Double Date with Jon and Lauren

Saturday ended up being a gorgeous fall day, which is nice since we actually got to spend portions of it outside… or, at least in a bus looking outside :)

Jon and Lauren are friends of ours with whom we planned a double date for Saturday. It was a mystery date of sorts as we girls made the plans and the boys eventually learned what we were up to and got to come along ;)

We were to meet at noon for the St. Paul Gangster Tour. The gist of it is that you hop on a bus for two hours as they drive you around the various sites of Saint Paul that were well known back in the day for various gangster activity. The tour was at noon and Jon and Lauren were to meet us there. Josh and I didn’t have any plans before that, so we decided to head down an hour early and take in the tour of the Wabasha Street Caves. The caves are well known in Saint Paul and I had long wondered what they were like, so we figured $5/person was well worth it.

Surprisingly, there were probably 40+ people on the tour! I seriously thought the number would be closer to 8. It was pretty neat to see the caves and fun to learn some of its history, plus it would be a terrific venue for an event. It’s a relatively short tour and if you’re looking for something different to do on a Saturday morning, I recommend it. Plus, grab a vanilla chai at the little coffee shop nearby – yum!

Jon and Lauren met up with us at noon and we headed toward the bus. Our tour guide was dressed up as a gangster’s moll and had a great accent. She was giving all the people in line a hard time, which made it fun. Four older ladies were there dressed up in gangster wear and one had a plastic Tommy gun with sound effects. Fortunately, they weren’t too annoying.

Our tour guide’s name was Dawn but she played the role of Katy Kelly, George “Machine Gun” Kelly’s wife. She had a bustier and a replica Tommy gun and shared St. Paul’s gangster history with a good amount of jokes and sass. The bus was full and ran the gamut of ages. We felt it was a well spent $22/person. (For info. on Saint Paul's gangster history, I recommend John Dillinger Slept Here by Paul Maccabee. It's terribly interesting, especially when you learn how corrupt the St. Paul cops were back then and how they aided and abetted gangsters in just about every way they could.)

After the tour we stopped at Great Waters Brewing for a late lunch (get the meatloaf!) and then drove to Flat Earth Brewery for a tour. It is a microbrewery and, again, I thought there would be far fewer people than were actually in attendance. It is in no way set up to accommodate such a large group, so we basically had a free beer, listened to a 5 minute spiel by the owner and went on our (less crowded) way. Decent beer but I wouldn’t recommend the tour.

After that we went our separate ways and Josh and I went home for a few hours before the KISS concert at Target Center. Yes, we’re ’80s throwbacks, what can we say?! It was a fun show with lots of pyrotechnics and other special effects. Sitting next to me was a kid who was probably 11 or 12 and who was with his dad – I’m sure they were making a great memory together. Next to Josh was “Dave from LaCrosse” who seemed to really, really like Josh and even hugged him when we left. Why? The world may never know!

Cloudy with a chance of food and drinks

Wine Bar

Breaking news. Eden Prairie has a wine bar. I repeat, Eden Prairie has a wine bar!

The excitement of this news is tempered a bit, I suppose, by the fact that it appears to be a coffee shop whose owners merely decided to keep it open later, add some snacks and a wine list, but still! Something in E.P. that’s not a chain – this is welcome news!

Josh and I checked out JJ’s Coffee Company and Wine Bar last Saturday when we were feeling mellow, and it was the perfect venue for a quiet night. It is located in a strip mall off Mitchell Road, but once you get inside you are lulled (in a good way) by the neutral tones and general coziness. We sat in the (faux) leather club chairs next to the (faux) fireplace, had several glasses of wine, a flatbread pizza and some nachos. Next time I’d skip the nachos (not enough cheese) but the wines I had were all very good (I got a flight of reds). I’d go back, especially on a night when I was feeling like going out but not overly ambitious about it.

Nicollet Island Pavilion
Wednesday night Josh and I went to an event at Nicollet Island Inn sponsored by Mintahoe Hospitality Group. It was basically an open house to show off their company, which meant free food, free drinks and free entertainment. I even made some business networking connections, so it was a hit in many ways.

