Erte

Greetings! Yes friends, it has been an age since I blogged here. But, we had an amazing meal on Valentine's Day that was so good I just had to share about it.

Flashback to Valentine's Day 2010 - we chose to try Axel's, not Axel's Bonfire, the plain Axel's, because we heard they had good steak and it was close to home. We were SO disappointed. It was not good quality steak. They have awesome popovers and the mussels we had as appetizer were awesome, but everything else was sub par.

So this year we said, ok, kind of want to go out for a nice steak dinner again, but where do we go? We've done the Jax thing a number of times. My parents recently tried Erte, also in Northeast Minneapolis, just down the road from Jax actually and they said it was some of the best steak they'd had out in a very long time. We decided, that sounds good, we'll give it a try.

We got a reservation for 5:30 which worked out to be a perfect time - the place wasn't too full when we arrived, but definitely filled up after we'd been there awhile. The dining room isn't huge, but they do have a fair number of tables. The lighting was low and each table had a candle at it - not sure if this was just for Valentine's Day or if this is always how the mood is set, but it was really lovely.

Our waitress was out with water right away and gave us some time to look over both the wine list and the food menu. Since we both figured we'd be ordering steak, we decided to split a bottle of red wine. Nate let me pick, so I chose Saint Vincent Baron Bordeaux, it said it was 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet - I like Cab, Nate likes Merlot, so it seemed to be a fair choice.

The waitress came back to take our drink order and listed the specials for the night - some of which sounded tempting like Lobster Ravioli - but we stuck to our guns and chose steaks that appealed to each of us. Nate chose the ribeye and I chose fillet Mignon. You also order your sides separately, but I think it works well, as we were able to pick a couple of small sides to share, allowing us to try more. We also picked an appetizer - crab cakes.

She brought us our wine so we could enjoy that with the bread plate that I think was complimentary for Valentine's Day - it is listed on the appetizer menu, but every table was receiving this so I think it was something special. It was yummy, little baguette bread, garlic butter and some olives. And let me tell you the wine - some of the best red wine I've had in ages, nice and warm, not too dry, very smooth. Just a tiny hint of sweetness. The longer it was open the nicer it got too. I highly recommend it.

The crab cakes were perfect - we each had one and while decadent - they weren't too much. There were some spices we couldn't quite place, but overall they were a nice starter.

The salads were ok, probably my least favorite part of the meal. I chose french dressing and also something they have called greek goddess because they do not have ranch - the waitress described it as if caesar and ranch dressing had a baby. We decided it actually tastes like Tzatziki that you have with gyros. It was good. The french dressing was almost too much like tomato paste though. And the salad had a lot of onions which I'm not a huge fan of and it was hard to eat around them.

I'll forgive that one little thing though because we got our meat and Oh.My.God. Cooked to perfection just the way I wanted it. It was a wonderful cut of meat - it seriously melted in my mouth. I had a bite of Nate's too and his was also excellent, but I prefer fillet meat, so I am so happy I ordered what I did. I haven't enjoyed a steak out in a restaurant this much in years. We selected le smush (garlic mashed potatoes), hunny bunny carrots (they had ginger too) and creamed spinach for our sides. All three were great, nice light accompaniments to the meat. I think my favorite was the carrots. The ginger they're cooked with is a nice touch.

Because it was Valentine's Day we also splurged and brought home dessert to enjoy with our traditional Valentine's Day scotch (Lagavulin). We chose the chocolate raspberry cheesecake as it seemed like it would travel the best and also accompany our scotch nicely. It was awesome - not super heavy which I appreciated since I was quite full from our meal! It was very creamy and had a nice chocolate cookie crust. I would eat that again!

Overall we really enjoyed our experience at Erte - I credit our waitress a great deal for that as well, she was attentive, but also knew when to let us alone. She really helped make it a wonderful evening.

I highly recommend Erte if you're looking for someplace nice for a special occasion!

Details:
Erte
323 13th Avenue N.E
Minneapolis, MN 55413
612-623-4211
www.ertedining.com

Brasa

Hello all - it's been a very long time since we've written anything here, but we ate at a restaurant a couple of weeks ago that was so good, I just had to post something about it!


