Eat Where I Ate: 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