They had various food stations, including noodle bowls, kebabs, barbecue, turkey with a Riesling sauce and garlic mashed (my favorite), tortilla roll-ups, a dessert bar and more. They had a signature drink of St. Germain elderflower liqueur, white wine, soda and lemon. In a word, YUM. I have become a big fan of St. Germain in the last six months. They also had red and white wine as well as a table sampling various beers. Josh and I both tried Widmers, mine was a traditional ale and his was a hoppy seasonal.

They had caricature artists and we got ours done – a good laugh. They also had casino tables set up, tables showing off linens, flowers, centerpieces and other things you need to make an event spectacular. They also had a band. I hadn’t been to Nicollet Island Pavilion in some time, and I forget what a beautiful space it is. I definitely recommend hosting an event there if you get the chance. Events like these are one of the things I really love about living in a city – or at least close enough by in the ‘burbs that you can still get to them!

Oktoberfest

Kay and Chris came up from Mankato Saturday night to celebrate Oktoberfest with dinner at Gasthof in NE Minneapolis. Although I had been to the Mario Keller bar downstairs many times I had never actually eaten at the restaurant, and Josh had never been there at all.

We were glad we had reservations because the place was a zoo! We got seated quickly and started on several large beers and ginormous platters of German food. I was drinking Hacker-Pschorr Alt, Josh was drinking hefeweizen and Chris was drinking Murphy’s Irish Stout. Kay, oddly enough, was drinking diet Coke.

We all got salads and ordered a cheese and cracker platter, so had plenty to eat even before our food arrived. Kay and Chris got a multi-food platter to share, and had enough left over for probably a couple of more meals, Josh ordered a single platter and managed to finish most things except for the spaetzel, and I – not being a big fan of German “cuisine” (as I learned when I was in Munich back in 1999) – ordered steak (which, I have to say, was awesome). I ate some off of everyone’s platter, though, so still got the meat and beet experience.

Gasthof is always a blast, because in addition to eating and drinking until you burst, the other general goal is simply to have a lot of fun. This is accomplished by drinking bier, clinking your glasses, doing apfelkorn shots, maybe trying snuff for the first time (Josh!), listening to “Sesame Street” on the accordion or yelling Ziggy Zaggy Zicke Zaki hoi hoi hoi whenever you get a new round of shots and/or someone – anyone – finishes a boot of bier. The waitresses are dressed in dirndls and you always see a few customers decked out in lederhosen. Downstairs and occasionally outside, you polka.

After dinner we went outside to the tent since they were celebrating Oktoberfest. It was darn cold but we played a round of Hammerschlagen (where you try to pound a nail into a piece of wood with the narrow end of a hammer in one stroke) before we bailed for the tent and warmth. Although we had several biers in the restaurant, we hardly drank outside because we were so full from dinner.

Stayed for a while but eventually decided to bail. Checked out Donnie Dirk’s Zombie Bar since it was close by and on our way out of NE. It’s a little off the beaten path from the other NE bars but has fun decor inside. I actually got talked into ordering a gin drink that, while it smelled like gin, was creamy and had no pine tree taste whatsoever. All in all, probably not a place I would go out of my way to hang out at, but I’m glad we stopped by. It was opened recently by the woman who owns Psycho Suzi’s Motor Lounge (tiki hut kitsch bar) in NE and Saint Sabrina’s Parlor in Purgatory (tattoo/goth shop) in Uptown.

The four of us drove back to our place where we popped the cork on a bottle of Kuleto, kicked back and chatted. A good night with good friends!

Sip 'n Sample

Last night Josh and I went to our first Sip ‘n Sample event. Sip ‘n Sample basically arranges tasting tours at local restaurants and gives you an excuse to get out, have a drink, eat some good food and maybe meet some people. We did all of the above.

In a rather strange coincidence, this Sip ‘n Sample event was at The Minnesota Room, which we had just been to for the first time last week. They touted it as a “chef’s battle”, and I thought that meant we would get to watch the chefs cook in front of us, using the same or similar ingredients, and that we would get to judge whose food was better. That wasn’t really the case at all.

We got there a bit early but at least they had a couple of wines to try. Josh and I drank a tempranillo whose name I am forgetting at this moment, but which I really liked. They also had passed hors d’ouevres, which included tomato bruschetta and a caramelized onion/goat cheese crostini. Both were good. Even more fun, our friend Shaun, who is taking classes at Le Cordon Bleu, was serving apps. It was fun to see him in his chef’s toque and hat.

