The Strip Club [back to top]
Address: 378 Maria Ave., St. Paul, 651-793-6247
Food: Welcoming meatatarians on a nightly basis, The Strip Club is a re-imagining of the all-too-common steak house. Instead of rancher’s bravado, the team behind this original spot operates with more of a farmer’s humility. Grass-fed beef, local ingredients, and heartland nostalgia are the hallmarks of a menu where wild rice sausage, a Braunschweiger sandwich, and wild-boar ragu are all-stars. Don’t forget to ask about the daily meat-on-a-stick.
Vibe: Swede Hollow is a quiet neighborhood, but the bar is often filled with the young-and-almost-wealthy who come from all over for the creative and artisanal cocktails. Strip Club makes its own bitters.
Who Loves It: Meat lovers just off the main- stream and omega-3 addicts. Foodies who love to meet, chat, and even drink with chefs and owners.
Who Doesn't: Traditional corn-fed steak lovers may not be able to embrace grass-fed meat, and those who seek the fat-cat, steak house experience will need to find that vibe elsewhere.
PETER LILIENTHAL: "It’s the naked truth: The food and atmosphere are truly titillating! "
Lola's Lakehouse [back to top]
Address: 318 E. Lake St., Waconia, 952-442-4954
Food: Eating lakeside is nearly a Minnesota birthright, and Lola’s gives you the feeling that you’ve earned it. Nestled on the shores of Lake Waconia, in the old Nancy’s Landing, the white clapboard boathouse is the setting for a classic, seafood-centric menu. Spicy seafood stew with andouille sausage is smartly presented in a cast-iron skillet, and the raw bar, offering a nice variety of oysters, may be the only one outside the metro area.
Vibe: It’s the lake, and all that it implies: parents with kids skipping stones and chasing seagulls; the well-heeled and well-tanned, docking big boats in time for dinner; and the cute and flirtatious, slogging back plates of oysters.
Who Loves It: Any west metro diner who complains about having to drive downtown for fresh fish. Waconia is a big enough lake so that boaters can have their jollies all day and still get a decent piece of fish at night.
Who Doesn't: People who use public transportation. Folks who have lived on the East Coast and expect to find Maine. And, surprisingly, there’s not a lot of lake fish on the menu.
STEPHANIE MARCH: "You can’t eat in your swimsuit at Oceanaire!"
BETH DOOLEY: "Ironically, I loved the hunks of meat at this East Coast–yacht-clubby fish shack. Go for the pork shank, crackling, juicy, and big enough to share."
moto-i [back to top]
Address: 2940 Lyndale Ave. S., Mpls., 612-821-6262
Food: At the USA’s first sake brewpub, the menu is designed to evoke an izakaya or Japanese pub (a dynamic trend on the coasts right now), which means it’s a snacking-and-sipping affair. Pan-Asian small plates and dishes for sharing hit high notes of steamed buns, bulgogi, and coconut green curry. Snacks such as the Thai beef jerky and lotus chips are meant to be paired with the house brew: unpasteurized nama (sake). Order a tasting flight to find out if you’re genshu- or nigori-friendly.
Vibe: Even though it’s equal parts bar and restaurant, there’s a mellow vibe in the spare, minimalist space, where the focus is on the food and sake. Of course, there’s shuffleboard—Blake Richardson of Herkimer owns this place, doesn’t he?
Who Loves It: Neighborhood hipsters have been packing the place looking for exciting new drinks and cheap food—almost nothing on the menu is more than $10. Sake-loving locavores are happy at last.
Who Doesn't: Anyone who automatically equates sake with sushi—there’s no raw fish in the house—and sake fiends looking for a deep, intricate list.
ANDREW ZIMMERN: "A huge hit. The food is far from perfect, but Moto does a good job with the Asian street-snack repertoire interpreted by proprietors who have spent more time in Orono than Osaka. Sake may be the “it” icon of the year in the local food world."
PETER LILIENTHAL: "This is a dining and drinking emporium that appeals to anyone who enjoys interesting libations, small plates, and soft prices."
Bali [back to top]
Address: 1410 Nicollet Ave., Mpls., 612-354-3302
Food: The food of Indonesia, a Pacific archipelago that boasts more islands than Minnesota does lakes, is diverse and interestingly spiced. Bali is a worthy introduction to its cuisine. Cautious types will resonate with Mama’s lumpiah (crispy vegetarian or chicken eggrolls), chicken or beef satay sided with a tasty peanut sauce, and the most gargantuan, finger-lickin’ chicken wings you’ve ever noshed. There’s also a classic gado gado salad of assorted steamed vegetables and eggs topped with peanut sauce. For those willing to throw caution to the wind, try the daging rendang (traditional Indonesian stew of beef simmered with potatoes in coconut milk) and ikan goreng tomat (fried fish served with tomatoes, green carrots, and sweet soy sauce).
