Eat, Drink, Man, Computer

Chris:
There are a bunch of reasons why working in the software industry can be fun, but one of my favorites is that most of the time, I can get my job done with nothing more than a laptop, a cell phone, and an Internet connection. As a result, I spend a fair amount of my time working from cafes, coffeeshops, and other local hangouts.

The Twin Cities has a great selection of locally-owned, indepenent places that provide a variety of options for a nice workday atmosphere. When I was recently back in the Bay Area, my friend said he couldn't even think of a coffeeshop in his town that wasn't a Starbucks! What sadness! Here, with so many options, I tend to gravitate toward places that offer a combination of good food, drinks, and a workable atmosphere. So Minnesotans, here's my list of workday haunts, in all its glory:

Birchwood Cafe -- If I'm feeling like a great lunch or even better baked goods, this is my place. Or even if I just want to feel... happy! There's something about going to Birchwood that is uplifting; maybe it's the friendly staff, the community newsletter, the devoted patrons, or the checkerboard floor. Whatever it is, the food is high quality, the menu rotates weekly, the desserts change daily, and the Wi-Fi is reliable. Pros: Best food, wide variety of baked goods, lively and friendly atmosphere, usually good music. Cons: Can be crowded, only a few outlets, food prices a little too high for daily visits, lunch can be packed with folks anxiously looking at your table.

Common Roots Cafe -- A newcomer to the rotation, Common Roots Cafe is just down the street from the Wedge, and always seems packed with the inhabitants of its youthful surrounding neighborhood, poking away at their laptops and reading textbooks. Perhaps it is the low prices, large drinks, or simply the location, but students have really taken to this place since it opened earlier this year. The food is mostly organic, sustainable, and vegetarian-friendly, although the options are a bit limited. Baked goods are in a similar boat. Coffee drinks are relatively cheap, and oversized. You can sit for a while sipping your large latte, but that extra size means that the coffee flavor tends to be more diluted than at other locales. Homemade bagels are a big thing at Common Roots, but being from New Jersey I don't find them especially interesting. Pros: Lots of seating with outlets, parking, pretty good snacks, great music, hippe & urban vibe, reservable private room, very worker-friendly. Cons: Not for the coffee purist.

Java Jack's / Rustica -- Talk about a dynamic duo. Java Jacks and Rustica share the same space, but are different entities. Good thing, too, because they both really shine at what they do. Let's start with the coffee. Jack's just got a fancy new machine, and a few of the baristas there are top notch. We're talking latte art here, folks. The beans are generally better than most of the places on this list, with the exception of Kopplin's. The only ding is that every once in a while I encounter a new(er) barista whose coffee drinks aren't quite up to that of the others. On to Rustica. Well, what can I say, other than the fact that it is probably what I would call the best classic bakery in the Twin Cities. Their French pastries and breads are considered some of the closest in the area to those of France, with all their buttery, flakey freshness. They make the only pain de sucre that I know of; here they simply call it a "brioche bun." And their chocolate cookie is deep and rich, when you need that extra kick of cocoa to go with your caffeine. Pros: Amazing pastries, above average coffee drinks, outdoor space in the summer, good light. Cons: Wi-Fi sometimes unreliable, seating not super-comfortable, limited (non pastry) food options, slightly older crowd.

Blue Moon Cafe -- Blue Moon wins on one front: outlets. There are more outlets per seat here than anyplace I know. The ratio of outlets to seats might even be greater than 1. Blue Moon is also a pretty eclectic place, which can provide a nice change every once in a while. One thing that particularly bugs me here, though, is that the double latte is served in a pint glass. This thing gets so hot that you literally can't pick it up for 20 minutes. That, plus it means it's large enough to be too diluted for my taste. Still, this place is designed to be pretty work-friendly -- although it's small enough that you might start feeling conspicuous after a few hours. Pros: power, welcoming atmosphere, good music. Cons: lack of snacks, pint glass lattes, location.

