New Scenic Cafe - Duluth

Visited on Friday, October 1st

Ben's Review

For our anniversary this year we went to Duluth and had several people recommend New Scenic Cafe on the north shore as a wonderful spot for dinner. When we arrived in Duluth, the owner of our b&b also recommended it, so we went ahead and made late reservations for a Friday night.

We had a late lunch so we didn't make it out to New Scenic Cafe until 7:45, but the place was still packed. I overheard someone inquire about how long of a wait it would be (without a reservation) and he was told an hour! That seems incredible to me at that late in the evening, but apparently it's well known. We got there a little early so I had a beer while we waited around. I was surprised to see that they had Hopslam on their beer list, but alas, the list was outdated. I settled for a Bell's Oktoberfest as I hadn't tried that one yet. The beer was good, but I think Summit has my favorite oktoberfest this year.

I recall the lighting being odd, it was dim without being dark, and I don't recall any candles. The interior is all natural wood so that must help the little light make it seem brighter. Anyways, I liked the ambiance there, it was quiet but not so quiet that you felt awkward having a conversation. The older gentlemen next to us didn't feel awkward at all discussing his various stocks and bonds. Very interesting stuff.

I ordered a curry spinach soup to start off with and it was delicious and huge. I will admit that while the soup was excellent, I was skeptical that it was made in-house after seeing a picture of a Sysco truck on Google street view earlier in the day, that was unfortunate timing on their part. Nevertheless the soup had great flavor and a little spice to go along with it.

I've been enjoying pork more than steak lately and so I went with the pork tenderloin with squash, cilantro, and corn for my entree. Like the soup, this was fantastic. The pork was moist and done to perfection and the squash and corn tasted great with the cilantro; there was even enough for Erin to try a few bites to make up for her steak. Unlike the soup, I feel confident that this was made fresh to order, based on the time it took to arrive and just the sheer quality of the pork itself.

As usual I had no interest in dessert but Erin certainly did so she had some apple pie while I sat there uncomfortably full. I thoroughly enjoyed my meal here and would go back again next time I am in the area. We even remembered to bring back the last third of our bottle of wine, rather than forget it at the table!

• Service: The service was fine, our server seemed a little strange, but nothing too weird.
• Food: My soup and pork were great, Erin's steak was not.
• Drinks: Good beer and wine list, no booze.
• Ambiance: We were there after sunset but if you go earlier you can get a great view of the lake. This is a quiet place to go and relax.
• Convenience: Not much for public transit, but an easy drive up 61 from Duluth, before you get to Two Harbors.

Erin's Review

After my coworkers Amy and Sharon both independently recommended New Scenic Cafe, I was very excited to try it! I kind of wish we had gone there earlier in the evening so we could have actually enjoyed some of the scenery, but I guess we saw enough of the lake during the day anyway.

Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the exterior or interior since I wasn't planning on writing a review, but if you clicked on the google street view link above, you get the picture. It really isn't anything to write home about in terms of decor, that's for sure! I was expecting something a little nicer, but like everything up there, it was pretty much northwoods themed, which is pretty tired if you ask me.

They were pretty tight with the reservations - we got there at 7:30 and our table for our 7:45 reservation wasn't ready until closer to 7:50. They had some tables set up in the entryway to wait, which was a nice touch. I enjoyed a refreshing lemonade while we waited.

I asked the server for recommendations for a red wine, and was pleased when she actually stayed at or under my requested price range - all too often servers will recommend something that is just a few more dollars than you ask which I hate. The wine was a little dry for my taste, but I guess I never know how to request what I actually like so that's my own issue :)

There were a number of interesting dishes, but for some reason I decided to go with the filet mignon, which was ultimately a bad choice. I love a good filet and hadn't had one in awhile so I figured it would be good.... but alas, no. I also chose the house salad as it seemed to "go" with the filet best but that was kind of mediocre as well. It was FINE, just nothing great. Ben's soup was MUCH better.

The filet came with a side of baked potato. The whole thing was just not great. The filet was pretty tough, which really should never happen with that cut of meat. It reminded me of why I typically hate steak - I had to chew each bite like 30 times to get it to the point of swallowing. I ordered it cooked medium, and it was plenty pink in the middle, so I don't think it was overcooked either. All in all, pretty disappointing! The potato was fine.

To try to make up for my disappointing entree, I ordered the cranberry apple pie for dessert, which was quite good - I especially liked the ultra custardy ice cream that it was served with. I did LOVE Ben's entree - so I wouldn't be opposed to going back if I was in the area, but it wouldn't be my top pick either.

