Just Around the Corner

The day after attending the Minnesota State Fair it was time for us to head home to Las Vegas. However, we had one more stop to make. The Dari-ette Drive-In is another of our “Must Go” places when we come to Minnesota. Now I believe that the Dari-ette is one of the few places that I had been to first and then saw on TV and I have to tell you a quick story about seeing it on TV.

The Dari-ette has been a favorite of Joan’s for as long as she can remember. It is literally a five minute walk from the house that she grew up in and that her father still lives in. Well, one night we were watching Food Network and an ad for Alton Brown’s “Feasting on Asphalt 2: The River Run” came on. In this installment of “Feasting on Asphalt” Alton was riding his motorcycle up the Mississippi River and sampling all of the local road food. Well I said to Joan, “Maybe when he gets to St. Paul, he’ll go to the Dari-ette.” Her very quick response was, “He’s not going to go to the Dair-ette,” as if to say “Who would ever want to see the Dari-ette on TV?” Well, it wasn’t 10 seconds later that the latest episode of “Diners, Drive Ins and Dives” came on. Guy Fieri was in the Twin Cities and the last place he visited was none other than the Dari-ette. Joan’s shocked reaction was, “

No Freakin’ WAY

!”

So, on our last afternoon in town, we met Joan’s friend Kim and her three boys at Joan’s father’s place for lunch. Everyone drove over to the Dari-ette except Joan and I who walked the easy five minutes up the street and around the corner, stopping for a quick hello to Joan’s godparents on the way.

When we got there, it was time to eat. The Dari-ette does your standard Dairy Queen type ice cream and such, but they do something that you don’t see at your average ice cream place, killer Italian food. Since this was Tuesday, their special that day was “Buy any Pizza Burger and get a Root Beer Freeze free.” Sounds good to me, sign me up:

The burger was very good and the pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese added a great flavor to the meat that was done perfectly. The Root Beer Freeze was a slushy root beer shake. Great root beer taste which I love mixed with ice cream which, well how could you not love. After I finished off the burger, I needed just a little something more, and after seeing the segment on Triple D, I knew what I wanted:

The meatballs at the Dari-ette are just wonderful. If you saw the Triple D segment, you’ll know that they use a secret meat blend and then deep fry the meatballs. They then cover them with their wonderful sauce that, as owner Angela Fida told to Guy Fieri, has the secret ingredient of “love.” She makes the sauce herself and will only, from time to time, let other employees stir. In fact, we had the opportunity to talk with Angela for a few minutes after we ate. Joan’s friend Kim worked with her when they were both back in high school and they caught up for a few minutes. Then Angela had to get back to, what else, making sauce.

Before we left, I had to grab one more item. Now I know I already had the root beer freeze with my burger, but I needed the one thing I seem to always get at the Dari-ette, their fresh banana shake.

Like all shakes, this one was ice cream and milk but then mixed in there were wonderful chunks of fresh banana which gave the shake a wonderful natural banana flavor and not an artificial overpowering banana flavor. This has to be my favorite item on the ice cream side of the menu.

I know I recommend most of the places that we go, but really, if you’re in St. Paul, stop by the Dari-ette and get some of the best Italian food to ever come out of a Drive In. Now remember that they are closed in the winter, so you’ll have to visit them in the spring, summer or fall. I did take one more picture that I have to share with you just as a little extra enticement. Here's their menu (zoom in and you can see all the items for yourself):

Next up, back home and dinner with some friends at what has become my favorite restaurant in Las Vegas.

Until next time,

Mike

The Particulars

Restaurant: Dari-ette Drive-In

Location:

1440 Minnehaha Avenue East, Saint Paul, MN 55106

Website: None that I could find. But you can follow them on Facebook

Date of Visit: August 30, 2011

Time of Visit: 1:00pm, Lunch

Has It Been on TV?: The Dair-ette has been featured on Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” as you saw above.

The Great Minnesota Get Together, Part 3

Here is the third and final part of my review of our trip to the Minnesota State Fair. In part one I told you about our Pronto Pup, cheese curds and mini donuts. In part two we had some great frozen custard, a hotdish on a stick and some big fat bacon. That’s six food items down and we have three more to go. Here they are.

After some more strolling around, Joan spotted the following stand:

We needed to stop here. Joan was going to get some crepes and I wasn’t going to get anything. Well I spotted the chocolate and banana crepes as we hit the order counter so I added one of those to our order. The crepes were not too heavy and the chocolate and banana mixing together was just what I needed (OK I guess I didn’t NEED it, but it was just what I wanted at that moment). Here’s what they gave us:

After the crepes, we took another extended food break. After a good bit of wandering around, it was time for “dinner.” I put that in quotes because in a day of continual food consumption, who’s to say exactly when “dinner” is and when it’s just another unnamed snack/meal. Anyway, this we’ll call dinner. Now remember the fact that at the Minnesota State Fair, they put EVERYTHING on sticks. Since the beginning of the fair, I noticed a coupon in our coupon book that I HAD to try, the Steak Dinner on a Stick. Now this name was to conform to the “everything on a stick” mantra; what I actually got was more of a shish-ka-bob. It was chunks of sirloin alternating with vegetables and potatoes and topped with a dinner roll. I didn’t get a picture of the stand, but here’s what I got in my basket:



After a long day at the fair, walking all over the place and eating a lot of great food, we needed one more thing to top the whole day off. One final coupon in our coupon book caught our eye, the hot apple dumpling. We walked down one street and around a corner and here’s what we saw:

We ordered one Hot Apple Dumpling covered with ice cream. Here’s what we got (notice the two spoons):

What we had was a pillow of pastry filled with a hot apple filling and covered with a cinnamon sauce. The ice cream was then added on top and as it began to melt, it mixed with the apple and cinnamon sauce and gave it a great vanilla taste. Overall it was the perfect end to a long day at the fair.

