A taste of Minneapolis

My intentions upon day one of my travels to Minneapolis were to do my usual restaurant blogging there given the stellar impression I got from my first taste at lunch, day one of the conference. We went to Masa on Nicollet Mall and I was immediately blown away by the food, service and every category of dining out, that I erased all my preconceived notions I had been handed by the North: that of a general under-appreciation of food. I now realize that impression was simply another negative impact imprinted on me by the 1950s white bread and mayonnaise sandwich branch of my family from that region.

And it didn’t help that the day before this trip, the Discovery channel was experimenting in the delights of fried leeches from Minnesota. I was overjoyed to discover the culinary delights of this twin city. But since time escaped me last week, here is a tasting menu of my dining experience.

At Masa, the lunch special is a tapas-turvy meal where instead of sharing plates, you got to choose 3 small plates that combined into one for your own meal. This allowed you a sampling of all the different choices on the fresh and contemporary Mexican menu, while catering to the more business crowd of this downtown bustling street.

Ensalada de jicama y mango,
Torta Carnita, Adobo Pork Taco

I had the Ensalada de jicama y mango, which was more jicama than mango and doused in this tart and delicious cilantro lime vinaigrette. Next to that was my half torta carnita, a rost pork sandwich with cilantro, avocado, onion, lime and pickled peppers. This torta comes in a large size as well and would easily have been my choice upon a second visit. For my third choice, I picked one of five creative taco selections: the pork marinated in adobo sauce with grilled pineapple and salsa verde. This had just enough heat in it to enjoy without disrupting the rest of my conference later. To accompany my meal, I had a watermelon lemonade drink, which was so refreshing but unfortunately not refillable.

The ambiance at Masa was sunny and light, with the kitchen open to the diners and a very friendly manager who visited our table to ensure all was well. Our waiter evoked what I realized was simply standard courtesy up north (something I’m not used to in general in DC), and he was intimately familiar with the menu, which I always appreciate. It’s never fun when the response to the question “which is your favorite…?” is a bland “I like the …” Instead, this guy told me why he liked the taco recommendation he gave. A+

Wood Grilled Copper
River Salmon and Red
Pepper Risotto

The next restaurant worthy of mention was Zelo. The occasion was seeing my brother Mike, his wife Jennie and their toddler, Aly for the first time in years. We had much to catch up on and just strolling down the street, finally stopping in front of Zelo and saying “how about here.”

This is not a casual “How about here” kind of restaurant. We sat inside under rich mahogany wood arches with silver encrusted ornate moldings and eclectic, colorful art in a comfortable booth for 4.

Our waiter, Johnny on the spot with everything, was immediately helpful with our dinning-with-toddler predicament by offering a kids menu and glass of milk with a lid. I can hear the gasps from some of my friends reading this that I’d be willing to take a child anywhere let alone someplace nicer than McDonalds, but thankfully Aly is a quiet, still child. Clearly Mike benefited with parenting skills based on the mistakes of his.

Walleye Sandwich
from Newsroom

Mike chose the walleye, which apparently is a popular fish in this region… flakey and white. I was not familiar with it until lunch that day at the Newsroom next door, but was pleasantly shocked at the visual difference a meaty, crusted walleye had here over the fish-wich from earlier in the day. No offense to Newsroom where I am the “Duke” on Yelp now, but I had written walleye off as fish for the hoi palloi. Clearly I was wrong and should consider it again.

I chose the wood grilled Copper River salmon despite it being from Alaska as it was in season. Usually I only order local fish, but the waiter assured me it was shipped fresh. While an excellent piece of fish for sure… fatty and juicy, it was the red pepper whole grain risotto that stole the show for this plate. I was also quite pleased with my heirloom grain salad to start, with its heirloom farro, quinoa, asparagus, red pepper, spinach, avocado, cheeses and lemon.

For the wine selection, I took Mike’s recommendation for the Casa Lapostolle Sauvignon Blanc from Chile… after all, he works with wine on the side and this was an inexpensive selection. While it had a nice grapefruit flavor as most Chilean Sauv Blancs do, it didn’t linger at all. Perhaps a perfect selection then for a hot summer night.

The last place I will mention here as recommended dining in downtown Minneapolis is The Local, an Irish public house. We were limited in time for lunch that day because the last briefer before lunch ran over, into our lunch hour (how rude! … ok, it was me, but it wasn’t my fault). I was drawn particularly by the sign “Soup of the Day: Whiskey” … and wished I didn’t have to go back to the conference. Oh wait, I didn’t! The Local claims to have the highest volume of Jamison outpouring in the world. Who tracks that kind of thing?