Deets

New Scenic Cafe

5461 North Shore Scenic Drive

Duluth, MN

Muffuletta

Visited on Monday, August 23rd with Kate (no Ben)

Erin's Review

As a thank you to Kate for taking such beautiful photos of Annie, I wanted to treat her to dinner. We finally were both available and since it was such a beautiful summer night, we wanted a patio. I had just driven by Muffuletta last weekend, and remembered how much I wanted to go back - it's not a restaurant that gets a ton of press, so sometimes it's not exactly at the top of my mind. Ben and I did visit Muffuletta before, before we even started the blog. It is perhaps the most pathetic post that we have, so I knew I wanted to update anyway :) Some of Kate's foodie peeps over at Heavy Table said that Muffuletta is doing awesome things right now, so she was in.

I arrived at exactly 7:30 to find Kate already sitting on the patio - Muffuletta is in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood, which is quite cute. While Como is a pretty busy street, the patio is separated enough by being on a deck that it doesn't feel as crowded or loud as some sidewalk patios. The server came around and noticed me taking photos - she made a comment about it being a photoshoot which we both basically ignored. I think she was looking for an explanation but we both just said, yup, we'll be taking photos and that was that :)

Muffuletta has some great deals right now - a $10 special every night of the week. Luckily for us, Monday's special is $10 bottles of wine, so we quickly ordered a red to split. When the server brought it out, I indicated that Kate would be tasting, and Kate noticed that it wasn't the same wine she ordered. After a bit of back and forth over if we wanted the actual wine that was on the list, Kate finally decided to own up to her snobbery and preference for California cabs versus Argentinian and the server was happy to go back and exchange the bottle. I left that decision solely up to Kate as most know that I'm DFW (down for whatever) when it comes to wine.

Since I wanted a heavy pasta type dish for my entree, I ordered the heirloom tomato salad to start. I also have been missing tomatoes this August, as our CSA has suffered tomato blight for the 2nd year in a row. I used to hate tomatoes, but since joining a CSA have grown to love them, so it is sad to have boxes in August with no tomatoes! The salads came out quickly - I loved my salad, it was the perfect mix of tomatoes, melon and basil with just a bit of dressing and cheese but nothing overpowering. Delicious! Kate's beet salad looked gorgeous as well.

I ordered the ravioli for my main course since I mainly just wanted something cheesy. It certainly didn't disappoint, and in addition to the gooey cheesiness of each bite, I loved the tomato sauce as well. There was just the right amount for me to get my fill and have a tiny bit left over. It also seemed to go well with the wine. I had a bite of Kate's gnocchi which I think I got last time and it was definitely delicious - the hint of lemon made it feel a bit lighter.

We hung out for awhile as the sun went down - I love late August evenings where it's still quite warm in the evenings, perfect patio nights. If you haven't been to Muffuletta in awhile, or have never been there before, I definitely recommend making a trip!

Deets

Muffuletta

2260 Como Ave

St. Paul, MN

Town Talk Diner

Visited on Sunday, August 8th

Erin's Review

Since our little Annie goes to bed pretty early (7:30 or so), it's pretty easy for us to go out to eat after she's in bed as long as we have someone willing to sit on our couch on the off chance she wakes up. We don't really take advantage of this fact too often, since we're either hanging out with the neighbors in our backyards, doing fun things like dishes or laundry, or most often just vegging out on the couch surfing the internet or something exciting like that :) On this night, Becca requested to babysit - since I am breastfeeding, it's just easier for me to have her come over and hang out awhile with all of us, me feed Annie and then leave after she's eaten so I don't have to break out the pump more than is absolutely necessary.

We got to Town Talk Diner around 7:30 that evening, and the bar was full - we had to wait a few minutes for a table so I enjoyed reminiscing about the child free lifestyle of actually going out to bars. It was kind of a foreign concept to be out at a crowded bar at night... Something we really should do more often given our close proximity to willing babysitters!

We were seated fairly quickly, and went back into the dining room which was a completely different vibe from the bar. There were actually quite a few kids and toddlers in the dining room, reminding me that not every child goes to bed as early as Annie - which is a nice glimpse into the future when perhaps we will be able to take her out past 5:30pm. There wasn't a lot of decor, but it was a fun and open space.

Since it was pretty busy, we did have to wait a bit to order and get waters - not too long, maybe 5-10 minutes. I considered one of Town Talk's "adult malts" but decided to go with a cocktail given the happy hour special. I went with the Water Tight, which had watermelon juice and basil and I don't even remember what kind of liquor. It was okay, but not fruity enough for me :) We also ordered crab and artichoke dip, which actually came out before the drinks, as they take awhile to "craft", which the menu notes, and the server pointed it out as well - a little overkill, but I guess it prevents people getting pissed their drinks are taking so long.