So that’s the end of our culinary adventures at the Minnesota State Fair. If you find yourself in the Twin Cities area in the eleven days before Labor Day, take a day to check it out. There are so many shows, activities and of course food vendors to check out that it will be well worth your while.

Next up is our last food stop of our Minnesota trip which just happens to be right around the corner from Joan’s childhood home.

Until next time,

Mike

The Particulars

Minnesota State Fair

Location:

1265 North Snelling Avenue N, St. Paul, MN

Website: www.mnstatefair.org

Date of Visit: August 29, 2011

Time of Visit: All Day Long

Has It Been on TV?: Probably on local TV News broadcasts.

The Great Minnesota Get Together, Part 2

Last time I told you about the first three places that we visited at the Minnesota State Fair, the Pronto Pup stand, the cheese curds and one of the mini donut vendors. Now I will move on to our next three stops.

We had already had a deep fried hot dog, deep fried cheese and deep fried dough, so it was time for something NOT deep fried. It was a fairly warm day so Joan and I decided to split a cup of Sadie’s Homemade Ice Cream. Here’s the stand that we stopped at:

Even though the name of the place says ice cream, if you look carefully in the top left of this picture, you will see the words “Frozen Custard” there. We received a large, super creamy and smooth cup of vanilla frozen custard:

Now, I’ve mentioned frozen custard before and again this stuff was very good, but still not up to par with my favorite place in Milwaukee (a review of that will be coming soon). This was the perfect cool treat in the middle of the day and got us going again.

It was a while before we needed any more to eat. Then again when you’re at the fair, the fact that you actually NEED food has little to do with when you actually eat. Earlier in the day we saw a concert by the 34^th Infantry “Red Bull” Band and I was introduced to a Minnesota term that I was not familiar with. The band played an original piece composed by one of the band members entitled “The Hot Dish Mambo.” I had never heard the term “hotdish.” Not to say I had never eaten them before, in Ohio we just called them casseroles. The reason I mention this is because as we were strolling around we saw this interesting stand:

Now one of the things you should remember about the Minnesota State Fair (and really to a great extent, any fair) is that they put as many foods on sticks as they can. It’s a point of pride in Minnesota to put EVERYTHING on a stick. In fact, as we paid the parking attendant he said to us, “Thank you, enjoy your foods on sticks.” So, how in the heck do you put a casserole (or hotdish) on a stick? Well we had to order one and find out. Here’s what they gave us:

What you have there is alternating meatballs and tater tots (the meat and starch from the hotdish) on a stick. They are then battered and deep fried (of course, it’s the law). Then it is served with a side of cream of mushroom soup with hamburger mixed in. That’s the sauce from the hotdish. In all, it was not outstanding but acceptable and very creative. This was probably the most creative thing that I ate all day and it tied in great with the “Hot Dish Mambo” that we heard earlier in the day.

I will finish this installment with one of the simplest and most delicious things I ate all day. We were strolling down the street when I saw a sign in the distance. Now Joan says that once I saw this sign I was “gone.” She couldn’t talk to me, she couldn’t get my attention, I was completely transfixed on the booth. What could pull me in so completely? This sign:

What could be better than bacon? I’ll tell you what, big, fat bacon. They sold you just what it sounds like, a big fat piece of bacon on a stick. Do you want to see what they gave me? Do you? I know you do, because everyone loves bacon. Here it is:

This was wonderfully delicious peppered bacon on a stick. It is very, very simple but so worth picking up. Probably the best tasting thing I ate all day. Now I said that everyone loves bacon. Well not everyone. This last picture for the day is for Joan’s friend Shannon who said the day before at the cabin that she really wasn’t into the bacon so much. Well this is what the workers at the “Big Fat Bacon” stand were wearing:

If you can’t read the small print it says “either you love bacon or you’re wrong.” So, sorry Shannon, I guess that’s the proof that you’re wrong.

Next up will be part three of our trip to the Minnesota State Fair.

Until next time,

Mike

The Particulars

Minnesota State Fair

Location:

1265 North Snelling Avenue N, St. Paul, MN

Website: www.mnstatefair.org

Date of Visit: August 29, 2011

Time of Visit: All Day Long

Has It Been on TV?: Probably on local TV News broadcasts.

The Great Minnesota Get Together, Part 1

The day after our trip to the cabin and our unexpected but welcome dinner at Panino’s, it was time for one of the main reasons we traveled to Minnesota, the Minnesota State Fair. Now, if you’ve been to the fair, or any state or county fair for that matter, you know that one of the main reasons you go is for the food. There are hundreds of options and while we couldn’t get to all of them, I have nine different places that we visited and I’ll have to break them up into 3 posts. My co-worker Sue, who grew up in St. Paul and actually went to high school right around the corner from Joan’s childhood home, was disappointed because we didn’t get to the Sweet Martha’s Cookie Jar, but here’s the first three of the great options that we did hit.

