date: 6/22/04
location: minneapolis
grade: a-

back to whence we originally started off this whole thing for the 'anniversary' (such as it is) of our eating out group... thing.

back then, we said the place should be packed every night of the week, and this day the crowd was large for a tuesday. no place to park in the lot, that's changed.

since i got there early, i waited in the bar. and got coffee, as i was tired. great coffee, the bartender rocked. the bartender cared enough to brew a fresh pot because he thought the coffee may have sat around a bit long and taste slightly stale. and the bartender was... perfectly cast.

so on to dinner. we sat on the patio. two of us got there and ordered before the third person did. they managed to time things so that we all got dinner at the same time. the menu seemed a bit less than summery. the duck special, squash soup and the were fall-like. but then again, if you're cooking with in-season stuff, ingredients that are summery are usually not in season right when it starts.

the composed (calm, cool, and collected) cheese plate was split. a taleggio (if i recall correctly) with quince paste and some artichoke hearts. tasty. nice. when some tasty things from the bread basket were added to the mix, it balanced well. the salad that someone ordered was also quite good.

i again had the pizza of the day (all thin-crust ones, the pizzas here), this time sans wine. it was onion, chicken, and... cucumber. you wouldn't think that would work, but it did. very very well. the cool crunchy cuke offset the onions somehow. i would have liked to see a bit more chicken in the mix, there wasn't much on there. the chicken and polenta entree was up to auriga standards. there's still affordable wines by the bottle and glass. i am not sure if they still have the half-price on the pizza of the day and wine of the day, as i ordered it in the 5-7 pm time frame and didn't get a discount.

the service was still pretty stellar. water filled, bread brought, and as mentioned, the timing on the one later person thing. the people here seem to care. but maybe they're too focused on the dining part of the experience. the atmosphere the year has shown up not so well on the interior and fixtures of the place. it needs a good cleaning, repainting, and stuff. it's not enough to offset the food, however, just something i noticed. thus the slight downgrade.