The Butcher Block

Visited on Thursday, March 10th

Erin's Review

Ben is addicted to buying Groupons and other such coupons lately, and as I have mentioned, we also have a whole bunch of restaurant gift cards that we've had for over a year. The expiration was quickly approaching on our groupon to Butcher Block, so Ben's sister graciously agreed to hang out with Annie for the night so we could go out.

We left shortly after Annie went to bed at 7, and had no problem getting a table for 2 when we got there. It was still pleasantly full there, though, not too many open tables at all. They do a pretty good job of making up for their lack of windows with a nice exposed brick wall and pressed tin ceiling. I usually feel kind of claustrophobic in window-less spaces, so I was glad to see that it still felt open and well lit.

Ben does a good job describing our pre-dinner experiences, so I will leave that to him, but will note that I was pleasantly surprised by how affordable the wine list was - nothing by the glass was extravagantly priced which I definitely appreciated.

When it came time for food decisions, I told Ben I wanted to split one pasta dish and one meat dish. I was feeling unadventurous that evening, so stuck with the chicken parmesan, mostly because it was paired with mashed potatoes which sounded appealing at the time. Our food came out almost shockingly quick, which is really never that great of a sign. The food was good, but nothing that blew me away. I don't know that I've ever actually ordered chicken parmesan at a restaurant, I was kind of surprised to see the thick layer of melted cheese on top. I am a cheese lover, as you may have realized, so this was a-ok with me. I only had a few bites of Ben's pasta, it was quite rich and I wanted to save room for dessert.

After having our fill of our main courses, I checked out the dessert menu. It was pretty standard fare, and I went with the creme brulee. It was very close to over-torched but this actually made the crust nice and crunchy which I love. The custard was smooth and delicious.

I enjoyed our time at Butcher Block, but wouldn't rush to make a return trip. It was kind of a ho-hum Italian place with nothing remarkable about it (besides Ben's favorite server ever), so definitely isn't worth a special trip across city lines for me.

Ben's Review
I find it difficult to turn down a good Groupon deal, so I picked up the deal for the Butcher Block in NE Minneapolis several months ago (November?), thinking that the expiration date of 4/2011 was so far in the future that we wouldn’t have a problem using it by then.

Of course, it’s getting close to April and we still hadn’t used it, so we made plans to have my sister come babysit Annie on a Thursday night while we went out to use the Groupon.

The Butcher Block is located on Hennepin Ave., just north of University. We parked in the ramp behind Kramarczuk’s and walked over. We didn’t have reservations, which wasn’t a problem at all, we got a table immediately. We were seated at the first table next to the door and the tiny bar, which I thought was one of the worse tables, but it turned out to pay dividends later.

Our server stopped by to see if we needed any drinks or appetizers. I wanted to have some wine with our meal, so I wanted something different beforehand. We were in no hurry and weren’t going to order for a little while, so I ordered a bourbon old fashioned and Erin got a glass of wine.

Our server brought our drinks out and we told him we were taking our time and he said he’d stop back later. He came back to check on us and the drinks and remarked that he doesn’t get many old fashioneds ordered, though he said that since Mad Men became popular, more people were ordering cocktails in general. He went on to talk about Sazeracs and we talked booze for a minute or two. He left and Erin and I continued our conversation.

A few minutes later I was nearly done with my drink when out of nowhere the server appears beside me and quickly asks “that old fashioned must be getting sweet by now, right?”. Before I could even answer he took the shot of bourbon that he had brought over and dumped it into my drink. I was dumbfounded. After realizing what had just happened, I declared him to be the “best server in the world” to Erin. And he is. And he probably will be forever in my mind, till the day that someone else can top that feat. The only thing that would have rescinded his title was if that shot had showed up on my bill (it didn’t).

We eventually got around to ordering our food, we ordered two entrees that we intended to share, the chicken Parmesan and a rigatoni pasta with creamy sauce and sausage.