Now, if you remember I said that Davanni’s sells their famous hot hoagies and as much as Joan says there is a difference, a hoagie, a sub, a grinder, a hero are all the same. I also told you to stay tuned for one that I tease Joan with by saying it is the same, but is most definitely NOT. That would be a Corn Dog vs. a Pronto Pup.  Even though they may look the same, they are very different. Most likely you know what a corn dog is. Take a hot dog, batter it in a cornmeal batter and deep fry it. If you don’t like corn dogs because of the corn meal batter, go to the fair and try a Pronto Pup. It is battered and deep fried like a corn dog but with a lighter wheat flour batter, not corn meal. You still get the crispy batter without the corn taste. Here’s where we got it and this is what I got:

This is always Joan’s first stop at the fair and it was our first stop this time. We’re off and running. That’s one delicious food stop down, many more to go. We headed down the street a little ways and came across another Minnesota State Fair staple, cheese curds. For those of you not familiar with cheese curds, they are little nuggets of cheese deep fried (of course). We got our cheese curds from The Mouth Trap. Here’s the stand and here’s what we got:

To wrap up this first segment of our trip to the fair, here’s one more bit of deep fried goodness, mini donuts. These are sold several different places throughout the fair, but we got ours at Tom Thumb Donuts. These are just as they sound, little donuts that they fry, cover with sugar and put in a big bag for you. We got our bag, sat on a bench and munched them all down before we knew what happened. Here’s the stand and the bag of donuts they gave us:

After our bag of donuts, we took a ride on Ye Old Mill which is the oldest ride at the fair. It is a classic “Tunnel of Love” boat ride and is, for the most part, the same ride that opened 98 years ago.

Next up will be part two of our trip to the Minnesota State Fair.

Until next time,

Mike

The Particulars

Minnesota State Fair

Location:

1265 North Snelling Avenue N, St. Paul, MN

Website: http://www.mnstatefair.org/

Date of Visit: August 29, 2011

Time of Visit: All Day Long

Has It Been on TV?: Probably on local TV News broadcasts.

A Trip to the Lake and Another Favorite

The day after our trip to Matt’s Bar, we headed up to my father-in-law’s cabin on Balsam Lake in Wisconsin. This was supposed to be a day with no eating out; just hot dogs and chicken strips made at the cabin. That did change a little and because of it, I can let you know about a couple of places.

First of all, on our way up to the cabin, we stopped in little Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota for a bathroom break. I decided that I needed a snack or something for breakfast. We wandered down towards a couple of shops and found parked there the Waffle Van. Now Joan and I had eaten waffles from a truck before. In New York City we found the Wafels and Dinges truck that we had seen on TV. This van was very similar. Unlike Wafels and Dinges, the Waffle Van had only one kind of waffle and it is my favorite. When you think of a traditional Belgian waffle, you are most likely thinking about a Brussels waffle. It is usually square and light and airy. The Waffle Van instead had Liege waffles. They are made with a special pearl sugar and are more dense than the Brussels waffle. Now in New York, I would get a Liege with a spread they have called spekuloos, but since the Waffle Van didn’t have spekuloos, I got my Liege with some chocolate sauce. Here’s what I got:

The waffle was very dense and delicious and the chocolate added the right amount of sweetness. I have to say that it was not as good as the Wafels and Dinges truck in New York, but since we were not in New York, this worked very well. I’m not sure exactly when they are there, but if you’re driving through Marine on St. Criox, Minnesota, pull in to the rest area and see if they have waffles. They are great.

Well, as I said, our plan was to just eat at the cabin all day. We did that for lunch but as people started to leave, we realized that it was only going to be Joan and I and Joan’s father eating dinner. As I have mentioned before, there are several must go places for us when we visit the Twin Cities and one of those is Panino’s. Well it was looking like we might not get there this time around until our dinner opened up this day. We decided to head back to the city and eat at Panino’s for dinner. Now, Panino’s is a chain, sort of. They have three locations in Colorado and one in North Oaks, Minnesota. There used to be a second location in St. Paul that Joan would frequent, but when it closed, the North Oaks location became the go to place for Panino’s. Now, they serve pizza and pasta and various appetizers, but their specialty is the Panino Sandwich. These are kind of like Panini sandwiches, hence the name, but they are served on a kind of rolled flat bread and then grilled. You can get just about anything you could want in one of these sandwiches as they have over 40 varieties on their menu from steak to taco to club to Hawaiian. Tonight I decided to try the roast beef with chips. Here’s what they brought me:

It’s the flat bread that makes these sandwiches unique. They stuff it with all of the fillings and then grill it. It comes out hot and melty but everything stays nicely inside when you eat it. In the end, it all worked out. We got our Panino’s visit in and it was absolutely fabulous.

Next up is part one of our visit to The Great Minnesota Get Together, the Minnesota State Fair. I have a LOT of food items to visit there.

