Sunday show tickets ($75 in advance, $80 at the door) or at the big high-end wine tasting event, the Grand Red event, which is Saturday night for $90 a person, and includes dinner by Target Field's chef, Pastor Jimenez, served in various stations around the big fancy clubhouse dining room--I went last year and it was so much fun. You find a great wine, grab a glass, spot a table serving something yummy, like spot prawns or beef tenderloin, get a plate of that, chat with the people on one line, get tips on where to go next--it's a thoroughly fun time. And for a good cause! Proceeds benefit MPR, just like they do every year. For more information head here.
But wait! You say you are having a hard time justifying the $75 price tag? Just think of all the knowledge you'll gain about wine, why, it could save you millions over your lifetime. Well, if you drink a lot. Thousands, certainly. For instance, Washington State has sent a delegation to our Minnesota Monthly Food and Wine Experience for the past few years, perhaps on the logic that us Canada-adjacent states have to stick together. I have been blown away, repeatedly and every year, but the sheer magnificence of the quality coming out of Washington State. It's always been the reds that dazzled me, it's a fantastic place to grow Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. But this year I decided to do a little personal research in advance, to find out whether Washington State Whites were of equivalent quality - and boy howdy are they. I had so many solid, good Viogniers, Rieslings, and Chardonnays that picking out only four to recommend was nearly impossible. But I did it:
This year Washington State will have a two-story pavilion inside the Food and Wine show, you'll definitely find me in it looking for the next great wine stories--or at least using that as my cover for having a great time. Join us!
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.
Dining with Dara: Best Rye in Town?
Posted at 8:00 AM on February 8, 2012
by Jade
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Minnesota Monthly's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, stops by today to chat about the new generation of chefs in Minnesota:
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Rye Controversy and The Top 5 DelisWhat are the top Jewish delicatessens in the Twin Cities? Depends on who you ask. Because there are hotly polarized opinions about the newest deli, Rye, based on whether you were there in the first few weeks or not. I went in the first few weeks, and it was pretty awful but then so did Andrew Zimmern, of Bizarre Foods fame, and whoa, he despised it.
It was pretty crazy, watching the public response to his excoriating article; lines went from out the door to the place being a ghost town.
But then I kept visiting Rye, and in the end I concluded it was a really good place with a lot of potential. But by then a lot of damage had been done, and a lot of people refuse to go any more. Which brings up a difficult question: What to do about early reviews? In the pre-internet days all restaurant critics adhered to a creed in which we'd wait six weeks from the days the doors opened. Now no one does, because of Yelp and so forth. I think this makes life mercilessly difficult for restaurants, because the internet makes it so easy to transmit simple information like "open" they now tend to be the busiest they ever will be the first two weeks they're open. That's so hard!
Here's this critic's current run-down of the top 5 delis in town:
1. Mort's Deli
Perfectly New York: They get their bagels from H&H and their pastrami and corned beef from the Carnegie Deli. Not a lot of heart, but it's so New York it gets me every time.
2. Brother's
Best pastrami in town, buried in an office building and they shut down at 2. If you care about the pickles, the old-school vibe, and the food in a pure way, this is your place. If you lead life outside the Minneapolis skyways you'll never get there.
3. Rye Deli
Solidly good smoked meat (the Montreal version of pastrami), flavorful chicken matzoh ball soup, fantastic turkey in various guises, and all the extras; super kids meals, wine, beer, cocktails, fantastic fries and a really good poutine make this a perfect neighborhood diner, and a good deli too.
4. Be'Wiched
Locavore, chef-driven, yum! I can't leave this new-wave sandwich place out, even though their tuna salad is the star.
5. Cecil's
This classic St. Paul deli is hard to describe if you¹ve never been there; it's a little like a perfect 1971 suburban kitchen, trapped in amber, happily. No one ever has to describe it because every single person in St. Paul has been there. Right? Tip: The cold beet borscht is great on a hot day.
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.
Dining with Dara: The New Generation of Chefs
Posted at 2:30 PM on January 31, 2012
by Jade
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Minnesota Monthly's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, stops by today to chat about the new generation of chefs in Minnesota:
Young Chefs: Meet the New Generation!
What's the best restaurant no one knows about? The Dakota.
Young co-chefs Derik Moran, 25, and Kristin Tyborski, 31, took it over a few months ago, and have now made it their own with an amazing menu that has it all. It's dazzling, rich, and good.
But if you're thinking: How the heck did such young chefs get such a top gig, well, you're not alone with that question. But there are lots of young chefs working around the Cities, the generation who will define Minnesota cooking for the next twenty years, people like Jamie Malone, 29, at Sea Change, Adam Vickerman, 26, at Cafe Levain, and Landon Schoenefeld, 30, at Haute Dish. How did they get there? And where will they be leading us? I'm actually going to be asking four of the top young chefs in the state that question live, and in person at the UBS Forum right here at the MPR Headquarters in Saint Paul, on February 21st:
There are still about two dozen tickets left, come! It will be lots of good conversation, a celebration of great local talent, and surely memorable. Find more information about the conversation and how to get your tickets, here.
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.
Dining with Dara: Weekend Getaway for the Winter
Posted at 8:28 AM on January 25, 2012
by Jade
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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.
Dining with Dara: Somethings Brewing on Boom Island
Posted at 6:25 PM on January 17, 2012
by Jade
Filed under: Dining with Dara, Morning Show
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Minnesota Monthly's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl joined us this morning with news of the latest brewery in Minneapolis.
What do french horn players know about beer? Well, plenty apparently.
Boom Island Brewing
Company opened fall 2011 on the shores of the Mississippi, a hops throw away from of their namesake island. Inspired by traditional Belgian recipes and brewing techniques, their beers will be handcrafted using pure Minnesota water and the freshest, natural ingredients, including homegrown hops and unique yeasts acquired from Belgian breweries.
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.
Dining with Dara: St. Paul: Chocolate Powerhouse?
Posted at 8:07 AM on January 11, 2012
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Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Minnesota Monthly's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl joined us this morning to talk about all the chocolate shops popping up in St. Paul. Here's what she had to say about it.
This spring sees two new chocolate shops opening in St. Paul, and we've already seen the relocation of Kopplin's, Minnesota's greatest hot-chocolate maker as well as founding coffee-shop.
Kopplin's Coffee
2038 Marshall Avenue, St. Paul, (651) 698-0457
Kopplin's new location on Marshall — in the same block as Choo Choo Bob's and Izzy's Ice Cream — is a good six or seven times the size of the old location, next to the Nook. And they now have two killer hot chocolates, one made with Belgian Callebaut, (pronounced kull-about, or kull-abow, depending if you're in a Dutch-Belgian or French-Belgian accenting mood), and the other made with Rogue chocolate. Unfortunately they're out of Rogue right now, but expect it back in time for Valentine's Day. While you're anticipating that, anticipate this: Selby, east of Dale, is about to be St. Paul's new Chocolate district!
When these two places open:
Dr. Chocolate's Chocolate Chateau
579 Selby Ave., St. Paul, 651-379-3676
Will an avant-garde chocolate store and event space be the magical tenant that can make a go of it at that gorgeous mansion on Selby, formerly home of the Vintage and of Il Vesco Vino? Let's hope. Restaurant owners have repeatedly told me the beautiful, though awkwardly laid out, space doesn't work for restaurant service--but it just might work for super-fancy hot chocolates and bridal showers. Plan is that the first floor will be chocolate and chocolate-related merchandise (chocolate thermometers, chocolate forms); the second will be the place to order wedding cakes, and the top floors will hold the restaurant, wine bar, and event spaces. No, they're not putting in an elevator — I guess the fourth-floor walk-up is what permits you to indulge in chocolates guilt-free.
Blood and Chocolates
495 Selby Ave, St. Paul, 651-492-4799
How many avant-garde chocolate shops can Selby Avenue hold in the three blocks east of Dale? Let's hope at least two: Blood and Chocolates will open this winter selling ultra-fancy chocolates, and Heavy Table has a good preview.
Read More about the new places opening in Dara's Spring Restaurant Preview.
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.
Dining with Dara: Eat Your Vegetables
Posted at 8:10 AM on January 4, 2012
by Jade
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Photo by Emily Utne
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Minnesota Monthly's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl joined us this morning to talk about vegetables. Here's what she had to say about it.
Let's talk, in honor of New Year's resolution-season, eating more veggies!
I'm especially down on lame-o vegetarian versions of meat-based dishes - beef stroganoff is beef stroganoff, and a version made with tofu and tofu-sour cream isn't doing anyone any favors.
Instead, why not make a veggie curry, or go out for Thai food?
My favorite Thai spots in the Twin Cities:
Naviya's Thai Brasserie
2812 W. 43rd St., Mpls., (612) 276-5062
Supatra's Thai Cuisine
967 West 7th St., St Paul, (651) 222-5859
True Thai
2627 East Franklin Ave., Minneapolis, (612) 375-9942
On's Kitchen Thai Cuisine
1613 University Avenue W., Saint Paul, (651) 644-1444
Krung Thep Thai Cuisine
2523 Nicollet Ave S, Mpls., (612) 874-7716
If you want to up your veggie servings, have your veggie curry with an unfiltered red wine, that is, a wine which hasn't had the solids strained out of it using chemical fining agents.
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.
Dining With Dara: A Last-Minute Gift Idea!
Posted at 7:37 AM on December 21, 2011
by Steve Seel
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Minnesota Monthly's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl checks in today with her pick for an ideal stocking stuffer:
"Looking for a last minute holiday gift? I can't say enough good things about Northstar Cocktails, a cocktail recipe book, kind-of, sort-of, by legendary local bartender Johnny Michaels and the rest of the the North Star Bartenders' Guild.
I say it's a cocktail recipe book sort-of because it's so much more than that, it's laugh-out-loud funny (in spots), deep and philosophical and moving (in patches), it's a dead-on portrait of Minnesota cocktail culture over the last brief, brilliant five or six years, and it has recipes too, some very usable, some very whistle-in-amazement and don't dare attempt.
To say Michaels is a local legend doesn't quite capture it, he's famous in culinary circles for having started the artisan-, boutique-, culinary-, whatever you want to call it (most just call it great) cocktail movement, when he led the bar at La Belle Vie, beginning in 2005 when they relocated from Stillwater to Minneapolis, and continuing till today. But he's equally famous for starting the cocktail programs at: Café Maude, Barrio, Smalley's, and many others, as well as nurturing the careers of other bartenders, especially Pip Hansen, today of the Marvel Bar, who started working for Michaels and went on to his own great heights. (Hansen and Michaels are currently business partners, jointly operating a cocktail consulting firm.) This book is largely written in Michaels own wry, seen-everything, accepted-everything voice, which is terrifically appealing, but the recipes are both his own and those of his fellow members of the North Star Bartenders' Guild, a loose affiliation of 40 or so of the most passionate local cocktail makers, who band together now and then to raise money for charity and trade recipes. There are great recipes here from Nicholas Kosevich and Ira Koplowitz (once Town Talk, now and ongoing Bittercube Bitters, soon Eat Street Social), Dan Oskey (Strip Club and Joia Soda), Andy Truskolaski (BANK), Gina Kent (Bradstreet Craftshouse) and many more.
Oh, and every dollar from the sale of the book goes to charity! The Society for the Protection of Animals, International; reflecting Michaels great love of dogs. It's always been neck-and-neck with dogs and cocktails, which really is man's best friend? Another great bonus of this book: Now you don't have to choose.
The book is available where every books are sold, and at the Minnesota Historical Society's website; they're the publsher. If you really want to knock someone's socks off, present it with a bottle of something you made from the book - or hand it over beside a drink at your favorite local fancy cocktail bar.
Northstar Cocktails, by Johnny Michaels and the North Star Bartenders Guild, Minnesota Historical Society Press, $19.95."
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.
Dining With Dara: Soda Fountains? Sounds Swell!
Posted at 8:43 AM on December 14, 2011
by Steve Seel
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Photo by Jana Freiband - Northeast Social is expanding to Eat Street.Listen
Minnesota Monthly's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl joined us this morning to talk about the re-emergence of the soda fountain in the Twin Cities, with the coming opening of Eat Street Social on New Years' Eve. Eat Street Social will feature the bar tending talents of Ira Koplowitz and Nick Kosevich, formerly of Town Talk Diner (here's Dara's written piece on the subject, from Minnesota Monthly online).
Dining With Dara: Best New Bars
Posted at 8:25 AM on December 7, 2011
by Steve Seel
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Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl joined us this morning to talk about some of her picks for best new bars around the Twin Cities - a topic she also discusses in the most recent issue of Minnesota Monthly. Dara writes:
"The issue of Minnesota Monthly on newsstands now celebrates the best new restaurants of the year - but what about all the new bars? It was a significant year for new and improved drinking in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Here's my top three:
1. Marvel Bar (Beneath Bachelor Farmer)
Culinary cocktails have been one of the most amusing and enjoyable trends of the last few years, and bartender Pip Hansen's showcase Marvel Bar (impossible to find, and beneath the impossible to get into The Bachelor Farmer) takes the amusement and enjoyment up a notch. Try the Borealis, a variation on a sweet martini, made with rhubarb bitters and luster dust, or the variation on a Tom Collins brightened with pickle brine. The Bachelor Farmer, 50 2nd Ave. N., Mpls., 612-206-3920.
Belgian ales have long had pockets of cult enthusiasm throughout the Twin Cities (the Bryant Lake Bowl, for instance, springs to mind). But a bar with a whole Low Country focus is entirely new. Fries with garlic mayo and a tangy Rodenbach in a footed goblet? Now that¹s a Dutch treat. Amsterdam Bar and Hall, 6 W. 6th St., St. Paul, 651-222-3990.
Izakayas are Japanese bar food specialists, and this new one on Washington, near the Guthrie, is better truly Japanese drinking than we¹ve ever had in Minnesota before. Asahi draft on tap, Hitachino white ale on tap - those are rare beers. Add the area¹s best shochu and sake list, and a truly craveable version of Japanese fried chicken (the chicken Kara-Age), and Minnesota has something brand new: Tokyo-class Japanese drinking. Zen Box Izakaya, 602 Washington Ave S., Mpls., 612-332-3936."
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.
Dining With Dara: A New Restaurant Rundown
Posted at 8:14 AM on November 30, 2011
by Steve Seel
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Listen
Minnesota Monthly's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl caught us up this morning on some of the many new restaurants that have opened recently in Minneapolis on this week's Dining With Dara. The three we discussed were Zen Box Izakaya on Washington Ave., Rye Deli on Hennepin, and Rosa Mexicano, also on Hennepin.
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.
Dining With Dara: Thankful For Local Brews
Posted at 8:09 AM on November 23, 2011
by Steve Seel
(2 Comments)
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Minnesota Monthly's Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl shares some news about local brews this morning:
"All year Minnesota has been riveted by Surly's bold, ultimately successful push to get Minnesota state-laws modified so that breweries can sell pints. But guess what brewer is going to have the first operating tap-room in Minneapolis?
It's not Surly.
It's downtown Minneapolis' brand-new Fulton. If you're saying Fulton is not so new--yes and no. Fulton, the little brewery-that could, the group of four friends who started brewing in their garage in 2006, actually just opened their bricks-and-mortar brewery to the public last weekend.
"Come down and take a tour!" co-owner Jim Diley told me. "We build it with an open-house format in mind, so that people could come by, walk around, ask questions, sample beer, and take home a growler, if you wish."
A growler, of course, is a half-gallon, 64 ounce refillable glass-container of beer, and it's another of the big developments in local brewing in Minneapolis of the last few years: a few years ago it was illegal to sell a growler in Minneapolis, now it's permitted, and even popular, and you can get growlers-to-go from Harriet Brewing, Barley John's, Town Hall Brewery, and others. Why would you? Because it's a way to sample, and give as a gift, some of the Twin Cities rarest and best beers--there are only two ways to get Barley John's beer, for instance, go there or take a growler somewhere. Ditto now for some of Fulton's limited-edition seasonal brews, like their "Libertine", a seasonal red-ale that should be very food-friendly, because that's what red-ales are. (If they run out of the limited edition Libertine, my advice for food-pairing is to go with their IPA "Sweet Child of Vine," which isn't nearly as hoppy as many, balancing a nice robust maltiness with the palate-cleansing hops.) I'm also going to call a growler the most on-trend Thanksgiving tipple you can drink this year, and a wonderful gift for a beer-loving Thanksgiving host, as it shows you both know your stuff and went out of your way. (If you want a growler of Fulton, they're posting their growler-sales hours on their website; they're open today, Wednesday the 23rd from 3 to 7 p.m., for other growler-selling times check their website: fultonbeer.com.) In that vein, keep an eye out for their Imperial Stout, the "Worthy Adversary", scheduled for limited release (and frenzied release? Like Surly's Darkness?) right around the New Year's.
But that's not all! Sometime this late winter, or early spring, Diley says that Fulton will open an on-site tap-room to the public. "We're right near the Twins stadium," Diley told me, "so we'd love to be open for the opening game." Here's hoping...
What would a local tap-room be like? For more on that stop by Stillwater's Lift Bridge, which quietly opened to the public six weeks ago. They're now open for growler sales, free tours, and pint sales. Lift Bridge's Jim Pierson told me that while the Saturday-only tours are free, you have to sign up for a spot on the website in advance because the fire-marshal only lets them bring in 49 people at a time. And every single tour has sold-out, so to speak. Pierson told me that while Lift Bridge doesn't sell food they've had lots of people eat dinner on site, calling in food from local spots like Grand Pizza. Perhaps you could bring your own Thanksgiving leftovers?
A final note in local beer is the debut of "Founding Fathers", a new beer-brand launched with the mission of giving half its profits to military families. "Three years ago we came up with the concept," president Phil Knutsen told me. "To be like Newman's Own, but giving back to the troops, and producing high-quality American-made products." To that end, beer is their first product, but not their last. "Salad dressing, potato chips, pizza, wine," Knutsen told me, "We'll find a leading brand of a particular product, and make something better, that's made in America. Then donate half the profits. It could be anything, but our initial focus will be food products. We really leaped feet-first into the beer game because so many of the largest breweries are foreign-owned--Budweiser is Belgian-owned, Miller is South African owned." Knutsen told me they're donating their profits to Tee it Up for the Troops and the Minnesota Military Foundation because those two charities have such good fiduciary records of passing money on without great administrative costs. "I think we've had a lot of strain on our military, and how can we give back?" Knutsen told me. "This is a group of people who donate so much of their time to our freedoms, I thought it would be a great cause for our customers to rally around their cause." In light of how popular the founding fathers, the Constitution, and so forth have been with the Tea Party lately, I asked Knutsen if there was any Tea Party or other political affiliation to Founding Fathers. "Not at all," he told me, "As far as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, I respect what they did for this country, but there's no political association at all." Founding Fathers beer should be in all the big metro liquor stores right now.
Happy Thanksgiving, every one! I'm grateful for all of you, and for the fact that local beer goes so very well with local pumpkin pie."
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.
