I was saddened to hear of the passing of chef Jonathan Randle of the Grand Cafe Restaurant. I visited the restaurant and learned of Jon Randle a little over 2 months ago - see my previous post - Grand Cafe Simple Good and Tasty Event.
I was looking forward to seeing what Jon would do with his career. He was a fabulous chef at the young age of 30. Still plenty of time for sauteing, braising, brining, and creating dishes for all of us to enjoy. He will be missed.
Here is a post from Shefzilla that has a nice write-up of Jon.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Red's Savoy Pizza
Always on the lookout for good pizza, we stumbled across Red's Savoy Pizza on the east side of St. Paul this weekend. I've seen other outlets for this pizza, but this looked like the original location. They had plenty of parking behind the restaurant, so we parked and stepped inside.
It took several minutes for my eyes to adjust to the dimly lit restaurant. It has dark walls, dark tables, dark seats, and minimal lighting. You enter in on the bar side, but there is a restaurant side of the establishment. If you are eating with kids you have to sit on the restaurant side unless it is full, then you can sit in the bar. That wasn't an issue for us, but it was an interesting sign nonetheless.
We ordered 2 diet cokes to which the waitress suggested we might want a pitcher. Done and done...ordered the pitcher which was a smart move. The pizza comes in two sizes - regular and large. We asked the size of the regular and was given the hand gesture of about an 8 inch pizza. We went ahead and decided to split it - we didn't know if it would be good or not.
We waited quite awhile and then our pepperoni pizza was delivered to the table on an old school plastic tray with a piece of wax paper holding the awesome looking, cut in squares za! The hand gesture was incorrect....this pizza was going to be plenty for the two of us.
The pepperoni was hidden under the cheese instead of on top of the cheese like many pizza chains make them. They had plenty of toppings on the pizza. One piece I ate had probably 4 slices of pepperoni stacked high on one slice. The pepperoni had a little spiciness to it. I think next time I would get sausage for something different. Pepperoni tends to add a lot of extra grease to pizzas in general and this pizza was no different.
We drank our entire pitcher of Diet Coke and ate the whole pizza. We were pleasantly surprised by this find and happy to know there are other Red's Savoy locations around the cities! I'm assuming they will have as good of pizza as the original.
The only downside of the visit was the service. It seemed they were understaffed and hustle didn't seem to be in their vocabulary. They stayed busy and were continuously moving around. Just felt like we had to wait a bit longer for beverages than we should have.
All in all, a great find and I'm looking forward to trying the pizza again!
Happy Eating!
(Note: I could not find a website for this particular location, but here is one for the Uptown location.)
It took several minutes for my eyes to adjust to the dimly lit restaurant. It has dark walls, dark tables, dark seats, and minimal lighting. You enter in on the bar side, but there is a restaurant side of the establishment. If you are eating with kids you have to sit on the restaurant side unless it is full, then you can sit in the bar. That wasn't an issue for us, but it was an interesting sign nonetheless.
We ordered 2 diet cokes to which the waitress suggested we might want a pitcher. Done and done...ordered the pitcher which was a smart move. The pizza comes in two sizes - regular and large. We asked the size of the regular and was given the hand gesture of about an 8 inch pizza. We went ahead and decided to split it - we didn't know if it would be good or not.
We waited quite awhile and then our pepperoni pizza was delivered to the table on an old school plastic tray with a piece of wax paper holding the awesome looking, cut in squares za! The hand gesture was incorrect....this pizza was going to be plenty for the two of us.
The pepperoni was hidden under the cheese instead of on top of the cheese like many pizza chains make them. They had plenty of toppings on the pizza. One piece I ate had probably 4 slices of pepperoni stacked high on one slice. The pepperoni had a little spiciness to it. I think next time I would get sausage for something different. Pepperoni tends to add a lot of extra grease to pizzas in general and this pizza was no different.
We drank our entire pitcher of Diet Coke and ate the whole pizza. We were pleasantly surprised by this find and happy to know there are other Red's Savoy locations around the cities! I'm assuming they will have as good of pizza as the original.
The only downside of the visit was the service. It seemed they were understaffed and hustle didn't seem to be in their vocabulary. They stayed busy and were continuously moving around. Just felt like we had to wait a bit longer for beverages than we should have.
All in all, a great find and I'm looking forward to trying the pizza again!