Until next time,

Mike

The Particulars

Restaurant: The Waffle Van

Location: Parked in Marine on St. Criox, MN

Website: The side of the van says http://www.wafflevan.com/ but it doesn’t appear to be active

Date of Visit: August 28, 2011

Time of Visit: Around 10am, breakfast/snack

Has It Been on TV?: I doubt it

Restaurant: Panino’s Restaurant

Location:

857 Village Center Drive, North

Oaks, MN 55127

Website: www.paninos.com

Date of Visit: August 28, 2011

Time of Visit: Around 9pm, Dinner

Has It Been on TV?: Not that I know of

My First Taste of a Twin Cities Classic

OK, I know I'm very behind on my blog entries. I have been traveling around the country following my Brewers in their quest for the World Series. Even though they didn't make it, I did pick up a lot of good spots to share with you in the coming weeks. I will continue now with our trip to Minneapolis in August.

Now I had been to the Twin Cities area several times before, but there is one thing that I had never tried before, the Jucy Lucy. If you are from the area, you know exactly what I’m talking about. If you are not, let me explain. When you make a normal cheeseburger, you put your meat on the grill and when it is almost done, you put your cheese on top and let it melt. Well, with a Jucy Lucy, the cheese goes inside the burger. They take two patties of meat and seal in cheese and then grill it. This creates a wonderful molten cheese center to the burger. They serve these all over town, but the two places that argue about being the first and the best are Matt’s Bar and the 5-8 Club. Since we had to pick one, I deferred to the Travel Channel show “Food Wars.” They had these two battle and the winner was… Matt’s Bar. This is where we had to go.

Now if you are expecting some elaborate dining experience, this is not the place. It is a small, well, bar with a few tables and booths. There is one small grill area with a fryer and in fact, here is their entire menu:

All of the drinks are served cold, but in the can. All of the burgers are delivered to your table simply wrapped in paper. They do have baskets for the fries. There is a sign on the wall that says “We have no plates and no ice, we blew the budget on napkins.” When it came to ordering, there was no question, I had to have a Jucy Lucy. Just a note on the spelling, I have it right. Legend has it that they put this item up on the menu so quickly that they forgot the “I” in Jucy and just left it that way. When they brought my Jucy Lucy and a basket of fries, here’s what I got:

We received a warning on the Jucy Lucy that the middle can be very hot. I ate a few fries and let it cool down just a bit. When I took my first bite, they were correct, it was very hot and here’s what happened:

The cheese just oozes out and mixes with the meat and makes the whole thing delicious. It had taken me a while, but it was worth the wait. I can now say that I’ve had an authentic Twin Cities Jucy Lucy. Maybe my next trip to town I’ll have to check out the 5-8 Club.

If you have not yet tried this wonderful stuffed cheeseburger, give it a try sometime. You’ll love it. Just be careful not to burn your mouth.

Next up, a trip to the lake and another favorite.

Until next time,

Mike

The Particulars

Restaurant: Matt’s Bar

Location:

3500 Cedar Avenue S

, Minneapolis, MN 55407

Website: http://www.mattsbar.com/

Date of Visit: August 27, 2011

Time of Visit: Around 8:00pm, Dinner

Has It Been On TV?: Several Times. I’ve seen them on “Food Wars”, “Man vs. Food” and “Tastiest Places to Chowdown” all on the Travel Channel. They may have been on others too.

A Return Visit and a Great Dessert

So, after our outing to Mickey’s Diner and a restful night’s sleep, we met some friends the next day and toured the Wabasha Street Caves. This was a great tour of some man made caves that were previously a speakeasy, a dance club, a disco and a former hangout of John Dillinger. It was a very interesting tour that I would suggest for anyone in the Twin Cities area.

Well after that, we of course needed some lunch.  With the group we had, which consisted of adults and kids, it was decided that the best place would be to head back to Davanni’s. They have a great “party room” that was the perfect gathering place and left a little room for the kids to be kids.

Well, since the last time I got a hot hoagie, I decided to go with a pizza this time.  I switched it up, but guess what Joan got. That’s right, her famous Turkey Hoagie. They have three sizes of pizza and the 7.5” solo is perfect for one person (as the name suggests). They have three crust options: thin, traditional and deep dish. Now, I’ve always liked the thin crust the best so that’s what I ordered. There’s something about tasting the sauce and toppings rather than a bunch of dough. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take a big piece of deep dish when I’m in Chicago, but for the most part I’ll stick with thin. As far as toppings, I’m a sucker for pepperoni and mushroom. That goes all the way back to my father who religiously ordered “peppy-mush” pizzas. I decided to add a little more on this one and ordered their “Works” which came with pepperoni, sausage, hamburger, mushroom and red onion. Here’s what it looks like:

We just had to add the same garlic cheese bread we had last time as well. The pizza was just enough to satisfy but not so much that you’re stuffed. I know for Joan, the only thing you should get at Davanni’s are the hoagies, but if you’re looking for something different the pizza is a great option too.

After our great lunch, we needed to get something for dessert.  Down the street is one of our favorite places for dessert, Culver’s Frozen Custard. Now if you haven’t had frozen custard before, it is similar to ice cream but so much better. Custard must have egg yolks in it to be called custard and it is served at a higher temperature than ice cream. That means you can eat it and eat it and never get that ice cream headache. Now there is one place in Milwaukee that has the best custard anywhere, but you’ll have to wait for my next trip to Brewer country for that review. Culver’s started in Sauk City, Wisconsin and has now expanded to all over the Midwest. Also recently they have been expanding more out west. The closest one to us here in Las Vegas is in Phoenix, so we jumped on the chance to get some great frozen custard. When we go to Culver’s, there’s only one thing to get, the Caramel Cashew sundae. Here’s what it looked like:

The Caramel Cashew sundae starts with a rich and creamy scoop of their vanilla frozen custard. This stuff is much smoother than ice cream. There are none of those ice crystals that you inevitably get in even the best ice cream. Then they add a rich caramel sauce and a handful of whole cashews. They finish it off with a cherry on top for good measure. The saltiness of the nuts matches really well with the custard, more so than just plain old peanuts.  I guess I’m glad we don’t have a Culver’s here in Vegas because I could eat one of these every day of the week. They do have a lot of other sundaes at Culver’s as well as a custard flavor of the day, but next time you’re in a Culver’s, try the Caramel Cashew, you won’t be disappointed.