Our food came out quickly enough, with my glass of wine as well. The rigatoni was rich and creamy with small chunks of sausage throughout. The portion sizes were certainly large enough, especially given the bread we had beforehand. The chicken parmesan was good, but nothing special, with the standard red sauce and breaded chicken topped with melted cheese.

Erin was easily persuaded (by herself) to order dessert and got the creme brulee, which she allowed me to nibble at a bit. It was very good and I liked it more than I remembered liking creme brulee at other restaurants.

We had a great night out at Butcher Block and I would recommend it. As for the world’s greatest server, we discovered soon after he freshened up my drink that he was actually the bartender, just helping out by covering the table nearest the door. My initial displeasure at the table selection was completely reversed by the stroke of luck of getting an awesome bartender to take care of us.

Service: Best service I will probably ever get.
Food: The food is good, but nothing extraordinary.
Drinks: Full bar, with reasonable beer and wine selections. The bar itself is tiny, fitting only four or five people.
Ambiance: It wasn’t loud, but the volume was at a level where I didn’t feel like people were eavesdropping on us. Friendly people and atmosphere.
Convenience: I believe there is metered parking on Hennepin, but I think it’s pricey. We usually use the parking ramp instead, just so we don’t have to carry quarters.

Deets

The Butcher Block

308 E Hennepin Ave

Minneapolis

Scusi

Visited with Erin's family on Sunday, January 9th

Erin's Review

December was a bit of a whirlwind in our household. We normally go out to eat for birthdays, but due to the epic event that was my sister's wedding on December 18th, her honeymoon fell over my birthday. Thus, I was forced to postpone my Birthday Dinner. I had chosen Scusi since I knew the other Blue Plate restaurants we've been to have been solid and they are typically pretty child friendly.

Scusi was packed when we got there at 5:30, I was definitely glad we had made reservations earlier. There were several other babies in the house, too, so that was comforting. It's a very cozy space, and I really liked the open kitchen. The server greeted us immediately, and went through some spiel about how Scusi is doing a family plates "concept" - I wasn't quite sure what this meant, but when I hear family style, I think large portions of food that everyone shares.

We picked a half carafe of wine to share between Ben and I (honestly I don't even remember the kind of wine beyond red), and also munched on the crackers and bean dip, which were totally addicting. Annie was a big fan of those as well. They have water in bottles on each table, which feels classy, but it's easy to go through those pretty quickly when you consume water at the rate that I do.

It took us awhile to figure out what to order, but we finally came to a consensus after the server told us we should order at least one dish per person. I wasn't sure if that was the typically upselling, so we did go with 6 dishes for the 6 of us, that Ben details below, but I think we should have gotten one more. Each dish actually seemed smaller than a normal entree, so maybe calling these small plates to share would be more accurate.

I really liked the food, but serving myself and making sure to keep Annie fed and happy is clouding my memory of the specific dishes. I know that she liked the salmon best, and my favorite was probably the sausage pizza or shrimp ravioli. The only dish I noticed her intentionally dropping on the floor was the lamp pappardelle, but I don't think I'd take that as any reflection on the dish :)

There were only a few dessert options, but they were all very enticing - it was a tough decision, but luckily for once Ben agreed to order his own dessert so I could have some of his too. I went with the warm apple cake and vanilla ice cream, which was delicious and made me feel warm and toasty on that freezing winter night! Ben's chocolate cake was a winner as well. I'd love to go back to Scusi, especially during the day (or when it's lighter outside after 4pm at least) to see the space in daylight.

Ben's Review

We had a belated birthday dinner for Erin with her parents, sister, and new brother in law this past Sunday. Erin settled on the new restaurant Scusi in Saint Paul, owned by the Blue Plate Restaurant Company that also owns some of our favorite places like Highland Grill and Longfellow Grill.