Dining With Dara: Best New Restaurants of 2011
Posted at 8:13 AM on November 16, 2011
by Steve Seel
Filed under: Dining with Dara
This has been a good year for restaurants in the Twin Cities, and Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl says that 2011 was surprisingly delicious. She writes about the Best New Restaurants for the current issue of Minnesota Monthly, and she joined us this morning to talk about some of her picks. We want your input too, though: what do you think are some of the best new eateries to open around the metro this past year? Post your favorites on our Facebook page.
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.
Dining with Dara: Donuts!
Posted at 8:30 AM on November 9, 2011
by Jill Riley
Filed under: Dining with Dara
According to Dara, donuts are a big trend right now in the Twin Cities! Listen to the feature audio to hear all about it and where you can pick up a dozen of your favorite tasty treats.
Dining With Dara: Herring That's Not Really Herring (But It Is Local and Delicious)
Posted at 12:06 PM on November 2, 2011
by Steve Seel
(1 Comments)
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Our food and dining authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl returned this week, with the story of lake herring. Which isn't really herring. Dara explains:
If you want to try some yourself, the roe (today) and the fresh fish (tomorrow) are available at Coastal Seafoods, for $7.49 for two ounces for the roe (about $40 a pound, but who eats a pound of caviar?) and $11.99 for fillets.
It's an incredibly delicious fish, very delicate and clean tasting, and most of it is consumed on the North Shore, at places like the Vanilla Bean Cafe in Two Harbors, though in the fall some makes it down to the Twin Cities and can be tasted at restaurants like the Corner Table."
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.
Dining With Dara: Donuts, Vinegar, and Mick Jagger (Huh?)
Posted at 2:28 PM on October 19, 2011
by Steve Seel
Filed under: Dining with Dara
What do those three things have in common? Our food and dining authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl clued us in today, as she talked about some of the topics covered in this month's "Best Of The Twin Cities" issue of Minnesota Monthly.
Dara also noted:
"The best bowling alley: Lariat Lanes. There's an excellent picture in the magazine of a Lariat Lanes bowling pin autographed by the Beastie Boys, and it turns out that Lariat Lanes has had some ridiculous celebrity visits - like Mick Jagger and Garth Brooks. No, really.
Best vinegar: In Long Prairie, up near St. Cloud, there¹s a small farm-,
orchard- and herb-garden-based company called Leatherwood Vinegary run by a husband and wife who make the most delicious herb and fruit vinegars all from products they raise in their fields. I¹ll bring some in, and we can taste it or not.
Best Barbecue: Up in Champlin, Minnesota, is a fantastic Barbecue place called Q Fanatic, where the chef, Charlie Johnson, is actually a disciple of one of the greatest chefs of the 20th century, a chef named Fredy Girardet. Johnson worked beside one of Girardet¹s longtime sous chefs in Florida, where he learned to pay attention to every detail. Details like this amazing vodka hot pepper sauce which is beautifully hot without that vinegar burn, or making ribs as tender as tears. So excellent."
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.
Dining With Dara: Beer, Ice Cream, and Robots (Oh My)
Posted at 12:29 PM on October 12, 2011
by The Current
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Today, MPR's go-to food authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl excitedly shared her newfound knowledge of cow-milking robots and beer ice-cream floats. Find out how these strange world all collide in this week's edition of Dining With Dara.
Dining With Dara: It's The Hops
Posted at 12:27 PM on October 5, 2011
by Steve Seel
Filed under: Dining with Dara, Local
Listen:
"Whether you're powerfully thirsty, or simply have a few acres of well-drained farmland and the desire to get in on the ground-level of the newest locavore trend, I have one word for you: hops.
Hops, of course, are the ingredient added to beer to make it "hoppy" -- that is, astringent, perky, brisk, floral- and spicy-scented, and above all, bitter. They're in season right now; hops harvesting has been taking place all through Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Dakotas over the past month, and the first few weeks of October will see the release of a number of local "wet hopped" beers which showcase the aromatic complexity of fresh hops.
I talked to Todd Haug, brewer at Surly, and he told me that the difference between fresh hops and the more typical dry hops used for beer brewing, is like the difference between fresh basil and dried basil -- they're very different animals, as it were. They also require a completely different brewing process.
Surly "Wet" will be released Oct. 10, at Tracy's Saloon, after which it will be distributed around the state.
Lift Bridge Brewery "Harvestor" is due out on Oct. 8 at the Stillwater Harvest Festival, and will go to bars after that.
The Brau Brothers "100 Yard Dash", from Lucan, Minn., is available now."
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.
Dining with Dara: Best Sushi
Posted at 10:52 AM on September 29, 2011
by The Current
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Our food and dining authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl talked sushi today. Her two local favorites are Northeast's Masu, and Origami, in downtown Minneapolis and Minnetonka.
Dining With Dara: Top Donuts
Posted at 8:30 AM on September 21, 2011
by Jill Riley
(2 Comments)
Filed under: Dining with Dara, Morning Show
Top Donuts in the Twin Cities Shake Up! October Brings Big Donut News
by Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl
What are the top donuts in the Twin Cities? For many years we had a stable, static, staid, but otherwise satisfactory donut situation around here: People from Minneapolis went to Mel-O-Glaze for glazed and raised donuts, or to the Baker's Wife's for cake donuts, and if you were from St. Paul you muttered about how clueless people in Minneapolis were, because if they knew anything they'd get both from Granny Donuts. But that all changed about a opening of YoYo Donuts in Minnetonka, a crazy wonderful donut shop with real bacon on the Maple Long Johns and real gummy worms crawling from the worms and dirt donut. Actually, the bacon is remarkably good and natural on a maple long-john, it's not just gimmicky, the bacon goes quite well with the maple-syrup taste of the long john frosting. I also had a S'Mores donut with a real toasted marshmallow in the middle, and my kids were utterly charmed by the worm-worm in the worms and dirt one. YoYo Donuts also takes their coffee very seriously, they brew third-wave Dogwood coffee (and use Dogwood espresso for the espresso-glazed donuts.) Jealous? If you're a commercial real-estate landlord or a city elder take heed: Owner Chris Moquist told me he has just begun a search for YoYo's second location. Will it be in a skyway near you? (Oh, and brides, take heed, Moquist also told me he just had a bride in for a sprinkle-matching session, because in place of a cake she will be offering donuts to her guests, donuts in shades matching her flowers and dress.)
But that's not the end of the local donut developments! In the beginning of October we're getting a new donut shop, a locavore establishment with its eyes on economic justice and coastal donut developments. This new shop is called the Donut Cooperative, and it is opening in the former Cake Eater (and former former Cliquot Café space) in Seward. I talked to the founder, Dawn Otwell, and she told me about the new joint. First, about that name, first, there are currently three worker-owners in the Cooperative, Otwell plans to hire more workers, and, once they finish a trial-period, they'll be part-owners of the business, sharing in profits and participating in decisions; Otwell is taking inspiration for her business from the years she spent working at the St. Paul Mississippi Market and from local bike worker-cooperative the Hub. Because the hierarchy of the business is diffuse, there is no "baker" and no "owner" at the Donut Cooperative, Otwell told me that everyone is a baker, and everyone is responsible for the recipes and ideas. Donut recipes like: Donuts filled with house-made peach-curd, or cherries harvested from a South Minneapolis backyard and turned into donuts. But the Donut Cooperative will not have merely donuts, they'll have sandwiches (like prosciutto and butter, on house-made baguettes, or roast-beet, goat-cheese, and beet-green, or vegan cashew-paté based sandwiches), as well as mini-quiches, muffins, scones, and of course coffee (Otwell hadn't yet settled on a coffee vendor as of this writing,) coffee lightened with dairy from local farms. Otwell will also be offering a CSD to customers - that's the concept of Community Supported Donuts, of course, in this instance you'll be able to buy a "share" and have donuts delivered to, say, your standing Thursday sales meeting.
So, come November or so, the best donut in the Twin Cities story gets a lot more interesting, and every interested citizen will be required to drive in a giant loop around the metro sampling, dunking, and deciding for themselves who wears the top donut crown in the Twin Cities.
Mel-O-Glaze
4800 28th Ave. S., Mpls. (612) 729-9316
A Baker's Wife's Pastry Shop
4200 28 Ave S., Mpls, (612) 729-6898
YoYo Donuts & Coffee Bar
5757 Sanibel Dr., Minnetonka; (952) 960-1800
Granny's Donuts
1555 Robert St. S., West Saint Paul
Donut Cooperative (link fixed)
2929 E. 25th St., Mpls.
Dining with Dara: Fall Restaurant Preview
Posted at 10:35 AM on September 14, 2011
by Jill Riley
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Fall Restaurant Preview--Look out Minnesota, 2011 Ends With A Bang!
By Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl
Fall is the most important season for new restaurant openings in the Twin Cities. Holiday parties, pre-holiday get-togethers, and the seasonal shift from spending time outside to spending time inside all add up to one thing, restaurant-owners gritting their teeth while insisting to their contractors that if they can't open the doors by October 15 they may as well not open them at all. But what does this mean to the average diner? Here, in context and in order, this critic's impression of the most important restaurant openings of the fall:
Jack Riebel's Top-Secret Restaurant
Jack Riebel is a chef who needs no introduction to local foodies, he has helmed the national-caliber kitchen at the new Dakota, and was the chef at Goodfellow's and the executive chef at La Belle Vie; he also was the first winner of Minnesota Monthly's Local Chef Challenge, our annual tournament to crown the best local chef and give that chef ten thousand dollars. But this summer Minneapolis reeled at the news that Riebel was heading out on his own, and the details are these: I don't have too many details! I do know where it will be, 1121 Hennepin Avenue, I do know the target opening date, which is late November or early December, and I do know it will be an American restaurant with lots of bourbon, lots of beer, maybe as many as 40 tap-lines, likely with a local focus, and a big outdoor beer garden, (opening in the spring of 2012,) and a big focus on meat--like wild boar, pork, and beef. I talked to Jack Riebel and he told me he's about to go to New York City to do some eating with the restaurants' backers and they're particularly going to be looking at Blue Smoke and Frank's Prime Meats, both of which are modern, farm-driven takes on classic American restaurant traditions, Blue Smoke descending from barbecue, and Frank's Prime Meats taking Brooklyn's European immigrant beer-garden culture as its reference. Riebel also told me he's very interested in a Washington D.C. restaurant with a local-farms focus, the Blue Duck Tavern, where they grill over wood, which Riebel hopes to do at his new place. Exciting! What would a farm-driven, local-culturally relevant, but fun new Minnesotan restaurant look like? We're about to find out.
Pat's Tap
Local restaurateur Kim Bartmann is turning into the big story of the year. She entered 2011 with a good portfolio of environmentally sensitive (LEED certified, locally sourced) restaurants; Café Barbette, Red Stag, and the Bryant Lake Bowl. But part of the big news of 2010 was that Bartmann found a chef she clicked with, namely Kevin Kathman, a Cold Spring Minnesota native who made his national name working for three years at the French Laundry (when it was named the best restaurant in America.) This year Bartmann won the contract for the Lake Harriet concession, Bread and Pickle, and bought Gigi's, a south Minneapolis coffee-shop, which she turned the back of into a commissary for company-wide use. This is important because it allows her to take all her restaurants up a level, for instance, in the back of Gigi's you'll now find JEFF , one of the Travail crew (recently named by Bon Appétit one of the top new restaurants in America) working on his ambitious charcuterie. (Sometime early next year Gigi's will remodel and debut as Humble Pie, which will remain a coffee shop and quick-serve, counter-service restaurant, but will also offer family style to-go from that commissary, and there will be a sit-down, table service component as well.) Anyhoo, the next piece of the puzzle in watching this homegrown/national caliber team take over the world will be something called Pat's Tap, opening on 35th and Nicollet in South Minneapolis next week. The place will be a gastropub - that is, elevated bar food, run by chef Charlie Schwandt assisted by sous chef Ran Mruz, who are both former Café Barbette chefs. The place will have vintage skee ball machines, the mechanical kind your great-grandparents might have played, a pool table, and, Kathman tells me, a truly great grilled cheese made with local Carr Valley Mobay cheese, a Pequot Lakes duck burger, with the yummy duck liver ground right into the meat, and a 50/50 burger - that would be fifty percent bacon, and fifty percent beef, ground together. JEFF will be debuting his first solo charcuterie plates, one made of standard charcuterie elements like salami, and the other wackier and experimental, with dishes like a Buffalo Chicken terrine, whatever that is. I hear it's got cracklings, and buffalo-wing sauce. Pat's Tap's Bartmann tells me the restaurant will have a soft opening next week (that is, no fanfare, and you're not allowed to complain if things are not right,), and a real opening at the end of September.
3510 Nicollet Ave., Mpls., (612) 822-8216
Rosa Mexicana
Rosa Mexicana is a soon-to-be-12 unit upscale Mexican chain based in New York City; they're taking the old Chi-Chi's space in City Center. This is probably more of an interesting civic development than a culinary one - they're pouring a lot of money into City Center, with glittery blue tiles and art glass everywhere. If Block E turns into an upscale casino this could be a smart bet - and even if it doesn't it might be a smart bet, Fogo de Chao, the upscale Brazilian steakhouse across the hall, is one of Minnesota's top-grossing restaurants. They haven't released their local menu yet, but I'm told it will be substantially similar to the menu at other locations, so I'm expecting dishes like a $13 tableside guacamole, a Mexican barbecued tuna-loin salad, and pomegranate margaritas. They're scheduled to open September 22nd, and downtowners will want to be on the lookout for their Happy Hour specials, which seem to be the toast of every city they're already in. Opens Sept 22nd
609 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis
Amsterdam Bar & Hall
This is important by the same logic that Rosa Mexicana is - it was a shame to have that prime real estate in the middle of St. Paul vacant. Amsterdam is just open, in the former Pop!!, former Fhima space in the Lawson Commons building, and is basically a bar with beer and food from the Netherlands (Belgian frites, bacon sandwiches, herring) and a rock and roll venue. The grand opening is September 23rd, but they're serving now, and simultaneously tweaking the space.
6 W. 6th St., (651) 222 - 3990
Rye Delicatessen & Bar
What would an authentic modern Minneapolis Jewish delicatessen look like? We're about to get an answer, when veteran local restaurant consultant Tobie Nidetz (Ike's, BLVD, and many other restaurants in Minnesota and around Chicago) and business partner David Weinstein open their new delicatessen in the former Auriga space on Hennepin Avenue just north of Franklin Avenue, on the edge of Kenwood in Minneapolis.) "I don't want to try to create a New York deli in Minneapolis, or a Chicago deli, or any other deli. Minneapolis can have its own flavor." Niditz told me he's experimenting with grass-fed local brisket to see if it can be turned into good corned beef and pastrami, and he'll also be working with local produce in season to make Rye's house-made pickles, which will be cured in the traditional way, with only salt and spices, not with vinegar. The delicatessen will have all the ultra-authentic delicatessen touches, egg-creams, kugels, matzoh ball soup, kasha-varnishkas, potato knishes, potato pancakes, and even homemade bagels and bialys.
1930 Hennepin Ave., Mpls
Joan's in the Park
Does St. Paul need a budget steakhouse? Two women with a lot of experience in high-end steakhouses are saying yes. Joan Schmitt and Susan Dunlop have worked at Morton's, The Capital Grill, and other local restaurants and have now joined forces to open their own little spot. I talked to Susan Dunlop, the chef, and she told me that the plan is white tablecloth, all entrees will be under $30, including the steaks, which are wet-aged and corn-fed, in the tradition of Morton's, appetizers such as crab cakes and flatbreads topped with house-made sausage and burrata, and a wine list starting at around $6 a glass. I asked chef Dunlop the big question: Does this mean that a couple will be able to come in and get steaks and a bottle of wine and leave having paid less than a hundred dollars? "Oh absolutely," she told me. "We feel that the Twin Cities are really missing that upscale experience with accessible pricing. The idea for this came when I'd see people saving all year to go to the Capital Grill for a special occasion, I think we can provide that same experience for much less." Opening September 14th.
631 Snelling Ave., St. Paul, (651) 690-3297
Icehouse
Be'Wiched Deli's new jazz-house and restaurant; it will be called Icehouse, and it's going in to the former Sindbad on Nicollet Avenue, Eat Street near 26th Street. "The concept is a little bit of a shift for us," co-chef and co-owner Matthew Bickford told me, "but a bit of a culmination for me. I've always wanted to do a neighborhood bar with good food, and good music, and now I am." The good food: Small plates, sides, salads, and of course good sandwiches, available either with sit-down service at tables, or to-go from a front counter stocked for take-away service. The good music: "It will have an underground jazz slant" says Bickford, with an eye towards cultivating a group of musicians who want to play there. As part of the music there will be a Sunday Gospel brunch. "I think there's a vacuum in this market, people want to go on a Sunday, and feel like they can tie that into their praise, get dressed up, hit mass, and then come down for some good food." With the good food and good music, what else? Good drinks: Bickford told me he is meeting this week with La Belle Vie's bar wizard Jonny Michaels to talk cocktails. Finally, for the night-owls in the audience please note they'll also have good hours. Bickford tells me they plan to serve till midnight, to complement the music. Projected opening: October.
Pig and Fiddle
A new gastropub and bar brought to you by the owners of, and similar to, St. Paul's Muddy Pig. The chef will be Stephanie Kochlin, formerly of Heartland and the Soprano's, and she'll be cooking a beer-focused European-inspired menu, things like Belgian carbonnade (a beer-based beef stew,) Welsh rarebit, pasties, and pierogies. Target opening: Mid-October
Dining With Dara: Candy Is The New Cupcake
Posted at 8:30 AM on September 7, 2011
by Steve Seel
(3 Comments)
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Today, Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl asks, "Is candy the new cupcake?" Take it away Dara:
"As we all know 2010 was the year of the fancy cupcake. But 2011 looks to be - the year of candy!
My proof, and I do have it: Two new candy stores in South Minneapolis, and the world's first DIY nerds-and-pixie-stix martini.
First, the candy stores! One in Edina, one in south Minneapolis.
Candy Alley opened last spring at 48th and Chicago, and they specialize in old fashioned candy - like salt-water taffy, and Squirrel Nut Zippers, and Annabelle's Big Hunk, and Nik-L-Nip little wax jars filled with mysterious sweet watery stuff, and Mallo-Cup candy bars. And Zotz! Walking in there is a trip in a wayback machine, for whatever reason it was Zotz that really got me in a Proustian moment, remember being trapped with my brother in the back seat of the Volvo on I-95. Aside from the candy, Candy Alley is just a very sweet old-fashioned neighborhood shop, the owner behind the counter, the walls painted white, and that's all she wrote.
Meanwhile, Alix in Candyland is an over-the-top, ultra-decorated, theme-park-like extravaganza of a candy store in Edina on the corner of France and 54th street. You walk in and you suddenly realize the origin of the name - it's a play on Alice in Wonderland, and there are Alice touches everywhere, White Rabbits and funny perspective Mad Hatter images and the like. I tell you this because at first you will only see: The billions of trillions of sugary things all around you! Gummy army men, gummy octopi, gummy sharks, gummy rulers, gummy gummy gummy all over the place. And every color of jellybean. Every color of M&M. Every candy you can think of, from Lik-M-Aid Fun Dip to imported Turkish Delight and British Maltesers. It's definitely a jaw-dropping experience, and has a feeling of kids indulgence to it. If the under-ten-year-old in your life wins a spelling bee, this is where you go.
