Post-retirement lunch at Victory 44, Mpls.

The first thing I did in retirement, after my last day at the office, was have lunch with my son. As a north Minneapolis resident, Ben is a fan of Victory 44. He’s taken my wife there, and I’ve wanted to go.
We planned lunch for a little later – 1 p.m. When I arrived, Ben had already gotten us a table. There were not a lot of people in the restaurant. A few were eating outside on the patio. But it must have been quite hot because after we’d been there for a while, a group of 5 or 6 people moved inside.
When you go to the Victory 44 web site, you get a narrated video of the chef/owner talking about his background and approach to cooking and running the restaurant.
We started out with coffees. Ben loves the coffee specials that are available. (He teased his wife that he’d be having better coffee than she that day.) There are several options on the menu, but he opted for the ‘Barista’s choice.’ I’m more of a straight up caffeine kind of guy. I just ordered the French Press.
When the coffee was served, the barista came to our table. First he pressed and poured my coffee. Then he swished and swirled Ben’s specialty into a cup and presented him with an impressive display of barista art. Voila!

We both had a version of corned beef for lunch. I had corned beef hash served with a soft-fried egg. As with hash served with a poached egg, the soft yolk oozes through the fried beef and potatoes. But since it’s fried, the whites have more substance than the soft whites of a poached egg. The lunch also came with two pieces of excellent whole grain bread toasted Panini style.
Benjamin had a Rueben sandwich. I didn’t take a taste, but he said it was excellent. He’s had it there before. His sandwich came with fried potatoes that were topped with a white powder. Ben said it was powdered bacon. Hmmm.
The ‘Day Menu’ at Victory 44 is available until 3 p.m. Great for me since I love breakfast food like the hash. Another interesting item on the day menu that tempted me was something called salmon pastrami. I’ll have to try that some day. The dinner menu changes daily based on what’s available fresh and what the chefs are in the mood to prepare. The video on the web site describes their tasting menu, which sounds interesting to me.
So all in all, it was a great way to begin retirement. I’ll be back.