Scusi is located in the old Heartland space at Fairview and St. Clair, which they occupied before moving to their new location in Lowertown. The interior of Scusi is small and cozy, much like you’d expect from an Italian, family style restaurant and we were greeted warmly by the hostess and our server. While I didn’t face the kitchen from my seat, you can get a clear view of the work area, which I like. For some reason it makes the food seem more authentic if you can see them making it. But, you can also see the people at McDonalds make your Big Mac, so what does that tell you?

Our server recommended to us that we order family style and share everything. We were welcome to order individually, but they would bring the food out as it was ready, so it was likely we wouldn’t be eating at the same time as everyone else at the table. Ok, that’s no problem, we can order family style. We looked over the menu for a bit and asked the server how many entrees we should order, two? three? No, we should order one for each person she said. We settled on five entrees and a pizza, thinking that should be fine.

The pizza came out first and it was fantastic. Easily the best part of the meal, and the biggest portion. Erin had ordered the special that day which had sausage and some other vegetables on it, but the best part was the copious amounts of cheese on the pizza, it was awesome. After the pizza came out the five entrees came at close to the same time. Our five entrees were:
Shrimp ravioli
Veal gnocchi
Salmon
Vegetable linguine
Lamb pappardelle

I’m not going to go over each one of these in detail, but suffice to say that while they all tasted great, the serving sizes were small. As each entree was brought to the table, we would each take a small serving and pass the dish around, and nearly every entree only had enough for a rather small serving each. This is in stark contrast to most restaurants where the portion sizes are so large that you leave feeling ill.

Because it was Erin’s birthday we obviously got dessert, I choose the chocolate cake with scoop of vanilla ice cream, hard to go wrong with that, and this didn’t disappoint. Funnily enough, the piece of cake was rather large, so I didn’t leave hungry :)

Scusi was good, but if we go back I will stick to the pizza, it was the best tasting and best value they’ve got.

Service: Service was good, we felt welcome and everyone was friendly.
Food: The food tasted excellent but the portions were small. The pizza was my favorite.
Drinks: Scusi has several different wine portions to order from, which was great. This way you didn’t have to choose between a glass or bottle of wine.
Ambiance: Friendly, cozy atmosphere. It was also very warm.
Convenience: A small parking lot out back, otherwise it’s on street parking. Not a huge deal in this area.

Bar La Grassa

Visited on Thursday, April 8th with Kris and Erin

Ben's Review
Friends of ours invited us to join them at Bar La Grassa after seeing we hadn't been there and it was on our list. We arranged to have Erin's mom come to watch Annie while we went out for a couple hours, promising to be home by 9.

Bar La Grassa is located on N Washington Ave, just down the street from Black Sheep Pizza. I really liked the decor with the high ceilings and the exposed industrial interior. The restaurant is huge, running down Washington Ave and extending back fairly deep. As you walk in in there is a nice looking bar that was full of people waiting for their tables, that's where we found our friends, Kris and Erin.

We had reservations so we didn't need to wait, we were brought to a table towards the far end, near the kitchen. Bar La Grassa is one of those really loud places that makes it difficult to have a conversation with the people you're with. Furthermore, as you yell across the table it enables all the tables around you to also hear your conversation, making them talk louder and you can see how this gets out of control. I've come to accept that some places are just loud, there's nothing I can do about it. I'll also admit that sometimes it works, given the ambiance, and this is one of those places. It has a bustling quality to it that seems to make the noise fit in.

Our friend Erin had bought Kris a new set of glassware that she was giving him that night and arranged with Bar La Grassa to bring out our first round of cocktails in the glasses, as a surprise for Kris. Of course as we sat down Kris suggested getting a bottle of wine, but Erin smoothly talked him out of that and into getting something that would go in his new set of glasses. They have a good list of specialty cocktails, but I still opted for Jack Daniels which prompted Kris to get scotch.

We shared a couple appetizers, we had heard that the soft egg and lobster bruschetta was good so we ordered that and the charred red onion and goat cheese bruschetta. The soft egg and lobster was absolutely fantastic. The eggs were just slightly underdone so they weren't runny but had a delicate feel to them and they were delicious. The goat cheese bruschetta was also very good, but I would say the soft egg was well worth the extra $6.