The dip was quite good - I was expecting something creamy and cheesy, but there actually wasn't much cheese in it. A LITTLE disappointing as I am a cheese lover, but the artichokes were delish. I was starving, so we polished it off pretty quickly, and the server was happy to bring out more crostini.

I chose the Begnaud Burger as my main course - it is a corned beef patty with gruyere, saurkraut and thousand island dressing on a pumpernickel bun. I love burgers, and this was a great twist. Pretty much anything with gruyere is just fine by me. It was huge, I definitely couldn't finish the whole thing even with my newly huge appetite, but I put a pretty good dent in it. I also liked the fries, but not NEARLY as much as Ben did, apparently.

Town Talk closes at 9 on Sundays (which we didn't think to check before leaving) but they didn't kick us out, and the bar was still hopping when we left at like 9:15. We were never rushed at all, which was nice. I really enjoyed the food and atmosphere here, and would definitely return!

Ben's Review

When Groupon offered a $30 coupon to Town Talk Diner for $15, I knew I had to snatch it up. We managed to get over there on a Sunday night for dinner, leaving my sister and brother-in-law to watch over Annie as she slept.

We knew that Town Talk was well known for their specialty cocktails so we wanted to make sure to sample a couple at least. Each of the specialty cocktails are in the $8-$9 range so I knew the $30 would only be covering a portion of the meal. To my surprise, they have happy hour on Sunday nights and all the cocktails were $6, not a bad discount! I started off with the Blood and Sand (their drink menu online doesn't list this one, but it had scotch and some orange juice, amongst other things) while we waited for our appetizer of crab artichoke dip.

The drink was good, but being used to drinking most liquor just on ice makes mixed drinks taste weak. I still like ordering different stuff when I'm out though; no sense in ordering Jameson on ice when I can get that at home anytime.

The crab artichoke dip was damn tasty, and the server even was kind enough to bring us more bread after we devoured the first round. I wanted to get a (beef) burger for my meal, but I couldn't resist the brat burger with spicy sauerkraut with the garlic fries (holy shit I love garlic fries).

The food took a little while to make, which was fine by me as we were enjoying an evening out sans Annie and Town Talk has a good atmosphere for hanging around with a cocktail and having some conversation (probably conversation about Annie). I was eying up the table next to us because the guy had a PBR tall boy and I had noticed that they are only $2 during happy hour and that sounded like a good accompaniment for my brat burger, but I held off knowing that I would want another cocktail instead and that's what I was there to do!

The food came out and it looked delicious. The burgers were huge and the fries were hot and plentiful. The spicy sauerkraut on the brat burger was fantastic and the garlic fries were amazing, I can't get enough of those things. They reminded me of the truffle fries at Capital Grille which are also awesome. Oh, and the brat burger comes with bacon, a concept I had never considered before. Obviously the bacon works really well on top of a brat.

I couldn't help being amazed at Erin's burger and how well it had been cooked. It was perfectly medium from top to bottom, completely evenly cooked. I couldn't get over it and kept wondering out loud how the hell they could cook a burger medium without overcooking the edges. Then Erin reminded me that she had ordered a corned beef burger and that's just the color of corned beef. Oh. Right. So THAT'S how they do it.

After the awesome burgers I settled on the bacon Manhattan as my post meal drink, which features "bacon washed bourbon" and a bacon garnish. I have tried bacon infused vodka and it is disgusting, but since this was "washed" and not "infused" I thought I would be safe, and I was right. There was just a subtle bacon flavor to the drink and the cherry liqueur blended nicely with it. I actually forgot to eat the damn garnish, but I had had enough bacon with my meal that I wasn't too distraught over it.

Total bill after using our $30 coupon was $17, plus $3 for a tip made the total $20 for the night, not bad! (Just kidding, we tipped on the original amount, don't worry, I'm not a total prick).

Town Talk Diner was awesome and I commented to Erin that many places we go to we always say "it was good, but I wouldn't go back over trying a new restaurant", but this is a place that I will definitely go back to, it was great.

• Service: Excellent service, they kept our waters full and took care of everything we needed.
• Food: Great food, I can't wait to get those garlic fries again.
• Drinks: Full bar with good selection of beers and a fun list of cocktails. We didn't sit at the bar but they are also known to have knowledgeable bartenders.
• Ambiance: On a Sunday night it was still reasonably busy, just busy enough to give the place some good energy, but not so loud you couldn't have a conversation, great balance.
• Convenience: Located on Lake St. you could take the bus, light rail, bike, walk, or drive.