However, if the over twenty-one year old in your life wins a spelling bee, head to the craziest thing to happen to sugary drinking since the invention of the alcoholic milkshake. The Candy Bartini at Cafeteria!
It happens every Thursday from 7 to 11 p.m., and it's like a Bloody Mary bar, as imagined by your dentist, in the throes of the worst nightmare she ever had. You give them $8, they hand you a shaker of vodka, and then it's candy candy candy, as much as your sweet-tooth can handle. Can you dissolve a handful of Nerds in vodka, decorate with Pixie-Stick dust, and garnish with a gummy worm? Oh yes you can!"
Candy Alley
4813 Chicago Ave., Mpls., (612) 354-388
Alix in Candyland
5400 France Avenue S., Edina, (952) 915-1100
alixincandyland.com
Cafeteria
3001 Hennepin Ave., Mpls., (612) 877-7263
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.
Dining With Dara: Best And Worst OF The State Fair
Posted at 8:35 AM on August 31, 2011
by Steve Seel
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Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl checks in today with to report on her taste-tests with the new State Fair foods she was looking forward to trying last week, and she says: "I was so, so, so wrong about those chocolate-covered jalapenos." Take it away Dara:
"This week, let's recap the State Fair; I spent the first day eating through all the new foods of the fair, and discovered many things that were directly opposite my predictions last week on the Current...
The Best
Number one top ultra best:
Sweet corn ice-cream at the Blue Moon diner was the number one top ultra best! Can you make ice-cream out of sweet corn? Sure! Lots of fancy restaurants have been doing it for years, it actually makes a lot of sense as a flavor, butter plus corn being of course an American classic, and cream plus corn having done good work for a few hundred years as corn chowder or corn bisque. That said, the Blue Moon diner had the good idea of bringing it to the State Fair, where it's just novel enough to be exclamation-worthy, but just delicious enough to make you happy you had it. This corn ice-cream ($5 solo) is available with a bunch of toppings, for $1 each, a caramel-bacon sauce (very on-trend, but actually pretty yummy, the bacon playing a simple supporting role to a creamy caramel sauce), a wild blueberry sauce (excellent, full of whole blueberries), and cayenne-candied peanuts. My advice: Get them all. Of course I would say that, restaurant critic's are by nature samplers, but if you make them put all three on there you get a sort of 2011 maximalist sundae, which is fun. I was also impressed overall with the Blue Moon diner, that is an operation which seems to have really given full thought to maximizing the impact of everything they do, the sausages are from Kramarczuk, and they built a real wood-fired oven for their pizzas. On Carnes and Chambers, near that crazy area by the Midway where people bungee jump in cages.
Second best:
Miniapple Pies. I bought a Miniapple fried apple pie with extreme skepticism--how could this be any better or different than McDonald's version? Actually, very different. The crust is cakey, not at all greasy, and the filling in infused with deep cinnamon flavor; add a heaping scoop of vanilla ice-cream and it feels innocent, farm-born, and perfectly fair-like. (Across from the MPR booth at Judson and Nelson.)
Third:
Koushari, from Holy Land. Hidden in the back of the International Bazaar is a very large outpost of that Middle Eastern local powerhouse of a restaurant, Holy Land. They have the best gyros of the fair (and seem to make most of their money selling to the people who live at the fair for the duration of the fair, if you want to know where the carnies and the people who sleep in the horse barn eat, find the Holy Land. But they are also the best vegetarian restaurant at the fair, this year they debuted two new vegetarian foods, both of which are excellent. One is Egyptian koushari, a dish of lentils, rice, and macaroni covered with a thick layer of mahogany-brown fried shallots, and served with a generous ladelful of spicy-sweet Egyptian hot sauce. Every bite just tastes zingy, comforting, or deep, depending on what you snare on your fork, the oniony-roastiness, the tangy hot-sauce, the creamy base. Another new Holy Land offering this year is Somali sambusas, like the standard triangular Indian stuffed pastry, but stuffed with lentils, but seasoned with African spices (less spicy, more fragrant.) I thought both these dishes were delicious, and, for the first time in the history of my fair going I walked away from a booth thinking: This needs to be a restaurant. (In the farthest corner of the International Bazaar.)
Now, the horrors:
3) Butter on Your Hot Dog?
I walked up to Der Pretzel Haus and said: One pretzel dog, please. "You want butter and cheese-sauce on that?" asked the kind man behind the counter. Butter, on my hot dog? I know this is the state fair and all, but there still should be the limits prescribed by human common sense. Also, the butter pump-squeeze-orange-liquid cheese really ruined an otherwise solidly acceptable pretzel dog. (West side of Ligget, between the horse barn and the sheep barn.)
2) Corn Muffin Grease Sponge
I had such high hopes for this corn-dog variation, with a breakfast sausage encased in corn-muffin batter. After all, there's no reason corn-muffin-batter can't be fried, that's a hush-puppy, and what's not to like about sausage? But when I tried it Axel's hadn't figured out how to actually make this happen, the corn muffin part was absolutely sodden with frying oil, biting it made actual cooking oil squirt out. (Outside SE corner of the Food Building, looking at the Sky Ride.)
1) How Much Would You Pay for A Raw Jalapeno?
As I stood in the line before Andre's Watermelon I grew nervous: Why were the people who had gotten the chocolate jalapeno before me crunching into something bright green, with seeds in the middle? They couldn't be serving whole, fresh, untouched jalapenos dunked in chocolate sauce, could they? Yes they could. For $6.50 you get three jalapenos, evidently completely untouched by human thought, ingenuity, or pride, covered in a chocolate sauce, and connected by a skewer. When I read about this chocolate covered jalapenos I assumed they would be: Stuffed, deep-fried, freeze-dried, roasted, braised, boiled, pickled, or in some other way transformed by human creativity so that they harmonized with the chocolate and were delicious to eat. Nope. Start at the pointy end and you've got the vegetal pepper taste, and once you reach the seeds may God have mercy on your soul. (On Underwood near Ye Old Mill)
Oh, and check out this fascinating story from CBS's Minnesota operations: Sweet Martha's Cookies made 2.4 million dollars last year at the fair! The top five:
1. Sweet Martha's Cookies: $2.4 million
2. Fresh French Fries: $823,794
3. Midwest Dairy Association Ice Cream: $819,420
4. Cheese Curds: $812,008
5. Roasted Corn: $625,000
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.
Dining With Dara: Top 3 For August
Posted at 7:49 AM on August 24, 2011
by Steve Seel
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Our favorite foodie Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl checked in this week with her picks of a "Top 3 of Minnesota Food" for the month. Take it away Dara:
"Of course, it's Wednesday, and the big news in Minnesota food is that the State Fair starts tomorrow - so what can we possibly talk about before the Fair even starts? How about an overview of what's hot in Twin Cities food?
Duh. Of course the big news in food this week is: The Fair, the Fair, the Fair! For ten days, starting tomorrow. Near as I can tell the big new news of the food-side of the fair this year is going to be Axel's Breakfast Lollypops - they're basically a corn dog, but with a breakfast sausage in the middle, corn-muffin batter on the outside, and syrup to dip it in. (Why am I excited about this, but not Der Pretzel Haus' pretzel-dog on a stick? Orneriness and lunacy I supposed - but pretzel dog, isn't that obvious? Well, I'll try it anyway.) I also hold out great hope for the Blue Moon Diner's Sweet Corn Ice Cream--and I am already pooh-poohing the caprese salad on a stick over chilled wild rice by Giggles Campfire grill. Individual fried apple pies (just like McDonald's?) could be good, from Minneapple. I'll let you know. The other big New News of the Fair this year is that the Minnesota Craft Brewers have taken over the Ballpark Café, the little outdoor beer-garden next to the Food Building, so you'll be able to drink Surly, Liftbridge, and Summit beer with your ridiculous new foods. Which is awesome. I especially like this because it authentically carries forward the mission of the fair, that is, showcasing great local companies making great local products. That you can drink when it's hot!
Travail
Now, wildly switching gears, in terms of non-fair food, all the buzz is about Travail, up in Robbinsdale; the little restaurant that could just made Bon Appetit's list of the best new restaurants in the whole darn country. They also raised the price of the tasting menu, now $35 a person, but still a bargain.
Third Wave Coffee
Every time I turn around a new Third Wave coffee place opens! Third Wave coffee is stuff with spectacular sourcing, incredibly detailed, chemistry-lab like brewing, and the general mission of making coffee something you Pay Attention To instead of something you drink to Get Work Done. The originals in the Cities, of course, Dogwood (in Calhoun Square), Angry Catfish (also a bike shop), and, in St. Paul, Kopplin's and Quixotic. The newest places: Urban Bean, which has transformed the old Muddy Waters into a very urban and hip place to get $4 lattés; Blue Ox, at 38th and Chicago, which gets their coffee from Wisconsin's Anodyne Coffee Roasters, and Bull Run, in south Minneapolis, where I tried a very amusing bacon latté, made with maple syrup and bacon syrup! From corner table. It was excessive, but I'm glad I tried it."
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.
Dining With Dara: A Tale Of Two Pizza Farms
Posted at 7:17 AM on August 10, 2011
by Steve Seel
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Food and dining authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl says "pizza on farms is this summer's thing." Today Dara talked about:
A to Z Produce and Bakery, Stockholm, Wisconsin
Known far and wide as the "Pizza Farm", Stockholm Wisconsin's A to Z produce is a farm with a pizza oven which they fire up every Tuesday to sell pizzas to the general public and boy howdy, it should be a part of every single Minnesotan's summer experience, it's that charming and memorable. You find it by tracing County Road J up from Stockholm, and looking for the church, and then the crowds. You park, you set up your base camp; people pack in full tables, chairs, linens, vases of flowers, and even fine French Champagne and ice buckets. Really. Then you find the chalkboard with the pizzas of the day, for instance, green olive and farm-made sausage, or farm-grown tomato and farm-grown basil. That's local! The nice man who took your order gives you a number and a time estimate, perhaps 10 minutes, perhaps an hour. (And sometimes never, they do sell out of pizzas sometimes, so be advised to go early, they open at 4:30.) You while away the time drinking a glass of wine in the prettiest place in the world, tubs of pansies beside the modern-open-roofed pizza structure, picturesque little barns like Martha Stewart props arranged hither and yon, real cows and real chickens in the distance. Fireflies, meadow scents, chirping birds all soak into your pores, filling you with the sustaining joy of nature. Your pizza emerges from the wood fired oven, crisp-crusted, topped with sturdy cheese. You pay (cash only, and fairly pricey, pizzas run around $24 - $27 and feed two.) You sit on your blanket and enjoy the wood-smoke, strikingly fresh vegetables, and sturdy cheese which make this a unique pizza in the universe. You while away as much of the evening as you like, and drive home--about two hours to most of the metro Twin Cities - filled with memories that will keep you happy and whole all winter long. A to Z Produce and Bakery, N2956 Anker Ln. Stockholm, WI, 715 448-4802.
Meanwhile, 65 miles north of St. Paul, twenty miles north of Taylor's Falls, on the Wisconsin side one of the region's greatest cheesemakers, Mary Falk of LoveTree Farmstead Cheese, also runs a private wildlife refuge, raises a special breed of Spanish livestock guardian dogs, and makes pizzas for guests every Sunday from 2 to 8 p.m. This experience is less like a garden-party, and more like wilderness camp with great food - Mary Falk makes a 3 day aged sourdough crust, so it's got a whole lot of tang, and personally, she herself, fires the pizzas in an oven made of clay she dug up on her property. Then she tops the pizza with her famous cheeses, which a lot of people know for their starring role at locavore restaurants like Heartland and Corner Table, and will add your choice of, say, organic sausage from a neighboring farm, or pears from a neighboring orchard. Pizzas run $22 to $27 or so, depending on what you have them topped with, and you're encouraged to bring in a picnic blanket, a cooler with beer or wine, and whatever you want. But it's a less manicured environment then the Stockholm pizza farm - and a less busy one. Whereas the Stockholm farm can sell 400 pizzas on a busy night, LoveTree has never sold more than 50. Mary advises it can get pretty rough and muddy there after a big rain. But they are also a working dairy farm, if you plan your visit around 6:30 you can see them milking the sheep, goats, and cows; Mary told me she's thinking of putting numbers on her sheep, and handing out corresponding numbers to the pizza-guests, and whoever's sheep wins the race home to the barn will get the chance to milk that sheep! That's crazy.
When you're done looking at the dairy animals, you can go check out the guard-dog puppies. Or, once in a while, the trumpeter swans. "It's not just about the food here," Mary Falk told me--which is sort of funny coming from one of the great original Midwestern cheesemakers. But, not about the food. "It's about chilling back and relaxing, bring a kite, horseshoes, go for a walk and visit with the animals. We just try to make it so people hang out and have a good time, I find that most people just like to hang out at the overlook and watch the wildlife go by. We've had trumpeter swans fly in, when they're being quiet they sound like kids warming up their brass-band instruments, sort of a huh-huh-huh." Trumpeter swans are not guaranteed, and if you want more details check out their Facebook group, Pizza by the Pond. But, this Sunday and every Sunday this looks to be one of the best pizza experiences a nature-lover could ever hope to have. Oh, and I do mean every Sunday; they stayed open all winter last year, offering a warming tent and groomed cross-country skiing trails. This year she says she'll probably only stay open through New Year's - but still. LoveTree Farmstead Cheese, 12413 Cty. Rd. "Z", Grantsburg, WI 54840, 715-488-2966.
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.
Dining With Dara: The Lazy Gourmand's Guide to Great Fishing
Posted at 8:22 AM on August 3, 2011
by Steve Seel
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This week, Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl has a tip for a fishing experience that's quite different than the traditional one. Dara writes:
"In Minnesota Monthly this August I rounded up the best local picnics, the top only-in-the-summertime outdoor treats you should avail yourself of before the snow flies. Like the best lazy gourmet's fishing, ever.
It's a place called Star Prairie Trout Farm, and it's in Star Prairie, Wisconsin, right across the St. Croix, just north of Hudson. If you go to restaurants or frequent locavore fish shops you're probably familiar with the name Star Prairie, where they raise rainbow trout in a natural spring, and they've been so doing since 1856. That's a hundred and fifty years of tasty trout! And the trout is delicious, fresh and delicate, when you see it on restaurant menus get it! But you can also get it at the source, as fresh as fish gets.
Here's how it works. Drive to Star Prairie, bring some wine or beer if you like, maybe a loaf of bread, and a little butter for your fish? Don't bring a fishing license - you don't need one. Don't bring bait - they have it. Don't bring poles, tackle, hooks, tools - they have it! Don't bring a knife - they will fillet and clean the fish for you! Bring a fork, maybe. So, to recap, bring a drink, some bread, your fork, yourself, and someone you want to picnic with. Hop out of your car, and contemplate: A swift moving stream that zig-zags back and forth through a well tended green lawn betwixt Adirondack chairs and picnic tables. Go to the fish shed, and ask the nice people for a fishing pole, and buy a couple dollars worth of worms. Now, approach the pond. Do you want a huge trophy-fish from the trophy pond, or a small little guy from the regular stream? Throw in your hook, and catch a fish. You will catch a fish. You will catch as many as you want. You pull it out, put it in your bucket, and if you can't get it off the hook yourself, take it to the nice people in the shed, they will do it for you. Repeat as often as you like; at the end of your fishing you'll pay $6 a pound for ordinary fish, $8 a pound for trophy fish, and $2 per fish to have them cleaned. Now, ask the nice people in the fish shed for a fully stocked charcoal grill; for $6.95 they'll give you one. Now you light your grill, and settle back to a picnic of fish as fresh as fish gets.
If you've got kids, it's even better: They have dozens and dozens of Sponge Bob Square Pants fishing rods, and if your darling child snarls it - you just trade it in for a new one. They're open every day except Monday for the rest of the month, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; in September they go down to weekends only. But, so much fun. It's enough to keep a lazy fisherperson very happily lazy indeed.
Star Prairie Fish Farm, 400 Hill Ave., Star Prairie, Wisconsin; (715) 248-3633."
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.
Dining With Dara: Voyeurism, Lobster, & Great Music
Posted at 7:59 AM on July 27, 2011
by Steve Seel
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Our food and dining authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl checks in for her regular Wednesday segment:
In honor of the Walker Art Center and the Current's Movies and Music In The Park series which kicks off this coming Monday, let's talk: Voyeurism and lobster! And Richard Lloyd from Television. It's going to be a good month. Of course, the Movies and Music series is a Minneapolis tradition, it's a free series of concerts and movies that happen in Loring Park, and this year it's happening the first four Mondays in August.
The four week schedule: August 1st, Haley Bonar and the Hitchcock movie Rear Window; August 8th No Bird Sing and Fritz Lang's creepy 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse; August 16th Buffalo Moon and Antonioni's Blow Up; and August 22nd sees Dark Dark Dark headline followed by the Fritz Lang film Spies.
Now, the good food news for this year: The Smack Shack will be setting up in front of Nick and Eddie every Monday for the rest of the summer, to sell their lobster rolls. I know this because Nick and Eddie general manager Doug Anderson called me up to tell me how thrilled he was. Why would an established brick-and-mortar-restaurant paying brick-and-mortar rents, salaries, utilities, and taxes invite a food-truck to park out front? Doesn't that contradict what everyone knows to be the natural antagonism between trucks and architecture? No, says Anderson: Nick and Eddie is typically closed on Mondays, and this arrangement is a win-win, allowing the chef and cooks to keep getting a night off every week, while allowing Nick and Eddie to make money on alcohol and dessert sales. (If you go, don't skip dessert, pastry chef Jessica Anderson is a local legend, if they have anything with peaches get it, and miss the butterscotch pudding at your peril!) So: This food truck / land-restaurant pair is allowing Nick and Eddie to be a better employer to its employees, and it also gave Doug Anderson a new night to program music into, which he is now doing in partnership with First Avenue's legendary former booker Steve McClellan. To wit: Do you recall the seminal punk band Television, and Television's guitar hero Richard Lloyd? He'll be playing at Nick and Eddie on August 1. (And also tonight, July 27.) So, on August 1 you could potentially eat the best lobster roll this side of the Mississippi River, watch Haley Bonar, have some butterscotch pudding and a bourbon, and then watch Richard Lloyd from Television! That ain't a bad Monday night. Anderson tells me they're working out details for another amazing Monday, with McLellan's deep contacts, and it's a weird one. Remember the 1980's new-wave band "Men Without Hats"? Of course you remember their song "Safety Dance." But yes, I'm told Men Without Hats will be coming to Nick and Eddie sometime before the snow flies, likely on a Monday lobster roll night.
Finally, all this talk of voyeurism inspired me to make a list of the top voyeuristic restaurants in the Twin Cities:
1) Crave, the new downtown location. It's in the old Palomino space and you can see directly in to the ritzy penthouse suite at the Chambers! Don't think of misbehaving, rock stars, people eating sushi can see you!
2) Gather, the new restaurant in the Walker Art Center. You can look right down into the laps of about 30,000 cars as people drive past, you can see what people are eating, what they're reading, what they're wearing... or if you're paranoid about distracted driving, skip this one.
