1st- panzanella bread company, shakopee
5th- gusto cafe and wine bar, hopkins
7th- great waters brewing co., st. paul
10th- bryant lake bowl, minneapolis
11th- bunny's bar and grill, st. louis park
21st- dixie's on grand, st. paul
24th- the scoreboard, minnetonka
26th- satay 2 go, apple valley
31st- brit's pub, minneapolis

1st- panzanella bread company, shakope (b-)

a car dinner, grilled cheese to go, as i was craving one, not surprisingly. it came with sweet pickle chips in tiny covered containers (a nice touch), and kettle chips (which i generally don't like, but it's not their bad per se, it's not like they bagged them, but a choice would've been nice). a bit spendy for what i got, and the sandwich was underdone a bit. better than most car dinners you can usually get a la fast food, though. but just a bit above average grilled cheese, the sourdough was quite nice.

5th- gusto cafe and wine bar, hopkins (b)

not a place that you' expect in hopkins, it seems more minneapolis- a quiet wine bar with an upscale menu (and prices to match), with a clean, modern look (except for the oddly decorated bathroom). we were more or less the youngest people in the place.

we started with a few appetizers, a peach and gorgonzola bruschetta and the cheese plate (triple cream brie, a young chevre, a gorgonzola and a an aged cheddar. the bruschetta was nice and light and flavorful. alas, the cheese plate was served cold (not good). we let it sit for a while in the slightly too warm air and it finally went ok. they had one fig with some balsamic reduction on it, no nuts or anything. they used very thin toast with it. i've found untoasted bread usually works better with the density of cheese, or a thicker toast. the chevre may spread ok, but even the brie broke the toast.

for dinner, two people went with the butternut squash gnocchi in a (yet more) gorgozola cream sauce. the gnocchi were a bit heavy (probably due to the squash). i'm not sure if it went with the sauce 100%, but it was good enough. the sauce was tasty on it's own, or dipped in the fresh, warm bread they brought out with some very nice butter. i went with the braised chicken in a mushroomy fig and marsala sauce with orzo. probably the best-prepared chicken i've had in a while- tender, not chewy.

dessert was an ok creme brulee and a very good chocolate-topped tiramisu. from my samples i'd recommend the tiramisu, if they have it on the menu. it was on the specials list when we were there. most of the desserts are made in-house.

not surprisingly, they have a pretty good wine list, with a very large by-the-glass section on it. i went with the small bottle of processo for the whole meal, others went for a barbera d’asti.

most things we ordered were $1-3 cheaper per item online on their 'hidden menu' (not the one you see on their web site, but the one that comes up in google). it also seems that they have the same main menu only different at times- on the online menu they have a bruchetta, cheese plate, chicken dish, and gnocchi but with different details than what we had.

i'd say it's a bit spendy for the area, maybe that explains the age gap between not only us and the rest of the crowd, but the crowd here versus the rest of the establishments in the area. service was ok. the server had memorized some details that elude a lot of servers at various locales such as all the cheeses on the cheese plate or the list of desserts, but they weren't very welcoming or friendly. technically proficient, i'd call it. which again, better than what i end up with a lot of the time. i do like that the place does have the staff taste the specials (and presumably the rest of the dishes) when they get on the menu. the place is a nice option for hopkins.

7th- great waters brewing co., st. paul (c-)

i ordered the apple and brie grilled chicken sandwich with fries. the fries are $1.50 extra. for that i get a tiny amount of undersized, slightly cold, not so tasty fries. though the chicken on the sandwich is the best i've had in a while (not burnt, tender, and such), no one had bothered to remove the seeds or core from the apple (which breaks into bits after i remove it, making it harder to eat), the cheese coverage is skimpy, and the sandwich needs some sort of spread (mayo, mustard, anything), and it was served on a too-soft hamburger bun (it lacked sandwich integrity, i.e., started to fall apart).

the server offers a less than half-assed apology. between that and it taking a very long time to get any water refill or server to the table for other needed things, i am not impressed. (please note- this is not during a wild game or anything.) if others had not enjoyed their food more than i, i would've given a worse grade.

10th- bryant lake bowl, minneapolis (b-)

once again, to the grilled cheese.... and a pretty average one. with chips. good melting, but the bread was nothing to write home about. came with chips. also ok. it gets a bit above average because it was a happy hour special, which amuses me, and makes it $4, which is way reasonable. nothing says happy hour like grilled cheese....

i could've sworn i had been here some time after 2003, but if i did it wasn't to eat. i used to get here every month or so, back in the day. i'm old...

11th- bunny's bar and grill, st. louis park (b)

a bit of a switch up from my usual bunny's fare (chicken sandwiches, nachos), a cobb salad. i felt like i was getting a bit too sandwiched out. it wasn't that bad, not great, a bit above average for the generous portions of blue cheese and such. the roll was a bit cold, the dressings i got (blue cheese and lite french) were ok. mrs. brk liked her southwestern wrap, she's had that before. the service was average. we got there early enough to check out the 'happy hour buffet,' or what was left of it- mini-corn dogs and some sort of deep-fried mini-burrito. that was skippable.

odd thing- from the land of 'one of these things is not like the other...' one of the sports bar tvs was on some channel playing things like 'designing women' and 'mama's family,' things that don't usually make themselves known in those types of places.