Next up, my first taste of a Twin Cities classic.

Until next time,

Mike

The Particulars

Restaurant: Davanni’s Pizza and Hot Hoagies
Location: 310 White Bear Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55106
Website: http://www.davannis.com/
Date of Visit: August 27, 2011
Time of Visit: Around 1:00pm, Lunch
Has It Been On TV?: Not that I know of

Restaurant: Culver’s Frozen Custard

Location: 2065 Old Hudson Road, St. Paul, MN 55119
Website: http://www.culvers.com/
Date of Visit: August 27, 2011
Time of Visit: Around 2:00pm, Dessert
Has It Been On TV?: I Don’t Think So

A St. Paul Institution

If you remember from my last entry, we were at Target Field for the Twins/Tigers game. The game is over, we’ve taken the light rail back to our car and we’re ready to head back to the hotel. Well, we decide since we really only had an early breakfast and the late lunch, and since we’re still kind of on west coast time, we should get something more to eat before we retire for the evening. Well back home in Las Vegas this is an easy proposition. You can find food open all night (or at least very late) around every corner. In St. Paul (and most cities for that matter) places actually close. Well if it’s late at night and you want something to eat in St. Paul that means a trip to Mickey’s Dining Car Mickey’s is an old fashioned diner. It’s not large at all; in fact I would say it’s downright tiny. We counted 16 stools at the counter and they have 4 booths that will seat another 16. We were there around 11pm or so and the place was packed. At times you have to stand in the door and wait for a seat. Fortunately for us, a booth had just opened up when we arrived and we jumped on it. Here’s a quick look at the counter from our booth:

Now everything here is strictly old school. They have no computer system, they take no credit cards and there is no fancy back kitchen. Mickey’s is on the National Register of Historic Places and as I would find out the next day, that basically means you can change NOTHING about the place. It makes it difficult on a functioning business, but Mickey’s does it well. I don’t think they would want to change if they could. It’s part of the charm of the place. You see all kinds here. As I said we were there around 11pm and we saw a group of friends in jeans and T-Shirts, a couple that was dressed for a formal affair, a group that had more tattoos and piercings than a rock band and gentleman in a suit and tie that came in and sat at the end of the counter and wanted to be everyone’s best friend. He knew exactly what he wanted to order and judging by how he ordered, I would say that he’d been there many, many times before and would probably be back many, many more times.

Now, as I perused the menu, I wanted something old school diner and something a little unique to Mickey’s. I found the perfect item, the Classic. The Classic is a cheeseburger served with a few hashbrowns and a little mulligan stew. Here’s what it looked like when it came out:

Now, you’ll notice that, according to the menu, those are “a few” hashbrowns. There was nothing overly special about any item on this platter except the fact that you were sitting in Mickey’s eating them. The burger was good. The one thing about it was that on the edge of the bun, some of the mulligan stew was seeping into the bun and it gave it a nice gravy taste. The hashbrowns were very good again with that great flattop crust on one side and the tender potatoes on the other. The best part about the entire dish was probably the mulligan stew. This is kind of a specialty of Mickey’s. It was a wonderful beef stew type dish with, as you can see, large chunks of vegetables. The carrots and potatoes were not too firm, but not to mushy either. You got that great firmness when you bit into them.

When we finished our meals, we both had the feeling. You know the one, where you’re not quite full, but don’t need a whole other entrée. Maybe what you need is dessert. Yes! But you don’t need a whole dessert. Joan and I decided to share a piece of apple pie with a scoop of ice cream. Be sure to ask for the pie warmed. It’s just right and melts the ice cream just a bit while you eat it. If you ask for a piece of apple pie, warmed, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream at Mickey’s, here’s what you’ll get:

We made short work of that and were on our way back to the hotel. When in St. Paul, please make it a point to get to Mickey’s. They are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and have been for 70 years.

Next up, a return visit and dessert at a regional place.

Until next time,

Mike

The Particulars

Restaurant: Mickey’s Dining Car
Location: 36 W. 7^th Street, St. Paul, MN 55102
Website: www.mickeysdiningcar.com
Date of Visit: August 26, 2011
Time of Visit: Around 11:00pm, Late night snack/meal
Has It Been on TV: Several Times. I saw it on Alton Brown’s “Feasting on Asphalt 2” on Food Network but they have been featured on many more shows as well as appearances in several movies and TV shows set in Minnesota.