For my entree I got two smaller portions of pasta: the fusilla col buco with pork sausage and the silk handkerchiefs with basil pesto (I love basil pesto). Both of my entrees were good, they were not as good as I was expecting given the reviews I had recently seen online. The fusili col buco was great at first until you realize how much salt there was, it was overpowering after a couple bites. The pork and the pasta were both cooked great, just a tad too much salt for my liking. The pesto was bland compared to pesto I've gotten from the store and also homemade pesto, which surprised me. Pesto is easy to make, so I would expect something more flavorful. The pasta was again cooked well, just not enough flavor. I didn't finish the pasta and there wasn't enough leftover to justify bringing it home.

Erin had been looking forward to getting dessert but we realized that we needed to get going to make it home without being too late, so we paid our portion of the check and headed out while Erin and Kris enjoyed the dessert menu, so I can't comment on the desserts. We enjoyed going out, we had a good time with our friends and the service was great, but I doubt I will be back to Bar La Grassa anytime soon.

• Service: Great service, they stayed out of the way and everything was taken care of.
  
• Food: Appetizers were excellent, the pasta dishes left something to be desired.
  
• Drinks: Long cocktail list and wine list with a decent tap selection, also a full bar.
  
• Ambiance: Loud. I think my throat was hoarse the rest of the night. Though the volume does seem to fit in, as mentioned earlier.
  
• Price: Prices are on the higher side, especially given the disappointing pasta.
• Convenience: Parking can be annoying in this area, you might have to walk a couple blocks to find an available meter. I don't believe there are any ramps or lots in the area.

Erin's Review
When Erin L. asked me if we'd be able to get a babysitter for Annie and join her and Kris for dinner at Bar La Grassa, I was super excited. I had read great things about this place, and heard nothing but rave reviews. My mom was more than willing to watch Annie, so we were set! When we got there, I was impressed with the large space and beautiful decor. I really liked the vibe right off the bat - it didn't feel pretentious at all, the service was great, and it seemed like a nice place without feeling too stuffy.

We immediately ordered drinks so that Kris could get his gift of cocktail glasses - he was definitely surprised and realized that the glasses the cocktails came in were the ones he wanted, which made it even more fun :) I had a bellini, which was pretty much the least cocktail-y thing I could find (I'm not really a huge cocktail person, but wanted to play along with the surprise). The bread and amuse bouche served well to help curb my hunger!

I had read a few reviews before we left, and based on those and Erin's recommendations, we chose the soft egg and lobster bruschetta, which was absolutely awesome. Definitely the highlight of the evening! I didn't try the other bruschetta due to my distaste for goat cheese, but everyone else thought it was good, although not nearly as good as the lobster.

For my entree, I chose the Calamarata with raw tuna which someone had recommended to Erin. I really enjoyed this dish - the flavors of the sauce paired nicely with the warm pasta and cool tuna. I also thought this meal was a tad on the salty side, but nothing too bad. I would definitely recommend this dish if you like raw tuna! Erin had the gnocchi with cauliflower and orange, which the waitress recommended - I really enjoyed the flavors in that dish as well.

As Ben mentioned, we all were a bit disappointed in Bar La Grassa - after reading SO many rave reviews, it's hard not to build up a place in your head to be totally amazing. While everything was very good, it wasn't mind blowing, which all of us were expecting. Unlike Ben, I didn't think the prices were that high - they seemed pretty reasonable, but I liked my dishes better than he did so that might be why.

I'm glad we went to Bar La Grassa - the ambiance was great, and it is a beautiful space. My dishes were a bit different than what I usually eat, so it was a nice change. Everyone else seems to love this place, so I'd still recommend checking it out.