21st- dixie's on grand, st. paul (c+)

another tco gift certificate visit. this time we brought two other people to use it up.

since it was fairly obvious i was going to have to try the 'soul fries' (cut and paste... crispy fries topped with cheddar and bleu cheeses, bacon and ranch dressing, though without the bacon), we did start with those, and got it in during happy hour, so they were half priced. $3.25ish was reasonable for them. oddly enough, there wasn't enough cheese on them and it wasn't all melty like you'd think it would be. there was a fair lot of cheddar, but a few crumbles of bleu. the fries were decent, though, and the ranch dressing quite good. but if that's what' you're praising, that's not really right, is it? i don't think it was a $6.50 appitizer. i don't think i would've gone for it at that price.

i was going to go for an october special, the turkey pumpkin goulash, it sounded like it could be interesting. then i looked at the list of components of the dish: turkey thighs, onions and sweet peppers braised in a spicy paprika sauce, served over buttered caraway noodles. um... where's the pumpkin? not in the dish. i did check with the server. none. um. why call it that? if you wanted it fall-like, you could've used a different term... or serve it in a pumpkin shell (it keeps very well in there, even)... but calling it turkey pumpkin anything? that's... just... wrong. (also strange- why was it a special under 'arkansas' flavors? is there a huge population of hungarian-americans in arkansas? possible, i suppose... but still odd.)

the four of us instead went for the bbq sampler platter (baby back ribs, texas beef ribs, pulled pork and chicken, cajun chicken breast, a dark meat quarter bbq chicken, and coconut shrimp). the bits i had were not impressive. the 'quarter chicken' was the smallest drumstick i've seen on anything outside a cornish hen in ages, and the thigh was less than two bites of meat. cajun chicken breast comes out to 'burned' versus 'spicy' and the pulled chicken had a lot of tiny bones in it. apparently the rest of the lot may have been slightly better. and for some reason we also got some chili thrown in with the rest of the lot.

the platter is very reasonable priced at around $35. it supposedly feeds 2-4, but we all walked out with at least a dinner or two left over from that pile, as besides the plate o'meat, you get four sides. i forgot to check what i had last time and ended up with the just ok mashed potatoes again. the fries (same as before, though sans cheese), succotash, and corn on the cob were decent to good. the baking powder biscuits were still baking powder biscuits.

since we were intent on using up the certificate, we went with dessert. the ice cream sundae turned out to be free (it was for someone's birthday). nice of them. the pumpkin layer cake had pumpkin in it, but the server did say it tasted a lot like carrot cake, complete with nuts and raisins, and it did. the rum-laced creem cheese icing was not very rum-laced, and though 'topped with' butterscotch, there was a stingy drizzle on one part of the plate. you get a good sized piece, which is good as it was $6 for the slice.

service was good, except when the server was busy and asked others to do things for them. there was a carafe brought to the table, too, so water wasn't so much an issue for me, but it was for someone who needed hot water and it didn't get there-see previous sentence.

it was a bit busier than we thought it may be, but there were some larger parties there. the famous dave's platters are just tastier, and i like their bbq sauce and chicken and the sides (except the sad corn) better than the stuff here. plus i've not encountered stray bones with those. and i think i prefer eating bbq in a less... formal atmosphere than dixie's. it just seems too neat in here for bbq, or something along those lines.

24th- the scoreboard, minnetonka (b)

same salad bar, though in a weird order- the stuff you put on top of your salad was at the beginning. anyway, i remebered not to order something else. the creamy lemon chicken soup was quite good, and the hot dish on the salad bar, cheese lasagna, wasn't bad either. the breadsticks were sad. mrs. brk got some crab cakes and the bowl of fries from the happy hour menu, so they were reasonably priced . the crab cakes were good (though not lump crab), the fries came with a nice seasoned sour cream. they were just ok. service was average.

26th- satay 2 go, apple valley (a-)

mee goreng again, it's the time of year for comfort food. i also split an order of the chicken gyoza, which had a nice crust, but could've used another minute and a hit of seasoning. the person i was with ordered the singapore rice noodle, which is a lot like the mee goreng, but with egg and of course rice noodles in place of the egg... i like the egg better. which, of course, is why i didn't get the rice noodles. logic!

31st- brit's pub, minneapolis (c)

average service, average food. i had the acorn squash soup with a bit of stilton melted into it and some chive garnish, the soup of the day. a bit oily, and i think they needed to make it a bit less bitter. the bread served with it, eh. i had a side salad, it was ok. the blue cheese dressing was perhaps the tastiest part of the meal.

 

 

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