The Local's Guinness
Mousse

Our seat was a secluded booth with high glass walls allowing us private conversation in a light filled space. Since I was with my coworkers, I skipped a trip to the kissing room… although I was tempted to peek in to see if there were any nooners going on.

The Local's Berry Creme
Brulee

With a number of sandwiches to choose from on the lunch menu, we all opted for a smaller plate… a “wee lunch” as they call it. I had the BBQ Pork plate, which is no more than a slider with salad and fries on the side leaving me quite hungry in the end, but probably more healthy than the glutinous dining out I’d been doing all week.

I am blogging The Local, though, because of the desserts. I was confused how this happened, but we ended up with a taste of just about everything. Crème brulee berry tart, chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse, Izzy’s Irish Moxie ice cream (the best) and something I hope I never see again in my life: Guinness flavored Mousse. Creative, but you really gotta like Guinness beer to down that sucker.

Overall, I give high marks to the city and will one day go back. Honorable mention shout outs to the Newsroom, The Brit Pub, Hell’s Kitchen all downtown and Bubba Gump Shrimp in the Mall of America.

The News room's Pistachio Chicken Salad
and Pom-a-Dor martini

Zengo (Chinatown)

I can’t believe I’ve never blogged Zengo! I guess it is because I typically blog new restaurants I’ve not been to yet and Zengo has been one of my favorites since it’s opening.

It’s a great date restaurant. The lounge is a nice meet-up location (I even set up an unsuccessful blind date for my friend @meppers there once). And today… I took my mom for a lunch away from our impending tourist agenda at the Portrait Gallery next door.

We were seated in my favorite seat, a 2-top behind the big pillar next to the window, offering privacy, light and a view of the bustling 7^th street below. The one drawback to this table, which I’ve experienced before sitting there, is that the server can sometimes forget you… out of sight, out of mind kind of thing. But that doesn’t matter when lingering over lunch.

Always craving the fish tacos, which come with a nice bit of guacamole, I immediately went to them on the menu, but was distracted by the Peking duck daikon tacos. Adventurous I posed them as an option, knowing full well mom would scoff at the texture of duck. Still, I suggested them to her, luring her with the appeal of the curried apples. I wish I had asked what the “tortilla” was, resembling some sort of very thinly sliced apple. I liked everything about this dish. She thought the “shell” was too drippy. The orange coriander sauce for this was zesty and along with the jalapeno hints, helped oust our other dishes as my favorite of the day.

Mom chose the chicken empanadas we ate as her favorite because of the mango chutney atop. While yes, I liked the chutney; I found the empanadas incomparable to the better empanadas I get in the little Cuban lunch stand I frequent in New York. The poblano and Oaxaca cheese flavors just didn’t come out. Had they, I think I would have still preferred the green olive and shredded chicken variety in NYC.

We picked Zengo over La Tasca today because we both wanted a bit of sushi, but were in the mood for more Spanish flair. Zengo expertly fuses Asian dim sum and sushi with latin small plates in an oft unsuccessful marriage of the divergent foods from these cultures.

Unfortunately Zengo’s sushi today was too advanced for mom’s pallet. While she likes sushi in general, she’s not a fan of large raw fish chunks. So we opted for the vegetarian with roasted red peppers and asparagus in it. I didn’t think I’d be a fan, but I was. I give them credit, though, for not folding with a bland California roll on the menu as the alternative option to the gourmet sushi choices.

Our final tapas today were the Thai lettuce wraps. I voted for them because of the tamarind sauce, missing this too-underutilized spice since I travelled to Mexico last year. They should have stopped with the shrimp because the chorizo in this dish didn’t add anything. Mom thinks they could have served this without the lettuce… once again a drippy dish. This was both of our least favorite of the day, albeit still good.

In the end, we split a Vietnamese coffee, Mexican Chocolate tort. Had its dry crust not been there, this sweet could have toppled our Kakawa chocolate elixir experience in Santa Fe. Sadly, the crust detracted from the otherwise well-executed dish.

On a normal trip to Zengo, I would not have overlooked my aforementioned fish tacos. My other favorites on the menu here are the overpriced, but exceptionally worth-it kobe beef plate and the not-for-tapas-dining choice: beef tenderloin palomilla.

Since this was a lunch date with mom, I also overlooked my standard drink choice at Zengo, the Kimono Kiss: an update to the drink I preferred when I travelled the air show circuit “goose and juice.” The Kimono kiss is made with Grey Goose l’orange, sake, orange and ginger. If I’m not mistaken, I believe it is garnished with a kumquat, but it’s been a while and drinks do tend to become a blurred memory. Hiccup.

The other thing I like about Zengo: it’s design. It’s clean, open, and yet intimate. The décor is simple and color palate of warm oranges and browns, very soothing and reflective of the menu. I also love the attention paid to the design of the bathrooms with the metal curtains serving as doors and Asian minimalist feel of the sinks.