Happy Eating!
(Note: I could not find a website for this particular location, but here is one for the Uptown location.)
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Common Roots
This week the hubby and I went to the Simple, Good, and Tasty dinner at Common Roots Cafe. This is our third SGT dinner and it did not disappoint!
At these events you end up sitting with strangers and get to know each other over a great meal. We arrived fairly early and had our pick of where to sit for the evening. We chose a table that was a bit in back and out of the way. (This would guarantee that we would not end up on the SGT blog as we have in the past!) We were joined by two women who made the evening much more interesting than if it were just the hubby and me.
So, onto the dinner. The event was held toward the back of the restaurant which left the front section for walk-in customers. While we gathered, the waitstaff took drink orders and passed around appetizers. I decided to go with a beer instead of wine with this meal and had a glass of Fulton Beer's Worthy Adversary. I know one of the four guys behind Fulton Beer so was interested in trying it because of him. Worthy Adversary was a very dark, "thick" beer and one that I normally wouldn't have tried. However, it was very good and went well with my meal. Good choice on a warm April evening!
After welcoming the attendees and a few introductions, we were on to our first course. We were served egg drop soup with foraged ramps. What surprised me most about this soup were the tomatoes. It reminded me more of a vegetable soup than what I think of as egg drop soup. I was disappointed with only one ramp in my bowl, but I believe the hubby had more. It was very good and was a great way to start the meal.
We then were brought out a basket of bread which had two different types. One was foccacia and the other was a sourdough type bread. I only tried the foccacia and it was very tasty and didn't have the oily texture that I typically associate with foccacia.
There was quite a bit of time in between courses and so we continued to have fun discussions with our table mates while we waited. The main entree came and was a roasted duck breast with door county cherry chutney, nettle and ricotta agnolotti, and picked green garlic. I will admit that if I would have seen the menu ahead of time I would have likely pre-ordered the vegetarian option. I have tried duck before and it just is not something that I typically order. I suppose it was good to get me out of my comfort zone. It was good from what I could tell - not having much experience with duck! The hubby avoided eating the skin because he said it was rather fatty. He is much more likely to order duck than I am, so he seems to know what it should and shouldn't taste like. The agnolotti was ok. We were served a rather small portion of it and to me it was gritty. The hubby loved it and would gladly have eaten mine. So, the main entree was ok. It probably was more appealing to duck eaters. Me....I think I'll go back to my comfort zone and forego duck for awhile.
After the entree and before dessert there were more speakers talking about eating local and getting kids to eat local and healthier. Then the best part of the meal arrived...3 small desserts that we didn't have to share with anyone! One was a pavlova (similar to a meringue) with mascrated berries - it was good. Then a chocolate friand with chocolate ganache (mini cake) and lemon curd - very good - what's not to like about chocolate! Finally, a lavender and almond ice cream - which was great!! The ice cream was fresh and cool and had the crunchy surprise of almonds sprinkled throughout. My only complaint was that I could have used a lot more of that ice cream! However, I enjoyed the three mini desserts and felt it was a good ending to a nice evening.
I have a Common Roots gift card and will definitely go back! It's a great restaurant and if you are all about the "local foods" movement, this restaurant delivers.
Happy Eating!
At these events you end up sitting with strangers and get to know each other over a great meal. We arrived fairly early and had our pick of where to sit for the evening. We chose a table that was a bit in back and out of the way. (This would guarantee that we would not end up on the SGT blog as we have in the past!) We were joined by two women who made the evening much more interesting than if it were just the hubby and me.
So, onto the dinner. The event was held toward the back of the restaurant which left the front section for walk-in customers. While we gathered, the waitstaff took drink orders and passed around appetizers. I decided to go with a beer instead of wine with this meal and had a glass of Fulton Beer's Worthy Adversary. I know one of the four guys behind Fulton Beer so was interested in trying it because of him. Worthy Adversary was a very dark, "thick" beer and one that I normally wouldn't have tried. However, it was very good and went well with my meal. Good choice on a warm April evening!
After welcoming the attendees and a few introductions, we were on to our first course. We were served egg drop soup with foraged ramps. What surprised me most about this soup were the tomatoes. It reminded me more of a vegetable soup than what I think of as egg drop soup. I was disappointed with only one ramp in my bowl, but I believe the hubby had more. It was very good and was a great way to start the meal.