Deets

Town Talk Diner

2707 1/2 E Lake St

Minneapolis

Ginger Hop

Visited on Saturday, June 19th

Ben's Review

As part of my Father's Day celebration, Erin let me pick from a list of places to go out for dinner while her mom came over and watched Annie. We've had a gift certificate to Ginger Hop for awhile now and I figured it was a good time to put it to use.

After a forgotten camera and a quick return home, we got to Ginger Hop around 6:30 with no wait to get a table. They have a great tap list that includes recent MN additions Deschutes and Odell's, I went with the 90 shilling from Odells, which was excellent.

We looked at the appetizers and since there was an item with cream cheese, no thought was needed to make a decision, Erin is powerless against it. We got the cream cheese and carmelized onion won tons. They were good, but nothing special, I would still almost prefer the shitty ones at Kim Huoy Chor. As usual I had trouble deciding what to get, with conflicting feelings of wanting to get the same type of thing I always get because I know I'll like it, and wanting to try something new to see if there is another dish I can love. I decided on the red curry stir fry, which isn't that unique but I'd never had a curry stir fried before, so it was a little different.

The dish was beautiful and tasted great, though it wasn't spicy at all and I don't recall being asked for a spice level, which is always a nice option to have. They did have a spice tray at the table so I threw some chili garlic sauce on top, which helped out. I actually ended up eating WAY too much food as I ate nearly half of Erin's General Tsing's chicken (a relative of the heroic General Tso, and they must share recipes too).

I had a fun time and a good meal (two, really) at Ginger Hop, but there wasn't anything too interesting to make me want to go back anytime soon.

• Service: Service was great, we had no issues. I particularly remember the host being right by the door when we walked in, which is nice to see.
• Food: Good food, but nothing fantastic compared to other places, in my mind.
• Drinks: Ginger Hop has a good tap list and some cool specialty drinks. From what I saw of the bar, it looked very well stocked, might be a fun place to belly up to.
• Ambiance: It was surprisingly tame for around 7pm on a Saturday night. Thankfully, it was the kind of place where you can actually have a conversation, that might be reason enough to go back.
• Price: Prices were right in line with what I would expect.
• Convenience: Meter parking on the streets and a couple ramps are available.

Erin's Review

I'm just going to go ahead and say it - Ben sucks at this blog! He is the reason this post is SO LATE. As you can see, his review is EXTREMELY DETAILED - it probably took him a whole 15 minutes to write it. Ahh, the trials and tribulations of a joint blog :) As Ben mentioned, I nearly forgot my nice camera when driving to Ginger Hop. We made it about half way, but I decided we needed to go back. If we're only going out to a place for the blog once a month (if we're lucky!) I at least want nice photos of the experience! We still are getting out and about, even with a 5 month old baby, but our outings are usually limited to lunches or breakfasts at quick places unless we have a baby-sitter. My mom was nice enough to watch Annie on this evening. They had some nice grandma bonding time :)

When we got to Ginger Hop, I was surprised by how empty it was - it was around 7pm on a Saturday evening, so I thought for sure it'd be busier. I really have no idea if this place is popular or not, I just remember adding it to our list when it opened. Amanda gave us a gift certificate for Christmas, so that is the main reason we went there. There were a few events going on in the cities on this evening, including Rock the Garden, so that MIGHT be a reason for it being empty - who knows.

I ordered the fruitiest drink on the menu - the Madame X. It was a hot summer day, and this hit the spot. I could barely taste the alcohol, just as I prefer :) The cream cheese and caramelized onion wontons were pretty tasty, but you really had to search for the onion flavor. I still enjoyed them, as I do with most wontons.

After convincing Ben to get something different than he always gets, I went with the General Tsing's chicken because I needed more deep fried food in my life. Obviously. This was a bit too spicy for me, which I should have known. I liked Ben's Red Curry much more, but I always am too tempted by fried food. The chicken was nothing special though, so I wouldn't really recommend it.

Since I didn't really eat a ton of my meal (Ben had no problem finishing off mine, and his) I felt justified in getting dessert. Who am I kidding, I actually ALWAYS feel justified in getting dessert! They had Guinness Chocolate Cake, which I have made a few times and love, so I chose that. It was very good! I liked the simple presentation of the cake, and the frosting was delicious - more cream cheese :)

If the place would have been busier, I'm sure the vibe would have been better, but as it is, it felt kind of blah. I certainly won't make a point to go back to Ginger Hop - way too many other places to try first!

Deets

Ginger Hop

201 E. Hennepin

Minneapolis