We ate at Brasa in Northeast Minneapolis. They have a pretty small menu, their speciality being meats that are cooked with simple, but unique flavors - sort of a South American flare. It actually reminds me a little of a much smaller scale Fogo de Chao.


It was busy as it was a Saturday evening around 5:30 when we arrived. They have patio seating, but it was closed because of rain. The interior is pretty unique - it's located in an old gas station/garage. They actually have a garage door that they open over the patio. It's pretty neat.


In a twist of fate we ended meeting up with my parents who were also intrigued after an aunt of mine was raving about it. This ended up working out to our advantage in a couple of ways though. We all shared a bit of what we ate and we also split a dessert four ways.


Nate chose a scotch ale to drink, I chose Surly Furious that was on tap. My mom selected the house white wine and my dad went with a lemonade.

The menu has several options - we chose to do plates where you chose one or two meats and two sides. I got pulled chicken with gravy, cornbread, fried plantains and cheesy grits. Nate chose the pulled pork, roasted chicken, collared greens and also cornbread. My parents also got the pulled chicken with gravy, the pulled pork and also braised beef. For their sides they chose a special that night that was sort of like coleslaw and then a romaine and mozzarella salad.

The chicken with gravy was amazing - juicy white meat with a very tasty gravy on the outside. I loved the cornbread - it was sweet with a little bit of honey flavor. I liked my cheese grits pretty well, next time I think I'd choose rice instead. The plantains were also good. It was alot of food though!

Nate's meats were pretty good. My parents braised beef was outstanding - I'd be tempted to order that myself next time. The Cole slaw was unusual - it had cilantro and lime flavors, but was actually pretty good. Their salad was tasty too, I'm a sucker for fresh mozzarella!

For dessert we split a piece of rum soaked pineapple upside down cake. It was very good - though I expected more rum flavor to come out of it! But it was quite decadent and was smart to be split four ways!

Even though my dad ended up paying it looked like the prices were reasonable. Not a super cheap meal, but not as expensive as Fogo de Chao - so kind of a way to enjoy the concept without spending as much! I liked it alot, so I think we'll definitely go back!

Details:
Brasa Minneapolis
600 E Hennepin Avenue NE
Minneapolis, MN 55414

Brasa St. Paul
777 Grand Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55105

www.brasa.us

Sarpino's Pizza

After returning home from a family picnic this past Sunday evening Nate and I wanted something for dinner, but nothing huge. We agreed to order a pizza and settle in with a movie for the evening. We also decided to be adventurous and see what places will deliver to us other than our favorite Papa Johns. We wanted to try the new Little Caesar's that just opened up in our town, but they would not deliver. After some internet research, we discovered a place not far from us, but not right in our city, that would deliver - Sarpino's Pizza.

They have a pretty good sized and interesting menu. They have quite a few "specialty pizzas" to choose from or they will let you create your own. They also have five size options. They also have cheesesticks, dessert pizza, baked pastas, calzones, salads and sandwiches to choose from as well! Whew!

We kept it simple, ordered a Hawaiian pizza and some cheesesticks. Delivery wasn't too long, about the standard wait time. I have to say, I loved this pizza! The crust is really good, not too thick or thin or chewy. I also loved the cheesesticks. They let you choose a complimentary dipping sauce with each item you order, so we picked out two things of ranch sauce. The only downside is they forgot one of them.

I know there are several locations in the Metro area, so if you're tired of the norm, give Sarpino's a try!

Tuggs

It's been awhile since we've had a chance to try a new to us restaurant, so that is why there has been a lack of posting.

We ate at Tuggs on the river in NE Minneapolis this past weekend. It was a place we could get 20% off of our order because of attending the nearby Segway tour. This was not our first place choice to go, but we had to go with the group, therefore, we ended up here.