Vibe: The former Safari on Eat Street has been converted into a chic, hip, and colorful boîte. The walls are brightly painted, there’s a smattering of indigenous bric-a-brac, and a small bar adds to a lively ambiance.
Who Loves It: Foodies who are incessantly on the hunt for interesting and unique dining adventures and devoted Democrats who want to experience what our new President ate during several of his formative years.
Who Doesn't: Steak-and-potato types who can’t countenance anything that deviates from the tried and true.
PETER LILIENTHAL: "BALi and Peninsula, two authentic Malay restaurants separated by just a few Eat Street blocks. Whoda thunk it?"
Porter & Frye [back to top]
Address: Hotel Ivy, 1115 2nd Ave. S., Mpls., 612-353-3500
Food: Chef Steven Brown (who’s also this magazine’s Frugal Gourmet) built a kitchen of experienced all-stars and acolytes who produced some of the most adventurous cuisine in town. From radical sous vide chicken and lamb treatments to inspired choices on the sweet side (carrots and chocolate anyone?), P & F dared to be different. A year in, Brown was bounced in favor of Joan Ida, also an accomplished local chef, but whose style is less experimental and more rustic. Porter & Frye will likely remain a fantastic restaurant, but it is clearly moving in a direction of more familiar fare.
Vibe: Porter sits on two floors, airy and open, spare and stark. The main dining room, in the basement, perched under the bar/second dining room, is accessed by a stairway that should be more dramatic and open. The crowd is reserved, perhaps taking themselves as seriously as the food.
Who Loves It: Trend-driven foodaholics and anyone looking for a daring and fearlessly prepared meal with surprises galore, all grounded in the realm of recognizable food.
Who Doesn't: People who think salads are served from bars or in prepackaged bowls with your choice of French or creamy Italian.
BETH DOOLEY: "Here’s where to glam it up. Hit the bar with its beautiful jewel tones and smart mixologist, try a swank tasting menu, or just go with simple roast chicken that, here, is elegant."
Smalley’s Caribbean BBQ & Pirate Bar
[back to top]
Address: 423 Main St., Stillwater, 651-439-537
Food: Shawn Smalley and Tim McKee love to eat jerked Jamaican barbecue. McKee only had 107 other restaurant projects in the works last year, so he figured why not fit a Jamaican barbecue/rum palace in on the side? In many respects this is the most original restaurant concept of 2008. It’s a culinary niche few prairie-siders know, no less crave. Not everything works, and a lot of the pimento-wood-smoked and allspice-redolent fare is an acquired taste, but with the right kind of TLC, Smalley’s could become a destination.
Vibe: There’s a cool bar with a spare renegade feel and an alluring Main Street summer patio. The dining rooms (inherited décor from a predecessor restaurant), alas, have an airport-hotel ambience.
Who Loves It: Jerk obsessives, rum-drink swillers, Johnny Michaels devotees (he did the beverage program), barbecue adventurers, and party people.
Who Doesn't: The “Mother, we’re not at Famous Dave’s anymore” crowd. Misinformed Al Franken detractors.
BETH DOOLEY: "Offering plenty of hot stuff to eat with your hands, plus cold drinks in pretty colors, it’s a cheap trip to a sunny place."
STEPHANIE MARCH: "Go just for cocktails in the Pirate Bar—and the addictive wings."
Black Sheep Coal-Fired Pizza [back to top]
Address: 600 Washington Ave. N., Mpls., 612-342-2625
Food: Longtime local chef Jordan Smith decided to bring a taste of East Coast pizza to the prairie, importing a serious coal-fired oven (clean-burning, though the pies sit next to the coal) to add an earthy quality to thin-crust beauties—that scream NYC—topped with an array of great cured and fresh meats and veggies. Try the hot-salami-and-peppers pie or the cracked-green-olive-and-fennel-sausage number.
Vibe: It’s cool in a North Loop minimalist way. We wish city code didn’t require the godawful plastic false ceiling over the open kitchen, bu
Who Loves It: Anyone who loves tasty pizza, but especially citysiders hoping to add some variety to their Punch/Nea rotation. Oh, meatball freaks too.
