Catch Up Part 1: Corner Table, St. Patrick's Day

I've been away for a while.  I'm catching up in these next couple of posts.  Enjoy!

Last Wednesday I went to Corner Table with  about 40 other food bloggers.  We not only ate amazing food, we also got to cook it!  Big thanks to Chef Scott, Dan for turning over the kitchen to a bunch of foodies and to Gordon the bartender who kept me in Cava all night.

On St. Patrick's Day, I cooked up some of the sausage I got at Corner Table.  Inspired by Kate,  who did this in the Corner Table kitchen, I also cooked up some cabbage, apples and onions.  I served this with a half a baked potato for dinner.  For dessert we had Sister Mary's Irish Soda Bread - on top of which I sprinkled turbinado sugar  before baking.  I served it with the Chocolate Ice Cream my son insisted we also make.  He's three. What am I gonna say, no?  We used Thomas Keller's recipe and will never use another.  SO GOOD.  (Seriously, buy that book.)  

I drank Snakebites.  Guinness and Woodchuck Granny Smith Cider.  Yum.

This year's pour was much better than last year's.

Brunch at Cafe Maude

If you live near or visit Minneapolis soon, do yourself a favor and go to Cafe Maude.  Dinner is wonderful.  Drinks are great.  Music is often live.  Brunch looks like this:

Your check comes in an old library book jacket.  And sometimes people don't write their names inside, they tape an old picture!  Cool.

LOLA

There's a new restaurant in town, and if you live anywhere near Minneapolis,  you need to get yourself there.  Pizzeria LOLA at 56th and Xerxes is fantastic.  Interesting combinations of ingredients (and Old Reliables) sit upon perfect crusts and sauce cooked in a gorgeous copper covered fire-only oven.  They have a really nice wine list with a variety of price points ($5 - $12/glass, $21 - $35/bottle, plus two sparkling offerings), and their beer list just added Surly - a fact that makes me super happy. They also serve  a variety of soft drinks, including Mexican Coke.  

All they serve for entrees is pizza.  Perfect, lovely, oven-fired pizza.  However, I need to also comment on the awesome starters.  These are genius.  They are exactly what I want when I'm having pizza.  Sure, a side salad will round out your pizza dinner nutritionally, but wouldn't you rather have roasted Brussels sprouts, butternut squash and chippolini onions ($9)?  I know I did.  I had a hard time deciding between that and the Roasted Baby Beets with mixed greens, Montchevre  & hazelnuts ($11).  These dishes are big enough for two to share, veggie-laden (though you can also get meatballs, antipasti, tuna or olives), warm, comforting, and very well paired with pizza.

Loves me some B Sprouts.

For our pizza selections, my children and I split an Old Reliable (House red sauce, mozzarella and pecorino -$10), and a Seasonal Pie (butternut squash, spaghetti squash, brown butter, Taleggio and sage - $15).)  Both were delicious.  Like, I had to close my eyes delicious.  I especially noticed the sauce on the Old Reliable - not too sweet like most Minnesota pizzas I've run into. 

 I was also given a little ramekin with four different olives as an amuse bouche.  I appreciate this very much, and think it's a lovely gesture.  I brought them home with the leftovers for my husband - the only olive eater in the house.  The pizza, by the way, does very well reheated in the oven for a few minutes.  Not as good as at the table, of course, but I wouldn't disgrace it with a microwaving.  Far too excellent to nuke.

As for the space, it's great.  What could be a small, cafeteria-like space is transformed into a cozy community of diners.  The bar is tucked in the back and lined with copper.  Muted Korean animae plays on a flat-screen.  The staff is right there for patrons to chat with and watch (a favorite place of mine and my parents' for this very reason - must sit there next time), and the bar wall is backlit and muted-bright.  Great lighting.  The floor of the restaurant is shiny (I know this because I had to look for a crayon a couple of times), and it holds a few two and four top tables and is lined with booths that aren't booths.  They're tables with chairs, separated by half walls.  It's kinda brilliant.  A great mix of music plays at just the right volume.  Inverted tomato cans dot the ceiling  in their second incarnation as light fixtures.  The staff is helpful, knowledgeable and kind.  Sure, it was a little bit of a wait to get a table (maybe 10 minutes), but they don't take reservations and I was there an hour and a half into opening night.  It'll all work out.  In fact, on day five, I bet it already has.

Chef Ann Kim wore a flower in her hair on opening night.  Servers station is reflected in the copper oven. 

Lights!

