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.