Who Doesn't: Folks who get warm inside when that Pizza Hut ad trumpets “a full two pounds of cheese!” Haters of false ceilings.
BETH DOOLEY: "Best damn pizza I’ve eaten outside Brooklyn. It yields light, crisp, beautifully blistered crusts with bright, fresh toppings, and at $7 for a pie, the place is a steal."
Barrio [back to top]
Address: 925 Nicollet Mall, Mpls., 612-333-9953, coming to Lowertown St. Paul
Food: What can’t chef Tim McKee and his culinary team create? Fancy Med fare, serious tapas, authentic jerk, and now killer Latin American street foods? Bodacious spicy crab soup and grilled skirt steak are not easy to consume while strolling on Nicollet Mall, but if you had to, you could jam down a pork carnitas taco or mushroom quesadilla with crema and radishes while waiting for a bus. And you might have to because Barrio is so good and so popular that you better plan on takeout. Did we mention the 117 tequilas?
Vibe: Day of the Dead meets Coyote Ugly. It’s loud, it’s poppin’, there are spaghetti Westerns playing on the wall. It’s almost always mobbed, so if you want a calmer dining experience, try lunch.
Who Loves It: Downtown office coolsters after work, anybody looking to eat well on a budget, tequila-heads, folks who find Masa a tad sanitized.
Who Doesn't: Folks looking for a leisurely dining experience, guys wanting to watch the game on a flat-screen, those for whom the sine qua non of Latin dining is the bottomless basket of tortilla chips.
PETER LILIENTHAL: "Tim and Josh have it absolutely spot-on here. Terrific tacos, great guacamole, the definitive tequila selection—all in downtown Minneapolis— olé! indeed. "
ANDREW ZIMMERN: "My candidate for restaurant of the year. Smart, simple, unpretentious . . . Barrio serves superbly crafted casual fare that embraces the best details of Latin street foods."
Citizen Café [back to top]
Address: 2403 E. 38th St., Mpls., 612-729-1122
Food: Chef Michael MacKay left the beloved Sample Room to open his own spot, and what he’s lost in setting and vibe, he’s gained in bringing a restaurant-thin neighborhood a place with some seriously alluring food. It’s updated American comfort fare: three-day pork roast, brick-roasted chicken, tasty scallops, reinvented sloppy joes, fresh salads, and even top-notch mashed potatoes. It’s also an all-day operation with soft prices designed to serve the neighborhood, the people, (insert anthem here).
Vibe: There’s a quiet, relaxed, craftsman-era vibe in the small dining room with its woody accents and vintage posters—but no rowdy bar, no TVs pumping out ESPN.
Who Loves It: Chicks dig it, especially, but so does anyone who shops at a co-op, considers simplicity an aspiration, and green a lifestyle. Or less evolved types who just love good, simple American food.
Who Doesn't: Those looking to be dazzled with culinary pyrotechnics or drowned in busy sauces, and anyone who considers the scene an essential part of the restaurant experience.
STEVEN BROWN: "Michael MacKay is on his own, cooking honest food with honest prices. As a friend recently told me, “The meal was great, then we got the bill and said, ‘Maybe they forgot to charge for the wine.’ ” "
Sen Yai Sen Lek [back to top]
Address: 2422 Central Ave. NE, Mpls., 612-781-3046
Food: Thai food is lovingly prepared with a locavore emphasis and made from ingredients ranging from Thousand Hills cattle to Surly on draft. The name means “big noodle, little noodle” and warm sincerity veritably emanates from this family-run place featuring unique inexpensive offerings of Thai fare that you will crave.
Vibe: A Northeast Minneapolis chic 1950s storefront with bright colors and wood floors. The well-informed, genuine, caring staff is just about the friendliest in town.
Who Loves It: Northeast artist types who think that a Maclaren stroller is a fashion statement and want a place that’s as laid-back hipster as they are.
Who Doesn't: Folks who think that Big Bowl isn’t fast food in a lacquered box in a fancy strip mall.
STEVEN BROWN: "My personal favorite from 2008. I swear the khao soi, a delectable beef dish with curried noodles and the vinegar-kissed kick of spicy pickled mustard greens, haunts my dreams."
Café Agri [back to top]
Address: 4300 Bryant Ave. S., Mpls., 612-822-3101
Food: Vegans, vegetarians, locavores, take note: There is “no fryer, no freezer, little dairy” served here. But there is plenty of organic and biodynamic wine and beer to wash all the good stuff down. Avoid the “alternative” pasta or cheese offerings and go for authentic ethnic dishes featuring beans, rice, and veggies. Creamy guac with crisp yam chips and sweet potato polenta with Stone Mill pale ale make a fine, healthy meal.