3) The 1029, in Northeast. Foodies know it as the weekend home of the Smack Shack (Tuesday through Friday nights after 5 p.m., and all day on Saturday and Sunday, from 11:30 on.) But most everyone else knows it as a die-hard cop-bar, with ladies undergarments attached to the walls. How do the ladies undergarments get there? Become a regular and find out.
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.
Dining With Dara: Wine Like Cola
Posted at 7:45 AM on July 20, 2011
by Jill Riley
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From Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl, Dining Critic and Senior Editor at Minnesota Monthly. She's also the author of Drink This: Wine Made Simple.
Now, wines like cola! Americans have a rich culture of colas, Coca Cola, Pepsi, RC Cola, Dr. Pepper, Cherry Coke, Mr. Pibb - what am I missing? Plenty no doubt. But colas, with their sweet-and-tart, smoky-and-cinnamon, cedar-and-cherry notes are a perfect pair to the big bold foods Americans love to grill: Cheeseburgers, ribs, barbecued sticky chicken, and now, of course, that food of this summer, grilled pizza. All of these wines have cola notes, and benefit from a bit of chill - remember that reds are best served at cellar temperature, around 55 degrees Fahrenheit, though if it's hot out feel free to keep them in a tub of ice with the beer. And if your wine gets warm in the sun, remember that hot wine is all alcohol in its nose, which just ruins it. It's better to put an ice-cube in your wine than to drink it hot.
Zinfandel:
A nearly black wine grape that hits its heights within a few hours drive of San Francisco--and is spectacular with anything sweet-and-spicy. Chipotle baby-backs, bourbon-pepper sticky chicken, coffee-rubbed flank-steak, and two-day smoked pulled pork. Zinfandel is also the easiest good wine to find in average American supermarkets; look for names like Ravenswood, Rosenblum Cellars, and Cline.
Cline Zinfandel, 2009, $12
Black cherries and spicy tobacco notes make this full-throttle wine bold, but the good acidity and restrained sweetness make it wonderful at table. Serve with cheeseburgers or grilled pizza.
Rosenblum Cellars Zinfandel, Vintners Cuvée XXXIII, California, $10
Blackberries and spice, mocha and blueberry jam, this well balanced table wine will pair with tequila marinated flank steak, pulled pork, or even grilled portabello caps.
Bucklin Bambino Old Hill Ranch Zinfandel, 2008, $25
Of course, there are Zinfandels with elite appeal. This beautiful wine is not only from one of the United States' oldest and most historically significant wineries (with vineyards first planted in 1851), but this organically grown wine offers a complex bouquet of all the dark and evocative spices, like nutmeg, cinnamon, smoked chili peppers, it makes a smoked brisket and a late night around the firepit even more sensuous.
Beaujolais
Most people know Beaujolais in its juicy, fresh-fruit Beaujolais Nouveau face. But there's a more sophisticated sort of Beaujolais, this French wine made from the Gamay grape, it's cherry-berry, but fragrant, quaffable, delicious and refreshing. And perfect as a backyard summer sipper. There are some elite versions, but I'm going to focus on the affordable, but delicious ones.
Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais-Villages, 2009, $9
Yummy and juicy like cherry-cola, but with a more sophisticated and organic perfume of real raspberries, strawberries, and roses. Serve it with kobe beef hot dogs, or a cheese and fruit spread.
Domaine Jean Descombes (Georges Duboeuf) Morgon, 2009, $16Sweet and fruity, with sunny cassis flavors, but also a nice spicy depth, a non-wine-lovers wine to fall in love with. Perfect with pizza, ribs, and barbecued chicken.
Château Thivin, Côte de Brouilly, Cru Beaujolais, 2009, $23
From famous Berkeley importer Kermit Lynch, this is both delicious and sophisticated - mineral and elegant, but juicily cranberry and deep dark plum too.
Syrah and Shiraz
Why do the Australians call Syrah Shiraz? Syrah of course is that that black and noble grape which finds its greatest expression in France's northern Rhone Valley, in frighteningly costly bottles from places like Cornas and Hermitage. And Shiraz is the same thing, from Australia or New Zealand. You've heard that old nugget about the UK and the US, two nations separated by a common language? It's like that. They have Shiraz and something on the barbie, we have Syrah and something on the grill. Except for the American producers like Fetzer who call their wine Shiraz... in any event, sweeter styles of Syrah are fantastic chilled for a barbecue, and of course the dryer styles are serious stuff, worthy of a great dinner party.
Hogue Genesis Syrah, Columbia Valley, Washington, 2008, $15
Black and dark, but rich and clean, Hogue's top-of-the-line wines are a great compromise for people who want real French Syrah but don't want to pay for it. A little mineral, a little smoke, black fruits, yum. Pair with roast lamb, or your fanciest cheeseburger.
Qupé Central Coast California Syrah, 2008, $17
Peppery, mineral, and energetic, this smoky cedar wine from one of America's first Syrah producers (an original Rhone Ranger named Bob Lindquist) is dry and mineral, but always delicious. Great with well spiced meats, like a grilled steak au poivre, or even something like your grilled pork chops with spice paste.
Layer Cake, South Australia, Shiraz, 2009, $15
Sweet and rich, chocolatey and lovable, this is super-ripe, a little spicy, and possibly the world's best pair with baby back ribs coated with a classic gooey barbecue sauce.
Ideally, you'll spend your summer amusing yourself through a series of backyard picnics, beachside cookouts, and patio parties, and will head into the fall considering wine to be about as overwhelming as the the question: You want lemonade or a Coke with that?
Dining With Dara: Drink Whites Like Lemonades, Reds Like Colas
Posted at 8:30 AM on July 13, 2011
by Steve Seel
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Our food and wine authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl has a lot to share about wine today. Dara writes:
"I've been thinking a lot about summer picnics, and how people new to wine can have fun, smart, fun wine experiences. My thought? Pick a bunch of wines that are perfect for sticking in ice, like a beer, and enjoy them with summer picnic foods. A lot of wines are naturally lemonade-like (tangy, high acid, refreshing) or cola like (sweet and spicy, also high acid and refreshing). Like what?
This week, we'll start by talking about the lemonade-like whites.
Picpoul de Pine: Pronounced PEEK-pool, its name means "lip stinger", because of its high-acid quality. It's just zesty, crisp, lively, as lemonade-like as wine gets.
Torrontés: A traditional white table wine from Argentina, Torrontés is a simple, zesty table wine that's delicious - some are zesty, crisp and clean, and others are zesty and a little richer, like honey lemonade.
Vinho Verde: A light and lively Portuguese white, it's usually, but not always, slightly fizzy. (It's "green" because it's made from young grapes, green like a greenhorn, not green like leprechauns; some producers put it in bluish bottles, to confuse you.)
Txakoli: Txakoli (CHACK-a-lee) or Txakolina (CHACK-a-leena) is a Basque wine made to go with seafood: It's bubbly, steely dry, and less fruity than mineral and saline. Because of that mineral, salty aspect it's a perfect seafood pair: Grilled scallops, clams in garlic, fried calamari, are all beautifully paired with Txakoli, which some producers call Txakolina. (Like some people in a family might call a member of it Beth, and others call her Elizabeth, but everyone knows who they mean.)
Chablis: Chablis is the most mineral, the crispest, the driest form of Chardonnay. It has always been one of the most critically well-regarded of all the world's whites - and that's why jug-wine makers stole the name in the 1960's, real Chablis has nothing to do with that jug stuff. Worse, in a culture seemingly evenly split between people who swoon over oaky, buttery, lush Chardonnay styles, and those who claim they'll only drink ABC, anything but chardonnay, Chablis has been left out in the cold. Take advantage of the world's mistake! Great, terrifically try and mineral wines that cost much less than they're worth.
Next week: drink reds like colas!
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.
Dining With Dara: Vellee Deli Food Truck
Posted at 7:28 AM on June 29, 2011
by Steve Seel
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Our food and dining guru Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl says the taste of the upcoming weekend is undoubtedly Vellee Deli, the Hmong (and Vietnamese, and Korean, and Thai) Food Truck, to Celebrate The Annual 4th of July Hmong Sports Festival. Dara writes:
"The big news in downtown Minneapolis lately has been Vellee Deli, a three-week-old food truck with an instant, almost cult-like following. Why?
Good food, mainly; I stood on a line in front of the truck for an hour and twenty minutes on Tuesday trying to score one of their burritos; at the end of it I was compelled to get two, the Korean barbecued short rib burrito with kim chi, and the Thai chicken curry burrito. (Thumbnail reviews: The savory, salty, Korean beef subsituted beautifully for a traditional burrito filling like carne asada, sliced romaine gave the whole liveliness, and the kim chi and salsa gave it oomph; the Chicken "currito" (curry + burrito, get it?) might have been even better, the coconut rice was thick and rich and creamy, the shredded chicken and bits of potato that flavored it gave it great weight and dimension.) I did not, however, get to try the two banh mi that Vellee Deli serves - they sold out. The "Mojo" is something new under the sun: a banh mi based on a traditional Hmong lemongrass pork sausage. It came about because one of the truck's two owners, Will Xiong, is of Hmong descent. The other banh mi is Vietnamese, and comes from his girlfriend, and truck co-owner and chef Joyce Truong. Vietnamese and Hmong, living in perfect harmony, and setting Minnesota on fire with Asian fusion truck excellence!
Which seems particularly fitting for this weekend because: Did you know this is the weekend of the annual Hmong Sports Festival? True, thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Hmong will be flying in from all over the world, and driving in from all over the country, to meet at Como Park and connect with relatives, watch soccer and volleyball matches. Some call it J4 (July 4, that is) some call it the sports festival, the sports tournament ... whatever you call it, it's a huge event, and it's happening this weekend, at Como Park in St. Paul.
The Vellee Deli truck will be there, selling their new Asian fusion to Hmong visitors from all over the world. The world! Especially France and California, where there are other big Hmong communities. The name of the Vellee Deli is actually from a nickname of a French uncle of Will Xiong's, who couldn't say "Willy", but called him Vellee. This uncle operates a Thai and Chinese restaurant in Texas, and the "Currito", the chicken burrito, descends to us from that restaurant. So: International currents and big doings, all in a couple of great sandwiches.
Vellee Deli is best followed by Twitter and Facebook, just like all the food
trucks."
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.
Dining With Dara: We Know Candy
Posted at 8:30 AM on June 22, 2011
by Steve Seel
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Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl checked in this morning with her take on some of the best candy in the twin cities. Dara writes:
"For my local food issue of Minnesota Monthly, now on newsstands, I took on the onerous task of sampling candy. I know I know, hard work... but if you want to know why I picked candy, besides the fact that its candy, the answer is this: Minnesotans have always excelled in the candy arts. For instance, did you know Frank Mars, of Mars Bars, M&Ms, Milky Way, etc., founded his candy company here in good old Minneapolis, and only later moved to Chicago? True! The Pearson's nut roll is about to celebrate their 100th year of Minnesotan candy-making, but a hundred years ago the Twin Cities were home to dozens of candy companies, making candy bars with great, long-gone names like Duck Lunch and Annabelle's Big Hunk. (An old article I wrote on the Twin Cities' rich chocolate bar history is here).
Why Minnesota and candy? Because of our great railroads, our milling and manufacturing base, and our proximity to critical ingredients like beet sugar and butter. (If you look at other historical chocolate hubs, like Switzerland, or Belgium, you quickly see that growing chocolate is not what makes a chocolate production center.) And we're still a candy powerhouse! In the issue (now on newsstands!) I pick the best of the local best, but I'm going to pick three out of that run to bring on the Current as exemplifying Minnesota's incredibly unique chocolate and candy scene.
First, I present Mademoiselle Miel honey bon-bons. Made by a woman who works at the Walker, Susan Brown, these are super-dark-chocolate covering a little bit of local Ames Farm honey - the honey takes on an almost winey aspect as it explodes in your mouth with the dark, dark chocolate. Available at: Heartland and Golden Fig.
Next, the BT McElrath Salty Dog. BT McElrath is a candy chocolate company that operates out of the old factory near the U where Wheaties were invented, but they're nationally distributed, I think at this point their biggest markets are actually west and east coast. But they were founded by a local chef, Brian McElrath, who was once in charge of the New French Café and Faegere's, when the recession hit a few years ago he decided to roll out a couple chocolate bars, and they've just taken the country by storm. They're around four or five bucks each, everywhere, from Lunds, Kowalski's, the Co-Ops - but if you've never had one and care about chocolate bars, you need to drop everything and try one. I brought in two, the Salty Dog, which has sea salt and toffee pieces and just brings me to my knees with swooning, the the spity chile limon. Ay caramba! You taste the Mayan origins of chocolate generally, with spice.
Finally, caramel! The ancient Midwestern art of cooking sugar till it turns brown, blending it with butter, and giving it to people you love. Okay, it was originally a French art, but it's our art now. And my favorite practitioner of this art currently is Sweet Jules Gifts - a pair of sisters, Hope Klocker and Jules Vranian, one of whom is a former Cordon Bleu cooking instructor (and a former pastry chef at some local restaurants); but their caramels are just simple, pure, and lovely."
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.
Dining With Dara: Our Gelato Runneth Over
Posted at 7:06 AM on June 15, 2011
by Steve Seel
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Our food and dining authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl is excited about gelato this week, because while we already have a number of great local spots for this classic Italian dessert, we're about to get another one. Dara says:
"First, news of the newcomer: This weekend (if all goes well,) the alley at 50th and France gets a new gelateria and candy store, called Pandolfi. It will feature gelato from the up and coming Michigan gelato company, Palazzolo's Artisan Gelato & Sorbetto, they'll also sell candy, chocolates from Patisserie 46, they'll pop popcorn, and spin fresh cotton-candy. Palazzolo offers some 600 flavors of gelato, owner Jeanne Riha says they'll start off with banana caramel, Swiss chocolate and peach sorbetto; I'll add a few of my own wish-list, Michigan Chestnut, please?
But what, you don't know the alley at 50th and France? It's right between Mozza Mia and Beaujo's, covered one with a glass roof, it's the way you get from the northeastern municipal parking ramp to the intersection proper? Well, if you're a gelato-head you'll want to find it. My best advice, follow the stickiest children you see, or look at pandolfico.com, check Facebook for Pandolfi Candy, Gelato, and Gifts or call 952-928-3000. Now, the big question: Will Pandolfi be so good it will unseat one of the Twin Cities' Metro's reigning gelato kings? If so, which of the following will get knocked out of our current top three? What top three? This top three!
Jackson's Coffee & Gelato: The black as night ultra chocolaty gelato is irresistible, it's so black eating it looks like some Goth exercise in absurdity, it's so good I feel its pull like gravity every time I'm on Lake Street. Jackson's Coffee & Gelato, 820 Lake St., Mpls (612) 824 4164.
Fat Lorenzo's: My favorite East Coast Minneapolis getaway. (Seriously, bring your east coast friends, step inside, and start fighting: Is it more like Connecticut Italian, Rhode Island Italian, Long Island Italian, or New Jersey Italian? No, you gettouttahere!) But in addition to classic red sauce fare and a nice crisp and doughy pie, Fat Lorenzo's makes some bewitching gelatos--my little girl gets whatever's pink, typically a very fresh-tasting strawberry, and it keeps her in her seat for an extra 20 minutes, which is high tribute to the amount of interest a gelato can provoke. Also, did you know that Fat Lorenzo's has expanded with a second outpost in a VFW in Bloomington? True! Bloomington Fat Lorenzo's: Everett McClay VFW Post 1296, 311 West 84th St., Bloomington, (952) 888-FAT2 (3282). Minneapolis Fat Lorenzo's: 5600 Cedar Ave. S., Mpls; (612) 822-2040.
Ring Mountain: Thick, creamy, splendid; I make a point of getting a pint of Ring Mountain's pistachio gelato every time I visit Buon Giorno. I picked it for one of my top local foods for the local food issue currently on the stands and it rendered the photographer and food stylist awestruck. It's good stuff. But go to the mother ship in Edina and you'll find something else even better, an espresso-dark chocolate gelato frappuccino-ish thing that's so good you'll be doing handsprings through the parking lot. Ring Mountain, 1965 Cliff Lake Rd., Eagan, (651) 454-7464.
And now Pandolfi! Looks to be a sweet, sweet summer."
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.
Dining With Dara: Dara Is So Angry She Could Spit!
Posted at 8:06 AM on June 8, 2011
by Steve Seel
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Our food and dining authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl is steamed. Last week, she got embroiled in a heated online give-and-take with a New York food blogger who dared to impugn the Twin Cities' Vietnamese cuisine scene as being sub-par - and Dara wasn't going to have any of that. The resulting flame wars have been the stuff of a food-writer cage match. Dara was with us to not just defend our Vietnamese food scene but sing its high praises this morning.
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.
Dining with Dara: Hola Arepa
Posted at 10:25 AM on June 1, 2011
by Jill Riley
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Dara talked to us this morning about the new street food truck, Hola Arepa. Are you brave enough to taste cuy (guinea pig)?
Turns out Hola Arepa will in fact specialize in arepas, those hand-pattied cornmeal cakes so popular in Central and South America. And it gets a lot more interesting after that.
The truck is owned jointly by Bradstreet Craftshouse bartender Birk Stefan Grudem and his girlfriend Christina Nguyen, the local fashion visionary behind the Design Collective on 26th and Hennepin in Uptown Minneapolis.
Hola Arepa's last health department inspections are planned for today, if all goes well they hope to open for business Thursday or Friday on Marquette Ave. near the IDS in downtown Minneapolis. They plan to be downtown Monday through Friday for lunch, and at the Uptown Market (the one on 29th street next to the Greenway) on Sundays. Grudem also told me he has some plans to sell food in Cedar Riverside sometimes. What food will they sell?
Venzuelan-style arepas, of course, especially ones filled with pulled pork and a sort of chicken salad made with avocado and spice. Hola Arepa will have all sorts of chip-and-dip options, including four different house salsas, sides like fried yuca and plantain chips, and made-to-order guacamole. Once the truck is up and running for a bit they plan to start serving some culinarily adventurous dishes, like confit of cuy. (Cuy is known hereabouts as guinea pig, but is a culinary standard in Central America and the Andes; It tastes a lot like rabbit, and cooking it confit seems like a genius idea to this critic.) Grudem says he's been working on a way to deep-fry tortillas in such a way that they form a cone, and that he will serve the cone with small portions of the truck's various meats on offer--which means that it's possible that the summer of 2011 will see something totally new under the sun: People feasting on guinea pig cones in the IDS.
Of course, hearing about Grudem's Bradstreet background I immediately asked about the beverage plans for the truck. He told me they'll open with some different lemonades, such as cucumber mint lemonade or limeade and ginger lemonade, and once they get rolling he'll debut some of his more ambitious house-made sodas like honeydew-chamomile.
Yes, I'm serious. You know what this means? You may now be able to recreate the famous opening scene of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, where she's eating lunch in the IDS and looking down on the Crystal Court--but you can do this sipping honeydew-chamomile soda and cuy cones!
-Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl
Dining With Dara: Bread, Wine, and Thou
Posted at 8:35 AM on May 25, 2011
by Steve Seel
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There's a new bakery in town, and our food and dining expert Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl is excited about it. Turtle Bread's Longtime Head Baker Solveig Tofte has gone solo and opened Sun Street Breads, and Dara told us about some of its charms, including its excellent baguette.
Also, Dara has a series online this week at Bon Appetit about great wines for summer. Check it out!
Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl 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.
Dining With Dara: Cookies!
Posted at 8:06 AM on May 18, 2011
by Steve Seel
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Our food and dining authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl showed up with cookies this morning, eager to talk about some of her favorite local cookie confectioners. Some of her top picks:
"The Bittersweet Chocolate Cookie from Rustica: Black as night and four times better, these cookies are nigh about perfect, so chocolatey, so rich, so decadent, but also inarguably retaurant-like." Then, " The Crakeroon, or Coconut Macaroon from Salty Tart: How does Michelle Gayer make these macaroons so light, so sweet but not cloying, so coconuty and perfect? No one knows, but after you eat one you can't ever take lesser macaroons seriously."
"Now, out from left field, from Eden Prairie's Country Choice, an organic producer with several million dollars in sales every year, the Organic oreo-like cookies. And the Duplex black and white cookies. My kids would eat a sleeve of these a day. And I like them too, the cookies themselves have a delicate breadiness, and... well, I think it's that my kids are so ga-ga over them that I really respond to. Of course, when you're talking about organics in terms of these highly processed foods what you're really doing is not adding to the world's pesticide and fertilizer load, I'm not too convinced there's any other benefit going on."
"But what do you think? Best local cookies? If I get suggestions I'll track them down and do a top-local cookie story in the fall. And if I find something to unseat Rustica's Bittersweet Chocolate Cookie and the Crackeroon from Salty Tart, I'll be mighty impressed."
Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl is Senior Editor at Minnesota Monthly Magazine and curator of the montly food section Dara and Co. She's also the author of Drink This! Wine Made Simple.
Dining With Dara: Attack Of The Growlers
Posted at 2:02 PM on May 11, 2011
by Steve Seel
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Our food and dining authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl brought us beer this morning! Not just any beer, but locally brewed beer bottled in the latest sensation: growlers. Dara writes:
"I've spent a few fun days in the last few weeks tearing around like a madman, filling my car up with growlers, and escorting them home for some super-awesome rare and local drinking.
What are growlers? They're large half-gallon bottles of beer, you buy them at a microbrewer or brewpub, they fill them up, you take them home or to a friend's house, voila! You're drinking handmade, often natural unpasteurized unfiltered good healthy brew-pub beer in the privacy of your own backyard.
If you've lived here your whole life and never heard of such a thing, please know it's because it's pretty new, the state started allowing this for brewpubs in 2003, then for small brewers in 2005, but individual cities were free to forbid it - Minneapolis only has allowed it since last summer. So, this is something your parents were never allowed to do. (Though your great-grandparents could. Liquor laws seem to be among mankind's most variable ordinances.) The law today: Minnesota brewers making less than 3,500 barrels of beer a year can sell growlers - as long as their local municipality lets them, and grants an off-sale permit. Minneapolis, St. Paul, Duluth,
So, where should you go to participate in the great growler explosion?
Great Growlers:
Harriet Brewing:
Brand new Harriet Brewing on Lake and Minnehaha in south Minneapolis is our fair city's first Belgian brew specialist. Belgian beer of course being fine, light, delicate, with finer bubbles, and a more Champagne-like bent then regular beer. Growlers are only sold a few days a week, currently Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday afternoons, but in addition to being excellent the brewery is brand-new, so you'll get a lot of excitement and compliments if you bring this to this summer's barbecues.
Town Hall:In 7 corners by the U stands one of the cities' greatest brewpubs, and they will fill a growler with whatever they've got on tap. I tried their Double Hefeweizen recently and fell in love - it's a wheat beer that goes to 11, very brisk, crisp, but also intense and weightier than typical wheat beers. Good, good stuff. Their Masala Mama IPA is one of Minnesota's great beers too, a right hook of intense delicacy.
Great Waters:
Specializes in cask-conditioned ales, that is, beer made in oak casks, just like they were for hundreds of years. What did Shakespeare drink when he drank beer? Something not unlike what they have at Great Waters:
Barley John's:Barley John's is the most unpretentious wood-paneled little burger spot by the side of the highway - which is only funny because it is held in the utmost high regard by every super-beer snob in town. To taste why, try their Little Barley Bitter or their Old Eight Porter, phenomenal British-style brews that are intense, but not overly hoppy, sweet or bitter, they're just that sort of intense with no particular key overplayed, intense like something played on an organ versus a piano. Because it's up in New Brighton I also call this the Ultimate Birthday Present for beer dudes - a growler will only run you about $20, but because you had to haul across town to get it your present will come off as extremely, extremely impressive.
In Duluth there's even a Growler delivery service - http://www.growlerstogo.com/. Perhaps one day the Twin Cities will be as enlightened as Duluth! But until that great day you can be a seriously rad and gourmand backyard drinker--as long as you know that a Growler isn't a poorly trained dog."
Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl is Senior Editor at Minnesota Monthly Magazine and author or Drink This! Wine Made Simple.
Dining With Dara: Street Food and Chef Truck Season Is Here!
Posted at 8:02 AM on May 4, 2011
by Steve Seel
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Our food and dining authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl checked in with us as usual on Wednesdays:
"Minnesota's premiere curated Farmer's Market kicks off this week: Mill City starts Saturday! And you know what that means: It's food truck season. The Chef Shack debuts at Mill City this weekend - that's the truck of Lisa Carlson, world traveller, veteran of bonafide Michelin-starred European restaurants, and originator of the local street-food revolution. Chef Shack remains in my opinion in the first rank of local street food options, they're inventive, surprising, awesome. Some of my favorite past meals there included pulled pork nachos, hand-cut sea salt french-fries, goat's milk ice-cream, and cardamom scented mini-donuts. Yum!
But that's not all. My other favorites: First Minneapolis, then St. Paul:
Smack Shack: Lobster rolls, the best shrimp poor boy I've ever had, and a great grilled-talleggio and asparagus grilled-cheese.
World Street Kitchen: Sameh Wadi, chef of Saffron, a James Beard semi-finalist, and the only Minnesotan to ever compete in Iron Chef runs a food truck called the World Street Kitchen, it's parked by the light rail stop at Nicollet and 5th Street, great fusion dishes like a Middle Eastern pressed lamb torta, made by pressing big chunks of Iowa lamb, pickled peppers, herbs, and cheese together inside a roll until the roll gets as flat as a tortilla and everything inside it fuses into one delicious whole.
Barrio Taco Truck: Snagged the former Smack Shack space! And they're in Minneapolis' Warehouse district every day from around 11 a.m. on. Soft shell crab torta! Bacon wrapped hot dog! Burritos!
Meritage: That little bit of Paris in the state capital opened their patio this week, and their street-stand for crepes (the best in Minnesota!) is open now, and for every sunny day until October. Yesterday they had a sweet crepe for fresh strawberries and nutella, and a savory crepe filled with spinach, mushrooms, and fontina cheese. What's the special today?
128 Café's & the chef-truck food court! St. Paul's famous and beloved 128 Café got into the food truck business last year, and today's the first day of their food-truck season, they're supposed to be parked at Kellogg between St. Peter and Wabasha, right near the St. Paul City Hall, along with four other food trucks every Wednesday afternoon for the foreseeable future. Last year some of the highlights included a good sized portion of their famous pork ribs, pesto-shrimp skewers, and fancy asparagus salads with chevre sourced straight from the Farmer's Market.
Dining With Dara: Ramen, And Not The Styrofoam Kind
Posted at 8:30 AM on April 27, 2011
by Steve Seel
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"Ramen and bedding plants - that's the face of the last weekend in April, 2011," says Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, our resident food and dining commentator. There's a new ramen place in town (more on that below), but Dara began by talking about the opening of area farmer's markets, one of the most glorious signs that spring has arrived. Minneapolis Farmers Market opens Saturday, St. Paul opens Sunday, and next weekend, Mill City debuts.
Dara says, "What to do after you put in your garden? Check out the big news of the season: Masu Sushi and Robata, in Northeast. The restaurant is owned by Sushi Avenue, an Eagan grocery store sushi supplier, but Tim McKee, our Midwest James Beard Award winner, and chef of La Belle Vie and Sea Change, designed the cooked part of the menu, while Asan Yamamoto, formerly of Origami, created the sushi menu."
"And what did Tim McKee put on the menu? Something the whole city has been clamoring for, ramen. Not packet, dried-noodle, you're-in-college ramen, but homemade ramen as popularized by New York City chef David Chang at his Momofuku restaurants. How's the Masu ramen? I think just as good as the Momofuku ramen, though not as salty and a little more silky. This is a seriously rich broth and decadent toppings, like fatty pork belly and a soft-poached egg, or a whole fried crisp pork cutlet set into a beautifully spicy curry broth. These huge ramen soups run about $11 each, and they're awesome, they're excellent, they're worth braving the opening chaos at Masu. Next time I go I'm going to try the mushroom and soft-egg one, and the littleneck clam and fish cake one. Also fantastic: The very long, rich, complex sake menu. So, ramen, sake, and... then you play your money and take your chances. Because the place is a little opening-chaotic. I tried a few sushi offerings and didn't find anything that out of the ordinary, so I recommend your first visit being a ramen and sake, with a little sushi or robata appetizer. Robata are little charcoal-grilled snacks meant to be consumed with beer and sake, but by definition they're pretty plain, I tried a bunch and... they were plain. Loved the sardines, liked the razor clams. If you're a razor clam fan: They have them! But the dish of the spring looks to be: Ramen at new Masu."
James Beard Award-winning food writer Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl is Senior Editor at Minnesota Monthly magazine and the head foodie at its monthly food and dining roundup, Dara and Co. She's also the author of the book Drink This: Wine Made Simple.
Dining With Dara: It's Margarita Morning
Posted at 8:11 AM on April 20, 2011
by Steve Seel
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Our food authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl had margaritas on the mind today. Among her favorite 'ritas that we discussed this morning were those offered at Barrio, The Inn, Bradstreet Crafthouse, Masa, and Smalley's.
Dining With Dara: Best Restaurant In The Past Five Years?
Posted at 8:14 AM on April 6, 2011
by Steve Seel
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It takes quite a bit for someone like Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, our resident food and dining authority, to declare that a new restaurant could be the best dining establishment to open in the Twin Cities in the past five years. But when she and her husband recently visited Naviya's Thai and Mr. Grumdahl went out on a limb to make that very proclaimation, Dara said she couldn't necessarily disagree (which is saying a lot, don't you think?). During her segment she also talked about In Season, the new venture from chef Don Saunders.
By the way, Dara also reminds us that Minnesota Monthly's Wine Week starts next week - it's fun, 20-odd restaurants serving top-flight wines at discount prices, most doing a second glass for ten cents promotion.
Dining With Dara: Could Mpls Shoot For The Tippy-Top?
Posted at 8:16 AM on March 30, 2011
by Steve Seel
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One of the true happy endings of past year is Minneapolis restaurant Heidi's - after it's original local burned down in 2010, Heidi's was reborn in the Lyn-Lake neighborhood this year. Our trusty food authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl joined us today to talk about Chef Stewart Woodman's belief that he can have one of the world's top 50 restaurants in Minneapolis. "Is that possible?" she asks. "What would it take? Is it just food & a perfect restaurant (just!) or do you need a shtick - Noma, current best restaurant in the world, is all about local Scandinavian lost ingredients, for instance. The last great restaurants were all either farm-driven nose-to-tail (Fat Duck) or molecular gastronomy (El Bulli.) What can we do here that no one else can do? / No one else has done? It's audacious to think about..."
Dining With Dara: Chef Challenge!
Posted at 8:09 AM on March 23, 2011
by Steve Seel
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Our food and dining maven Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl joins us every Wednesday morning, and today, she chatted with us about the Minnesota Monthly Local Chef Challenge, this Saturday at the Mall of America, staring at 10 a.m. It's free!
Some of the best chefs in the Twin Cities are competing for a - hold on to your hats! - $10,000 prize. Dara will be among the judges; we talked about how the contest works and how, exactly, one judges such a thing.
Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl is Senior Editor at Minnesota Monthly Magazine and author or Drink This! Wine Made Simple.
Dining With Dara: Small Choices To Make A Big Difference
Posted at 8:15 AM on March 16, 2011
by Steve Seel
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It all started a few weeks ago when Jill and I were chatting about my embarassing habit of picking up food at the convenience store when running late in the morning, rather than bringining it from home. Who on earth actually eats those hard-boiled eggs from SA? Well, apparently I do. I'm not sure why that's more humiliating than eating a bag of Dorritos, but there you have it. Anyway, our favorite foodie Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl assured me that I'm not being the complete "good-food hypocrite" I feel like I am - since I do, for example, buy cage-free chicken when I go to the grocery store.
This morning, Dara thought she'd broaden the conversation a bit. Her question: does my habit of buying "factory food" when I'm on the run negate my good intentions at the grocery store on the weekend? Her answer, fortunately for me and all of us, is absolutely not - and she talked this morning about how eating organically and local is not a zero-sum game. Indeed, if we see it that way, she says, it's not going to work.
Dining With Dara: Updates, And Best Brunches
Posted at 8:00 AM on March 9, 2011
by Steve Seel
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This week, our food-o-phile Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl first caught us up on some old unfinished business, like: who won that Food & Wine Magazine 100-Best-Chefs thing? For the midwest: The guy from Arkansas! A travesty, Dara said. But then a chef from Boston, Jamie Bissonette, from Coppa, was the overall winner. Lame! And, who won the cake challenge this weekend at the big Twin Cities Food & Wine Experience? Sweets Bakeshop! The St. Paul cupcake spot, they made a cake that was all sprayed with edible gold, and kind of looked like a Renaissance trophy. Amazing.
Moving on to new business: Dara informed us that the Twin Cities are heating up with some exciting new brunch options. You can read about the restaurants we discussed in her blog over at Minnesota Monthly.
Dining With Dara: Minnesota Pizza ... Good And Getting Better
Posted at 8:30 AM on March 2, 2011
by Steve Seel
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Our faithful foodie Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl of Minnesota Monthly Magazine checks in for her weekly segment:
"Some of the biggest news in Minnesota food this winter has been the improving of the pizza scene with two notable newcomers, SW Minneapolis' Pizzeria Lola, and Edina's Mozza Mia.
"First, let's talk Lola, which I'm over the moon about: Lola is the labor of love of Ann Kim, a Columbia grad, and the daughter of Korean emigrees who raised their children in Apple Valley, and Conrad Leifur, her boyfriend, who went to Yale. It's sort of half-New Haven, Half New York, and all Minnesota, as it were: Kim studied pizza at a San Francisco pizza school. Kim perfected her pizza crust recipe and: Ta-da! The place is now packed to the rafters every night with foodies ooh-ing and ah-ing over every bite.
Let me add my praise: The crust is so dimensional, so bready, smoky, sweet, light, and deep! The toppings are so various, deeply considered, and delicious: The Sunnyside, for instance, with silky, salty La Quercia guianciale, cream, creamed leeks, and a barely set egg is something the world dearly needed but never knew it needed: A quivering pasta carbonara, in the form of a well charred pizza. The Ma Sha-Roni, a classic red-sauce pizza made with house-made Berkshire pork and old-fashioned rustic pepperoni, is exactly what pizza is supposed to be: The one thing which, paired with a glass of wine or a beer, can disappear the wounds of everyday life.
Next, Mozza Mia: The first mozzarella bar in the world was a Japanese/Italian hybrid, Obika, opened in Rome by Japanese businessmen intent on serving the freshest and best-in-the-world mozzarella, mozzarella made from the milk of free-ranging water buffaloes. (There are now a dozen Obika's worldwide, including one in Los Angeles and another in New York City.) The second big thing in the world of mozzarella bars was Osteria Mozza, a Los Angeles restaurant resulting as collaboration between super-barker Nancy Silverton (of La Brea Bakery Fame) and super-chef Mario Batali and super-wine-guy Joseph Bastianich, of respectively, Mario Batali and Lidia Bastianich's-kid fame. And now, for our purposes, the third big thing has happened in mozzarella bars: One called Mozza Mia has debuted in Edina, opened by Parasole, the local restaurant company that gave birth to Buca and Oceanaire, and owns Manny's, Chino Latino, Salut and oh so many other local important restaurants. So, how would you like to judge Mozza Mia? Against mozzarella bars in Los Angeles and Rome, or against Edina restaurants? Let's do both. First, please know that Mozzarella bars are not like sushi bars; there aren't that many different varieties, typically you're only going to taste a very few pristine and perfect varieties, and then you have some wine, antipasti, perhaps pizza, and there you are. On my visits, the mozzarella itself was nothing special - just cold, fresh, plain cheese, with nothing of the fresh flowers and herbaceousness of the greatest fresh cheese. Which I think would be well obtainable to a chef using a local dairy like Cedar Summit or Crystal Ball Farms. So, Mozza Mia has not made Rome and Los Angeles obsolete. Too bad. Compared to other restaurants in Edina, however, Mozza Mia is: fantastic. Combinations like fresh mozzarella with arugula and La Quercia prosciutto are light and scrumptious, wood-fired pizzas like a briny and smoky combination of lamb sausage, green olives, and goat's milk feta are good enough to crave. The wine list is bold, spicy, well-priced table wine thoughtfully chosen to go with a jeans-and-movie date night, and while there's plenty to quibble over - it's terrifically loud in there, and the desserts are generic - it's also, suddenly, the best cheap and casual Italian joint in the southwest metro. When in Rome, do as the Romans and go to Obika; when in Edina, count your blessings for a little big of Japanese Italian fusion perking up the pizza scene.
Pizzeria Lola
5557 Xerxes Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55410
612.424.8338
Mozza Mia
3910 W 50th St., Edina
952.288.2882
Dara also reminds us: "Don't forget the Food and Wine Show is this weekend - foodwineshow.com - 200 vendors, 350 wines to sample, a huge presence of the Minnesota Craft Brewer Association and Surly brewing, the Czar of Cakes challenge (a gee-whiz cake decorating challenge, the Silence of the Lambs cake by Celebration Generation last year was the talk of the world, literally, - though a high tower of fruit, cheese, and wine bottles by Gateaux actually won. Who will win this year? Come and find out. It's at Target Field Saturday and Sunday, and proceeds benefit MPR. We're also doing ticket-giveaways at Dara & Co. all week.
Dining WIth Dara: Let's Lunch!
Posted at 6:54 AM on February 23, 2011
by Steve Seel
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Our food and dining authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdhal chatted with us about some of the metro's best lunch spots, with the new Minnesota Monthly now on newsstands brining us her pics for the Best 75 Lunch Spots In The Twin Cities:
"With all the lunch options, how could I possibly pick 75, you may ask? My aim was to be as geographically diverse as possible. Have a business lunch in Stillwater? In Bloomington? In Northeast Minneapolis? In downtown St. Paul? I've got a go-to list in every neighborhood."
