September 5, 2008

First Glimpse: Barrio

Went to Barrio the other night, and it was fabulous. The corn soup was silky, full of fresh kernels of perfect summer corn, enriched by blue cheese and made elaborate and complex with herb oil—it was wonderful. The guacamole was the best I’ve had in my life, just lush and satiny, and the tortilla chips are sturdy, crisp, house-made creations dusted with cumin, chili, and sea-salt. I’d rather have them that most French fries, which is saying something. I’ll have a full review in November based on multiple visits and putting them through the full critical rigamarole, but if you’re the kind of person given to rushing to the hot new thing, rush on over. Shockingly, for a place where most everything is priced from $3.50 to $7, (the menu is mostly small... Read more »

Posted on Friday, September 5, 2008 in Dear Dara | Permalink | Comments (1)

September 5, 2008

The End of the Twin Cities Food Scene?

My phone rang this morning: It was a frantic local chef, one of the founders of Minneapolis’ restaurant culture. Inspectors had been in her restaurant four times during the Republican National Convention, while there, informed her that it was illegal for restaurants to buy food directly from farmers, or from farmer’s markets. “He said we could not go to the farmers’ market, period. I didn’t then tell him, ‘Well I also have farmers delivering to my door….” He said: You have to get your food from a distributor. Nothing can come from anywhere but a distributor.”

Yes, it’s apparently now illegal for restaurants to buy food from farmers. Any of it. Vegetables, herbs, apples—anything and everything. All foods... Read more »

Posted on Friday, September 5, 2008 in Dear Dara | Permalink | Comments (4)

September 5, 2008

When is a Wisconsin Wine from California?

I got a press release from Chateau St. Croix last week trumpeting their rosé’s “Best of Show” win at the Indiana State Fair International Wine Competition. Throwing aside the obvious things to be snobby about—Indiana wine award?—this brings up an issue that has confused me for years. Namely, even though Chateau St. Croix is in Wisconsin, this winning wine is a California one, because they brought in grapes grown in California with which to make their wine. So while the press release wants me to herald the story: “Wisconsin Winery Wins Prize,” the real story may be: “California Wine Better Than Others In Indiana,” which is not really news at all.

I had a spirited discussion with Nan Bailly, the winemaker at Alexis... Read more »

Posted on Friday, September 5, 2008 in Dear Dara | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 29, 2008

What’s the Best Wine List in the Twin Cities?

One of my friends has friends coming in to town for the RNC, and they wanted to know who has the best wine list in the Twin Cities. Well, figuring this out has been part of my job for the last decade, and it’s a question that has grown ever more tricky as the Twin Cities food and wine scene improves and diversifies.

Basically, the problem is: What are your criteria?

Here are my thoughts on the best wine lists in town:

For Napa Valley reds: Manny’s Steakhouse.

For French wines: Vincent in Minneapolis, and Meritage in St. Paul.

For Spanish wines: Solera Read more »

Posted on Friday, August 29, 2008 in Dear Dara | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 25, 2008

Pleasantly Surprised by the Seafood Palace Buffet

I’m on what I can only describe as a reluctant mission to find the best buffets in town, I say reluctant because while I very much want to know the best buffets in town, I very much do not want to eat bad buffet food. I set out today to do some scouting on dinner buffets in places that also have a beer and wine license—an exceedingly small category of restaurants. The Pho 79/Caravelle buffet seemed likely; I love that place for its soups and grilled beef stuffed grape leaves, but after looking at the actual buffet I couldn’t bear to sample it. Everything—save the two soups and the iceberg-lettuce based salad bar—looked fried and greasy. I fled. Then I felt like a failure. What sort of buffet reviewer chickens out at their first buffet? Meandering down... Read more »

Posted on Monday, August 25, 2008 in Dear Dara | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 18, 2008

Finally, A Critter You Can Eat To Extinction—With Pride

I just got off the phone with Lenny Russo, chef and owner of St. Paul’s Heartland, and he just told me the craziest thing. Now, Heartland, if you don’t know, is the St. Paul locavore extraordinaire restaurant which usually busies itself redefining Midwestern cuisine and saving the planet by only serving foods from within our local foodshed, reviving interest in local ingredients like chokecherries, goose, lake perch, and so on. Okay, okay, the locavore thing—you get it. But get this: The next level in green eating involves driving a critter to extinction, for a good cause.