One of Joan's Favorites and a Trip to the Ballpark

Every time we make a trip back to St. Paul there are certain places that we MUST go. After we awoke from out mid morning, red eye flight nap, we went to one of those places. We took the short drive from the hotel down to Davanni’s Pizza and Hot Hoagies. They have 21 locations spread throughout the Twin Cities area and Joan remembers vividly going to this location near her house and another down around the University of St. Thomas where she went to school. As the name suggests, they have pizza and also hot hoagie sandwiches. They don’t have subs as I have been told on many occasions, they have hoagies. Now I really don’t see the difference here. It’s bread stuffed with meat and veggies, it’s a sub; it’s a hoagie; it’s a hero; it’s a grinder. This one I know I’m right about. (Stay tuned in a couple of posts for one that I’m wrong about).

Now, Joan having been here, oh about a jillion times, know exactly what she wants. For her, at Davanni’s she has “that dish,” the one that you order EVERY time you are there. For her, it’s the hot turkey hoagie. Now for me, I’ve only been a few times before so I peruse the menu. They have pizza, they have hoagies, and they have pastas and calzones and salads. I decide to defer to Joan’s judgment on this one and get a signature hot hoagie. I scan down the list of options and settle on the roast beef. We go up and order our two hoagies and a full order of garlic cheese bread just for good measure. Then we take our seat. You sit in anticipation and wait for your name to be called over the PA system. Finally we hear “Joan your hoagies are ready.” I spring up and find a tray waiting for me on the counter with two spectacular hoagies and an order of cheesy garlic bread. When I get back to my seat, here’s what I have:

I have to say that there is something about the bread that they use that makes this sandwich (and all of their hoagies) so good. It’s baked in their own bakery exclusive to Davanni’s. It is very soft but not so soft that the sandwich falls apart. The veggies they use are top notch and there is just enough mayo on there to give it great flavor and not drown out the meats. The garlic cheese bread is nothing too special but it does make a great add-on to any sandwich or pizza. They serve it with a side of their marinara sauce which makes a great dunker.

As I said, with 21 locations across the cities, you should be able to find one close to you no matter where you are in the area. Check it out, you won’t be disappointed.

After our wonderful late lunch, it was time for some Major League Baseball action. Now I know you don’t know much about me yet, but I am a HUGE baseball fan. My team is the Milwaukee Brewers and they do make one trip a year to Minnesota. They were not, however in town this particular weekend, but as a general baseball fan, I was eager to check out Target Field, now in its second year. I won’t say too much about the stadium since this is a food blog and not a baseball blog, but it is a very nice new stadium. I think that they should have looked for some sort of retractable roof solution there in Minnesota. The weather was absolutely perfect the night we were there but in April, I can imagine some pretty miserable nights.

As far as food, as with any ballpark, there is plenty to eat there. We kind of browsed all of the stands but having just eaten at Davanni’s, we weren’t too interested in a big dinner. We did have tickets on the club level and there are a couple nice lounge areas on that level. You have concession stands and a nice place to sit and eat. Here’s just a quick look at one of them:

Well, as I said we weren’t interested in a lot of dinner type food. Dessert type food however….. That’s another matter. We came across this stand while walking around:

TC Treats (as in Twin Cities) offers a variety of dessert items including gelato. Well when you have a lot of choices, you can’t just settle for one scoop. You need two. I selected two different flavors, Double Dark Chocolate and an interesting Sea Salt Caramel. I also selected a Killebrew root beer named after the late Twins great Harmon Killebrew. We found a table and here’s what it all looked like:

Now recently I have become very interested in salted caramel. It’s a wonderful combination of salty and sweet and this gelato was no exception. It was kind of a caramel gelato with little chocolate nuggets in it and that wonderful salty flavor throughout. The Double Dark Chocolate was just as it sounds, a wonderfully rich dark chocolate gelato with dark chocolate chunks laced in. Great treat before a ballgame.

In the end, the Twins fell to the Tigers that night but I did get to see the ballpark.

Next up, late night food at a St. Paul institution.

Until next time,

Mike

 

The Particulars

Restaurant: Davanni’s Pizza and Hot Haogies

Location:

310 White Bear Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55106

Website: www.davannis.com

Date of Visit: August 26, 2011

Time of Visit: Around 4:00pm, Late Lunch/Early Dinner

Has It Been On TV?: Not that I know of

Place: Target Field

Location: 1 Twins Way (3rd Avenue N between 5th St. N and 7th St. N), Minneapolis

Website: http://www.twins.com/

Date of Visit: August 26, 2011

Time of Visit: 7:05pm First Pitch

Has It Been on TV?: Every Twins Home Game

A Change of Plans

What is it that they say about the best laid plans of mice and men? Well as you read in my last entry, Joan and I were headed to the airport and ready to get on a redeye flight from Las Vegas to Minneapolis. We had a hotel reservation for Friday night and the plan was to show up early at the hotel and beg for them to give us a room. Then we’d crash and sleep until lunchtime. Great plan, huh? We’ve done this before without any problem. I know, there’s a slight chance that they will have NOTHING clean when we arrive and we’ll be out of luck, but what are the chances that they were completely full the night before. Well, they were completely full the night before and had nothing clean to give us when we got in. So there we are sitting in the lobby trying to figure out what to do until someone checks out and they get a room clean.

Well Joan being from St. Paul says that we should get some breakfast. That sounded good to me. If we can’t sleep, we might as well eat. Joan loves Perkins restaurant and there was one right around the corner, so off we go to break my “no chains” rule again. We show up and there is not one car in the parking lot. Not a good sign. As it turns out, this particular Perkins is now closed. So we punch up the handy dandy GPS, put in “Perkins” and head off to the next nearest Perkins.

