Sun Street Breads

Visited on Friday, December 23rd

Ben's Review
For Erin’s birthday she wanted to go out for breakfast, unsurprisingly, and decided on Sun Street Breads in south Minneapolis. Since I still had to work that day we headed over there relatively early and found an already busy bakery.

The entrance to Sun Street Breads is a little confusing if you haven’t been there before. First, there is a curtain that blocks a view of the restaurant from you so you don’t know if you need to queue up, wait to be seated, or grab a table. Secondly, since you can either order food to eat there or simply stop by for a loaf of bread to go, it’s unclear if you wait in the same line depending on what service you need.

It turns out that the line is for everyone, though I certainly could see a second line being useful for those people that are not eating in. Erin probably made a faux pas by going in and grabbing a table with Annie while I got in line to order for us, but with limited seating we didn’t really care :)

Actually, another family came in after us with three kids and the dad took the kids to grab a table. Someone who was in line commented to him “Uh, I think you’re supposed to order before taking a table”, to which the dad replied, “Well, we’ve got three kids, so......I’m sorry if this inconveniences you.” I can see both sides of it, but still funny to overhear :)

Anyways, on to the food. We knew we’d be getting their breakfast biscuits, it was just a matter of what combination of meat, cheese, and eggs we’d be getting. In order to differ from Erin’s order I got ham with pepper jack cheese and a basted egg. I also got an americano to drink.

After ordering at the counter and getting a number for our table, we had a short wait and our drinks were brought out. The americano was better than I had expected for a place that focuses more on their bread than coffee. Our food also came out quickly while at the same time appeared to be freshly prepared. I happened to notice a bottle of sriracha sauce at the coffee station so I made sure to doctor up my sandwich a bit. The sandwich was fantastic, with the homemade biscuit being the highlight. Being that they have several combinations, and the prices are reasonable, I would for sure come back just to try several styles.

In addition to having great food, the ambiance at Sun Street Breads is cool because the kitchen is in plain view so you can see their large scale baking operation at work. It’s interesting to compare the tools and methods they get to use compared to what I see Erin doing at home when she bakes. We picked up a loaf of sourdough for a family get together that was also delicious.

I had a great time at Sun Street Breads and will be back this spring, probably on Erin’s maternity leave for a sandwich and perhaps a walk around the lake :)

Service: The line was long, but it moves quickly. All the people I encountered were friendly and attentive.
Food: Excellent breakfast and fresh bread.
Drinks: They have beer and wine and the beer selection is small but diverse.
Ambiance: I liked the ambiance a lot on the weekday morning we were there. I was shocked how busy it was, but it was the start of a holiday weekend.
Convenience: They do have a shared parking lot with the strip mall they’re in, but I couldn’t find a spot there. Plenty of bus options on Nicollet as well.

Erin's Review
After asking a few people for recommendations for a good new breakfast spot, I decided on Sun Street Breads for my birthday breakfast. Since my birthday was on a Friday, and some places only serve brunch on weekends, my options were a bit limited. After getting this recommendation, I saw Sun Street in many "best new restaurants" lists, so I figured it must be a good choice!

Ben and I drove separately, so when I got there I immediately got one of the only tables left, bypassing the long line. I'm sure I angered a lot of people by doing this, but it turned out that tables turned over fairly quickly, so everyone got a spot without incident. Ben got inside shortly after me, I took Annie and we got settled at the table. It took probably 10-15 minutes or so for Ben to get to the front of the line and order - it was WAY more packed than I had anticipated for a Friday morning.

Once Ben finally joined us, he brought a scone for our "starter" - it was quite good, and was in a different style than most scones I've had. We all enjoyed it. Since Annie is not so skilled in eating biscuit sandwiches just yet, we got her granola with yogurt. When it came out, the pieces of granola were huge and pretty hard, so I took most of them out and gave her just the yogurt with some of the littler pieces of granola. I did try a few bites and it was very good - just not so easy for a nearly 2 year old to eat with the large very crunchy pieces.

I got a pretty standard biscuit sandwich with fried egg, cheddar cheese, and sauce. It was absolutely delicious! I loved the sausage, and especially the biscuit. It filled me up for quite awhile too. There is nothing fancy at all about the food here, but it is very well prepared, and comes out with everything hot, including the biscuit, which is crucial. They have lunch and dinner too, and I'd really like to come back to try those meals as well.

As with all places in south Minneapolis, this is not convenient to us at all, however, if we have an open morning it's a fun outing, especially in the summer. Annie and I made the most of the trip by hitting up Heartfelt and Wild Rumpus in Linden Hills after breakfast when Ben went to work. Sun Street Breads is delicious and I'm glad we made it over there!