Kopplin's -- If you're a coffee afficionado, Kopplin's will basically be your favorite place in the Twin Cities. With a selection of rotating beans, impeccably pulled coffee drinks, organic milks, impressive latte art, expert baristas, and even a mini-library filled with books about coffee, Kopplin's drinks will be so good that they will actually distract you from your work -- they're that good. In fact, Kopplin's is apprently owner of the only commercial Clover machines in Minnesota, for single-cup artisan drip coffee. These guys are coffee nerds -- they even have a coffee blog. I think my favorite blog post is the one where he talks to the farmers about how the type of grass the cows are eating is affecting the changes he recently noticed in the foaming of his milk. WOW. This could be intimidating to some, but this place is actually super-friendly, warm, and provides a variety of drink options to keep you caffeinated throughout the day. Not options in the sense of "triple grande caramel macchiato," but rather "cappuccino with these beans... or with these beans... or with these beans, oh, but can you try changing the tamp pressure this time?" Now get this -- they have a new bakery case filled with pastries fresh from... Rustica! The one-two punch of coffee and pastries. What's holding me back? Uhh, location. And space. It's actually kinda small. So it's perfect when I'm in the neighborhood, or if I just want to stop in for a short time. But probably not the best all-day option. Pros: The pinnacle of coffee in the state. Warm space. Amazing pastries. Devoted following of coffee nerds. Cons: Middle-of-St.-Paul-location, no (non-pastry) food, small space.

Turtle Bread Company -- Turtle Bread is always a pretty good bet. It probably doesn't win on any particular front, but it's reliable and generally is good at all of the key metrics. If I feel like a sandwich, this is where I head; anything on their striato makes a great lunch option. They have possibly the widest variety of desserts, notably their excellent blueberry rhubarb pie when in season. Coffee drinks are mostly reliable but nothing special. Two locations guarantee that I'm not too far from the Turtle if I'm anywhere in the Southwest metro. Both spots have only a few outlets -- notably the Chicago Ave spot -- but the side room off the Linden Hills location provides both privacy and quiet if that's the desired atmosphere. Pros: Best sandwich options, good desserts, wide variety of food and drink choices, two locations, quiet (Linden Hills). Cons: very few outlets, sometimes too bright to work (Chicago Ave), relatively few other laptop workers, awkward tables (Chicago Ave).

Dunn Bros -- Yes, it's a chain, but that's the heart of its advantage: location, location, location. No matter where I am in the cities, there is always a Dunn Bros somewhere nearby, with all its free Wi-Fi goodness. I can't believe that Starbucks still charges for this! Besides, Dunn's is locally owned, so it doesn't *quite* count as a chain. Plus, each one has a different vibe anyway. Pros: Many locations, generally friendly and neighborhoody. Cons: Snack options vary by location; unpredictable coffee (each location roasts its own), sometimes too bitter.

Here are a few that are on the "standby" list if I'm in the neighborhood or don't need an Internet connection -- but I don't often seek them out specifically for working:

• Moose & Sadie's -- Pros: Good downtown option when necessary. Good desserts and coffee drinks, hippie and energetic vibe. Cons: Wi-Fi turned off during lunchtime. Must pay for parking.
• Riverview Cafe -- Pros: Unique location. Cons: Weird space, too open, kind of a turnoff for me. Kids can be loud there.
• Lucia's Bakery -- No Wi-Fi. Not enough seating. Super crowded during lunch. Oh, but it's soo good, I still take my laptop there if I don't need Internet and am going during off-hours. Yeah, it's a stretch.
• Yum! -- Pros: Friendly staff, fun coffee bar seating, good pastries, easy parking, quiet back room. Cons: No Wi-Fi, uncomfortable stools, few outlets, Bodum coffee cups.
  
• Gigi's -- Great snacks and desserts, good food, good coffee drinks, enough seating, warm and lively space, so it would be perfect except... no Wi-Fi the last time I checked.
• Urban Bean -- Didn't like the snacks here the last time I tried them. Very worker-friendly space, though -- good desks and outlets. If I'm this close to Rustica / Jack's, I usually just drive the extra few blocks.
  

I'm always looking to add to the rotation. Here are a few places on my list to try:

• Spyhouse
• Wilde Roast Cafe
• Sebastian Joe's

What else should I add?

Chicago Filet Quickie

Eric

I had the good fortune to be in Chicago two weekends in a row recently, so I did a little comparison eating. On the first weekend I hit David Burke's Primehouse, and the second I went to Osteria Via Stato. At both I had the filet.

I went to David Burke's Primehouse during a bachelor party with a group of 8. I was having a good weekend and ready for some steak. My group lapped up the waiter's description of the Himalayan Salt cave David Burke uses to age his meats, and I was intrigued by the lengths they go to for steak. The same bull (nickname Prime; real name 207L) sires every cow that is eventually served in the restaurant. Busy restaurant - busy bull. This bull even has his own site: http://www.meetprime.com/ I am a filet guy, so it was an easy choice to get the Southside Filet Mignon - litely aged and bone in - and the choice was made easier by my servers guarentee that this would be the best filet I've ever had. Unfortunately it was pretty average. It was missing any hint of salt to punch up the outside. On the inside it suffered an extreme case of bone-in cooking diferential (btw that is a completely made-up term) - I ordered medium rare and it came out medium well-ish away from the bone while pretty rare near the bone. Doing a little research now tells me the idea was that the bone was supposed to impart a little more taste into the filet. I don't think it worked.

