Victor's 1959 Cafè

It made for good TV last summer when Guy Fieri and his Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives crew rolled into Victor’s 1959 Café. Fieri and Victor’s owner Niki Stavrou cooked up banter and a few house favorites such as sandwich Cubano, ropa vieja, and picadillo. Fieri was so jazzed about the picadillo—an aromatic stew resembling sloppy joes, with tons of spices, Spanish olives, capers, and raisins—that he polished it off even after cameras stopped rolling. Stavrou, impressed by Fieri’s genuine enthusiasm for her food and operation, emerged confident and heartened by her brush with the beast of reality food programming. Victor’s at brunch has no shortage of hip-hoolery and passion for traditional Cuban fare such as savory black beans, yucca, plantains, criollo (creole) sauces, and chorizo. I fell harder for the corn pancakes than I did for breakfast picadillo with fried eggs, but I’m in the minority. Fieri, who owns mass-appeal restaurants with names such as Johnny Garlic’s and Tex Wasabi’s, is an easy target for food snobs. But food snobs sometimes find themselves on the wrong side of the fence.

3756 Grand Ave. S., Mpls., 612-827- 8948, victors1959cafe.com. Breakfast daily, including Sa 7 AM–2:30 PM, Su 8 AM–2 PM; lunch menu available after 11 AM both days.

ORDER: Mango pancakes, ranchero Cubano, corn pancake, plantain omelet, sandwich Cubano, Cuban toast.

LIBATIONS: Tropical mimosas, Cuban-style coffees. Owner Niki Stavrou says she’s learned Minnesotans don’t want their coffee sweetened for them. If you want to know how Cubans take coffee, order café con leche “the traditional way.”

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