Deets
Sun Street Breads
4600 Nicollet Ave
Minneapolis

Chris & Rob's

Visited on Tuesday, November 25th with Scott

Ben's Review
When my co-worker Scott mentioned that he was probably going to hit up Chris and Rob's for dinner, I thought it would be an ideal opportunity to pay him back the $7 I owed him. Convincing Erin was not difficult :)

Not realizing how far away this place was, I got off of 94E at the Cretin-Vandalia exit hoping to avoid the freeway traffic, but it ended up taking a good long time to travel ~35 blocks on St. Clair Ave. from Cretin to W 7th St. Along the way Scott and Erin had the chance to discuss the merits of food processors vs. stand mixers and other cookware.

We got a parking spot right outside the front door (literally about five feet away, it was awesome). We walked into a nearly empty restaurant, I think there were two other tables occupied, not that unusual for a Tuesday night at 5:30 I guess. Scott had been talking up the Italian Beef sandwich served "wet" meaning that it's dipped in beef juice, kind of like a french dip, which makes for a tasty and messy sandwich. I went with a chili cheese hot dog with a side of fries, Erin had the Italian Beef sandwich ("dry") and Erin and Scott split an order of tater tots. When Scott heard that I was paying he also added on a Summit.

There aren't servers at Chris and Rob's, you order at the counter when you walk in and they bring the food out to your table when it's ready. The workers were really friendly and joked around with us while we were ordering, you could tell they enjoyed the work environment. Sadly I don't think we saw Chris or Rob.

My chili cheese dog was exactly what I wanted (it's hard to mess this up). Apparently you can optionally get two hot dogs in one bun, I'm not really sure how this would work, seeing as my hot dog was already overflowing, but I'd like to try it sometime, and I'm a little sad that I didn't this time, it would make for a much better story :)

I also would like to go back to Chris and Rob's to try their pizza. I think they are known for their hot dogs, brats, and sandwiches, but they aren't strictly a hot dog place, they are billed as the "Chicago taste authority" and I would suppose that authority would cover Chicago style pizza. Given that their menu isn't expensive I'm sure we'll be back at some point.

• Service: Great service, and I would expect no less when there are more employees than customers.
  
• Food: The food is good and cheap, but better than fast food. If I lived near here I wouldn't ever get fast food.
  
• Drinks: They have a couple typical beer selections (Miller, Bud, and Summit). I wasn't even expecting to have a beer so any beer was good beer.
  
• Ambiance: There was nobody around when we were there, so it was a little quiet. The walls are decorated with Chicago pictures and memorabilia which is interesting to read.
  
• Price: The prices are as cheap as anywhere in the city. My chili cheese dog was $3.59. Hell, some places will charge you more than 50 cents for cheese on a burger! At Chris and Rob's the chili dog and the chili cheese dog are the same price (does this mean people who get the regular chili dog are getting screwed??)
  
• Convenience: Located right on W 7th St., so there must be bus access, but no parking lot. We found a spot but you might have to walk a block or so if the area was busy.

Erin's Review
Ben alerted me at about 4:45pm on Tuesday that we were going to Chris and Rob's for dinner. I only had my point-and-shoot camera, so the quality of these photos isn't too great, but you can get the idea.

On the long ride over there, Scott was extolling the virtues of the Cheesy Beef Sandwich. After hearing him go on about it for the ride, my choice was clear. I chose to get mine un-dipped because I figured it would be soggy enough from the juices in the meat, and I was right. This was a very satisfying sandwich, with a ton of meat. More than I needed, for sure. At Scott's suggestion, I added sweet peppers to my cheddar Cheesy Beef. I'm glad I did - it did add a lot to the sandwich. I know this because I enjoyed bites with pepper more than I enjoyed the ones without. Pretty simple :)

Only slightly difficult to eat

Scott and I split an order of tots, which were delightfully crispy and salty. Not much else to say about them...

Ben has detailed the experience perfectly in his review... since it has already taken us almost 2 weeks to get this review up, I won't make anyone wait any longer by trying to make this sound like anything more than a quick stop for food after work :)

Chris and Rob's is a great place for a quick, filling meal that is a step up from normal fast food. I would definitely return. Aaron gave the pizza a positive review, so I'd like to try that next time around. Despite what Ben says above, I don't think the pizza is necessary "Chicago style"but that won't stop me from trying it.

Deets

Chris & Rob's
603 West 7th St.
St. Paul