2 tines for this steak. Sorry Prime.

Osteria Via Stato was a recommendation from some Chicago friends. Despite my general rule to only get steak at steakhouses, I was eager to put the DB Primehouse steak behind me, so I ordered a filet again. Maybe it wasn't a fair test because I ordered the filet with gorgonzola. But, I'd put this filet up against David Burke's any day. No famous bull, no fancy steakhouse prices, just a tender and tasty filet topped with creamy and sharp cheese. My mouth is watering writing this.

3 tines for this steak. Thanks for the recommendatin Mark & Vero!

Birchwood Duck Confit

Chris and Raka:
Get this:

Birchwood Cafe.
Duck Confit.
Steamed Brussels Sprouts.
Onion Crisps.
Creamed Polenta.
Red Wine Reduction.

... $13! What a deal!

Rating: 4 tines.

Seasonality: 112 Spaghetti Squash

Chris:
This is the first in a series of hopefully many quick mini-reviews of dishes that pop into and out of existence with the changing seasons. With so many restaurants in the area that cater to the ingredients of the season, great dishes come (and unfortunately go) so quickly -- and it's easy to miss a winner.

This week we have the 112 Eatery Spaghetti Squash. 112 is worth a trip any night, but it is especially worth a trip to try this autumnal dish while it is still around.

The key is the simplicty: bright, vibrant yellow spaghetti squash, a simple vinegar (apple cider maybe?) to add tang and sweetness, red pepper flakes for a slight kick, lightly grated parmesan to add some salt. The flavors blend perfectly, and the extras are so lightly applied that they don't take away from the natural taste of the squash -- they simply highlight it. Not to mention the fact that the thin strands of squash are expertly cooked to provide a chewable yet soft texture.

The dish totally trumped my old standby, the 112 cheeseburger. I just about ate the whole plate of squash before starting on the burger -- it was that good. At $6 for the generous-sized side dish, it was an absolute steal. Go try it now before it goes out of season.

Rating: 3.5 tines.

The hunt for late night happy hours

Elizabeth:

I've always loved the concept of happy hour, but when you work in the suburbs it's tough to take advantage of the downtown happy hours very often. That's why I've decided that my new focus is going to be finding the best LATE NIGHT happy hour in the Twin Cities.

Late night happy hour. What a great idea! And I'm not talking about late night drink specials on First Ave. I'm talking about the pairing of yummy appetizers with interesting drinks and cheap, good wine from some of the area's finer restaurants. It's still a concept that is catching on, but I lately discovered that Saffron (across the street from the popular 112 eatery) is one of the early adopters. Other early adopters include Azia, Temple Bar, and Dakota Jazz Club.

Eric and I had tickets to the theater on Friday. When the show starts at 7pm on a Friday, it doesn't leave much time for a romantic pre-show meal. So Eric decided we would make it a Seagull sandwich - sandwich our trip to the Seagull with visits to a couple different happy hour spots.

First on the list: Spill the Wine. http://www.spillthewinerestaurant.com/

I've been to Spill the Wine a few times and this visit lasted only 30 minutes. Rather than go into a detailed review, I'll focus on the key happy hour highlights. But I will say that I've been impressed with the dinners I've had the past few times I've visited. And the cheese plate is incredible.

Spill the Wine happy hour highlights:

• 4pm-7pm Mon-Friday. I wish more places extended happy hours to 7pm.
• $15 bottles of wine. There are typically 4 white options and 4 red options, and the best part is that you can cork the bottle and take it with you if you don't have time to enjoy the whole bottle.
• $3 draft beers.
• $5 appetizer choices. I think these may change each week, but last night the options were bruschetta or fried calamari. We chose the bruschetta and it was delicious! Pieces of tomato and mozzarela marinated in balsamic vinegar, served over a piece of grilled bread that had an olive tapenade on it. The dish was drizzled with an amazing balsamic vinegar reduction and a light pesto sauce. Overall, I wish they had more options on the happy hour appetizer menu, but since we were there for such a short time it was okay.

Rating: 2 tines for the happy hour. Dinner rating TBD.