Bombay Bistro South Indian
The south-Indian buffet can be accessed only from an interior hallway in the nether regions of the Medical Arts building, but it's worth the hunt: Paper dosa as thin as gossamer filled with silky potatoes blended with toasted cumin seeds and emboldened with roast vegetables and creamy black lentils as potent as coffee are only two of the two dozen or so items offered every day at the buffet for $10.99 per person, a worthy feast at twice the price.
Kikugawa
The best sushi in the Minneapolis skyways is to be found at Kikugawa's little-known vest-pocket offshoot on the second level of 120 S. 6th Street. But you have to know it to get it - the sushi case in the front typically looks empty, with just a few paper labels fluttering forlornly. Don't be dissuaded! You actually order your sushi by paper-label and they make it to order, using the top-quality fish and mad sushi-sculpting skills that Kikugawa is known for. Also: They serve pork ramen! And bento box meals of grilled eel, fried pork, even quick made-to-order Japanese omelets. The place gets a fierce, brief rush every day about noon, after that it's the best kept secret in town.
Vincent
The two-course, $12.50, Monday to Friday lunch at Vincent is one of the best reasons to love working in downtown Minneapolis. The fluttering white tablecloths, the diaphanous curtains making Nicollet Mall look like a bride, and there, as your date, a lush plate of risotto crowned with poached eggs in a creamy riff on classic carbonara.
25 years ago Lucia Watson, the founding Minneapolis chef, founded Lucia's, and while many restaurants are more popular today there's an easy argument to be made that Lucia's is still the best. That easy argument? The food is easy: relaxed, confident, understated, even, with an ingredient-first elegance and confidence you only get from being on top of your game, going on three decades. Anything with Callister chicken is particularly good, be it mustard-poached or roasted on a salad of new sugar snap peas.
Greek Grill
This suburban-mall-looking spot in an unlikely hallway on City Center's east side conceals greatness: A $10.49 special of lamb chops nets four berry-red beauties well charred served with a well toasted pita and a Greek salad, the chicken kabobs are lemony and herbal. Everyone else in the crowded room will be eating gyros, but ignore them, there's more here than average lunch chow.
- Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl
Dara also reminds us again of the 2011 Food and Wine Show, March 5th and 6th, with all proceeds to benefit MPR. Read Dara's blog-tastic site at Minnesota Monthly, and don't forget about her book, Drink This: Wine Made Simple.
Dining With Dara: Beer For Breakfast, Pt. III
Posted at 8:13 AM on February 9, 2011
by Steve Seel
Filed under: Dining with Dara
The Big News To Take Sides on Now: Will the World End If Breweries Can Sell Pints To Consumers?
by Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl
Surly, the upstart brewery that put Minneapolis on the brewing map (after Summit put us on the map in the 1990's, and Grain Belt, Hamms, and so forth put us on the map back in the day,) made news this week by announcing plans to build a huge 20 million-dollar, 60,000 square-foot brewery with a 250-seat restaurant.
This comes on top of the little flurry of new breweries that are opening: Harriet Brewing on Lake Street in Minneapolis, and Fulton, which should open in a few months right by the new Target Field. And don't forget Town Hall, the brewpub, which just opened a second location called Town Hall Tap down on Chicago near 48th in South Minneapolis.
So, what is going on? Minnesota has a bunch of laws on the books from the immediate post-Prohibition era meant to protect innocent citizens from evil brewers and/or ourselves. One of them is that a brewer is not allowed to sell pints of beer at their brewery directly to consumers. Another old law stipulates that brew-pubs cannot sell their beer to distributors--so, if you own a liquor distributing company and would like to sell Town Hall Tap beer in Albert Lea, Minnetonka, or Duluth, and if you own a liquor store in Albert Lea, Minnetonka, or Duluth and would like to sell Town Hall beer, too bad. Another one stipulates that you can't open a brewpub, then open a second location and drive your beer over. That's why there's never been a second Barley John's, or Great Waters, or Herkimer or what have you, you'd have to buy all your brewing infrastructure again, which is a huge cost. So, Omar Ansari, Surly's owner, Macalester grad, Current listener, has taken it on himself to try to change at least one part of this law, namely, letting breweries sell pints of beer. If this one thing happened: Little breweries would be able to open much more easily, because it would solve one of their biggest problems, namely cash-flow on day one. So, the first benefit to our life if breweries could sell pints of beer to individuals: We'd get a big splashy Surly to show off to visitors.
But that's not all! Benefit two: It would make Minnesota a tourist destination for beer-tourists, the way Portland, Oregon, and Madison, Wisconsin are. People would come in from Iowa, Denver, all sorts of places, and patronize our hotels, restaurants, farmers's markets, and so forth. But that's not all!
Benefit three: Jobs! Surly owner Ansari estimates 150 full time jobs at a new destination Surly brew-complex and event center, and you can presume a handful of good jobs at every new brewery that opens. Benefit four: Improving of foodie culture, generally. Benefit five: Markets for farmers! Minnesota is a great place to grow barley and hops, and especially high-margin specialty barley and hops. If you are a farmer listening right now and want a business idea: There is no one in this country making specialty Belgian malted barley. A lot of the malted barley used in brewing in this country comes from a company in Shakopee called Rahr.
So: What can you do to help this all along? Right now, you can just discuss with friends and family whether you think the selling of pints of beer at breweries would be a good thing or a bad thing. (The Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association, which represents distributors, who currently get a cut of every single drink you have which isn't purchased at a brewpub, is dead against it.)
Then, if you think it's a good thing, you can Friend Surly on Facebook and ready youself for the day you'll be called upon to contact your legislators.
In the meantime, what can you do if you want to taste all the great developments in local beer? Come to the Twin Cities Food and Wine Show! March 5th and 6th. There's going to be a whole craft-brew area and pavilion, Surly will have a huge presence and will be pouring a bunch of their hard-to-find brews like the 5th anniversary celebrating Pentagram, Surly Smoke, Molé Smoke, Mild, as well as the more commonly available Abrasive Ale, Furious, and so on. Harriet Brewing will also be there pouring their Belgian Style Ales. And it's at the new Twins Stadium this year! And of course there will be all the usual great things--350 wines, including a huge presence from Washington State, a cake challenge with cake decorators pulling out all the stops (I still can't stop thinking about the Silence of the Lambs cake from last year.) And it's a benefit for MPR! And I'll be there. So come drink wine and fine local beer with me for the benefit of MPR, if you would like to. We would like to have you. It usually sells out, but there are still tickets left.
Dining With Dara: Cabin Fever Busting!
Posted at 7:53 AM on February 2, 2011
by Steve Seel
(1 Comments)
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Our food authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl paid us her weekly visit this morning, and her topic this week: "Cabin Fever Busting: The Twin Cities Best Foodie Options to Do Something Vaguely Game-Like That Is Not Watching a Television of Someone Else Playing A Game!"
1) Bryant Lake Bowl
One of the alltime greatest bars in Minneapolis. It's an old, burnished maple, wood-art-Moderne era bowling alley that's kept period perfect, but also has spectacular Belgian beer, one of the best wine lists in town, and a scrupulously local menu (what, you say you don't like beer and wine? Well, they just re-did their cocktail list to join the cocktail revolution: Organic and local spirits, and then fancy things like that St. Germain elderberry flower liqueur that makes everything taste so good).
2) Chatterbox
There are now three Chatterbox Pubs, where they craft-brew their own beers, make a decent burger and mac and cheese, and, more interestingly, carry a wide variety of vintage Atari, Nintendo, and Sega Genesis games. Legend of Zelda! Frogger! Pole Position! Tetris, even. Also: Board games. Battleship! Trouble! Scrabble! Candyland. Or, bring your own. Other restaurants will look at you funny if you want to bring a board game and spend 2 hours finishing a pitcher of beer. Not so the Chatterbox.
3) Hopkins for Pinball & Hyderabadi Food!
Take a road-trip to Hopkins to play the largest selection of local retro and new pinball machines - 20 of them! - at pinball and video game institution SS Billiards. It's like a museum you can play.
Then, go to Curry & Noodles for the best Indian food in town. The top things are the spicy Hyderabadi Street foods like the Angaray Nan bread stuffed with spicy chicken and fresh cilantro. Or the Chicken 65, fire-engine red chili soaked chicken that pairs really well with one of those super-hoppy Kingfisher ales. Or a Summit.
- Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl
Read Dara's blog-tastic site at Minnesota Monthly, and don't forget about her book, Drink This: Wine Made Simple.
Dining With Dara: Eating History
Posted at 6:49 AM on January 26, 2011
by Steve Seel
Filed under: Dining with Dara
The Current's food and dining authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl paid us her weekly visit this morning. Take it away Dara:
"In the current issue of Minnesota Monthly, I reveal my sudden great love for The Inn, in downtown Minneapolis.
"The Inn is a new restaurant by the owners of the grassfed steakhouse the Strip Club, in St. Paul; the chef is Tyge Nelson, he's a La Belle Vie and Barrio veteran, and just a very precise cook - his cod is crisp as a potato chip, tender as tears, and could go as an illustration in the encyclopaedia beside the note: The perfect way to cook cod. But what I like even more about the restaurant is the way the place references our Minnesota past: Tyge Nelson makes Lake Superior herring using his family recipe, there are a couple ingenious sort of Scandihoovian cocktails - made with Aquavit, a scallion syrup, and the like. There are all sorts of comfort foods on the menu - but the comfort foods of around 1910, when Minneapolis had twice the population it does now, and half of downtown was an open-air food market catering to immigrants from everywhere who wanted the freshest and best of everything straight off the train. In researching this piece I learned all about a Minneapolis character named Fish Jones, who had a fish market close to the big post-office in downtown Minneapolis, a fish market where he kept a bear chained up outside, and he was known for stunts like pushing a baby carriage full of monkeys through the streets. He founded Minneapolis' first zoo, where the Basilica is, and eventually was persuaded to move it to Minnehaha Falls; his house still stands there, it's the butter yellow one, and is actually an exact, two-thirds scale replica of the poet Longfellow's house. Which is weird, and awesome. As Minneapolis itself seems to have been long about 1900. Why would you possibly go to a fish market with a bear chained up outside? Life before television...
"But you can go to the Inn, have some 1900-style comfort food like roast oysters, silky oxtail, and the like, and it's something Minneapolis has never had before, a connection to our real culinary past.
"Some other restaurants that have been open since the day of the telegram:
In downtown Minneapolis, Gluek's, which used to be owned by the historic beer brewery (back before Prohibition bars were often funded by individual breweries, so just like you'd have Caribou and Starbucks, you'd have Schell's Bars and Gluek's Bars in every neighborhood. One of the things Prohibition did was specifically ban these arrangements.) But Gluek's: Open since 1902! Or 1927 or 1990, depending on how you want to calculate it. And a darn good burger, and exquisite woodwork. The Monte Carlo, further north in the Warehouse district, claims to have been open since 1906-- a great martini bar and they have the best chicken wings in Minneapolis. Don't know what it is about them, just big, salty, perfectly crisp, exactly right wings.
"And then, the steakhouses: Jax, in northeast Minneapolis, and The Lexington, in St. Paul: Both these steakhouses opened essentially the hour, the minute, and the second that Prohibition ended, and have been continually operating ever since. Truth be told they have pretty historically accurate menus: In 1930's people didn't go out for herring, they stayed in for herring and went out for steaks. I love both those places, and think any fan of history should visit them: They're completely period perfect. Historic."
- Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl
Read Dara's blog-tastic site at Minnesota Monthly, and don't forget about her book, Drink This: Wine Made Simple.
Dining With Dara: Is Pie the New Cupcake?
Posted at 7:23 AM on January 19, 2011
by Steve Seel
(2 Comments)
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Our food goddess Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl checks in for her usual Wednesday visit:
Is Pie the New Cupcake?
According to food-thinkers, pie is suddenly the new cupcake. According to the LA Times this week, "Americans ordered 722 million servings of pie at restaurants nationwide last year, an increase of 12 million slices over 2009, according to the NPD Group" a market research company. Meanwhile, according to the same company, "servings of cake -- propelled for the last few years by the cupcake craze -- were down at eateries and specialty bakeries last year in the U.S. And in homes, per capita consumption of cupcakes was down 18%."
I have no idea how this is measured. "Honey, how many cupcakes did you eat least month? 17.2? That was against last January's 19.7, wasn't it? That's what I thought..."
The ironic, or unfair, or whatever it is thing is that: Pie is ours, it's Midwestern. I've been particularly miffed to note that one of the leaders of the Pie revolution is a place run by two South Dakota sisters--in Brooklyn, New York. The bakery is called Four and Twenty Blackbirds, and the sisters are from Hecla, which is due west of Alexandria, on the South / North Dakota border, and I feel like they should be here, not in Brooklyn. But whatever. We have a lot of great authentically Midwestern pie, at our fingertips. Some avant-garde, some traditional.
Turtle Bread, home of the tart and fruit-ful Raspberry pie; they're opening a new location in Longfellow in late February or March.
Betty's Pies, in White Bear Lake, and soon the Mall of America. Yes, we all know Betty's as the best chocolate pie, lemon-meringue pie, and so on at the North Shore - but did you know they have a location in White Bear Lake? True! They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, kind of Minnesota diner food, and: Pie! I like their bumbleberry - that's blackberry, strawberry, blueberry, and raspberry. Have about 20 available every day. And they're bringing a sit-down location to the Mall of America! I talked to someone yesterday in Grand Marais who told me: They'll be here by spring.
Patrick's Bakery:
On the super-Foodie front: A French born Cordon-Bleu pastry teacher who opened his own French Patisserie in Richfield, but he has a respect for and way with classic Midwestern pies that is dazzling - like his lemon meringue tart, made with a classic egg-yolk and fresh-lemon lemon curd, and topped with a buoyant, super-fluffy meringue top.
Jerabek's in St. Paul... The best crust in town in my opinion, just unbelievably light and flaky. I love their classic apple, apple raspberry, cherry pie... Such good crusts!
And if you try all of those and still need more pie:
Norske Nook in Osseo - Classic high and sweet pie - volume, volume, volume. Chocolate mint. Coconut Pineapple Dream. Sour Cream Raisin - a classic Depression era pie. You can drive the 2.5 hours to Osseo for one - or you could drive the two hours to Eau Claire, where there's another location.
And if that seems too crazy to drive to the Norske Nook for pie - go crazier! Book a weekend at the "Chaos Water Park" at the Metropolis Resort in Eau Claire, and eat pie for every meal.
Sarah Jane's - Classic old-school Minnesota pies, I love the coconut cream (but I have a thing for those) the rhubarb custard is great too:
And if pie seems too small to go crazy over - you obviously missed last fall's internet sensation, the Cherpumple! Cherry, pumpkin, and apple pies--baked into the layers of a layer cake. Like a turducken, but made of pie. I don't know. It's winter. Everyone is going crazy - but somehow it seems nicer to go crazy with pie.
- Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl
Read Dara's blog-tastic site at Minnesota Monthly, and don't forget about her book, Drink This: Wine Made Simple.
Dining With Dara: Tranquility Dining
Posted at 8:21 AM on January 12, 2011
by Steve Seel
(3 Comments)
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Our food authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl checked in today for another edition of Dining With Dara. She says:
"In Honor of New Year's Resolution Season: It's he top 'Healthy, Peaceful, & Restorative Restaurants' in the Twin Cities.
Rice Paper
They've moved! To the Gold Coast of 50th and France, from sleepy little Linden Hills. It's the restaurant of the yoga kings - really, I've been in there when six of 10 tables had yoga mats looped over the back of the chair. So many Gluten Free & Veg. options ...
really light cooking, very little animal fat, flavors come from herbs, citrus, and savory elements like sesame seeds, tamarind paste, frizzled shallots and toasted peanuts.
I love the "Grapefruit Festivity", citrus sections 'a vif' with pac peo, (Vietnamese mint), and a light dressing, frizzled shallots - light as can be, and so energetic. There are a lot of grilled shrimp or meat or fried tofu options, very light puffs, dressings, rice. One of those places you leave feeling healthier than you went in. Owned by An Nguyen, the new location has a very nice expanded set of sake offerings.
Tanpopo
Inexpensive home-style Japanese food, very clean, light cooking, owned by native Japanese chef and owner Koshiki Yonemura, who has a very understated approach to a meal, everything that needs to be on the plate and not one single ingredient more - like Diana Vreeland's dictate that you get completely dressed, and take one thing off (it's more elegant that way!). The best agedashi tofu in town, which is, warmed tofu, covered with shaved bonito (dried tuna) flakes, pour hot broth in and the whole thing waves around in the cup like a sea anemone; it's like watching a fire. Very soothing.
They also have very good basic sushi, but just nice grilled-fish, house made pickles, salad, rice dinner.
Spoonriver
Chef Brenda Langton is totally underrated. She opened a vegetarian restaurant when she was about two seconds out of the U, in 1978, called Café Kardamema, then Café Brenda, then Spoonriver right next to the new Guthrie on the river - and what's more, she also founded the Mill City Farmer's Market. Brenda has always been on the forefront of the farm-to-table movement. She's also a Senior Fellow at the U of M's Center for Spirituality and Healing, and basically, she's the restaurant cardiologists send people too when they need to get the "healthy food" religion (and discover just how good it can be). Her plant-based dishes are just delicious: Broiled Fresh Salmon/Shrimp Okisuki, savory Ginger Broth, fresh udon noodles ... and a favorite: the Savory Wild Mushroom, Pistachio Terrine.
- Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl
Dining With Dara: Bars!
Posted at 8:15 AM on January 5, 2011
by Steve Seel
Filed under: Dining with Dara
No, not bars as in drinking establishments, but as in the sweet, simple, square treats you undoubtedly grew up with if you were born anywhere here in the Midwest. As it turns out, there's a new place in town that showcases all that is wonderful in this basic desserty, snacky staple - and in keeping with its pure Minnesota unpretentiousness, the establishment's name itself is simply Bars - and our food and wine critic Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl extolled it's glories this morning.
Dara writes about Bars here on her Minnesota Monthly blog, much better that we could.
Dining with Dara: 2010 Year in Review
Posted at 10:20 AM on December 22, 2010
by Jill Riley
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Dara's reflections on a few big trends of 2010
Rethinking Economics
*Victory 44 & Travail were the big news, with chefs as servers - no middleman of waiter means lower prices for you, 5 course meals are $30.
*Heartland, many others getting rid of middleman of produce/meat broker/wholesaler, buying direct from farmers = lower prices for you!
*Piccolo: Also rethinking economics, but getting rid of the big everything that is thought to make restaurant economics work, so, no big dining room, no big entrees, etc. The up side is limited (tiny 18 seat PIccolo will never bring in 4 million dollars a year, the way downtown all-you-can-eat steakhouse Fogo de Chao is said to do) but the down-side is too, and chef Doug Flicker has made a very sustainable place for him to practice his art.
Midwest pride!
*Heartland, everything super-local, and developing an all-local cuisine, with everything from wild plums to chicken of the woods mushrooms to outdoor-raised wild boar or Highland cattle.
*Au Bon Canard, local chefs at this point totally look down on the products of a lot of east coast producers, like Hudson Valley foie gras. We do it better!