I have nothing terribly nice to say about Tuggs. They have a number of lemonades, both alcoholic and non, on their menu so I'm assuming that's kind of their big deal. I enjoyed the lemonade I chose for myself - Prairie Dog Lemonade with vodka and light beer mixed in. It was kind of like a shandy and being that it was a bit of a warm day, it was tasty. Nate had a basic vodka and lemonade that he said was good. Then he had a bloody mary that he said was not so good.

We both wanted something light as we had plans to go to dinner later and we arrived at Tuggs around 1:30. Unfortunately Tuggs has a very small menu to begin with and definitely not much in the way of light fare. I selected chicken fingers and Nate picked buffalo wings.

The chicken was dry, I did not care for the breading. It had barbeque sauce that was nothing to write home about. Nate's buffalo wings were not very spicy and pretty much "so-so".

Honestly, it was nice to get 20% off of our tab, but this was not someplace I would choose to go again. I don't think that it's a place you really "go for the food" but it would be nice if the offerings were a bit more flavorful!

Stella's Fish Cafe

I have to thank our friends Brent and Tatiana for suggesting this one, otherwise I don't know if Nate and I ever would have tried this place! I've heard of Stella's before, but it's in Uptown, where we don't get real often and just is one of those things I hadn't even thought of trying.

This past Saturday we met up with Brent and Tatiana and they suggested we go there for dinner because they have a roof top patio and it was a gorgeous, although a little chilly, evening. We headed down around 6:30 or so and had to wait a little bit for an outdoor table, but not too terribly long actually. Nate grabbed us a couple of beers and we had a nice bench to wait on and people watch.

The roof top is pretty high up, at the bottom of the stairs it says something like 72 stairs to the top, we took the stairs as it was faster than waiting for the elevator, but there is also an elevator to get up to the top. All of the tables are high tops with nice umbrellas.

Once we were seated we had a chance to look at the menu and it sounds like the options change daily, with a few standards that are there all of the time. This is definitely a place for those who like seafood - however, there was also barbequed ribs on the menu and a few salads that would work for people who don't care for seafood.

Nate and I decided on a sample platter that we could split that would have several options for us to try. It had grilled salmon, swordfish and scallops. Then we chose fried calamari to split. Brent ordered grilled salmon for himself and Tatiana went the route of ordering a couple of appetizers for a meal, a spinach and crab dip and a dip with sushi grade tuna.

The food was up relatively fast and it was all so good! Tatiana was nice and shared her dip with us, it was kind of cream cheesey and there was bread for dipping and it was so tasty! The dip is a warm dip and it just kind of melts in your mouth. Then Nate and I dug into our platter. The calamari was good, it wasn't too tough, which is often times a problem with calamari. It came with a spicy chipotle dipping sauce, though I didn't think it was too spicy. That was ok with me though, I wouldn't have wanted it to be much hotter!

On our platter, my favorite was the scallops. I love scallops and these were terrific. The salmon was just ok I guess, it was cooked just fine and had kind of a mango/pineapple relish on top, but I'm not a huge salmon lover, so I could've taken or left that. I really enjoyed the swordfish though, it had kind of a creamy, lemony sauce over the top of it, was flaky and delicious! I even tried some of Tatiana's tuna dip even though I'm not a sushi girl and you know what? That was good too!

Nate and I also had garlic mashed potatoes on the side. They were very tasty, but we had enough food we could've done without them. You order all of your sides separately so it would've been easy to leave it out.

For dessert the four of us split a giant piece of red velvet cake. I don't know what all it was made out of, but man, it was good, chocolatey, creamy filling, very rich. It was a good thing we had four spoons for that one!

Overall I enjoyed Stella's alot. It was fun to sit on the patio even though it was rather chilly and windy. The food was moderately priced, a little more than we'd usually spend, so I don't know that we'd frequent there all that much, but I'd love to go back sometime. They have an indoor restaurant too, so you could still go there in the winter. So, I am thinking we'll be back there sometime!

Shamrocks/The Nook

Nate and I love burgers. It is probably our favorite food to go out for. This past weekend we were definitely in a burger mood, but wanted to try something new. I suggested the Nook as we had seen it featured recently on Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Nate pulled up their menu online and said, yeah, that sounds good. Our back up plan was the Nook's sister restaurant Shamrocks, which was just a little further down the street from the Nook.