Once they opened up the dining area, we grabbed a table. Two women asked if they could join us, and at first I thought maybe they were mother and daughter, but later I decided perhaps they had just met in the hallway. I really liked Erika, who works for Target Corp and was probably a bit younger than us. Amy, the older woman, was quite the character. For instance, there were many typos in the materials and she edited them all and gave them back to school administrators. I was kind of like, “Go, AMY!” because I always want to do that but usually keep those urges under control. She had something to say about everything, which was both annoying and something I really appreciated about her. I definitely want to be the older lady who doesn’t give a damn and just says what she thinks.

The wines they were serving were a chard and a pinot from Sterling Vineyards, which we visited when we were in Napa. We both had the pinot, of course, as we generally favor reds over whites. I don’t drink much pinot, but this was the first time I really made that connection of, “Ah, yes. This is what pinot tastes like.” It was kind of neat. Even so, I preferred the tempranillo over the Sterling Vintner’s Collection Central Coast Pinot Noir.

Instead of a “battle” we were basically served three courses and asked to complete a survey about flavor, consistency and presentation for each dish. There was no head-to-head competition and there was no “winner.” Still, I’m sure it was good to have feedback for the chefs and students who made the food.

The first course was a roasted root vegetable soup garnished with fried leeks and crème fraiche. This was very good! Carrot soup is probably not something I would ever order if I saw it on a menu, but it was really delicious. In addition to carrots I tasted parsnip; I’m not sure if there were any other root vegetables in it. The fried leeks gave the soup a nutty flavor and the crème fraiche gave it just the right zip. I would recommend it to anyone.

There were two “meats” to choose from for dinner – salmon or pork loin. Since I don’t do seafood, I had the pork and Josh had the fish. Overall, the entrees were the most disappointing part of the meal. Mine was roast pork loin with chanterelle mushroom polenta and grilled brussel sprouts. The pork loin was quite rare in some spots, but the cooked parts tasted good. I like brussel sprouts anyway, so it’s hard to go wrong there. I’m not a fan of polenta any time, and this was cooked unevenly as well. Parts of it were creamy and parts of it were overcooked. I didn’t eat most of that.

Josh had dill and goat cheese ravioli (delish) with artichoke hearts and sundried tomatoes topped with seared salmon and finished with a white wine lemon sauce. There were bones in his salmon and it was overcooked.

For dessert we had buttermilk and cinnamon panna cotta with apple gastrique, apple chip and apple chutney. VERY good. The panna cotta was rich and creamy and had just the right touch of cinnamon. The gastrique was delicious and really added another layer of flavor. (I am not a foodie, but I play one in my mind.)

Two students did a demonstration of bananas foster, one of whom was our buddy Shaun. We couldn’t really see it, though, because servers kept standing in our way. I did learn that cinnamon will spark when tossed in a flame, which I did not know before. Kind of makes me want to set some cinnamon on fire! We got a bite of the bananas foster, which was tasty (hard not to like bananas, rum, butter and brown sugar!).

You didn’t have to leave a gratuity, but we did because all monies were again going toward student scholarships. Gotta support those great chefs of the future!

Deal of the Century

Josh and I stumbled onto the deal of the century last Friday. I’m not even sure how I heard about it, but students at the Le Cordon Bleu school run a restaurant for weekday lunches as part of their hands-on learning, and anyone can go and have lunch there. We thought it sounded cool and, despite not knowing too much about it, made reservations at The Minnesota Room.

Le Cordon Bleu classes are held at Brown College in Mendota Heights. Therefore, the “restaurant” is basically converted classroom space. They have jazzed it up with curtains, paintings, ambient lighting, etc.

The menu includes your choice of three appetizers, three entrees and two deserts. I had the fowl consommé with brunoise vegetables and dill spatzel and Josh had the nicoise salad with poached egg and tuna. The other option was veal sweetbreads with apples and cipollinis (who in their right mind would intentionally eat sweetbreads is beyond me). My soup was very good, especially the dill spatzel. Josh enjoyed his salad as well.

For an entree I had the meatloaf au jus with potato puree and Josh had the sautéed skate with white beans and romesco salad. My meatloaf was a bit dry, actually, and not out of this world by any means. I’ll give the meatloaf award to Great Waters Brewing in DT Saint Paul any day of the week. The pureed potatoes and au jus were good, though. Josh liked his skate, and even though I do not care for fish I tried it. I thought it was edible but not liking seafood is really a texture thing for me, and it definitely had that seafood thing going for it. The other option was roasted chicken with butternut squash risotto.

