Wilde Roast Cafe - New Location

Erin visited on Tuesday, December 6th with Rebekah

Our original review of Wilde Roast Cafe was written over 3 years ago now, and since that time I have been there quite a few times - for breakfast, just for coffee, and for dinner. It is one of my favorite spots in northeast for sure.

This past summer, Wilde Roast announced that they were moving to Main Street, along the river. This certainly appears to be a good move for them - lots of foot traffic in the summer, larger space and along with that a larger kitchen. However, convenience for many was definitely sacrificed. Parking is now a complete pain in the butt - unless you are lucky enough to get one of the metered spots out front. There are a few nearby ramps, but it does seem like this move will put an end to people doing several hours of work there while sipping coffee for the most part.

On Tuesday, Rebekah and I did make the trek over to Wilde Roast to check it out, do some work, and also grab lunch. We parked in a ramp a few blocks away that is attached to the Riverplace that is $2.50 during the day on weekdays at least, so not too bad. The space is much larger, but is a bit awkwardly laid out. There is a lot of dead space in the entryway, and then it seems to be divided into 2 areas - more of a cafe, with smaller tables and the couches and armchairs, and then a few steps up is the dining room. We sampled both areas during our time there. It is a beautiful space, with a lot of brick, dark wood, and tons of Christmas decor right now. It was still pleasantly busy, so the parking situation must really not be a drawback for most.

Despite the more upscale feel, it's still counter service - we ordered our lunches at the counter and moved to the dining area. My Reuben was one of the best I've had, and the fries were amazing. It all came out piping hot. The food at Wilde Roast has always been a hit for me - breakfast, lunch or dinner and this was no exception.

While it is a bit more of a hassle to get to Wilde Roast in their new location, I would definitely suggest making the effort. I'm interested to see how they change in the summer months with their new patio space - to me, this has always felt more like a cozy winter spot, but I'll be sure to come try it out in the summer months as well!

Deets

Wilde Roast Cafe

65 Main Street East

Minneapolis

Republic

Visited on Saturday, November 19th with Lori and Jeff

Ben's Review

On the same day that we went out for lunch at Cheeky Monkey Deli, we had also made plans to continue our child-free day and have dinner with our friends Jeff and Lori at Republic in the old Sgt. Preston’s location.

The snow had continued all afternoon and made for a gross five mile drive to 7 corners, but it wasn’t as bad as I had feared with the first snowfall of the season and we made it over there in fifteen minutes or so. It was strange to notice how different this area of town was in the years since we went to school here, Grandmas and Sgt. Preston’s are gone, as is................whatever was there before Corner Bar, and we noticed that Bullwinkle’s was now closed too.

They had just gone on a wait at Republic when we got in, but the host was just clearing off a table and told us we could have it, so we settled in while waiting for Jeff and Lori to arrive. Erin was starving and so ordered the spinach artichoke dip to nosh on while I pondered what I would have for my three beer flight. The flight is $10 for three eight ounce samples of beer. This can save you a buck or two if you choose the pricier beers on the menu. I went with Surly Wet (my only time this year having it), Stone Brewing Arrogant Bastard, and Odell Mercenary Double IPA as my options. The tap beer list is fantastic at Republic and getting to try three beers is awesome. When Jeff and Lori arrived he saw what I had and followed up with the exact same order.

I made an effort to not look at the food menu before we came so that I wouldn’t have my meal decided before I even stepped in the door. While Republic doesn’t have the largest menu, they do seem to have a reasonably diverse food offering, especially some of the appetizers like Serrano ham and ricotta fritters. Since I had a Cuban sandwich at lunch I wasn’t feeling like having a sandwich or a burger and decided on the beer battered fish and chips.

The spinach artichoke dip had been very good and only served to get me even hungrier. We were eating later than we normally do when Annie is around, and that coupled with my beers was making my stomach growl. Luckily our food came out not too long after we ordered and I was not disappointed.

My fish and chips came with homemade ketchup, tartar sauce, and some other white looking sauce that I couldn’t distinguish, but can only assume was mayonnaise. It was only after I was nearly done that I realized I hadn’t even tried the homemade ketchup as I had used the tartar sauce for my fish and fries. The fish was what you’d expect from battered and fried fish, and was very good, no big bites of just breading and no mushy fish anywhere. The fries were also good, hot, and well seasoned.

Predictably, Erin and Lori wanted to order dessert and since the prices were low we ordered three desserts to share between the four of us. We got the Caramel Pot de Creme, the Black & Tan pudding, and the Caramel Apple Cake. The reason for the low-ish prices was apparent when the desserts came out, as they are rather small, but I prefer it that way anyways. We all tried all three desserts and they were delicious and the perfect size to finish off an already large meal.

We really enjoyed Republic and the atmosphere there, as it’s a far cry from the drunk frat boy crowd that used to exist on weekends. Between that and the excellent beer list I can see us coming back here in the future.