The critter? The invasive Chinese crayfish that are taking over Wisconsin waters. “The Wisconsin DNR was having a problem with these Chinese crayfish that had gotten into... Read more »

Posted on Monday, August 18, 2008 in Dear Dara | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 13, 2008

$5 Off All The Organic Wine You Can Drink

The Fresh Taste Festival is this weekend. What’s that? It’s like our big Twin Cities Food and Wine Experience that sells out every winter—but smaller. It’s exclusively focused on organic, sustainable, and farm-to-table supporters, and it’s not sold out. Yet.

Interested? It’s this Sunday, and here’s what it will be like: You’ll show up at the big Nicollet Island Pavilion, enter, get a wine glass, and find about a zillion free little treats to eat and wonderful organic, biodynamic, or sustainable wines to sample. What’s there to eat? There will be some 60 food booths of every sort, representing restaurants such as JP American Bistro, Corner Table, the Birchwood Café, the Nicollet Island Inn, and the Oceanaire; and food... Read more »

Posted on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 in Dear Dara | Permalink | Comments (2)

August 12, 2008

The Oldest Recipe?

What’s the most ancient cuisine you can eat in Minnesota? It’s not something I think about too much, but I thought about it today because there was a fascinating little story in the New York Times this week about the domestication of farm animals.

It turns out that goats, sheep, cattle and pigs were all domesticated thousands of years earlier than previously thought; in fact, sheep and goats were domesticated a whopping 11,000 years ago in a fertile crescent roughly stretching from contemporary eastern Turkey through northern Syria and western Iran.

Now, this is just idle, wild, baseless speculation on my part, but as a blogger, I feel that idle, yet... Read more »

Posted on Tuesday, August 12, 2008 in Dear Dara | Permalink | Comments (1)

August 7, 2008

Illegal Sneak Peek: The New Manny’s & Prohibition

The only reason I wandered into Manny’s new location was because the door was open. And then the second door was open, which I didn’t expect. And so I found myself just standing in the new W hotel, inside the Foshay tower—uninvited, unannounced, no doubt illegally.

There was a lot to see. The new bar and lounge at the base of the hotel, Prohibition, was beautiful: all royal purple, gray, and black, with oozy, bubble-like glass light/sculpture doohickeys, low couches, and a general air of Prince meets Barbarella in Milan circa 2014. It was also blindingly bright outside, but inside it felt like cocktail midnight. Good stuff. They plan to open really, truly, next week, August 13.

I also peeked into Manny’s. With its dark banquettes and mute ivory... Read more »

Posted on Thursday, August 7, 2008 in Dear Dara | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 4, 2008

Quail—for Fido?

The first time some information about grass fed, raw, locavore, super-premium-ultra-wonderful dog food crossed my desk I said, “Hmmm, I feel nothing about this, neither highs nor lows,” and so I put the information about Restoration Raw dogfood somewhere out of the way.

But when I heard of a second spot in Minneapolis selling ultra-super-beyond-the-beyond dog food, my reporter’s instincts revved up: Scoop Moskowitz Grumdahl, on the case!

Just the facts: Woody’s Pet Food Deli opened up near the corner of Xerxes Avenue and 50th Street in Edina on July 12th. They sell fresh, raw, ground up chicken, beef, duck, elk, Cornish game hens, lamb, pheasant, quail, rabbit, and turkey.... Read more »

Posted on Monday, August 4, 2008 in Dear Dara | Permalink | Comments (1)