We then were brought out a basket of bread which had two different types. One was foccacia and the other was a sourdough type bread. I only tried the foccacia and it was very tasty and didn't have the oily texture that I typically associate with foccacia.
There was quite a bit of time in between courses and so we continued to have fun discussions with our table mates while we waited. The main entree came and was a roasted duck breast with door county cherry chutney, nettle and ricotta agnolotti, and picked green garlic. I will admit that if I would have seen the menu ahead of time I would have likely pre-ordered the vegetarian option. I have tried duck before and it just is not something that I typically order. I suppose it was good to get me out of my comfort zone. It was good from what I could tell - not having much experience with duck! The hubby avoided eating the skin because he said it was rather fatty. He is much more likely to order duck than I am, so he seems to know what it should and shouldn't taste like. The agnolotti was ok. We were served a rather small portion of it and to me it was gritty. The hubby loved it and would gladly have eaten mine. So, the main entree was ok. It probably was more appealing to duck eaters. Me....I think I'll go back to my comfort zone and forego duck for awhile.
After the entree and before dessert there were more speakers talking about eating local and getting kids to eat local and healthier. Then the best part of the meal arrived...3 small desserts that we didn't have to share with anyone! One was a pavlova (similar to a meringue) with mascrated berries - it was good. Then a chocolate friand with chocolate ganache (mini cake) and lemon curd - very good - what's not to like about chocolate! Finally, a lavender and almond ice cream - which was great!! The ice cream was fresh and cool and had the crunchy surprise of almonds sprinkled throughout. My only complaint was that I could have used a lot more of that ice cream! However, I enjoyed the three mini desserts and felt it was a good ending to a nice evening.
I have a Common Roots gift card and will definitely go back! It's a great restaurant and if you are all about the "local foods" movement, this restaurant delivers.
Happy Eating!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Birchwood Cafe and Cake Eater
After some absence on the blog, I am back and ready to continue on with my take on the local dining scene. While the absence does not mean I was eating at home, I think I'll just start with more recent visits versus trying to recreate some of the great meals I've had over the last month.
Yesterday we found ourselves in the area of Birchwood Cafe. It had been a couple of years since I had been there and was ready to give it another chance. I can't quite remember the reason why it wasn't high on my list of places to go to, but it simply wasn't.
We arrived late for breakfast and early for lunch. We could have ordered either, but we both went with a lunch option. I ordered the Curried Egg Salad Sandwich and the hubby ordered the Avocado, Pepita, and Turkey Salad Sandwich. I hesitated to order the egg salad due to the curry in the description. It's not that I don't like curry, I just wasn't sure I would like it with egg salad.
I was delighted with my egg salad. It was served with Fischer Farm Bacon, roasted tomatoes and microgreens on sourdough bread. The egg salad had large chunks of egg in a very yellow creamy sauce. It tasted fresh and the bacon was an added treat for the sandwich. I did not notice any taste of curry in the egg salad - not sure if I missed it, don't know what curry really tastes like, or what. I thoroughly enjoyed the sandwich. The sandwich was served with Blue Corn tortilla chips and salsa. I found the chips to be a little on the salty side. The salsa had pockets of spice, but for the most part was a nice dipping sauce for the chips. I ended up sharing a portion of my chips with the hubby and focused on my sandwich.
The hubby enjoyed his turkey salad sandwich. It was served on toasted Birchwood Multigrain bread with Avocado Spread, Red Onion, Cilantro, Watermelon Radish and Bibb Lettuce. He offered me a bite of the sandwich, but I was happy with mine and passed on the opportunity. He did mention the avocado spread having a lemony taste to it and the watermelon radish was interesting to look at.
His sandwich also provided us with an opportunity to discuss the extreme love or hate that people have of cilantro. Julia Child hated cilantro. Some of those who hate it think it tastes like soap. Sadly, I must admit I'm not a "super taster" by any stretch of the imagination and so don't mind cilantro on things, but I really don't taste it either. (Hmmm...maybe there was curry in that egg salad.)
The restaurant itself was hopping. All tables were full of people finishing off breakfast, grabbing a pastry and a cup of coffee, or grabbing an early lunch. The restaurant is pretty small for the business it does. There is talk of moving across the street to a larger location. That would definitely help.