Vibe: Tucked into a neighborhood corner of south Minneapolis, this pretty, tiny space exudes Zen calm with pale green walls and stark B & W prints. The crowd is a mix of svelte, black-clad hipsters and neighborhood regulars.
Who Loves It: Anyone seeking organic fare, especially those with dietary restrictions and allergies. Agri offers a few kid-friendly alternatives to the chicken-digit-and-grilled-cheese menus in town. The service is warm and helpful, the list of wines and beers interesting and nicely edited.
Who Doesn't: Carnivores and anyone who scoffs at the idea of paying money to eat backyard weeds, wheatless bread, and dairy-free cheese.
STEVEN BROWN: "Could a vegan-friendly, gluten-free, meat-free café make a splash in south Minneapolis? The answer is yes."
Rinata [back to top]
Address:2451 Hennepin Ave., Mpls., 612-374-8998
Food: Just when you thought Italian had gone the way of carbo-loading, along comes this quiet eatery delivering rustic elegance. Chef/owner Jonathan Hunt, who also owns al Vento, pays homage to all regions of Italy, delivering sophisticated pastas, risottos, and pizzas that make the most of their fresh but humble ingredients. Braised lamb shank over creamy polenta, Calabrese salami pizza, and even spaghetti with house- made meatballs are all satisfying and craveable.
Vibe: Are ghosts of the former Giorgio’s lingering? The small storefront, warmly lit by candles, buzzes with conversation fueled by a well-thought-out wine list. Nobody seems to mind the tight tables—you can get a view of what to order next time.
Who Loves It: The sun goes down and the dark room gets packed with anyone who has ever rhapsodized about a trip to Italy and Uptowners who actually want to hear what their dining companions are saying.
Who Doesn't: Trendsters might find it a bit sedate, there are no foams or intricate plating. Just honest cooking.
PETER LILIENTHAL: " The urban dictionary defines Rinata as “Queen of the drama queens.” I’m not tempted to make a parallel that this place is the ne plus ultra of Italian cuisine."
Sonic [back to top]
Address: Locations in Eau Claire, Elk River, Savage, St. Paul
Food: Sonic isn’t really about the food. Not in the sense that after eating there you’d engage in a discussion about it. Madison, did that beef taste steroid-free to you? Did I taste marjoram? No. The pictures of the sandwiches on Sonic’s menu make us nostalgic for Hardee’s, which is hard to do. You go to Sonic to eat in your car like people did when eating in your car wasn’t something that made them seem sad; you guzzle enormous drinks made with old-fashioned crushed ice, blended with an incredible array of flavors (limeade with cranberry, anyone?); then you get back in the rig and get that load to Topeka.
Vibe: Killer. You order into a machine, pay the machine, and a teenager brings your food, which you eat in your vehicle. Admittedly, it works better in summer.
Who Loves It: Crushed iceaholics, CB radio users, people whose car is covered in dog hair, any American who wants to feel good about eating in the car again.
Who Doesn't: People who use the word nutrition, anyone with a new BMW.
STEPHANIE MARCH: " Eating in a car is tantamount to a sin against food."
ADAM PLATT: " When the road is lonely, a mangy dog your only friend, when your baby left you for another girl, Sonic is there for you."
Blue Door Pub [back to top]
Address:1811 Selby Ave., St. Paul, 651-493-1865
Food: Welcome to serious bar food for people who take bar food seriously. The signature is the re-imagined juicy Lucy (the Blucy), offered in Cajun, breakfast, Hawaiian, and bacon versions (among others), great traditional burgers, grilled sandwiches, cheese curds, and proprietary gut-bombs such as SPAM bites—Austin’s famous export plus cream cheese, then deep-fried. There’s a big palette of beers on tap and some good cheap wine.
Vibe: It’s hip in a St. Paul way, slightly shopworn and seedy, but solid and woodsy. Expect cramped conditions while waiting out the cheapskates nursing $2 happy hour beers until the game ends.
Who Loves It: People who shave once a week, in loose pants with hair that’s naturally greasy; burger obsessives.
Who Doesn't: People in skinny jeans, those who reject the idea that fat equals flavor, folks who hang out at Thom Pham’s places.
STEPHANIE MARCH: "Finally, a worthy new entrant in the local burger wars."
ADAM PLATT: " Every neighborhood needs a Blue Door Pub. For franchise information, call . . . ."
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