Victory 44

Visited on Sunday, December 11th with Kate & Kyle

Ben's Review
Erin made plans with Kate to meet for brunch this past Sunday so we headed over to north Minneapolis to try out Victory 44 at Kate’s suggestion.

I had heard of Victory 44 but didn’t know much about it. Erin described it as having two rooms, one a coffee shop and the other side more of a dining room. We arrived and found Kate and Kyle already seated on the empty dining room side as the tables there were better suited for four adults and a toddler. Oddly, at 10 am on a Sunday they had the Black Keys CRANKED up in the dining room, but they thankfully lowered the volume at our request.

Having not had coffee yet we quickly ordered some while we checked out the menu. The prices at Victory 44 are surprisingly reasonable. Eggs Benedict, which I have a hard time finding under $10 elsewhere, was $8.95 and after confirming that it was indeed two eggs and on Kyle’s recommendation I ordered it. Our server came out a little later and apologetically let us know that since they were out of ham, we’d have to have real bacon on ours instead. This marks the first time I’ve ever heard anyone apologize for having to serve bacon.

Checking the place out while we waited for our food, they seem to have a nice selection of beer and wine on hand and a good looking dinner menu. The dining room started to fill up while we were there and there was a healthy din to the place.

Our food came out and the first thing I noticed was that the portions were not the typical restaurant size, they were actually the size that human being SHOULD eat. Two smallish pieces of crusty bread were used for the eggs Benedict, with a poached egg and bacon. Rather than hash browns it came with a side of cheddar tots, which were hot and delicious. The hollandaise sauce was awesome, with a hint of mustard flavor that was perfect with the runny eggs.

I enjoyed Victory 44 and would love to try it for dinner sometime. If the quality of food matches what we had for brunch I won’t be disappointed.

Service: Service was good, I had a weird vibe at first, but our server was friendly.
Food: Excellent food and normal sized portions.
Drinks: Good looking beer list and good coffee.
Ambiance: Loud music at first, but they turned it down for us. Seemed friendly enough while we were there.
Convenience: For us, not very. It was a 20 minute drive from Saint Paul, but well worth it.

Erin's Review
Kate knows of my intense love for eggs benedict, and being also pregnant, knows that it's one of the saddest things to abstain from (for me at least) - she had been to Victory 44 several times, and thought the brunch was delicious, and had several amazing non-benedict options so invited us to join her there. I was very annoyed to find that my camera battery was just about dead when we got there, but I squeezed out enough photos and supplemented with iPhone pics for this review.

Kate's biscuits & gravy - the dish that caused her to recommend the place to me.

I was a bit confused about where the brunch was - if it was in the main dining room that opens at 11am (which seemed much fancier on the website than it was in reality) or in the cafe - it turned out it was served from the cafe, but since that area was full when we went, they seated us in the dining room, where Black Keys was blasting. Kate said they had just turned it up, and sadly for them, we asked them to turn it down. We're turning into "those people" (who am I kidding, we've always been "those people").

When perusing the menu for that day, I got a bit flustered dealing with Annie and just quickly chose the "malted waffle" - when I asked, she said it was a sweet waffle with a bit of malt powder in the batter, basically just a regular waffle - good to know :) I ordered Annie the yogurt parfait as there weren't any sort of muffins or anything available, which would have been a bit cheaper of an option for her since there was no sort of kids menu or pricing. I also ordered a vanilla latte, after seeing Kate's twit a few weeks prior that showed the beautiful design on the top of hers.

Regular coffee came out really quickly, but Kate and I had ordered lattes which were taking a lot longer. It was after 10am and I hadn't had any caffeine yet so I was pretty close to tweaking out about that. Luckily, it was worth the wait - they pour the milk tableside and somehow create the design on the top. Probably because of this, the lattes weren't super hot, but I think I've been a bit spoiled by ordering them "extra hot" everywhere else I go.

You can see the design even better in my iPhone pic

Our food came out pretty quickly - Kyle and Ben had both ordered the benedict, as if to taunt Kate and I - and it looked amazing. DEFINITELY a spot I'll be returning to when I am not with child just to have that. My waffle was very pretty as well - you can tell presentation is important to them, even for what felt like a casual weekend brunch. The server did comment that they made the parfait "child friendly" for Annie by putting it in a plastic cup instead of a wine glass - definitely a good choice :)

I was starving, so basically inhaled my waffle but from what I can remember it was light, crispy and fluffy - perfect. I was still hungry after eating that, so also had some of Annie's parfait, since there was no way she'd finish that. The side of cheesy tot things from the benedicts were enticing, so Kate and I ordered another side of those to split. They came out quickly as well and were piping hot. Definitely a good choice - after those I was pleasantly full. Annie really enjoyed them as well, as she does with most things involving cheese.

If I lived closer, Victory 44 would be an excellent option for a fairly affordable brunch (unless you order a bunch of extras like I did - like a more expensive drink, a side order, etc). I've also heard excellent things about their dinner as well. As mentioned, I'll be making the trek at least once more to try the benedicts!

