date: 8/25/09
location: minneapolis
grade: b (group grade)

for funny. the last time i ate here i went with mr. quack. well, here as in the same thing only different... formerly bakery on grand. i thought it was with restaurant club (hi, i can't remember things) but it turned out to be with a very large group of people, some of whom were in restaurant club. ok then.

the room is now better for larger groups, that's for sure- the table of 10 that came in slighly after we did all sat at the same table. don't know if it's less dark in there, as it was still not dark when we left. there's a new chef, who can and did compete and win among local notables at the last food and wine show in town. there's been some improvements. though apparently i liked it better last time. perhaps because the food was more uniformly excellent and i think the flavors were more balanced.

along with the plain but decent house-made flatbread they served (no dipping sauce), i started with a glass of the crispin brut cider ($5.50) that i've been wanting to try. it did go well with my choice of app, the aforementioned mr. quack. on their menu in the place it was called something like 'abc duck' with a bunch of other words in there. on their menu online, it's arugula salad ($7.50) 'house made duck confit, fresh figs, pickled local ramps. local bleu cheese.'

the arugula pieces were literally 5-10 times larger than anything else in the salad. tearing those down a bit would've made it much easier to eat. there was quite a lot of duck in the salad, too. much more than i expected, and i am not complaining about that. they also had quite a lot of ramps, also. but the cheese? very little. and i remember one piece of fig. so the flavors, even with the dressing, were not all playing together well.

the same weird flavors not playing well happened with my dinner. i had seen a sweet corn risotto listed on the lunch menu, and thought that would make a fine dinner. the server said they would be able to make it that day for my dinner (and charge me what the vegetarian entree price would be, $18, and i would get more of it- i was fine with that). what i didn't remember that on the lunch menu it listed the ingredients as basil pistou, fine, tomatoes, love them, and green beans. there was also some squash in it, i'm pretty sure, and it was topped with panko bread crumbs. i would also guess some parmesan was in there.

the green beans, like the arugula, were just so much larger pieces than everything else in there, it made them hard to eat (they were chopped in half). with the tomato that was a bit too acidy, those flavors actually distracted from the creamy risotto instead of complementing it and for something called 'sweet corn risotto' i really did expect it to taste a lot more like... well... corn. it's got the top billing. so the risotto itself was quite good, but i kept wonder why they dumped the weird distracting veg in there and just didn't go all corn. yes, they're in season and would make a great accompaniment to the dish, i just didn't like it in the dish blocking the other flavors. i guess for what i paid i was kind of disappointed- it could've been great.

i will say in part i did ask for this dish as a lot of their food seemed to have extra pork in it (like the chicken main course, but even the pork had bacon in it too) and i wasn't really feeling their vegetarian option- a local summer squash pave (and am not a fan of beets, so the fish was out). we were was told that pork can be removed from most of the dishes and be just fine.

another person at the table went with some of the specials. they started with the canapes of the day ($9), in this case two each of house cured gravlax on cucumber, what was listed as camemebert but i think it was brie topped with cute little apple balls and some truffle honey, and braciola on crackers. their main course was the appetizer of the day, lobster agnolotti ($12). it wasn't very lobstery, but it was tasty, apparently.

the best starter of the lot looked to be the 'melange' ($9 for two people, $12 for four people), the antipasto platter. it's 'artisan olives, stickney hill goat cheese, red pepper romesco, cured meats and marinated artichokes, (and) fresh warm flatbread.' the flatbread wasn't as flat as the one that was served to the table, it looked more pita-like. one big tasty-looking plate, that, and the romesco stood out. not sure if they cure their own meats or not, it didn't say. the web site implies they do.

and the person who follwed that up with the fish special of a grouper with roasted beets and israeli (?) couscous ($25) had the best dinner in total, i think. they rated their food 10 of 10 and though the beet prep was the best they've had. the person who followed it with the fischer farms pork ($20, "bone-in pork chop smoked in-house, white beans stewed with fennel and bacon, pickled mustard greens, roasted fresh figs and fig molasses") thought the meat tasted fine, but had to fight through a lot of fat to get to it.

service also could have been more balanced. some weirdness went down- like being served the wrong wine (and something that wasn't on the by the glass menu), being asked if someone wanted to order a drink after they had ordered a drink, we got a dish for what we thought was supposed to be for shells, but nothing anyone ate had shells, i had to ask for a spoon for my bowl of risotto.... just very distracted and kind of unfocused. and part of this was before the large group was in the house, so it's not just that.

the menu is smallish, and the prices what you expect with the local, housemade stuff- you expect to pay a bit more (which may explain why most of the people eating there were not very young). apparently they do a great brunch, but i am very afraid to eat out at that meal (bad restaurant karma in the house).

i guess i wasn't quite charmed by the place. it's decent enough to superlative in some cases, but nothing made me want to run back there. perhaps it is truly a neighborhood cafe in that respect. if you're there, it's nice to have there. if you're not, well....

nothing stood out for me, and if anything i was distracted by the oddness in my food- and the fact that it could've easily been so much better.