The Nook is in St. Paul, on Randolph Avenue and Hamline Avenue. It's not too far at all from my old stomping ground near the St. Kate's campus actually. We headed over around 5:15 or so thinking the earlier we could try to get in the better as we knew it wasn't a real large place. Well with traffic and fun things like that, it was a little after 5:30 when we got there. Sadly, there were several groups waiting and they were standing outside. Nate poked his head in and said there really weren't all that many tables. So, we got back on Randolph and headed to Shamrocks which is at Randolph and 7th Street.

Fortunately, Shamrocks is much larger inside. It was just as busy, but there was a high top table available for us. It's more Irish themed inside, but the menu is essentially the same as the menu at the Nook. And let me tell you, it is quite the menu! Many appetizers, burgers, chicken sandwiches and other entrees were listed. The beer list is just ok, most of your standard, commercial beers. Nate and I have kind of become beer snobs, so the majority of the beer wasn't anything of interest to us. I chose the Summit Horizon Red Ale since it was on tap and Nate asked for a Newcastle Brown Ale.

We then ordered cheese curds as an appetizer and our awesome waitress (she was really great) asked if we wanted those out first (unlike at the Sunshine Factory) and we said "of course!" They came out shortly after we ordered them and they were definitely fresh and warm. They were not the best cheese curds I've ever had, but they were darn good. Good batter, lots of cheesy goodness. Would've liked a bit more cheddar cheese inside of them instead of mozzarella, but overall they were tasty.

The highlight of our meal was definitely our burgers though. Nate selected the "Juicy Nookie" which is what The Nook/Shamrocks is famous for, their version of a Juicy Lucy. I stuck to a simple cheeseburger. Each burger came with a side of fries, but I noticed on the menu you could also choose Cole slaw or chips.

The burgers are outstanding. Juicy, cooked to perfection. Heart attack on a plate I think, but oh man, they're just so good. I believe they get fresh bakery buns from a nearby bakery and they're fantastic. And then the fries....ok, there used to be a place in Northeast Minneapolis that was called Nan's. Nan's had the worlds best fries ever. But Nan's shut down in 2001 and we haven't had fries quite as good since. Well let me tell you - the fries at Shamrocks were pretty much as good as Nan's. Seriously outstanding fries. You can tell they were made from fresh, huge Russet potatoes and fried to just the right level and I just can't say enough about them. They are thick cut the way fries should be!

We both ended up pretty stuffed when all was said and done. We agreed that next time, we could probably skip the cheese curds and go straight to the burgers. Then if we feel like it we can maybe try dessert. I also could do without the beer, it was actually kind of spendy.

At any rate, we are definitely going to go back sometime and if you love burgers, you should really try to go there too!!

Tea Time!

Since our visit earlier this month to Willowgate, I have been interested in tea. We had fantastic Oolong tea when we ate there. Everyone knows I'm a coffee girl and I still will be forever a coffee girl, but suddenly I discovered, I now actually like tea, at least Oolong tea!

We decided to buy some different Oolong tea from the store to sample at home. We purchased two different kind, both of which are not bad, one is a wee bit citrusy. However, Nate remembered a really neat website that he had ordered some green tea from awhile back so we decided to check it out.

Adagio Tea is a wonderful site filled with all things tea. As we went through the website we found several different sampler packs we decided we wanted to try. The only problem with Adaigo's teas, is that they are all loose leaf. So, we also ordered a teapot that allows you to easily steep loose leaf tea along with our sampler packs.

The box arrived this past Thursday and we've used it several times already! We have two Oolong Sampler packs and two Black tea sampler packs. So far we have tried Jasmine tea and one of the Oolong teas (I believe Oolong #12). Both were outstanding. The Jasmine was a different one for me, it smelled lovely, but I was worried that I wouldn't like the taste, but it was just incredible.

I'm having fun with our new teapot. It's been a nice afternoon pick me up to have a cup of tea and I know I'll love it even more when it's colder outside this fall and winter!

Our new teapot filled with Jasmine tea