Service: Service was good, they took care of us without bothering us.
Food: Good spinach artichoke dip and fish and chips, nothing crazy, just a good, clean fill.
Drinks: Awesome list of beers, the wine list doesn’t look as extensive, but I wouldn’t know.
Ambiance: It was busy at Republic without being so loud that you can’t hear anyone, I also like the remodeling they’ve done inside, much nicer than Sgt. Preston’s.
Convenience: We parked in the Holiday Inn ramp without bothering to look for street parking as it’s a pain in the ass as far as I’m concerned. Certainly buses are available as it’s right near campus.

Erin's Review

I'd heard about Republic a lot from my coworker Janelle, who is a big fan of craft brews in addition to dining out. (Definitely check out her website if you are a Minneapolis lover - a great way to find out about hidden gems in a number of the neighborhoods she's toured!). When reviewing our list lately, often Ben and I have a hard time getting really excited about going to a place. There are a few really nice places left on there that I definitely want to try, but for a normal Saturday out, our reasonably priced options are running thin. That makes us even more excited when a place like Republic opens up, because it's so obviously one that we would enjoy AND it's not too expensive at all. It's a good thing I don't really care about beer, so I didn't make Ben wait until March to go so I could drink too.

I was still battling a cold, but managed to spruce myself up that night a bit for our double date. We got there at 6:30, and it was definitely pleasantly full. It's a fairly dark restaurant - made taking photos a bit more difficult, but the ambiance was nice. I was surprised at just how much remodeling had taken place since Sgt. Preston's - the only thing that remained the same was the one stall bathroom, but thankfully it didn't retain the same odor from it's previous owner.

As Ben mentioned, I was starving when we got there, so I quickly ordered the first appetizer I saw that looked appealing - spinach and artichoke dip. It's been awhile since I had that at a restaurant, since it's frequently made at gatherings at my own house and others, but this definitely hit the spot. Once Jeff and Lori arrived, we all got to chatting, and waited awhile before ordering.

While Republic has a pretty good menu, nothing interesting was standing out to me, so I just went with an old standby of a bacon cheeseburger. The burger didn't come with fries, but since Ben had gotten some, I knew I'd be able to at least have a few. Our food seemed to come out relatively quickly, and everyone's dishes were well presented. I enjoyed my burger, but didn't feel it was anything particularly special. However, I could barely taste anything due to my cold anyway, so my judgement is probably off.

I hadn't noticed the dessert menu on our table tent, so when the waitress responded to my inquiry about dessert with a "yes", I was ecstatic. Lori and I couldn't narrow it down, so we got 3 - which turned out to be a great choice because they were quite small. My 2 favorites were the black and tan (chocolate and butterscotch pudding and whipped cream) and the caramel pots de creme. Yum!! They were the perfect size for one person, but since we were sharing, 3 was great.

Republic is definitely a welcome addition to the 7 corners area. I wonder if it is still a hangout for the traditional age college students anymore, because Town Hall and Republic definitely seem to cater to a slightly older crowd. Perfect for this almost 30 year old! I'm sure we'll be back, especially in summer to try out their excellent patio. If we actually went out more often than once a month, I could see this overtaking Maxwell's as our go-to spot (that we haven't been to for nearly a year)... I'll always have a special place in my heart for The Max, but Republic does have better food and beer and a good vibe.

Deets

Republic

221 Cedar Ave S

Minneapolis

Black Forest Inn

Visited on Friday, May 27 with Jake and Allison

Ben's Review

Erin heard about spargelfest at Black Forest Inn and wanted to check it out. Her parents took Annie up to the cabin one day early on Memorial Day weekend, so we took the opportunity to meet our friends Jake and Allison for dinner before heading up ourselves on Friday night.

I had heard that Black Forest Inn had a great patio, but I wasn’t really excited to try this place out. After having what I considered to be bland, uninteresting food in Germany during our honeymoon, I had written off their food entirely. Spargelfest sounded cool, and I do like asparagus, so we headed over after work.

It was cold out the day we went, so the patio wasn’t going to happen, which was unfortunate. The inside of Black Forest Inn reminded me of the beer halls in Germany with the high, painted ceilings, the woodwork, and the customers and staff.

We had arrived early which gave us plenty of time to look over the menu and consider our options. I started with a beer (Erin insisted that I get a German beer, which I was going to anyway) and got the Paulaner Salvator.

I was surprised at how much of the food actually seemed good, not what my prejudiced mind was expecting, which was nice. I actually didn’t end up getting any spargelfest specialty, but I made sure to try Erin’s asparagus soup. I went traditional and got the bratwurst dinner which consisted of two bratwurst links, hot German potato salad, sauerkraut, and rye bread. I also noticed that they had a maibock mentioned on the spargelfest menu that was not on the beer list, so I got a maibock with my meal as well (can’t recall the brand now).

I was amazed at how good this food was. I don’t know if I just happened to get bad food in Germany, or if my tastes have changed in the past five years. The bratwurst was excellent, and I even slightly enjoyed my sauerkraut. The best part though, was the hot potato salad. I had breezed over the word ‘hot’ in the menu and was expecting the cold variety that we know and love. This potato salad was phenomenal and I fully intend to try making this at home because it cannot be that difficult.