Deets
Victory 44
2203 44th Avenue North
Minneapolis

To learn a lot more about this neighborhood, check out the post on Minneapolis 81.

Trotters Cafe

Visited on Saturday, September 6th

Ben's Review
Erin had heard that Trotter's Cafe offered a discount for people who live within two miles and a separate discount if you got to Trotter's without driving (public transit, walking, biking). Being that we lived within two miles, we thought we'd take our bikes over there last Saturday to enjoy some discounted food.

We made it to Trotter's with no problems, except that we only had one bike lock and two bikes. I noticed out behind the restaurant there was a dumpster and some bushes, so I went inside to ask if it was OK to park our bikes back there. They were cool with putting the bikes out back, so we got them squared away and went in to eat.

The place was pretty empty with plenty of open tables, so we just sat down at one. They were in the process of getting new menus printed so we perused the whiteboard at the counter that had the night's menu on it to make a decision. We settled on a quesadilla appetizer to share and I got a bison burger, with cheese and bacon extra (what meal ISN'T better with bacon and cheese?).

The food is wonderful and the portions are deceptive. The veggie quesadilla was great and it came out well before the other food, which I appreciated. My burger came with corn chips that I barely touched, but I certainly didn't go hungry. I say the portions are deceptive because the plates are small so it looks like you aren't getting much food, but you definitely get filled up.

My burger was great and the bacon was thick and juicy - the only way bacon should be. I like my burgers medium with a little color in the middle, but they cooked theirs all the way through. Not a big deal, I think a lot of places do that for health reasons. In hindsight I think I should've gotten something outside of my normal choices; the reuben sounded tempting, but I wussed out.

While we there, it started raining. It's rained about ten days ALL SUMMER, so why wouldn't it rain on the day we ride our bikes to a restaurant. It was a solid rain too, not just a drizzle. Luckily our friends Mindy and Josh came to our rescue and picked us up in their pickup and took us to a bar, whew! Maybe we should only have gotten part of the discount because we didn't ride our bikes both ways??

Finally, one thing that I must mention is that when our friends came to pick us up, we went to put our bikes in the back of the truck and I saw that someone had covered our bike seats with a plastic bag so they wouldn't get wet. I was shocked, to say the least, at that level of thoughtfulness. I brought the bag back inside to give it back and to thank them. He acted like it wasn't a big deal, like why WOULDN'T you walk out in the rain to cover some customer's bike?

• Service: Went the extra mile with the bike seat cover.
  
• Food: The food here is very good and they use (mostly?) local ingredients, if that's your thing.
  
• Drinks: Small bottled beer and wine list, about what you'd expect.
  
• Ambiance: When we arrived there was a guy setting up to play guitar. He didn't sing, he just strummed some tunes which gave the perfect amount of background music.
  
• Price: The prices are reasonable and they're even better if you can make use of the "local" deal and/or the biking/walking deal.
  
• Convenience: Located at Marshall and Cleveland with ample off-street parking.

Erin's Review
We have been meaning to go to Trotter's pretty much all summer, since I read this blog post about it back in June. While Ben rides his bike fairly frequently, I hadn't ridden mine for almost 6 years, maybe more. This is the same bike that I received for Christmas when I was 12 years old, but it still suits me just fine, even if I might look kind of like a giant riding an adolescent sized bike. Finally, we were free on a Saturday and it seemed like a nice enough day. I'll admit, I didn't look at the radar before leaving, but I had seen the weather that said it would be clear. It was pretty much the easiest bike ride imaginable, but I was still tired after the long 1.8 mile journey to Trotter's from our house.

We had our pick of tables, as there were only a few other people there. I get the impression that not a ton of people really come to Trotter's for meals - there were a few people there sitting with their laptops and drinking coffee, but not too many diners. This is a real shame, since the food here is wonderful!

You order at the counter, and get your own water in the area with the utensils. They are happy to give you ice if you want it (which I did after the arduous ride). We ordered the Spicy Quesadilla to start, and it was VERY good. It has goat cheese in it, which I normally do not care for, but it wasn't overpowering. It was just spicy enough to be interesting, not enough to make eating difficult. The black bean filling was excellent. I also ordered a glass of pinot grigio which is from a local winery.

So many of the dinner items looked great, I had a very hard time choosing. I ended up going with the Tuscany Chicken, which is penne pasta sauteed with chicken, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, squash, and kalamata olives, topped with parmesan and basil. It was a very light but filling dish with great flavors. I loved the grilled focaccia that came with as well.

Whenever they can, Trotters makes an effort to use local ingredients, which is commendable and can be difficult to work around in our climate. They have several white/blackboards with menu items, and a specific blackboard showing exactly what local ingredients they are using that week.

I really enjoy places like Trotters - very affordable, friendly staff, unassuming, and laid-back. I liked that they had live music but it wasn't so loud that it overpowered coversation. I would love to go back to Trotters and see it bustling with people. If you haven't been to Trotter's, you should definitely try it out.

Deets
Trotter's Cafe
232 Cleveland Ave N.
St. Paul

Highly recommended for affordable and delicious food