For dessert I had the apple financier with caramel sauce and Josh had the chocolate tart with crème anglaise. I liked the apple cake better, but we shared pretty evenly. We both agreed the chocolate tart may have been *too* chocolate-y.

Our server was extremely nervous, which made me feel nervous in turn. She did fine, though. In addition to your meal you can get a glass of wine: Josh had a J. Drouhin-Macon Villages chardonnay and I had a Luzon-Jumilla monastrel-merlot blend that was quite good.

It was a very good lunch and I was curious to see the bill because there are no prices listed anywhere. We were guessing maybe $30/person or so. The total was something around $40 total. What, you say?! How is that possible? The lunch itself is only $12.50/person. Can you believe it?! Really good food and such a deal. The wine was $6/each, and then add in sales tax. We tipped extra because all tips go toward student scholarships.

At the end they ask you to fill out a quick and painless survey, give you a chocolate mint and send you on your way. All in all, I’d recommend anyone check this out!

A Tale of Two Cities

Saturday started out well enough – and ended okay - but it certainly had its moments!

The evening began with us heading over to the W Hotel in Minneapolis to celebrate Joe’s birthday (Joe being a friend and former co-worker of Josh’s). Josh was looking stylish with brown wool pants with a thin white pinstripe and a bold mustard-colored shirt. I looked pretty cute myself :) I hadn’t been to the W yet (in the Foshay building) and it is pretty swanky. The party was up on the 27th floor in the Prohibition Bar, which is all the rage with the downtown party-goers these days. Overall, I have to say I was more impressed with the lobby bar, but I’m sure that’s just a sign of age ;)

Joe is a nice/funny guy and I really enjoyed meeting his friend Nicole. We are now Twitter friends. Drinks and apps were ridiculously expensive there, but at least they had a very good happy hour special. Our waitress was barely clothed.

We stayed for about 2 hours but had tickets to see Mike Birbiglia at the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul at 8, so we bailed at 7 so we’d have time to grab some fast food before the show. Swung up to University Avenue to McDonald’s, and were in DT Saint Paul by 7:30. Imagine our surprise when there is a block party on the street just outside of the Fitzgerald; it turns out Garrison Keillor is giving some sort of free outdoor concert. Had we known, we would have skipped Mickey D’s and gone in for the $5 meatloaf and mashed potato dinner, or perhaps the mini doughnuts.

We wander around outside for a bit but head into the theater at about 20 to 8. Josh grabs a beer at the bar there and I run to the restroom. There aren’t a *ton* of people around, but there are some, and I make the assumption that people are staying out at the free concert as long as they can because, well, this IS Minnesota and it IS Garrison Keillor. We find our seats and sit down, but it gets to be 10 minutes to 8 and we are still about the only people sitting in the theater, though there is a crew up on the stage tinkering around. Josh notices the stage doesn’t seem to be set up for a comedy show and asks me if I have the right night for the event. I say yes, I am positive, but we pull out the tickets to check. Yes, it’s Saturday, September 26. Yes, the show starts at 8 p.m. Imagine my horror when I realize the show is ACTUALLY at the State Theater in Minneapolis.

I am *hugely* upset. Here we had just been in DT Mnpls, and left a party early to come to Saint Paul – where we weren’t even supposed to be. I considered chucking the whole damn evening and just going home, but we decided to hightail it out of the theater and see if we can’t sprint over to Minneapolis, which we do in fairly speedy order. I spent the entire car ride praying there was a first act and trying not to burst into tears.

We get BACK to Minneapolis and valet at Chambers, flying down the sidewalk to the State Theater. We ask if we can be seated (because sometimes they won’t let you interrupt ongoing shows) and the usher says yes, and that they will be going to intermission soon. And I think – YES! At least we will be able to see half of the show. We get to our seats and it is *not* Mike Birbiglia performing on stage, which means there was an opening act and we didn’t miss the important part of the show at all. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

The opening act sounded pretty good, what we caught of him, and then I thought Mike Birbiglia was just great! This was a mystery date I had planned for Josh, so I am glad it wasn’t totally ruined. Although it is funny now, and makes for a good story, I was supremely UNamused as it was happening.