The Seagull was excellent - and Ian McKellan had an old man afro! 3 hours 20 minutes later, we're back in the car and heading to our next happy hour spot: Saffron. http://www.saffronmpls.com/

Saffron late night happy hour highlights (they also have an earlier happy hour):

• 11pm - 1am on Fridays and Saturdays
• $5 glasses of wine. 4 to 5 options for red and white, plus a couple sparkling options. Bartender is super friendly and let me try the wine before he poured me a glass. Love when bartenders do that.
• I think they have other drink specials / beer specials, but I can't remember. Eric's favorite on the cocktail menu was the Harissa Mary. The bartender claimed this drink was his proudest accomplishment on the menu. Think bloody mary to the middle eastern extreme - they puree tomatoes with spicy red peppers, garlic, harissa, and other spices to make a bloody mary mix with great flavor and heat, but not too overpowering. Again the bartender poured a sample for us. Eric thought it was delicious, but thought he might enjoy it more over pasta as opposed to an entire pint glass of it with vodka.
• $3.50 happy hour appetizers! This is the best part of Saffron's late night happy hour. There were six choices: fried eggs with caramelized onions and sweet potato (served with harissa aioli), kofta meatballs (lamb and beef), pomme frites, charmoula burgers (mini burgers marinated in charmoula - a spice blend made from 22 different spices), lamb BLT, and vegetable & rice croquettes. We selected 4 of the six. Overall, we liked all four of our choices but the Lamb BLT was the most distinctive. House cured lamb bacon served on toasted challah with a pesto aioli. YUM. The eggs were suprisingly flavorful and perfectly cooked sunny side up with a soft yolk. The onions and sweet potatoes were cooked in right on top of the white. We had high hopes for the charmoula burgers and the meat was good but we couldn't really taste the complexity of the 22 spices. Kofta meatballs with a harissa jam (can you tell this place loves harissa?) were tasty, as well. For $3.50, this is the best late night food I've found in the T.C.

Rating: 2.5 tines for the late night happy hour. Dinner rating TBD.

My search for late night happy hour spots continues...will keep you posted on what I find!

Chris comments on 12/14/07:
I was reminded of this post when I recently learned that the new Red Stag Supper Club is apparently open until 2AM, seven days a week. No details yet, but they supposedly have a "late night" menu which may or may not also include drink specials. I know that the late night menu at Barbette (also a Kim Bartmann establishment) has some great $5 appetizers -- mussels, oysters, frites, cheeses, etc. -- so I'm hopeful for Red Stag's as well!

We will have to try it and report back.

Warehouse Sandwich Goodness

Chris:
Today I tried the brand new Be'Wiched deli and sandwich bar in the Minneapolis warehouse district:

http://www.bewicheddeli.com/

I love it when new restaurants open in the cities. Every new independent place means one more possibility of eating something unique and amazing. But what I love even more than a new independent restaurant is a new restaurant that fills a niche that simply was lacking in the area. Sure, it's nice to have yet another good authentic Neapolitan pizza place (there are already three), but it's freakin' fantastic when something which previously didn't exist suddenly springs into existence. Such was the case when Little Szechuan elevated Twin Cities Chinese food to a new level last year. And such is the case with Be'Wiched.

We now have a sandwich shop in the Twin Cities that would make a New Yorker proud. The kind of deli that roasts (let alone slices!) its own meats, makes its own sides, bakes its own desserts, uses the appropriate bread pairings (roast beef on striato -- yes! pastrami on rye -- yes!) and even has a respectable selection of deli-street-cred beverages. (Even the ginger ales come in two different strengths -- strong and mild!)

What does this all tell you? Not anything specific about regionality -- there are tons of bad sandwiches to be had in the depths of Manhattan -- but rather, like many old delis that grace the city of pretzels and Papayas, BeWiched is the kind of place that appreciates the details. It shows on the menu, it shows in the (beautifully aesthetic) space, and in the end, you taste it in the sandwich.

Oh, the sandwiches. I think I could have ordered any of the dozen sandwiches on the menu and left a happy camper. I went with the pastrami after hearing a few people rave about it. The house-made pastrami was sliced to fall apart perfectly with each bite, yet hold together in the sandwich. The meat's flavor was without a doubt the best I have had in the Midwest. Such depth of flavor, not overly salty, perfectly crusted around the edges. The dark rye added just the right amount of sourness, and along with the pickled cabbage and coarse-grained mustard, the sandwich was a model of flavor harmony.

Along with the sandwich came a deli-worthy pickle spear and a small fresh scoop of cous cous salad.

The one downside at Be'Wiched is the price tag. Their sandwiches are somewhat expensive ($9-13) and it is hard to ignore that, especially when you are subconsciously comparing it to the $3.99 ham and cheese sub that you can get from Cub. I think the solution here is to realize that it is like comparing apples to oranges -- or in this case, processed lunchmeat to freshly roasted, local, organic (when possible) ingredients.