There were very few things I'd change, all in all.  I had two glasses of Sauvignon Blanc, but was never given water - this is partially my fault, as I never remembered to ask when my server was there.   Apparently I like wine better than water.  This is not new information for anyone.  As for eating at LOLA with kids, I'd suggest offering a smaller sized Old Reliable at a lower price point ($5?).  For the awesome quality of this food, I'd probably pay a higher "kids menu item" price for a smaller pizza/ glass of milk/one cookie combo. (I paid $2 each for my kids' milks.)  Typically that combo would be a $5 - $7 endeavor, but at LOLA I bet I'd pay $10  for it - or even $12- $12.99 if the pizza was regular sized for my kids to split and it came with 2 milks and a big cookie.  Did I just invent the  "two-kid" meal?   Let's talk.  These are very little things and I'm sure it will all evolve over the long, long time I'm sure LOLA will be open.

Let's get back to what was great, shall we?  The napkins.  You heard me.  Big, think paper napkins.  So awesome.  The kids' activity/coloring placemats are two-sided.  Need I say more, parents?  I don't think so.  Also, the bathroom smells great and is really cute.  It has a weird little motion-detector box above the door that plays quotes while you're in there.  I couldn't figure out what it was at first.  I thought I was hearing the next loo over, or the kitchen or something.  Then I heard Christopher Walken tell me it needed more cowbell.  And Biff Tannen tell me to make like a tree and get out of here.  And Dr. Fankenstein wish Frau Blucher a Goodnight (neeeeeeiiiggghhhhhhhhh).   I love this thing.  I waved my hand in front of it like a dozen times.

I haven't even talked about dessert yet.  I was sad that on opening night, the ice cream machine wasn't working.  Next time I need me some house made vanilla soft serve with olive oil and fleur de sel.  This time, however, I was blessed with the cookies and milk plate.  Two huge belgian chocolate chip cookies topped with a sprinkle of fleur de sel and served with Ice Cold milk.  Yeah.  Oh, yeah!

Cookie (with bite - I couldn't get the iPhone out fast enough), as modeled by my 5-year-old.  

Finally, my check came in a Lucky Strikes tin.  I like this trend of quirky in restaurants (Cafe Maude gives you your check in an old library book cover).  It makes me feel fancy.

LSMFT?  Not in this case.  LSMFP!*

This last, quirky little flair paired with the bathroom quoter thingy brings my appreciation of this lovely, delicious neighborhood gem to a new level.  It's the level that lets me know that not only are the people in charge here great at what they do, they are smart and have a sense of humor.  

Great food from smart, funny people.  Now, really, what's better than that?  

Get thee to LOLA.

*Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco / Pizza - yep. I'm old.

Apples to Apples

The kids and I did a side-by-side taste test of two varieties of Minnesota apple: The beloved Honeycrisp and the new Sweetango.  

Top: Sweetango with its speckley skin
Bottom: Honeycrisp with its rich color

Apples, switched.  Honeycrisp on top, Sweetango on bottom.

Left: Honeycrisp - sweet and tart
Right: Sweetango - explosion of sweet (doing the tango on my tongue, I presume)

The Sweetango won unanimously.  I have a friend who thinks the skin of the Sweetango has a powdery taste, but it was an absolute landslide for me.  I think if I ate it whole, I might have had a different experience with the speckley, imperfect skin, as my friend did.  But in our house we cut up apples and eat them in slices because only one of us is likely to come close to eating a whole apple.  I also like a super sweet apple, and that's just what I got with the Sweetango.  

Don't get me wrong, Minnesotans, I'm not a Communist or anything; I love the Honeycrisp.  But in comparison one right after the other, I had to go with the sweeter of the two.  (And Sweetango was developed at the University of Minnesota, too, so don't judge me.) 

If you can get your hands on a Sweetango, give it a try and let me know what you think.

The Only Way to Watch A Movie (unless it's at home with Rifftrax)

I went to see Avatar with my dad the other night.  It was in a fancy new theater called the ShowCase ICON.  There's one in St. Louis Park, MN and one in Chicago, IL.  This is a theater where you can reserve a huge captain's chair with a table on the side in the balcony of the 3-D theater and eat and drink before and during the show.  Before the movie we had martinis and snacks at the bar.  Here's what we had:

His: Kettle One, Mine: Sapphire.  Both: No vermouth, shake it a lot, up, twist.

I think I was right to change my order from the "Red Hot Grandma Martini" - Opulent Vodka infused with fresh pears and spiced with Red Hots served with a splash of Orange Juice and Sprite.

Meat and Cheese Plate:

Proscuitto De Parma (18 month), Mildly Spicy Coppa, Soppressata, Mortabella

Taeggio, Gorgonzola Dolce, Pecorino Romano, Provolone

Maranated Olives, Quince Jam, Toasted Hazelnuts, Dried Fruits, Currant Bread

BACON POPCORN!!!