On the way, we pass this place called The Little Oven. Joan mentions that they have breakfast there and asked if I wanted to stop there instead. Now here’s where I remember the words of my mother. I don’t remember how old I was but I was pretty young. We were traveling and were in Golden, Colorado. It came time to eat and my younger brother and I of course wanted to go to McDonald’s. My mother insisted that we go somewhere with more “local flavor,” somewhere we couldn’t go at home. Growing up in a town of 18,000 people, even we had a McDonald’s. Now being kids we thought the suggestion of “local flavor” was quite ridiculous. Let’s go get our Big Mac and enjoy it. No, we need “local flavor.” So we head to a place called the Golden Ram. I will never forget the Golden Ram. When we walked in the door we couldn’t see the other side of the restaurant because of all the cigarette smoke (remember the days when you could still smoke in restaurants?). Standing for only a few minutes waiting for a hostess, it was decided that we would not be dining at the Golden Ram. Now, I don’t remember where we ended up eating that day but I know it wasn’t the Golden Ram and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t McDonald’s either. We never let my mom live that one down. How silly to seek out “local flavor” when McDonald’s is right there. For years and years after that we would bring up the Golden Ram and we all knew what we meant.

Well, many, many years later and now my mother somehow seems so much smarter. Now I like finding those things that you just can’t get at home. That’s why now, when given the choice, I tend to shy away from Applebee’s, TGI Friday’s and the like because you can get those in any town across America (heck, even my hometown of 18,000 has an Applebee’s now). Amazing how the older you get, the smarter your parents become. This is one of the main influences behind the “no national chains” rule.

So, let’s get back to The Little Oven.  Joan remembered this as simply a pizza place when she was growing up but knew that they had branched out to other items as the years went by. This is now a wonderful little corner restaurant open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We were there for breakfast on a Friday morning and the place was pretty busy. At one point there were no open seats. There was one large group of what appeared to be construction worker eating breakfast before they headed out. There were several tables of retired guys hanging out for eggs and coffee. Joan mentioned that her father hung out there from time to time, but being it was a little after 8:00am, we were probably past his time there. Here’s a quick view of the dining room, looking in from the door:

Well I took a look at the menu and saw something on the “Specials” sheet that I just couldn’t pass up. I saw the “Around the World” Breakfast. This breakfast comes with two eggs, potatoes, toast and three types of sausage. How could I pass that up? The sausages were a southern sausage, a Bavarian sausage and a Venetian sausage.  Here’s what the whole thing looks like:

Now, the one complaint that I would have is that by piling the toast on top of the eggs and potatoes, they picked up a good deal of steam and kind of made it soggy. It wasn’t inedible by any means, but if you’re looking for good crisp toast, you might want to ask for the toast on the side. The potatoes were wonderful. They had that great flat top crust on them and then had just enough pepper and onion mixed in. It was still mostly potato but the peppers and onions gave it just a little more zing. The sausages were vastly different from each other which gave you a great variety of flavors. The “southern” tasted more like a traditional breakfast sausage that you might be used to. The Bavarian had a milder taste more like a bratwurst. The Venetian was a little spicier like an Italian sausage. Overall it was a very satisfying breakfast and a wonderful little old school restaurant. In fact, they still write their tickets out by hand; no computerized receipts here.

If you’re in St. Paul, check out The Little Oven. All the particulars are below. Breakfast in the morning, pizza and Italian food in the evening.

Next up, back to the plan for lunch after some much needed rest in our finally available hotel room.

Until next time,

Mike

The Particulars

Restaurant: The Little Oven
Location: 1786 East Minnehaha Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55119
Website: www.thelittleoven.com
Date of Visit: August 26, 2011
Time of Visit: Around 8:00am, Breakfast
Has it Been on TV?: I Don’t Think So.

My First Practice Review

OK, here we go. My first real restaurant/food review and….. I’m breaking one of my rules right off. OK, here’s the deal. This isn't really a “travel” review. This is a kind of “pre-travel” review. I mentioned before that Joan and I were going to travel back to the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. Well we have our three dogs and when we travel they have to go off to “camp.” We kennel our weimaraner Max and our beagle Roscoe at our regular kennel here in Las Vegas. But, our basenji mix, Murphy is getting up there in age (almost 18 now), so we have her vet watch her when we’re gone. What that really means is that we have two drop-offs to make.

So, our dogs have been dropped off and we still need to pack. We don’t want to cook tonight. So, where do we go? Here’s where I break my rule. We go to Sweet Tomatoes. Now this is somewhat of a national chain. I know, I know, I know, I said I wouldn’t do national chains and here I am right off of the bat.

Well, Sweet Tomatoes is, as they call it, “The Salad Buffet Restaurant.” It’s all-you-can eat and it’s specialty is salads. Also know that the first Sweet Tomatoes restaurants are known as Souplantation. Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes has 122 locations in 15 states so I guess it’s not truly national. I can skirt the rule. *Whew*

One of the reasons that we wanted to go to Sweet Tomatoes tonight is that it was nearing the end of the Cuba portion of their “Around the World in Eight Tasty Weeks.” There are four different regions, two weeks each. I had tasted some pretty good Cuban food the last time we were in Miami (sorry, before I had the food blog idea. Next time around though) so I wanted to sample what Sweet Tomatoes had to offer.