Jake and I also got to have the lion’s share of Erin’s pork because she had ordered a ridiculously sized portion for herself and found herself not really needing her third slab of meat. Needless to say we left incredibly full and with leftovers for the cabin.

Service: The service was just OK, it took awhile to get our drinks and orders taken. Our server changed halfway through, so there must have been a shift change or something going on.
Food: The food was excellent and the portions were huge.
Drinks: Small beer list, but they have light and dark German beers and a couple macro brews.
Ambiance: Kind of loud and boisterous, while also friendly, which also reminded me of Germany.
Convenience: Black Forest Inn actually has a parking lot, which I did not realize. We parked on the street, and we’ve always managed to find a close street spot when we come to this area.

Erin's Review

Like many places on our list, I'd been wanting to go to Black Forest Inn for many many years. German food just isn't high on my wish list, however. The patio was the biggest selling point for me, so I was pretty disappointed that it was cold and raining on the day we planned to go. I do definitely think we'll have to go back sometime to sit on the patio, because it looks beautiful!

Ben and I took our honeymoon, now 5.5 years ago, to Germany, and Jake and Allison just went on a trip to Germany last year, so it was fun for all of us to reminisce about our time in the FATHERLAND (not Motherland as I sometimes have been known to mistakenly say).

I was having a REALLY hard time figuring out what to order. I started off with a refreshing root beer, and then stared at the menu for a good 20 minutes while we waited for Jake and Allison to show up. I knew I wanted SOMETHING with asparagus, and wanted a pretzel. Those were my basic requirements.

Finally I decided to order the asparagus soup as a starter - it was creamy and delicious, with mostly pureed asparagus but with enough chunks to make it interesting. It brought back pleasant memories of the asparagus soup I had in Amsterdam on the last night of our vacation in Europe 2 years ago.

After MUCH deliberation, I decided to go with the hausplatte - it was described on the menu as "A generous sampling of rippchen, bratwurst, polish sausage, red cabbage, sauerkraut, and potato salad. Served with a fresh-baked pretzel and homemade mustard". I mistakenly thought that this would be a "sample" plate - which is what it said on the menu. But no. This was FULL portions of EACH of those meats, PLUS a pretzel and full orders of each of those sides. Um. A bit much for me, you could say. I did think this was DELICIOUS - especially the pretzel. The only thing I wasn't a fan of was the "rippchen" which was some kind of huge slab of pork. No thanks. Anyway - my advice is that this plate is PLENTY for two people. I made good headway with the brat and potato salad, and some saurkraut but that was about it. Far too much for one or even probably two people. Despite the solo pretzels not being anywhere that I could see on the menu, you can just order one on the side. Probably a better idea than ordering an enormous meal just because it came with a pretzel. Oh well, live and learn.

Black Forest Inn was friendly and inviting - everyone seemed to be having a great time. Upon looking at their website, they have a kids menu and I saw plenty of high chairs too. We might have to go back with Annie in tow for a patio visit later this summer.

Deets

Black Forest Inn

1 East 26th Street

Minneapolis

Swede Hollow Cafe

Visited on Saturday, October 9 with Kate (no Ben)

I realized it had been awhile since I saw Kate, and especially since she had gotten to see Annie, so we set up brunch on a beautiful Saturday a few weeks ago. Because Kate is very busy and important, I was glad she was able to pencil us in ;) I realized we really don't have too many brunchy type places left to visit on the list, but Swede Hollow Cafe was a place that had been sitting there unvisited since the very beginning of the blog - I put it on the list because of them winning Best Restaurant for Outdoor Dining from City Pages way back in 2007. Because it was a balmy 80 degrees on this fine "fall" day, it seemed like it would be the perfect spot!

When I got there, I found Kate out on the patio, which is really large. There are two "levels", a few tables surround a fountain, and then down a slight hill there are a few more tables. Obviously I'm writing this a bit late in the season, but definitely put this on your list of patios to try next spring- it was one of the best I've been to! I liked that it was sheltered too - I really hate patios that are on a very busy street, or overlook a beautiful parking lot. This was perfect.

Swede Hollow had a much bigger menu than I was expecting - I knew it was a deli type of place, but they have a ton of great hot breakfast options on weekends. I went with the hash brown bake with bacon. All of the quiches and bakes came with a large fruit side and a corn muffin. I chose the mango, strawberry and peach cobbler. I also got an iced vanilla latte.

One of the staff members was having a grand time chatting with Kate and Annie while I was inside ordering - the staff all seemed very friendly! Our food came out really quickly - this is the type of place that you order at the counter, and then they bring it out to your table when it's ready. The amount of food was HUGE - honestly either the bake or the cobbler would have been plenty, but I was glad to eat both :) Annie got to try some bits and she also was a huge fan!

Swede Hollow was one of the best new (to me) restaurants I've been to in awhile. It is on the outskirts of downtown St. Paul, so not too centrally located, but I think it's worth the drive! They do have ample seating indoors as well, and the food is good enough that it's worth going in the winter too. We will definitely be back!

Deets

Swede Hollow Cafe

725 East 7th Street

St. Paul

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