With bacon spice AND chunks of bacon, FTW!  

As for the movie:  The seats were truly awesome.  My rebellious  side gave in as I watched, and I actually liked the movie.  It was a really cool experience.  I ate my giant cookie in a skillet with ice cream in the dark (something I'll skip next time and eat it out at the bar), and split a bottle of wine with my dad as we watched (which is so much better than sneaking in a flask of rum and mixing it with your fountain coke -- not that I ever even knew of anyone who did that).  If you live near one of these theaters, I highly recommend going.  We spent  over $100, but got dinner and a movie in one, and drank wine in the theater.  A great experience. I highly recommend it.  You can follow their parent company on Twitter here or go to the theater's website and learn more and find showtimes and buy tickets here.  To learn more about what I'm talking about in the title of this blog, please click here and enjoy, won't we?

Fork The Fire!

On February 18th, a fire decimated two local restaurants: Heidi's, and Blackbird.  Today, 80 restaurants banned together and are giving proceed to help these chef-owned gems.  There is more information here.

I went to two of these restaurants in the last 24 hours. 

Last night we met our awesome friends and dogsitters at the amazing Cafe Maude.  They have a super fun cocktail list that changes seasonally.  While I miss the "This Charming Man" (served with an English cigarette on the side), last night I had a "Bloody on the Rocks".  It was a whiskey sour with a red wine float.  Ok, I had two.  It was great.  The other cocktails our dinner companions let us taste were the "Scenic Route" - a sidecar with ginger-infused applejack and a sweet cayenne rim, served up, and the "Pank Drank" - sparking pear, cassis and lemon in a champagne glass and a pink glow stick.  Both excellent.

To eat, I had my old standby, the Egg and Spinach.  It's sauteed spinach served with a fried egg, basmati rice, feta and harissa.  The harissa is super hot.  I dip just the tines of my fork in it and then load up with everything else.  I get this every time I'm at Maude.  If I didn't, I'd miss it.  I got the Duck and Frisée Flatbread for my entrée.  The crust is super flat and it has duck confit, frisee, giant chunks of blue cheese and aged balsamic.  I love having a salad on my pizza.  Last night's crust was not as crispy as I like, but it was in no way soggy.  I could have used a little more balsamic (I could drink balsamic, really).  The blue cheese was defiantly the prominent flavor.  Which is just fine with me.

For Fork the Fire today, I took the kids to Salut for brunch.  My kids call this the "Frog with the Hat" restaurant.  They spilt the kids' menu pancakes (two medium pancakes), and chose Lemonaid and Orange/Cranberry juice.  I had a Blood Mary with a beer chaser (is that a Midwest/MN thing?) and the Special Pancakes: Bacon and Brie in the batter, topped with a chiffonade of basil.  Excellent with maple syrup.  We split the "Four bite Chocolate Mousse".  It's a tiny little turine of dark chocolate mousse served with little shortbread cookies (three - perfect for our party), and a cut strawberry.  Perfect.

What do you CRAVE for lunch?

I needed to get the kids out of the house, and I needed a little indulgence, so took my kids out to lunch this week.  And it wasn't to Perkin's.  I took them to Crave - where I can eat sushi and they can have "macaroni and cheese" (it's actually penne in a great, rich, creamy, not-oily cheese sauce).  I took them to Crave - where I can have a lovely glass of Fume Blanc, and they can have juice in cups with dinosaurs on them.  I took them to Crave - where they can color on the place mat with the bundle of crayons that comes tied up in a rubber band, and I can rip off the $3 play money to the most awesome toy store in the Cities (and also online - the have easy lookup by age and interest, great delivery and amazing gift wrap!).  That's $3 free.  To spend immediately or keep and combine with other coupons!  Which I did, because in the Edina location, Creative Kidstuff is across the hall.  And we spent about an hour in there playing.  What a great afternoon.

Now. I did spend $50 on lunch for the three of us.  But it was totally worth it, and you absolutely don't have to.  I ate $24 in sushi and had a $8.50 glass of wine. We also indulged in the amazing coconut cake for  a treat. The kids split one kids meal, and they bring you a bowl of fruit for each child for free when you sit down. Great table, great service, great food, great atmosphere, great perks.  When I am in the mood for sushi and have the kids in tow, there is no other place I crave.

 EDIT - I just saw on their website they have Monday Night Wine Classes for $45 once a month at each of their three locations.  How awesome is that?  You can follow them on Twitter.