After the show we popped into Solera for a beverage and a snack, then home and to bed!

A "grape" time

Friday wine tasting
Friday night we went to a wine tasting event at International Market Square that was sponsored by City Pages. We had gone to a similar event in the spring, and we both thought this event was more lightly attended and, fortunately, had more food available to help soak up the wine. There were 64 tables, I think, with probably 50 of them being wine tables, and the others were random – Crispin or beer, massages, movie theaters, etc. I tasted 40 wines (some of which were just a sip out of Josh’s glass). I think we skipped the last 6 or so tables because we were just *done.* We had some good conversations with people and met a guy who reminded me a lot of Dave Llamas, which was fun. We got there right at six and bailed by probably 8.

My favorite wines were a Columbia Winery Cellar Master’s Riesling, Castle Rock Zinfandel, Gascon Malbec, Crios Malbec, and a Mionetto il Moscato. I tried a few pinots in preparation for our trip to the Willamette Valley this fall, but mostly stuck to things I’m pretty sure I’m going to like – red zins, malbecs, rieslings and moscatos. I guess that’s not really the point of a wine tasting, but so it goes! Most of the wines have a really decent price point, ranging in the $12 or less category, and all are available at MGM Liquor.

Grape picking
Josh’s alarm went off at the ridiculous hour of 6 a.m. I had set my alarm for 6:30 a.m. and, not realizing Josh had set his, kept trying to shut mine off – unsuccessfully. We peered outside to determine if we *really* had to go or not since it had been raining throughout the night, but we decided that even though it was foggy and damp, there was probably no getting out of it at this point. So, we hauled ourselves out of bed and I made us a hearty farm breakfast of biscuits and gravy. Pretty tasty, if I do say so myself! We put on plenty of layers, tracked down iPods and sunglasses and gloves, and were on our way.

We get to Parley Lake Winery outside of Waconia by 8 a.m. and are given some basic instructions. We are going to pick the gray block, half of which was picked the previous day. We got a pruning tool and told to hold clusters by the stems. You are to gently lay the grapes in the lugs (yellow carrying boxes), not just toss them in. Each lug can carry about 30 pounds of grapes, though they said new pickers generally do about 22 pounds per lug. I’m guessing mine were closer to the 30 pounds, ’cuz mine were FULL. You have to pay attention when picking grapes to watch out for half clusters or other detritus you don’t want in your wine. It was easy to miss clusters hidden behind poles, etc., so you had to go slow and have a careful eye.

We worked until 11 and, all in all, I thought it was a great time. Don’t get me wrong – it is hard work, and I have a whole new appreciation for farm workers who do this daily for hours and weeks at a time. They for sure deserve big bucks, which most of them likely do not get. I was starting to fade out a little by 10:30. I picked about 4.5 lugs, which should have been about 135 pounds of grapes. Go me!

I was glad to be in the Marquette grape fields, where the grapes were netted, because they had loud “bird in distress” calls over some of the other blocks, which would have driven me out of my tree. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and I’m glad we did the morning shift because it started getting pretty warm later in the day. There were probably about 10 of us working. Josh, me and one other guy ended up working about half an hour longer than anyone else because our last row was simply LADEN with grapes – e.g. I filled almost an entire lug with grapes from one six-foot section. Crazy! It is fairly dirty and wet work, plus my thumb is still purple from the grape juices. On the up side, you could eat as many grapes as you wanted and they were delicious. They were at 25 brix, or 25 percent sugar content. I suspect they will make some darn good wine!

Our "reward” for our hours of free farm labor was a bottle of wine and two wine glasses each (even though the LAST thing we need in our house is more wine glasses). We also got a free lunch, which was a hotdog. Oh well. I was annoyed that when we turned in our tickets for our free wine/glasses that the winemaker’s wife didn’t even bother to thank us for our time. I might have been a little more grateful if I were her.

The winemaker was starting to crush the grapes we had just picked before we even left, and we will have to buy a bottle of the Marquette wine when it is ready, in hopes that some of “our” grapes are in that bottle :)

As we were leaving Josh asked if I had noticed the vehicles of the other volunteer grape pickers – I hadn’t. Josh said they were all nice, yuppie-type vehicles that seemed to clearly indicate their owners were doing this just because it seems fun. Other than the expensive car, what does that make us?!