*Vodka from Parallel 44 with a tractor on it - years ago it would have been faux-European (karkov!)
*10,000 Hills Grass Fed meat - embracing where we are, a grassland!
*The Midwest pride of Landon Schoenfeld's Haute Dish, with reimagined tuna noodle casserole (seared ahi tuna loin, a pea puree with wasabi, homemade pasta), reimagined mac-and-cheese (with king crab, and talleggio!), reimagined pork and beans (with big chunks of pork belly and beans as big as a checker), reimagined tater tots (homemade!) and so on...
Dining with Dara: The Gift of Chocolate
Posted at 10:39 AM on December 8, 2010
by Jill Riley
(1 Comments)
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Dara's Pick for the Best Stocking Stuffer of the Year
When I put Rogue Chocolate in my gift guide as one of the best presents you could possibly tuck into a stocking this year, I thought it was a no brainer: Rogue Chocolate, the extraordinary, the spectacular, the fantastic! But I was chastened when I got e-mails along the lines of: Omigod, this is the best chocolate ever, why didn't anyone tell me?!
To which I can only say: Apologies, those are the perils of news reporting, once a reporter reports she tends to move on. But in this case the news stays the same: Rogue Chocolatier's chocolate bars are some of the best you can buy, some of the rarest you can buy, and they're made right here in southeast Minneapolis in the world's smallest bean-to-bar factory.
Since 2007 when he started his operation with little more than passion for chocolate and a never-say-die attitude towards machinery, Gasko's operation has been moving in a positive direction: Rogue Chocolates are now sold all over the US, especially on the West coast. (For those with a New York City inferiority complex, please know that Gasko echoes a sentiment I've heard from other food artisans: 'There's not a lot going on in Manhattan right now. It's all chains.') The best distribution is still here in Minnesota however, at places including South Minneapolis' Sugar Sugar, the Surdyk's Cheese Shop, Golden Fig, France 44's Cheese Shop and the St. Paul Cheese Shop. You can also find Rogue chocolate in: Hot Chocolate at Kopplin's Coffee and in Chocolate Ice Cream at south Minneapolis' Pump House.
The gift to get this year is the Pura, a single-estate chocolate from a tiny cacao farm in northern Peru. Only 4 bags of beans came out of this estate this year, which Gasko will have translated into a mere 4,000 chocolate bars--once they're gone they're gone forever. This is not a marketing gimmick! They're not cheap, $10 for the Pura Bars, and $8 for the others, but they're as good as they get.
-Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl
Dining With Dara: Bite The Head Off Of Something Delicious
Posted at 8:25 AM on December 1, 2010
by Steve Seel
(1 Comments)
Filed under: Dining with Dara
This morning The Current's most excellent food and dining authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl shared a holiday tradition that you may or may not be entirely familiar with: manala, or little brioche men that are kinda like gingerbread men. Dara talked about their history (and even the slightly gruesome folklore behind them), and her favorite place to get them: Patrick's Bakery in the Edina/Richfield area.
(By the way, here's a link to some other holiday gift ideas Dara's been researching, over at Minnesota Monthly).
Also: Dara hits the town! She's got two public appearances coming up: one at Magers and Quinn Booksellers this Saturday, where she will sign copies of her book Drink This: Wine Made Simple and compare (or clash) opinions with food blogger Stuart Woodman of Shefzilla. Then on Monday, she's be appearaing at the Big Top Liquors Wine Club at The Lexington in St. Paul for a wine tasting.
Dining With Dara: Thanksgiving Edition
Posted at 8:30 AM on November 24, 2010
by Jill Riley
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Dara's suggestions for an "orphan" Thanksgiving:
All the foodies have their Thanksgivings squared away, turkeys are brining, pie recipes are all picked out. But what about the non-foodies? One of the most tragic and inspiring Thanksgivings I ever had was the year I contemplated Minnesota Thanksgiving after a break-up: I wasn't going to the family I usually spent time with, I was in no mood to go home to my parents, and frankly I turned down a couple of very nice invitations because I had this feeling that if I spent the holiday with any family I'd burst into tears. So I went to: The Poodle Club! The dive bar on Lake Street, now long gone. It was very satisfying, just a plate of pretty awful turkey, potatoes, and stuffing next to a gin and tonic. It all had a very devil-may-care independence about it: If this is as bad as life gets, this is actually pretty great. So, my top Thanksgiving-Out recommendations, for the Thanksgiving orphans: First the bars:
The Dakota:
One of the best restaurants in the Twin Cities, but also a jazz club and a very homey place to go solo. They are opening at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving, there will be live music at 7 from Davina and the Vagabonds, and you can order from their "Now and Later" menu till bar-close; they'll also be offering a turkey-slider in honor of turkey day. I wouldn't have a lot of hope for a Turkey slider if it wasn't that Jack Riebel, last year's winner of our Chef Challenge, was making it.
This turkey slider is stuffed with their own house-made jalapeno cheese, and topped with avocado, bacon, and chipotle aioli. It's a fancy Juicy Lucy for Thanksgiving! He's also making turkey gumbo, with local andouille sausage and wild rice. Pumpkin spice-cake with organic coconut custard and raisin sauce. Should be the best of both worlds, bar and fancy.
The Park Tavern:
Thanksgiving bowling! This is definitely for people who don't want a lot of Thanksgiving feelings and family stuff cluttering up their life; and you get a free hour of bowling with your meal! $12.95 per adult, beer extra; it runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Cooper:
The Irish pub in St. Louis Park that's part of the Kieran's/The Local empire is going to be open from 4 p.m. - 11 p.m.; They'll be serving a regular menu, and a special Thanksgiving turkey dinner for $12.99. I'll also point out that it's next to the splashy new Icon theater, the one that serves drinks! Maybe you want to make a day of it?
Next, the restaurants:
Cosmos:
The fanciest, most elaborate white-tablecloth Thanksgiving in town is to be had at the downtown Minneapolis Graves 601 hotel, in the 4th floor restaurant Cosmos. Chef Hakan Lundberg is sort of a chef's chef, because of his elaborate fine cooking; it's $45 a person, and valet parking is free.
Firelake:
The other Thanksgiving with a good reputation in town is the all-local one from downtown Minneapolis' FireLake; Wild Acres turkey, wild rice stuffing, cheddar mashed potatoes - the works.
And if not one of those: Check Open Table for the most comprehensive list of Thanksgiving offerings.
If none of the ones you want have spaces left, try the hotel Sofitel and it's restaurant Chez Collette, they're doing an elaborate buffet from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for $48 a person, and later a simpler turkey dinner for $26 a person.
And happy Thanksgiving, everyone! May your turkey be moist, your relatives kind, and your memories only happy ones. Or at least funny ones!
-Dara
**
Meet Dara at the Lexington!
I agreed to be part of Big Top Liquors' next wine club at the Lexington, and while I haven't yet figured out how to buy tickets (I'm technologically challenged!) I have figured out that the event looks pretty amazing: $20 will get you food and wine, wine I have mostly personally selected and endorsed, including my absolute favorite real French rosé Champagne. See you there?
-Dara
Dining With Dara: Nouveau Beaujolais
Posted at 9:10 AM on November 17, 2010
by Steve Seel
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Our food and wine expert Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl checks in today with some new, fruity, lovely wine on her mind:
"We don't talk about wine too much, but tomorrow marks the most amusing wine holiday of the year, the release of the Nouveau Beaujolais.
This is basically a winemaker's harvest ritual, it's the new wine, wine that was grapes just a few short weeks ago - in September, actually. People in Beaujolais pick the Gamay grapes, turn them into wine as fast as they possibly can, and then release the wine the third Thursday in November, which is tomorrow! It started out as a thing that was done by and for wine-harvesters, sort of like how you eat the first lumpy pancake out of the pan, but then it got a lot of marketing heft behind it, and now it's sort of controversial, some wine snobs say it's overrated. I think that's silly, it's like saying candy apples or pumpkin pie are overrated - they're harvest foods, and I like that they are.
There's a bunch of local Minnesota events attending the release:
The craziest is that on Friday night the French American Chamber of Commerce is putting on a huge gala ball at the Marquette hotel - they're making a French village at the top of the IDS tower, there will be dancers and clowns and flowers and the mayor of the village of Beaujolais will be here! Not kidding. Tickets are a hundred and ten bucks at the door, but I think everyone around the city should look at the IDS tower Friday night and go: Wow, there's a French village up there tonight:
A bunch of local restaurants are having special wine-pairing meals:
Grand Café Minneapolis: Is having a celebration happy hour Thursday night, and a celebration four course dinner all weekend.
Sofitel in Bloomington: Will be sampling the wine from noon tomorrow, and is doing a three-course dinner,
Café Barbette in Uptown: Will be doing a 4 course dinner all weekend, new chef Kevin Kathmann, a long time French Laundry veteran, has made this one of my favorite restaurants of the year, you can have French onion soup, beignets, coq au vin - and the new wine!
Haskell's, the liquor store, is hosting a Beaujolais Nouveau dinner at 3 Tiers bakery in south Minneapolis.
It's also just a nice to drink some on your own. Make a nice French dinner, or just a nice dinner, maybe rent a French movie and eat a baguette and some brie with a glass of wine on your couch? I have only tasted one of the 2010 Beaujolais Nouveau so far, L'Ancien Beaujolais from "Terres Dorrees"; it's a small French estate producer that only uses wild yeasts - this is a big deal in wine circles, sort of the difference between making bread from a sourdough starter or from storebought yeast, one makes a deeper tasting bread, one a sweeter bread. Anyway, this is a stunner of a wine: The juicy freshness is balanced by a roast game and dry coffee quality, the fresh grapiness isn't masked though, it feels vital and fresh in a good way. It costs a little more than most, $16 versus the $10 that most Beaujolais Nouveau run, but that's how it goes. I also think the Beaujolais Nouveau is a fun thing to bring out for Thanksgiving, because it's so juicy it goes pretty well with all the sweet foods like cranberry sauce and the bland foods like mashed potatoes and turkey. If you want to try a bottle yourself, most good wine shops should stock some Nouveau Beaujolais, but I typically find the best selection is at France 44 on the Minneapolis/Edina border."
- Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl
Dining WIth Dara: Soup Is Good Food
Posted at 8:19 AM on November 10, 2010
by Steve Seel
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Apparently, cold and flu season is already upon us. Today, The Current's food authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl talked about the best soups around the Twin Cities for what ails you. But first, did you know that it's been scientifically proven that chicken soup cures colds? Yes, by real scientists, not, like, the Campell's Soup kind.
Dara says:
"A University of Nebraska doctor and research scientist ran a test in which he made chicken soup from his wife's recipe, fed it to people, and measured things in their blood.
He found: There's a body of evidence saying that the symptoms of colds come not from the germs from colds, but from our own immune system's super-overresponse to the cold. People who ate chicken soup had less inflamation, because their white blood cells migrated less freely. So they had less suffering! And while the researchers tested homemade chicken soup they found that canned also had some good effects.
Below are my picks for best soups in several categories around the Twin Cities.
Best Matzoh Ball Soup!
There seems to be a raging war in town between the Matzoh Ball soup at the Crossroads Deli in Hopkins (my favorite) which has soft-ball sized matzoh balls and a carrot- and chicken-heavy broth, and the chicken soup at Cecil's in St. Paul, the old-school St. Paul Jewish deli. Cecil's has smaller matzoh balls and a less everything-and-the-chicken-sink sort of soup - which will be seen as a positive or negative, depending on your own personal history. Another option: The Matzoh ball soup at Yum, in St. Louis Park, which they helpfully sell by the gallon - well actually, the ¾'s gallon, ¾'s of a gallon of soup can be yours to take out for $40, though Matzoh balls are extra. I think this is the thing to get if your whole family is really, really sick.
Spice!
If you have a totally-stuffed up head though, nothing can be better than a super-hot soup. Why? The stuff that makes chili peppers hot, Capsaicin (cap-SAY-sin), and the stuff that makes wasabi or horseradish hot, allyl isothiocyanate, make your nose run - it's a response meant to eliminate bad things from the body. And one of the bad things it can eliminate is a head cold. Some of my favorite super-spicy soups:
The Pozole at Taqueria Los Ocampo--I like the chicken one, it comes with a little side of pickled jalapenos, and powdered dried chili peppers so you can keep seasoning it until you feel something.
The Beef in Spicy Szechuan Broth at Little Szechuan in St. Paul - this stuff is just blood red, so chili-soaked it looks like it staggered out of a horror film. But so good... If this stuff can't beat your head cold you should be airlifted to a hospital. Or a spa. At least to your mom's house.
A Korean kimchee hotpot like the good ones at Eagan's Hoban.
Pho!
Pho. The best Pho in the metro is controversial, because we have a lot of great makers of the classic Vietnamese soup, my favorites are probably Ngon Bistro in St. Paul - just the richest broth, and good local farm ingredients--and Quang in St. Paul. There's actually a vegetarian pho place in Dinkytown, KimBinh.
Borscht!
The scientist who proved that Chicken soup is good for you used a Lithuanian recipe - and Eastern Europeans just seem to have a little special insight into good soups. The best Borscht in the Cities is one of these three:
The very beefy one at Kramarczuk, in nordeast Minneapolis, the richer, beet-ier one at Moscow on the Hill in St. Paul, or maybe St. Petersburg, in Robbinsdale. The good thing about St. Petersburg is that if the borscht doesn't fix what ails you, the honey-pepper vodka will. Or it will maybe it will make you forget your cold entirely?
- Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl
Dining With Dara: Best Wine Bars In Minnesota
Posted at 12:03 PM on November 3, 2010
by Steve Seel
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Our food authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl is also an accomplished writer on wine as well (the writing in her book Drink This: Wine Made Simple has won the prestigious James Beard Award). Still, we haven't talked much about wine with her, since she finds it to be awkward to discuss on the radio. But Dara is more than happy to list her favorite wine bars in the Twin Cities region, and that's what we discussed today.
We talked about three regional establishments, and there are a few we didn't quite get to, but which Dara believes deserve special note as well. Here's the master list:
Rochester: Sontes (Dara's all-around favorite)
Minneapolis: Townes Wine Bar
Stillwater: Domacin
St. Paul: Meritage (just about to expand, as well)
Others of note (not discussed on air), in Dara's words:
"In St. Paul, WA Frost has a wide-ranging, really good selection, and I think the best cheese-selection in Minnesota. In Uptown Minneapolis both Lucia's and Café Barbette have definitely spectacular wine-lists in a very low key way. If you're looking for single-country lists, Solera in downtown Minneapolis has a comprehensive Spanish wine list that's excellent, with the state's best sherry options. In Lilydale, south of St. Paul, Osteria I Nonni has the state's greatest Italian wine list. It's Greek to Me has our greatest Greek wine list; Black Forest the greatest German wine list. But who has our greatest French wine list? As of this morning it's probably Vincent, on Nicollet Mall, but in two weeks that could change."
Below is the audio from this morning's segment.
Dining With Dara: Dara's Top 3 New Restaurants of 2010
Posted at 8:49 AM on October 27, 2010
by Steve Seel
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Last week, Dara started sharing some of here picks for Top Ten New Twin Cities Restaurants of 2010, as featured in this month's new issue of Minneosta Monthly. This week, we focused on her top 3 picks: Travail in Robbinsdale, Piccolo in South Minneapolis, and Heartland in downtown St. Paul. The audio of our conversation is below.
Dining With Dara: Charcuterie
Posted at 8:14 AM on October 13, 2010
by Steve Seel
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What is charcuterie, and why should you care about it? Well, our fab foodie Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl explains, it's all around us - you just might not have known the name. Basically, it's cured meat - ham, salami, prosciutto, and on and on - but oh, is it so much more too. Why is it significant to us here in Minnesota? Dara write's about it in her blog here, and below is the audio from this morning's segment.
Dining With Dara: World Street Kitchen
Posted at 8:08 AM on October 6, 2010
by Steve Seel
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Seems there are more and more gourmet mobile kitchens popping up around the Twin Cities lately; vans, trucks or campers modified with stovetops and grills, serving up fare that's way more interesting than your standard hot dogs and hamburgers. Today, our food czarina Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl discussed World Street Kitchen, run by Sameh Wadi, the man also behind Saffron. Sameh also happens to be a veteran of Iron Chef.
Dining With Dara: Heartland
Posted at 7:51 AM on September 29, 2010
by Steve Seel
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This morning our Queen of Cuisine Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl stopped in for her regular Wednesday chat on the Morning Show, and this week, we discussed Heartland (now in its new location in downtown St. Paul). Dara talked about it from two angles: what it is physicaly ("huge, a farm, and a market") and conceputually ("a utopian realization of a truly local cuisine").
Dining With Dara: The Restaurant As Bohemian Paradise
Posted at 1:38 PM on September 22, 2010
by Steve Seel
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Ever worked in a restaurant? Jill and I are willing to bet it wasn't all fluffy clouds and rainbows; usually, the grind of a restaurant is predominently stressful and often cynical, with only the occasional touches of fun (much less anything resembling personal fulfillment). Our resident food goddess Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, however, has discovered a local restaurant where the staff attacks their craft with a passion and drive usually reserved for beat poets and abstract expressionist painters: Travail, in Robbinsdale. The waiters and the chefs are one in the same, they come with ample tattoos and DIY sensibility, and they serve shockingly affordable food whose recipes have been borne from an almost perverse dedication to pure, unadulterated culinary joy. Dara's article in this month's Minnesota Monthly was our starting point ... below is the audio link to hear this morning's radio segment.
Dining With Dara: Best Italian In the Twin Cities
Posted at 8:04 AM on September 15, 2010
by Steve Seel
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Our food czar Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl checked in this morning with a daunting task: to determine the best Italian food in the Twin Cities. Her thoughts:
"Twin Cities Italian dining has been staid, even pretty dull the last few years. But what's the best of the best?
"This question came up for me because that terrible Uptown underperformer, Il Gatto (the former Figlio) up and hired super-chef Tim McKee to come in and reform their operations. He installed chef Jim Christianson, long time sous at Sea Change, and shook up the line, and the food is suddenly radically better. I had a oil cured swordfish with heirloom tomatoes that was just devastating - fresh and fishy and deep and amazing! The swordfish itself is sort of like a halfway point between pork tenderloin and good sushi mackerel, it's meaty and wonderful. I also had amazing radishes dressed with this orange zest and anchovy vinaigrette - sounds wonderful, tasted spectacular. And the fritto misto: Plump bits of fried scallops, crisp calamari, dewy shrimp, chunks of zucchini, just wonderful in every way. Also lots of very advanced pizzas, ones with guanciale and figs, another with buratta, basil and rapini pesto, and pine nuts."
Punch, Highland Park:
"I love all the Punch pizzas, but the Highland park sit-down one is a class apart, it has better wines, like vintage Chiantis under $30, better salads, and phenomenal calzones, like one stuffed with ricotta made from water buffalo milk from Italy, and tomatoes."
Buon Giorno, in Lilydale:
"From a St. Paul Italian family, the Marchiondas, Buon Giorno makes: The best house made sausage, available raw to grill yourself of cooked and smothered with their good red sauce on various sandwiches or on pasta, they make great pans of eggplant parmigiano to go, good porchetta, and have a deli case (with all the various antipasti, the prosciuttos and grilled vegetables and lardo and everything!) that makes me want to weep. Great olive selections. And it's attached to the best Italian wine market in the metro. I like the restaurant attached to it, Osteria I Nonni, but I always like the market even more."