One more bonus: they serve wine and beer, and have $2 taps during happy hour until 6:30. If only I lived in the warehouse district!

Rating: 3.5 tines.

i heart heartland

Chris:
We've wanted to try Heartland since moving to the Twin Cities, but for some reason never got around to it until last night. Being big fans of locally sourced ingredients and regional cuisine, it is ironic that we had not exerted the energy to go to what might be the quintessence of higher-end Midwestern faire. Lucia's -- the other restaurant that would probably be vying for that title in the area -- is a perennial favorite. I'm probably at Lucia's-To-Go for lunch at least once every two weeks, and I think they have some of the best food around.

So, why the long wait for Heartland? Probably the same reason we've never yet been to Alma, which I frequently hear talked about in the same breath as Heartland and Lucia's. There's always a bit of an activation energy before trying a new higher-end place, but luckily we crossed that threshold during a fortuitous foray into St. Paul last night.

Coming straight from the airport at 5:00pm, we had tickets to the Friday night performance of Prairie Home Companion -- which started at 7:30. Realizing that we didn't have enough time to go back home to Minneapolis, then get dinner, then get back to St. Paul, we just headed east and followed the wind. Well, that wind took us to Heartland's Wine Bar -- the easiest way to taste the food of Heartland on 5 minutes notice -- if you arrive at 5:30 when they open. By 6:00pm the wine bar -- which is first-come-first-served -- was full. The restaurant was fully reserved at 5:30.

Speaking of the restaurant, we peeked into it. Frankly we liked the ambience of the wine bar better; it's a little more intimate and cozy, but it doesn't really feel like a wine bar at all -- just more of a smaller restaurant with a prominent bar in the middle. In fact, I'm not sure why we would ever choose the restaurant over the bar -- since you can order from the main menu at the bar, but the bar also had its own menu with a few items I did not see on the other.

Anyway, on to the food. I went with two smaller dishes:

I started with the carmelized cabbage-pinto bean soup with smoked pork and heirloom tomato concassee. This dish was subtle yet good. The pinto beans dominated, punctuated now and then by thin chunks of the pork which I assume had been braising with the soup to the point where they easily fell apart. The carmelized cabbage was downplayed, and I couldn't find any tomato. I guess I'll have to look up concassee in a dictionary, but I'm guessing that the tomato was part of the soup base. Overall, I couldn't help but think that this dish was like a very refined bowl of baked beans, executed very well.

Second, I went with the house-made wild boar bratwurst with roasted winter squash puree and maple syrup-hazelnut glaze. Sounds great, huh? The bratwurst was at least a few notches above other bratwursts I've had before. Very, very lean, well spiced with fresh herbs -- I ate it way too quickly. The winter squash puree was well executed but somewhat standard. (I have a deep appreciation for winter squash after moving to Minnesota, since it's one of the few fresh vegetables that can be locally sourced way late in the season.) I couldn't tell if the glaze had hazelnut flavors in it, since it included whole hazelnuts as well -- but the maple base went perfectly with both the sausage and the squash to add some sweetness.

Upon my server's recommendation, I went with the Paulaner Hefe-weizen, a nice Bavarian complement to the brat. This actually was going to be my first choice as well, based on the bit of knowledge I learned in my friend Josh Pepper's legendary beer class. But that will be the topic of another post!

Raka went with the heirloom tomato salad with buttermilk blue cheese, curly cress, and opal basil-sweet pepper vinaigrette. I didn't try it, but it looked terrific -- especially for this late in the season! Five different heirloom tomatoes ranging from deep red to light green -- yum. I did, however, get to try Raka's second dish, Applewood-smoked Yorkshire pork ribs with grilled broccoli and tomatillo-brown sugar glaze. Honestly, this wasn't my favorite dish. The ribs were a little too smokey for my taste (admittedly I don't usually like anything with a smokey flavor) and they also weren't as tender as I would have hoped.

Still, I came away feeling like we will definitely be going back to Heartland -- and we will most likely stick with the wine bar.

One final note. Looking back, I feel that our selection of dishes may not adequately portray here the breadth of cuisine which was on the menu that night. The Grand Marais lake cisco (a fish, thanks dictionary) looked excellent, and the chilled organic carrot-ginger soup with opal basil-infused wildflower honey and microgreens salad sounded great. Despite its connection with Midwest-sourced ingredients, this is not your father's hot dish. But still, I recognize the humor in the situation: Heartland, Prairie Home Companion, brats and beer, all within an hour of stepping off the plane -- yeah, I'm back in the Midwest!

Rating: 3 tines, reserving the right to bump this up after a few more tries.