My biggest issue with Birchwood Cafe is the price. Our sandwiches each cost $10. If we wanted a side salad instead of chips, it would have been an extra $1.50. Sure the sandwiches were good, but the prices are rather steep for sandwiches. They don't seem to have a lot of options either, so be ready to spend some money. I'm sure the cost is due to the fact that their food is local. It likely costs more to shop and serve local foods. So I won't complain too much given that we were helping the local economy.
We then wondered over to the newly opened Cake Eater Bakery. This is a small little store on a corner of a neighborhood - about 3 blocks down from Birchwood Cafe. There are only 4 tables inside, so it's not a place to linger. They have awesome cupcakes! I went with the strawberry rhubarb and the hubby went with the lemon raspberry cupcake. They were seriously delicious!
We like our cupcakes and try a variety from around the city. Some cupcakes are served right out of a cooler which makes the icing taste like shortening and the cake a little dry. Not so with Cake Eater Bakery! These cupcakes were fresh and at room temperature! The cake almost fell apart it was so moist. Behold....the Cake Eater cupcake...
We will be back!
Happy Eating!
Yesterday we found ourselves in the area of Birchwood Cafe. It had been a couple of years since I had been there and was ready to give it another chance. I can't quite remember the reason why it wasn't high on my list of places to go to, but it simply wasn't.
We arrived late for breakfast and early for lunch. We could have ordered either, but we both went with a lunch option. I ordered the Curried Egg Salad Sandwich and the hubby ordered the Avocado, Pepita, and Turkey Salad Sandwich. I hesitated to order the egg salad due to the curry in the description. It's not that I don't like curry, I just wasn't sure I would like it with egg salad.
I was delighted with my egg salad. It was served with Fischer Farm Bacon, roasted tomatoes and microgreens on sourdough bread. The egg salad had large chunks of egg in a very yellow creamy sauce. It tasted fresh and the bacon was an added treat for the sandwich. I did not notice any taste of curry in the egg salad - not sure if I missed it, don't know what curry really tastes like, or what. I thoroughly enjoyed the sandwich. The sandwich was served with Blue Corn tortilla chips and salsa. I found the chips to be a little on the salty side. The salsa had pockets of spice, but for the most part was a nice dipping sauce for the chips. I ended up sharing a portion of my chips with the hubby and focused on my sandwich.
The hubby enjoyed his turkey salad sandwich. It was served on toasted Birchwood Multigrain bread with Avocado Spread, Red Onion, Cilantro, Watermelon Radish and Bibb Lettuce. He offered me a bite of the sandwich, but I was happy with mine and passed on the opportunity. He did mention the avocado spread having a lemony taste to it and the watermelon radish was interesting to look at.
His sandwich also provided us with an opportunity to discuss the extreme love or hate that people have of cilantro. Julia Child hated cilantro. Some of those who hate it think it tastes like soap. Sadly, I must admit I'm not a "super taster" by any stretch of the imagination and so don't mind cilantro on things, but I really don't taste it either. (Hmmm...maybe there was curry in that egg salad.)
The restaurant itself was hopping. All tables were full of people finishing off breakfast, grabbing a pastry and a cup of coffee, or grabbing an early lunch. The restaurant is pretty small for the business it does. There is talk of moving across the street to a larger location. That would definitely help.
My biggest issue with Birchwood Cafe is the price. Our sandwiches each cost $10. If we wanted a side salad instead of chips, it would have been an extra $1.50. Sure the sandwiches were good, but the prices are rather steep for sandwiches. They don't seem to have a lot of options either, so be ready to spend some money. I'm sure the cost is due to the fact that their food is local. It likely costs more to shop and serve local foods. So I won't complain too much given that we were helping the local economy.
We then wondered over to the newly opened Cake Eater Bakery. This is a small little store on a corner of a neighborhood - about 3 blocks down from Birchwood Cafe. There are only 4 tables inside, so it's not a place to linger. They have awesome cupcakes! I went with the strawberry rhubarb and the hubby went with the lemon raspberry cupcake. They were seriously delicious!
We like our cupcakes and try a variety from around the city. Some cupcakes are served right out of a cooler which makes the icing taste like shortening and the cake a little dry. Not so with Cake Eater Bakery! These cupcakes were fresh and at room temperature! The cake almost fell apart it was so moist. Behold....the Cake Eater cupcake...
We will be back!
Happy Eating!
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