While the service in the lounge downstairs can be difficult due to the sheer volume of people that congregate there during lounging times, I can say nothing bad of the service in general.

If you were going to have an “off day,” though, then a Monday lunch would be a good time to do it. While the food, as always was spot-on today, the computers were down and so the server couldn’t figure out how to deliver a check. After 20 minutes of trying to reboot, he went for the roadside diner’s receipt book and started to hand tally our tapas, comping a few for good measure as an apology for making us wait. Despite being ‘off’ with such an unavoidable glitch, they made up for it. I love a restaurant who does right by the customer… further earning my patronage for years to come.

http://www.richardsandoval.com/zengodc/ 

Sticky Rice (Atlas Neighborhood)

My neighbors Gretchen and Josh are frequenters of Sticky Rice, a trendy Japanese joint in the frontier land known as H Street, or the Atlas neighborhood. It’s so new, they’ve not branded their hood yet, but I’m a fan of Atlas given the historic theater there decimated during the MLK riots.

This was not the neighborhood to go to on the July 4th weekend when the locals had leftover firecrackers. A few times, I wasn’t sure if the pops echoing around me were legal or not, but the lady on her hard-wired phone sitting on a barcalounger in the front yard didn’t seem to mind.

Entering the packed place, we checked in with the hostess slash bus-girl. We were not sure if she had the wiping-tables responsibility as a method to know a table was available, or if the place was simply too short staffed. It didn’t pass us by that during the nearly 25-cum-45 minute wait, while shiny objects distracted the not-so-with-it, but very polite hostess – that the table we eventually sat at was empty from the very start. But where else did we have to go?

Besides, during our wait, we eyeballed what logically should have been calamari, but were a bucket o’ tots that also came in a vegan option. Of course the chicken came in a vegan option too… The college kids eating the bucket offered us a taste, but we declined. For a place whose top seller is tater tots, they need to hire a guy in the back whose sole job it is to fill ketchup bottles. After being seated, our waitress brought us a nearly empty one, good only for one glob’s worth.

During our wait, I did note that the toked-up hostess could speak American Sign Language. I was impressed particularly being so close to Gallaudet. Having had a deaf assistant before, I appreciated her skills in reaching out to a core segment of her customer base.

Speaking of core customers… we tried to figure out who should visit Sticky Rice and we decided it was a place for people who wanted trendy and hip on a budget. We didn’t yet see it as a destination restaurant because the neighborhood was simply too raw, but worth a try for those adventurous enough who don’t rely on the metro to get around. This of course is no reflection of my neighbors, however -- so perhaps my observation is over generalized. Plus, Gretchen and Josh go there to sit at the bar and eat sushi and have fun, whereas my party was there for a sit down dinner and my observations of the place were clouded by that angle. I'd go back for the sushi and perhaps it can oust Bonsai Sushi on 23rd Street as my hole-in-the-wall of choice for that kind of dinner.

Looking at the menu, there were a decent number of sake and Junmai choices. When I asked Gretchen why she likes the place, she raised a glass to the Sake Bomb, which comes with a gong. Not ordering Sushi here was a mistake. Instead, I and the two other guys in my party, David and Lou, all tried their noodle dishes. True to Japanese form, these dishes were bland bland bland.

I had the sesame chicken with udon noodles. Simple… this dish was no more than a bowl of noodles, some chopped up chicken and julienned veggies in some kind of bland soy sauce. But filling and decent. David had the coconut shrimp, which looked exactly the same as mine, but with shrimp. He said there may have been some coconut waved over the top at some point, but none had ever touched the shrimp.

For a starter, we chose, of course, the tots, and the lettuce wraps, which were not appropriately scaled. You can’t have 2” leaves of droopy iceberg lettuce and 1” chunks of chicken to stuff them with. It simply doesn’t work mathematically.

While my expectations for the place dropped into the basement when I saw they offered $1 PBRs for life if you got a sticky rice tattoo, that didn’t justify the slow service. This is not the restaurant in which to linger. It’s a get in, get out or get drunk kind of place. Rachel, our server, even commented, “I need to pay more attention to you guys.” And then promptly forgot about us again.

Speaking of our forced lingering, the hip don’t welcome the wise. ‘Wise’ being code word older person bothered by noise levels of concert proportions. Despite that criticism, I found the place rather fun – right down to the sharpie pen art on the wall that if you stand back far enough, it looks like actual art instead of a sketches on plywood.

While all of this review sounds ultimately negative, I will return to Sticky Rice for a night of Sake Bombs and Sushi… but I have to be in the right mindset to do so. And with somebody who can talk really, really loud.