Broder's Pasta Bar, Minneapolis:
"I hate to even bring this place up because you can't get in there it's so good: But the best pasta in the city is to be had at Broder's Pasta bar, where they make the pasta from scratch constantly, and chef Michael Rostance keeps it simple. Fettucini bolognese, with the softest, plainest, best meat sauce ever, just tender as can be. Love! Fettucini with clams. Lasagna with mint and lamb. The best pesto imaginable, fresh and big and like a whole mountainside of basil distilled to a point. But saying Broder's is good is like saying water is wet. This is not new news, and not maybe actionable. This sommelier I know wrote me an e-mail to say: I got into Broder's! No wait! I replied: When? He was like: five o'clock on a Monday night! Give me a break. But it's amazing."
Dining With Dara: Best Fish In the Cities
Posted at 8:07 AM on September 8, 2010
by Steve Seel
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Our chief foodie Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl checked in today with her picks for the best seafood in the Twin Cities (as also featured in this month's issue of Minnesota Monthly, where Dara is a Senior Editor). Dara says: "We may have 14,000 lakes, but still Minnesota has a lousy reputation for fish. Undeservedly!"
"Overall: Sea Change has utterly altered the fish-situation in the Twin Cities since it opened, now the freshest fish in town is often not sushi, per se, but the more inventive crudo-like preparations here, such as the truly exquisite raw langoustines with olive oil and herb flowers, they taste like a sunbeam glinting off a wave on the bay."
Single-item specialty: It's the year of the lobster roll!
"The lobster roll at Meritage last summer gave the Twin Cities the one thing it desperately needed, that definitive taste of Cape Cod, Maine, and Nova Scotia without the trouble of the plane ticket."
"Meanwhile, the Smack Shack (4th and First Avenue N., Minneapolis) has an ex-Goodfellow's chef making lobster rolls to order for your after-bar pleasure. Except they're having mechanical issues so they're not there right now. Complicated."
Fish & Chips:
"The Anchor Fish & Chips in NE continues to be the hardest table to snag in Minneapolis - and for good reason, the sustainably caught Cod fillets, as big as your forearm, are greaseless, crisp, so good in every way. It just feels right."
Local: "The spectacular fried smelt at Red Stag: Crisp as chips, gobbleable, you eat the whole thing and the bones are so good for you, full of calcium. Was in Wisconsin this summer and tried a couple local smelt fries out there - nowhere near as good as the Red Stag's. They also have a very nice sustainable Friday night fish fry, your choice of bluegills, cod, or rockfish (or, if you want to splash out a little more money, scallops!)"
Catch your own: "I love the fish from local fish-farm Star Prairie--and I love that you can go there and fish. Such a pretty part of Wisconsin: And They'll provide the fishing pole, the bait, buckets, you don't need a license, then they'll clean the fish for you! $8 a pound for a trophy fish, $6 a pound for a smaller one. Bring a picnic lunch. Pack a bottle of Champagne! It's right by New Richmond Wisconsin, about an hour and a half from downtown Minneapolis."
Dining With Dara: Some State Fair Food Alternatives
Posted at 7:33 AM on September 1, 2010
by Steve Seel
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Sure, the Minnesota State Fair is most famous for its ever weirder and more, uh, adventurous food offerings (read "borderline gross"). While that's the stuff the media usually assumes you're just dying to try when you head to the great Minnesota get-together, what about those of us who want something different? Say, something actually interesting and delicious that's not ambitiously silly and batter fried? Our food savior Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl helped us out this morning. Dara's picks:
1) Peaches and cream parfaits from Salty Tart - layers of fresh peach and peach compote interleaved with coconut water and Greek yogurt soft serve.
2) Sausage-stuffed fresh jalapenos by the Sausage Sisters, in the food building. "I love the Sausage Sisters, and really miss that they're no longer at the Minneapolis Farmers' market. But I can still get my old world Minnesota fix at the fair, so that's what I'm going to do. Baked jalapeño stuffed with a green chile sausage and Monterey Jack cheese, wrapped in bacon," Dara notes.
3) A big pineapple full of a non-alcoholic piña colada, at Manny's Torta's! Which is part of the Midtown Global Market at the fair. "This, by the by, also looks to be the vegetarian hotspot of this fair-going season."
4) Caribbean Food: Jerk chicken Roti at Harry Singh's in the Food Building. Roti Dhalpourie (soft toasted flat bread) served with jerk chicken or curry chicken, Jamaican jerk chicken wings, Trinidadian "doubles" (two pieces of bara bread filled with curried chick peas, hot sauce and chutney), jerk chicken on-a-stick, peanut punch, Caribbean punch, ginger beer.
Dara notes some of the classics: Cheese curds, cream puffs, French fries, roasted corn, but says "I'll pass" on most of the gimmicky stuff.
Dining With Dara: The Staff Of Life
Posted at 8:30 AM on August 25, 2010
by Steve Seel
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What is it about South Minneapolis that makes us such a fantastic bread-baking city, on a national level? Our food authority Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl investigated this week. First, she talked about the new kid on the block, Patisserie 46, but she also discussed the confections served up at Turtle Bread Company and Rustica.
Dining With Dara: Haute Dish
Posted at 7:32 AM on August 18, 2010
by Steve Seel
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Our culinary czarina Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl stopped in this morning to talk with us about Haute Dish, the Minneapolis warehouse-disctrict eatery where Midwestern comfort food meets culinary inventiveness. We also discussed why new blood and fresh talent is vital to the health and growth of the dining experience, just like any other art form.
Dining With Dara: Some Very Social Ice Cream
Posted at 6:59 AM on August 11, 2010
by Steve Seel
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Why should kids have all the fun? Today, Dara talked about some Ice-cream for grown-ups around the Twin Cities. She mentioned:
1) Guiness-vanilla ice-cream float at Crema Café. They also have a full wine list, and Dara got to wondering how a glass of prosecco with a scoop of fresh black-currant sorbet would be.
2) Burger Jones: Baroque, mad ice-cream drinks, with ice-cream and everything you can think of: ("Southern Belle": Creations with Jim Beam, Peach Schnapps, Nilla Wafers, peaches; "Revenge of the Nerds," with Cruzan Raspberry Rum, strawberry, vanilla & Nerds - lots of Nerds; and the "Naughty Girl Scout," with Creme De Menthe, Creme De Cocao, chocolate sauce and mint)
3) Town Talk Diner: Serious ice-cream drinks - the Monkey business (with chocolate ice-cream, banana liqueur, peanut butter, and bourbon) is like eating the inside of a thousand Christmas candies. And the English float, with Young's Double Chocolate Stout and chocolate ice-cream is about as elite foodie as an ice-cream drink is going to get.
4) Ike's: A full range of classic ice-cream cocktails, the Pink Squirrel, Brandy Alexander, Grasshopper.
5) The real classics - Nye's! Jax! The Lex! The Chanhassen Dinner Theater! You'd be hard-pressed to find a classic Minnesota supper-club that would deny you a Brandy Alexander.
Dining With Dara: Time Travel!
Posted at 7:51 AM on August 4, 2010
by Steve Seel
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Our favorite foodie Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl stopped by for her regular Wednesday chat, and as we talked Art Deco dining last week with The Forum, she put together a list of other historical dining locales this week.
We started with the question: Can you dine in Minnesota in 1850's style, when we were barely a territory? "Yes you can!" Dara says, " At the Hubbel House, in Mantorville. Literally an old Stagecoach stop, General U.S. Grant stayed here! Been going since 1856. And while culinarily this place doesn't have a lot to recommend it - though you can literally get a steak covered in cheddar cheese - it's so adorable, it's so historical..."
Then we skipped to Minnesota's next prosperous era, lumber-milling and railroad Victorian times, which led to a great explosion of building and more building in the cities', especially St. Paul. So: Forepaugh's! Beautifully restored mansion packed to the gills with priceless antiques, brocade this, polished oak that, museum quality everything, it's like getting to eat dinner inside the fanciest period room at the MIA. Food is very expensive and very exquisite, chef Donald Rodriguez spent time cooking at California's French Laundry, the best restaurant in America, and makes the best beef Wellington I've had in my life - fancy pastry, really nice piece of meat, and so on. But so worth getting a drink.
From there we jumped to Art Moderne. What's that? You know the classic Airstream trailer with its swooping lines, old Studebaker cars, things like that? It was the 1940's evolution of Art Deco, and in Minnesota we have a great representation in what used to be called the Farmer's and Mechanic's Bank in downtown Minneapolis, but is now the restaurant of a Westin hotel called capital B.A.N.K. "It's amazing, amazing architecture: Acres of burnished maple, these sort of swooping chandeliers, and a really fantastic place to get a drink. They do true vintage drinks, like a Trader Joe's Mai Tai, fancy new drinks like a fresh blackberry sidecar - wonderful," Dara says.
For the 1950's, Dara mentioned the Convention Grill in Edina, and the Dairiette Drive-In on Minnehaha in St. Paul. For the 1960's Sputnik/Jetson's space-age, there's the other Mickey's diner, the one at 1950 Seventh St W in St. Paul (close to the airport edge of the city) or Nye's, the gold-flecked Polka Palace in Northeast Minneapolis.
For the 1970's, "of course it's Mancini's Char House in St. Paul. Looks like John Travolta could stroll in in his white suit at any second. Other than that: it's a great affordable steakhouse. And don't go there if you're a vegetarian, or you're going to have a baked potato for dinner."
Dining With Dara: Food At Music Venues
Posted at 12:24 PM on July 14, 2010
by Jill Riley
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This week, Dara chatted with us about music venues that have great food!
The Dakota:
Jack Riebel is one of the most talented and well respected chefs in the Twin Cities. He won this year's Minnesota Food and Wine Experience Chef Challenge, he used to be a chef at Goodfellow's, and headed the Stillwater La Belle Vie for a while.
This weekend, they're having a free - that's right, free! - Jazz Fest with free concerts from noon to ten o'clock at night. There will be about a million activities for everyone: Jazz everything from experimental to very traditional (Adam Levy's new electronica folk project Liminal Phase, hip-hop artist Desdamona, the newest talented Neville family member, Charmaine Neville, Cuban pianist Nachito Herrera) and great food for adults, and then all these activities for kids, a Heart of the Beast puppet-making workshop, face painting, jugglers, stilt-walkers - pretty amazing. It's all to celebrate the Dakota's 25th Anniversary.-Dara
First Avenue:
First Ave just opened a restaurant inside called: The Depot! It's already becoming kind of famous for its bacon-wrapped, deep fried hot dog called the Diamond Dog, but they also have a lot of vegetarian options, like portabello mushroom sliders, giant State-Fair sized portions of French Fries, served with Mayo, if you want,just like you're in Belgium! And all in all this is good news for everyone except the downtown Pizza Lucé. -Dara
Honey:
Across the street from Nye's is a newish fusion restaurant called Ginger Hop (it's sister restaurant to Uptown's stylish northern Thai spot Chiang Mai Thai) and below Ginger Hop is: Honey! Used to be the old Jitters. And now it's a groovy jazz lounge with a mellow, international focus (French Café Accordion music, "Gypsy Jazz", R&B covers, things like that) sexy cocktails like "death in the afternoon" (absinthe and Champagne) , live shows and a pretty great menu: Asparagus risotto, a chocolate tasting menu, it's not the best food in town but it's really fun. -Dara
Sauce Spirits & Soundbar:
The food thing is becoming more and more important for music spots, Sauce Spirits and Soundbar opened at the corner of Lake and Lyndale with a pretty elaborate menu for a bar that has shows - I like their red sauce and anything that's drowned in it, like their chicken parmesan sandwich. It's definitely not: Drive in from Minnetonka to go to Sauce Spirits and Soundbar, but if you're at a show and didn't have time to eat dinner it's just unspeakably convenient. -Dara
Dining With Dara: Street Food
Posted at 10:40 AM on June 9, 2010
by Steve Seel
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This morning Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl talked with Steve about some of the many mobile eateries that have sprung up around the Twin Cities in the past year or so. Here are the ones they discussed, plus an extra or two.
Chef Shack:
Helmed by Lisa Carlson, a chef with serious international credentials, she once cooked at the London 2 Michelin-star restaurant L'Escargot. Where? Mill City Farmer's Market on Saturdays; Kingfield Farmer's Market (Nicollet & 43rd) on Sundays. Other locations now and then, follow on Twitter & Facebook to figure out where.
Magic Bus Café:
Former chef from D'Amico Cucina, chef de cuisine of their catering, also worked at Lucias, Bobino, and more. A big purple bus; you can't miss it. Where: Many scheduled events, at magicbuscafe.com, esp. Midtown Farmer's Market. Menu items: Mainly super-gourmet hot-dogs, and some awesome organic sauerkraut.
LocoVores BBQ:
Jim Kyndberg (ex Bayport Cookery) with a big flame-painted (as in Harley-Davidson) bakery truck, drives around and makes dishes like roast pork on navajo flatbread.
Where: Follow it on Facebook.
Barrio Truck:
Also follow it on Facebook & Twitter, it's got tacos, crab empanadas, chicken wings, potato spes, corn chowder, all the things you love from the restaurants - on a truck!
She Royal Coffee:
Mobile Ethiopian restaurant, with fair trade coffee!, brand new. Attached to an Ethiopian restaurant of the same name in SE mpls, near the U.
Foxy Falafel:
Falafel & pedal powered smoothies! At NE, Kingfield, and Uptown Farmers' markets.
Follow it on: Facebook.
And the one that literally drove off into the sunset ...
Curbside:
Really cute airstream trailer ... but they're gone! Moved to San Francisco. The perils of a mobile restaurant.
Dining With Dara: Let's Eat Outside!
Posted at 1:17 PM on June 2, 2010
by Steve Seel
(2 Comments)
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Our culinary queen Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl joined us this morning for a chat about outdoor and patio dining in the Twin Cities, now that the weather is awesome and it seems a crime to eat under a roof. I'd aksed her, "what are your favorite restaurants that also have patios?" Dara responded by getting even more creative, of course: she took us on a tour "around the world" to "7 patios that represent the 7 continents." Here's where Dara took us (her words in quotes):
1) North America: Victory 44
"This is a restaurant that's totally chef-driven: There are 2 or 3 cooks there all the time, they meet the farmers, take in the product, invent the menu, greet you at the door, tell you about the food, pull your beer, and so on and so forth. And they have a beautiful patio and: Foie gras hot dogs!"
2) Africa: The Barbary Fig
"Moroccan food (that is, north African) on Grand Avenue in St. Paul, Tthe Barbary Fig is famous for dishes like their tagine of lentils, that big pointy-hat-shaped cooker, couscous and merguez sausage, and all kinds of vegetarian african dishes. They even have north african wine, it's very inky and raisiny, but good."
3) South America:
"Lot of options. Café Ena or La Chaya Bistro. Or either Barrio, the one on Mears Park or the one on Nicollet Mall. And Masa!"
4) Australia: Longfellow Grill
"The original chef and current owner of the Longfellow Grill, Edina Grill, Highland Grill restaurants is from Australia, but the Longfellow one in Minneapolis right by the Mississippi has the prettiest patio, views of the river, and so on. If you want to eat Australian food get "Peter's Burger", which is reportedly just like the burger at Peter's by the Sea in Perth, Australia. And the fish and chips has Australian batter!"
5) Asia: Moto-i
"The United States' first sake brew pub, that is, they make sake on site, is in Minneapolis at Moto I. And they have the prettiest roof-top patio, plenty of tables, good rice-buns, and amazing sake. One of my favorite places in town."
6) Europe: Domacin Wine Bar
"We could do a whole show on this, but my pick right now is the Domacin wine bar in Stillwater, a truly underrated place with a spectacular patio. I like it because the food is very straightforward, really high quality ingredients, and the wine list is probably the best in the state. As of last night they had 400 bottles and not bottom shelf dreck, the good stuff that makes wine collectors go Oh really, you have that? I've never tried that...
7) Antarctica:
"There is no antarctica! But there is ice-cream. Crema, the home of Sonny's ice-cream in south Minneapolis, has the most romantic patio, it's all scrolling iron-work, arches, frescoes - it's room with a view, but supplied with local organic ice-cream and sorbet. I go nuts over their oddball flavors, like sweet corn ice cream, or pine needle sorbet, but their vanilla is, to me, the standard by which all other vanillas must be judged. And wine! They have a wine list. Most romantic ice-cream date ever."
Dining With Dara: Minnesota Caribbean
Posted at 7:49 AM on May 26, 2010
by Steve Seel
(2 Comments)
Filed under: Dining with Dara
Our favorite foodie Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl paid us her weekly visit this morning, and today we discussed Caribbean food choices in the Twin Cities. You'd be surprised how many there are.
Listen to our conversation:
Puerto Rico: Caribe
Jamaica: Smalley's BBQ
Trinidad: Harry Singh's
Dara notes: "Also from Trinidad: Marla's (who is actually Harry's sister), on the corner of 38th and Bloomington in South Minneapolis; Cuban food at Victor's 1959 , and, in the Midtown Global Market, a Trinidadian/Jamaican wonder called West Indies Soul; their curries are really good, especially the curried chicken and curried goat."
Dining With Dara: Ice Cream Mania
Posted at 7:17 AM on May 19, 2010
by Steve Seel
(1 Comments)
Filed under: Dining with Dara
The Morning Show's resident foodie Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl was with us this morning as she is every Wednesday at 8:30, and today we discussed the fantastic array of ice cream purveyors around the Twin Cities. The shops we discussed:
Cafe Kem: Just opened on Eat Street by the MIA.
Sonny's Ice-Cream at Crema Cafe: For Dara's money, one of the country's best ice-cream parlors, this little spot on the corner of 24th street and Lyndale in South Minneapolis has been going strong since before World War 2.
Gelato: Jackson's Gelato and Ring Mountain Gelato
Frozen custard: Adele's and Liberty Frozen Custard And "the best Root-Beer Float in the state" says Dara has to be at the (forgettably named) Drive-In, in Taylor's Falls, where they make their own root-beer, serve it in a frosty mug and top it with a big scoop of vanilla ice-cream.
Please Welcome: Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl!
Posted at 10:14 AM on February 3, 2010
by Steve Seel
Filed under: Dining with Dara
We're excited to begin a new weekly check-in this morning with food and wine expert extraordinaire Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, who will stop by every Wednesday at 8:30am to chat with us about all things food- and wine-themed in the Twin Cities and beyond. Dara is the dining critic (and also Senior Editor) at Minnesota Monthly magazine, where you can read her Dear Dara blog (locals may also remember her for her highly-regarded tenure as food critic for Citypages for many years as well). Previously, Dara has also been on the Current's airwaves to chat about her new book, Drink This: Wine Made Simple.
We look forward to chatting with Dara about anything and everything culinary and oenophilic in the weeks to come. Today, we talked about two things she's covered recently in her Dear Dara blog: the evolution of high quality cheap eats, and a local restaurant that has recently done away with its servers (!).
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