I have to say that it was not exactly Little Havana in Miami, but it was quite good. When you first enter the restaurant, you head down the first salad line. In this line, there are all the traditional salad bar ingredients here as well as a number of pasta salads, potato salads, jello and the like. You then pay for your meal and then are seated. During slow times, you are free to sit anywhere you wish. During busy times, a host or hostess will seat you in order to keep the seating orderly and to avoid people wandering around looking for a place to sit.

Now, I mentioned that we were there during their Cuban week. There were three special Cuban dishes in the first line and of course I had to sample all three. I took a bit of the special Havana Banana salad, the Chorizo, Potato and Lime Salad and the Cuban rice and beans. I also put together a “regular” salad with some lettuce, carrot, mushroom, hard boiled egg and bleu cheese crumbles. I topped it all off with blue cheese dressing and croutons. Here’s what it all looked like when I sat down:

Overall, the salad was, well… a salad… It wasn’t wonderful, it wasn’t bad. The Havana Banana salad was very nice. The bananas were actually crunchy banana chips that added a wonderful crunch to the salad. The dressing also added a wonderful citrus hint. The potato salad was advertised as a Chorizo, Potato and Lime salad. If I had one complaint it would be that they needed a bit more chorizo. The beans and rice I felt had the perfect balance between the two. Not too many beans or too few. The rice had that great Cuban taste to and the beans just added the right amount of give to complement the firmer rice.

OK, it’s time to move on. Remember this is all-you-can-eat. Of course that is a double edged sword. Good thing, you’re not locked into just what they bring; you can eat more if you want. Bad thing, you’re not locked into just what they bring; you can eat a LOT more if you want. So, I moved on to the bread and salad area.

In this area, they serve a variety of soups, usually 4 or 5, a variety of breads and muffins and also some hot pasta dishes. In this area I grabbed the two Cuban specialties. The first was a Chorizo and Sweet Potato Soup and the second was an open faced version of the traditional Cubano sandwich. Then I turned and saw something that no one can pass up when it’s seen on a buffet line. Macaroni and cheese! It is physically impossible to pass by and NOT take some. So when I returned to my seat, it all looked like this:

The soup was very flavorful. As you will find out in reading this blog, I am not one for super spicy foods. The chorizo in this soup gave it just a bit of a kick but it was not overpowering. In my opinion, it was just enough. The Cubano again was not like getting one in Little Havana in Miami, but for what it was it worked really, really well. The bread was a simple focaccia bread. There were chunks of ham and pork to match the ingredients in an authentic Cubano. The thing that put this bread into the superb category was the pickle and mustard. There was just enough pickle on it to give you that tangy flavor but not too much that it turned it into a pickle sandwich. It was the same thing with the mustard. There was a just enough as a base on the bread and not enough to overpower the entire sandwich. As far as the macaroni and cheese, the sauce could have been a bit tighter but over all it was very good. The pasta was just al dente enough to soak up the cheese sauce.

Well it was at this point that I noticed that I missed a special Cuban item on the first salad bar. There was a Cuban French dressing that somehow missed my eye. So, being an all-you-can eat restaurant I headed back through the line and put together a simple salad of lettuce, cheese and Cuban French Dressing. On my way back to my table, I passed the pasta station. Now, remember what I mentioned just above about things that are impossible to do. See what I ended up with when I ended up back at my table:

The Cuban French dressing had a wonderful hint of citrus. It was surprisingly light for being a French dressing. The Macaroni and Cheese…. Well you already know.

Well, the time had come to leave Sweet Tomatoes for the evening. We had a wonderful meal and….. Wait, there seems to be something missing. Something that I must have overlooked the last time I was up…. Oh yeah, dessert. The double edged sword rears its ugly head again. There was one Cuban specialty dessert and seeing that I had tried EVERY other Cuban specialty item, I HAD to dish up some banana pudding. Then… I needed one more thing. So, of course if you’re going to get one more dessert item, you actually make it two. One of the “breads” that they have in the bread area is a chocolate brownie. That goes in the bottom of the bowl and then topped with chocolate frozen yogurt and caramel sauce. Altogether it looked like this:

This is the bad part of the meal…. So wonderfully bad. Now when I think of banana pudding I really don’t think Cuban but southern. That really didn’t take away from the banana goodness that was the banana pudding. No vanilla wafers though. The brownie was very rich but not overly so. It was more of a chocolate bread consistency than the dense, dense brownie texture. As with any brownie sundae, the yogurt took the rich edge off the brownie and added a smooth creaminess.

Well that’s our trip to Sweet Tomatoes (I really mean it now). We were back home to pack and then off to Minnesota later that night (red eye flight). I know that this was a long post, but there was so much to eat there. I’ll try to keep the coming posts a bit shorter. Coming up will be all the places that we ate in the St. Paul area and there were quite a few. Also, included in the next few entries will be a description of our trip to the Minnesota State Fair. There are so many things to eat there that I will barely scratch the surface, but hey; I can only eat so much.

Until next time,

Mike

The Particulars

Restaurant: Sweet Tomatoes

Location:

375 North Stephanie Street, Henderson, NV 89014

Website: http://www.souplantation.com/
Date of Visit: August 25, 2011

Time of Visit: Around 6:30PM, Dinner

Has It Been On TV?: Not that I’ve seen