Deets
Bar La Grassa
800 North Washington Ave
Minneapolis

Il Vesco Vino

Visited on Sunday, August 1st

Erin's Review
I used to volunteer every Sunday night from 4-8, and to celebrate my first completely free Sunday, I wanted to go out to eat. Since pretty much the only thing I've been wanting lately is bland carbs, a fairly generic Italian place seemed like it would fit the bill. Il Vesco Vino was the chosen destination.

Since we were there on a weeknight, they had a $25 deal where you get a salad, entree and dessert which is exactly what I wanted. I got the bibb salad, which was delicious - fruit and blue cheese is my favorite type of salad, so I was set.

The stuffed shells is the real reason I chose this place for our dinner - what can I say, I just wanted some pasta and a lot of cheese :) I figured the spinach was just a nutritional bonus. They were pretty good, but not the best I've had. I could only finish about 1/3 of it, but that just meant I got to bring the leftovers for lunch which is my favorite part of going to places with huge portions :)

I chose the carrot cake for dessert, which was quite good. I loved the caramel drizzle especially. Of course, I was already full, but I still managed to eat most of it! Since I'm without alcohol for the next 5.5 months, I got myself a "fun drink" of a decaf latte to go with my dessert. Yipee.... :)

Not sure I would really rush back to Il Vesco Vino, but it was a fun night with good food.

Ben's Review
Last Sunday, Erin wanted to go out and she wanted to have Italian food, and for the time being, we eat what she wants to eat :) We looked over our list for a Italian places and came down to Al Vento and Il Vesco Vino. The menu at Al Vento looked a little smaller so we headed down West 7th by Xcel Energy Center to Il Vesco Vino.

When we walked in we found the host booth by the door, but no host. We poked around a bit and eventually someone came over to seat us ("Sorry, Cocktail is on TV!" was her excuse :) The place was COMPLETELY empty, there were more employees huddled around the TV than customers. Being a Sunday night in downtown Saint Paul I wasn't really expecting a big crowd, and we got great service, so I can't complain.

We were quickly served up some bread and olive oil (though no pepper at the table!) while we looked over the menus. On Sundays they have a deal for $25 that gets you an entree, a salad, and dessert which seemed like a pretty good deal. You can't have any entree; there is a select list of ones that are available with the special, but there are plenty to choose from. I went with the linguine bolognese for my entree, with a caprese salad (I'd actually been craving this for awhile, even though I dislike tomatoes), I also got a glass of wine.

The caprese salad was HUGE! I was expecting a single "stack" of tomato slice, mozzarella, and basil, but instead I got five four, it was absurd. Between the delicious bread (two baskets) and the five four pieces of cheese, I was full enough to call it a night, but I wasn't throwing in the towel just yet. The bolognese was excellent, it was another recommendation from Erin, as I was having trouble deciding what to order. I should have stopped eating sooner than I did so I could have had more leftovers for lunch, but it just tasted too good.

For my dessert I got the turtle semifreddo, which I thought was good, but not worth the $8 you would normally have to spend to get it. Overall, a great (and filling) meal.

Also, I want to mention that every Monday night during the summer, Il Vesco Vino teams up with Stogies on Grand to have a cigar and drink special on the patio. $15 gets you a cigar paired with a drink from the bar. I want to hit this up before August is over, we have to get our smoking done in the summer months in Minnesota!

• Service: Great service, it helped that there was nobody else there :)

• Food: My pasta was great, and I loved the humongous salad.

• Drinks: They've got a huge mirrored bar behind the bartender that is FULLY stocked.

• Ambiance: We ate in the bar area, but there is also a separate dining room. I liked the bar ambiance, it was casual but still felt like a nice dinner. I think the dining room might be a bit too stuffy for my taste. They've also got a patio, but it was raining that night.

• Price: We ended up paying a little more because of the $25 deal, I probably wouldn't have gotten a salad or dessert otherwise. The prices are certainly reasonable though.

• Convenience: Parking on a Sunday night is no problem, but it's kind of hit or miss on West 7th normally (in my experience).

Deets
Il Vesco Vino
242 West 7th St.
St. Paul